DUET cheat sheet

From DUET · print · built 2026-08-31

Reference

Cheat sheet#

keys	do
`F5` / `F8`	play / stop (`F7` from cursor)
`F2`/`F4`/`F11`/`F12`, `TAB`	pattern / instruments / mixer / project, next column
`Ctrl+V` · `Ctrl+T` · `Ctrl+W`	grid view IT/UNITY/POLY/SWM · split · column width
`ALT+B` / `ALT+D` / `ALT+L`	mark block / grow mark (beat→bar→rest→channel→side) / mark channel (twice: side)
`ALT+C`/`Z`/`P`, `ALT+SHIFT+P`	copy/cut/paste, translate paste
`ALT+S`	stamp instrument onto block
`ALT+SHIFT+C`/`Z`/`V`/`M`/`T`	system clipboard copy/cut/paste (`M` mix, `T` types)
`Ctrl+M` / `ALT+F9` / `ALT+F10`	mute (voice) / mute / solo
`ALT+G`	sync marker
`a`–`d` `$00`–`$64` in FX	send to DELAY/REVERB/CHORUS/DRIVE
`Ctrl+E` / `Ctrl+B`	export mix/stems / bounce block
`Ctrl+U`	undo history
`?`	key help on any screen

(source: s-duet-docs-grid-and-sides, s-duet-docs-clipboard, s-duet-docs-sounds-mixer-bounce; the full generated key and CLI reference lives un-ingested in raw/duet/docs/keys.md and cli.md.)

Techniques

Hard restart › DUST (DUET) #

duet's DUST synth makes hard restart a patch parameter: RESTART OFF / SOFT (gate down for the window) / FULL (gate down and the envelope slammed to zero) over a 1–200 ms window spent before the note; the engine peeks at the next row so the attack, not the restart, lands on the beat (source: s-duet-docs-dust-dusk).

Sound effects and game audio › DUET #

duet takes the same road explicitly: duet_engine_note_on fires an instrument by family — a PCM instrument, or a SID-Wizard instrument from the project's pool routed through a chip — with jam = 1 building a chip on demand, no pattern needed. The docs call it "a game's instruments-as-sound-effects road" (source: s-duet-docs-libduet).

Wavetable programming (waveform / arp tables) › DUSK (DUET) #

duet's DUSK plays a P## sample as a row of equal single-cycle frames (frames = sample length / FRAME; "2048 is the Polyend standard") and morphs between the two nearest frames; a slow LFO routed to morph "is the classic wavetable sweep"; ALIAS raw keeps the aliasing on purpose (source: s-duet-docs-dust-dusk).