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Arkestra

Chains & Effect Racks

A Chain is an ordered list of VideoEffect nodes inside a track. Each track can hold multiple chains, but only one is active at a time.

Track bar and chain slots

Why multiple chains?

Section titled “Why multiple chains?”

Chains are instant-swap preset slots. During a live performance you can switch a track from one look to a completely different look in a single click (or MIDI trigger) — no crossfade lag, no menu diving.

Example: Track 1 has three chains:

  • Chain A — slow fractal noise
  • Chain B — glitchy pixel sort + feedback
  • Chain C — clean solid gradient

Trigger chain B to switch to the glitch look mid-performance.

Adding a chain

Section titled “Adding a chain”

Click the + button in the Chain Slots bar (above the effect rack). A new empty chain is added to the right of the current one.

Switching chains

Section titled “Switching chains”

Chain slot thumbnails

Click any chain slot tab to switch. The track immediately renders using that chain.

You can also map chain switching to:

  • A MIDI note or CC (right-click a chain slot → Learn MIDI…)
  • A scene trigger
  • A keyboard shortcut

Effect ordering

Section titled “Effect ordering”

Within a chain, effects run in left-to-right order. The output of effect N becomes the input of effect N+1. Drag effect slots to reorder.

Feedback architecture

Section titled “Feedback architecture”

Every chain has two hidden sections around the feedback tap:

Input → [pre-feedback effects] → feedback blend ← previous frame
                                      ↓
                               [post-feedback effects] → output
                                      ↓
                              (stored as next frame's feedback)

Add effects to pre-feedback to process the fresh input before blending with history. Add effects to post-feedback to process the blended result.

Chain Macros

Section titled “Chain Macros”

Each chain has up to 5 Chain Macros — user-named knobs that can control multiple parameters across multiple effects simultaneously.

To create a macro:

  1. Right-click any parameter → Map To… → Group Macro
  2. The parameter is now driven by that macro knob
  3. Multiple parameters can share the same macro

Chain Macros appear as sliders on the Track Fader and in the track inspector’s MACROS section when the chain is selected.