Move panes and save layouts. Workspace arrangements stay independent of the selected theme and the music in your song.
Choose an arrangement#
Click the workspace chip that leads the header's navigation strip (it names the current workspace: LAYOUT CODE ▾, or CLASSIC ▾ while the custom workspace is off), or open Display and expand Workspace. Select a profile:
- Code: Source beside Timeline and Rack.
- Mix: Mixer on the left; Source above a tab group for Timeline, Rack and Scopes on the right.
- Perform: Macros (the knob grid, XY pad, lanes, mod matrix and hole cards) beside Timeline/Scopes and Mixer.
- Produce: Patterns beside a tab group for Timeline, Rack, Sounds and Source, with the Mixer below — the workflow where the patterns are the only text you type (Make a song by writing only patterns).
- Arrange: the Timeline on the song map, a tab group for Clip, Rack, Mixer and Patterns below it, and the Agent pane on the right with History as a tab beside it (Arrange — write and arrange with the agent).
Picking Classic (the chip, or Display ▸ Workspace, which names the same workspace) turns the custom workspace off.
Selecting a profile enables the custom workspace. Use custom workspace can also enable it from your current shell arrangement; the first activation carries over the supported open panes. Turning it off returns to Studio's ordinary shell. Your custom arrangement remains available when you enable it again.
Source, Timeline, Rack, Mixer, Macros, Sounds, Scopes, Commands, Patterns, Agent, Clip and History are movable. In a workspace the header's SOURCE, TIMELINE, RACK and SCOPES light while that pane is in front, as its tab does (destination_pane, app/header.rs). Commands is a strip of existing Studio commands you choose; see Interaction preferences. History is the song's journal (Save ideas, compare versions and record takes): in a workspace that has it, the header's HISTORY (and File ▸ Song History…) brings it forward; in one that does not, and in Classic, HISTORY docks the same pane as a resizable column on the right — what is on screen stays beside it — and HISTORY again (or its ×) closes it. Adding History to a layout puts it in the Agent pane's tab group when there is one, else to the right of Source. Layouts saved before History existed load unchanged. Bench, split-source, guides and other contextual destinations continue to use their existing composition; returning to Source restores the custom workspace. Source still edits the same live or parked buffer. Musical views continue to show the live song, even while Source displays a parked song.
Move resize and collect panes#
Enable Rearrange panes (in the header's workspace chip, or in Display). Drag a pane's heading onto another pane. Its left/right/top/bottom edge places a split there; the center collects the panes into tabs. A highlighted rectangle previews the drop. Escape cancels a pending drag.
The pane's Move menu offers the same choices without dragging. Display's Show or move pane controls can bring back a hidden pane. Drag the separators to resize splits, or use the numbered Split sliders in Display.
Each pane's workspace header names it once: a hosted pane drops its own title tag (SOURCE, MACROS, the Scopes heading) and keeps its working row — the Source file name and status. Mixer and Sounds drop the row; a tall Mixer pane (Max) shows the sends, a short Sounds pane scrolls. The Mixer's census and help move into its header.
Everything is reachable from the keyboard. Headers, Move, Tabs and Max are buttons; Enter activates the focused one. A split handle is a slider that announces its left or top share in percent; with it focused, the arrow keys resize it in 5% steps, recorded as layout history.
Max temporarily expands a pane; Restore returns to the arrangement. Escape also restores, unless a text field, the editor or a popup holds the keyboard. Undo layout and Redo layout affect pane arrangement, separately from the source editor's Undo. Reset layout restores Code. The transport and Display entry remain outside the rearrangeable body.
At small window sizes, splits that cannot hold their panes become a tab group. Choose another pane through Tabs. The saved split tree stays intact, so a wider window restores it. A pane appears at most once; the layout does not clone editors or create a second live song. The top-level Sounds and Mixer buttons show, activate or hide their workspace pane when the custom workspace is active.
Save and share a workspace#
Type a Profile name and select Save layout. Saving under a new name duplicates the current arrangement; saving an existing name updates it. The built-in names Code, Mix, Perform, Produce and Arrange are reserved. Select a saved profile to restore it. Rename layout uses the name field; Delete saved layout removes its saved entry while leaving the current arrangement on screen. Up to twelve named profiles are supported.
Expand Layout JSON to inspect or edit the arrangement. Copy layout JSON copies the current arrangement. Paste shared JSON into the field and select Apply layout JSON. Invalid input leaves the last valid arrangement intact and reports the error. Refresh layout JSON replaces the field with the current arrangement.
JSON carries composition, not source, parameter values, device paths or audio engine state. Limit: 64 KiB, eight nesting levels, one occurrence per pane.
A profile or JSON request, a pane hide or a move made during a captured drag (a fader, knob or editor selection) applies after that control receives its release frame. Its pane remains mounted through the drag, so the drag commits or cancels normally. The arranger's own header drag and split resize are not delayed.
A skin pack may offer a workspace (workspace.json). Installing the pack never applies it. Display ▸ Appearance inspector previews it and has Apply workspace and Return to previous layout (Designing a workbench pack).
Native Studio saves the arrangement and named profiles with its shell state. The browser restores workspace, theme and tabs together. When the browser refuses to store them (private mode, a full quota, blocked storage), the arrangement still holds for the session and a notice says once that theme, layout and interaction preferences will not survive a reload.
Notes and limits#
Panes move within the application window. This does not add separate OS windows, arbitrary widget placement inside a pane, new interaction scripts, or multiple copies of the same source editor. Density and each pane's own scroll/fit controls continue to determine how its contents occupy the space.
For appearance, see Skins. Future artwork, layered materials and custom control faces are staged separately in Workbench Customization.