Scales
Orbiter Handpan ships with 8 scale modes covering a range of musical traditions. Each mode is a pattern of intervals that you can pair with any of the 12 root pitch classes — pick the mode in the scale dropdown, then choose the root separately. The AI sequencer relies on this orthogonality: it generates notes from a (root, mode) pair, not a single bundled scale.
Modes
| Mode | Tone Fields | Interval Pattern | Reference Layout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kurd | 8 | 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19 | D Kurd: D3 | A3 Bb3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 |
| Celtic Minor | 8 | 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22 | D Celtic Minor: D3 | A3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 C5 |
| Amara | 8 | 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22 | C# Amara: C#3 | G#3 B3 C#4 D#4 E4 F#4 G#4 B4 |
| Hijaz | 8 | 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19 | D Hijaz: D3 | A3 Bb3 C#4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 |
| Integral | 6 | 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 12 | D Integral: D3 | E3 F3 A3 Bb3 C4 D4 |
| Pygmy | 8 | 2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19 | F Pygmy: F3 | G3 Ab3 C4 Eb4 F4 G4 Ab4 C5 |
| Annaziska | 8 | 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19 | C# Annaziska: C#3 | G#3 A3 B3 C#4 D#4 E4 F#4 G#4 |
| Hijaz Compact | 7 | 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19 | E Hijaz: E3 | B3 C4 D#4 E4 F#4 G4 B4 |
The interval column lists semitone offsets from the ding (the centre note, also the root). The "reference layout" column shows the most common physical handpan voicing for that mode — the root that handpan makers most often build it on — but you're not restricted to that root.
Hijaz Compact
The standard Hijaz has 8 tone fields. Hijaz Compact is a 7-tone variant of the same scale family that drops the 17-semitone interval — historically labelled "E Hijaz" because that's the most common commercial voicing, but the mode is root-agnostic like all the others. Use Hijaz Compact when you want the Hijaz character without the high-octave repetition; use the standard Hijaz for the full octave coverage.
Amara, Integral, and Annaziska are names coined by handpan makers and the handpan community — they don't map to a single traditional musical-theory term. Their tunings are variants of the natural minor scale (Aeolian mode); Integral in particular comes from the original PANArt Hang.
Layout
The Ding is the central note at the top of the instrument. Tone fields are arranged in alternating left-right pattern around the rim, following the traditional handpan layout. You can see the layout in action on the Handpan instrument page.
Scale enforcement
In the standalone app and the web app, the handpan is played by tapping its tone fields directly, so every triggered note is by construction in the active scale.
In the handpan and bowl plugins (instrument and resonator variants alike), incoming MIDI notes are passed through a scale filter. The plugin's Unmapped Notes parameter chooses what happens to MIDI notes that don't sit on the active scale:
- Remap (default) — round each off-scale note to the nearest scale tone.
- Silence — drop off-scale notes entirely.
There's no chromatic-passthrough option today. (Tracking that as a feature request — see issue #247.)
The gong has no scale concept; its tone is set by the Size parameter (plate radius), not by a scale.