Scatter Plot

The scatter plot is the heart of aerial. It gives you a visual map of your entire sample library, letting you find sounds by how they sound rather than how they are named.

Core Concept

Each dot on the plot represents a single sample from your library. Its position is determined by two audio attributes you choose - one mapped to the X axis and one to the Y axis. Samples with similar sonic characteristics cluster together, making it easy to discover related sounds or find something that sits in a specific sonic range.

Axis Selection

Use the dropdown selectors on each axis to choose which audio attribute controls that dimension. Any combination of the 8 analysis attributes can be used:

Interaction

The scatter plot supports several ways to interact with your samples:

• Click a dot to audition the sample immediately.
• Drag on a dot to scrub through the sample's waveform.
• Double-click a dot to load the sample into the chromatic sampler for full playback control.

Tooltips

Hover over any dot to see a tooltip displaying the sample's filename and the current values for both mapped attributes. This makes it easy to identify samples without clicking, and to understand where they fall in the attribute space.

Range Filtering

Each axis has range sliders that let you zoom into a specific region of the plot. Drag the slider handles to narrow the visible range, filtering out samples outside your area of interest. This is useful when you want to focus on a particular sonic territory - for example, only short, bright samples or only long, evolving textures.

Visual Feedback

The plot provides visual cues to help you keep track of your workflow:

• Highlighted dot — The currently loaded sample is visually highlighted so you can always see where it sits relative to the rest of your library.
• Pulsing dot — When a sample is actively playing (audition or sampler playback), its dot pulses to give immediate visual feedback.