Settings

Open Settings from the app header and choose a page in its left sidebar. Use Library for content folders, Graph for cables and canvas behaviour, and Audio & MIDI for standalone devices.

Audio & MIDI appears only in the standalone app. When MNodes runs as a plugin, choose audio and MIDI devices in your DAW instead.

You want to change…	Page
Startup, tooltips or Factory content	General
Cable visibility and graph scrollbars	Graph
Where MNodes finds projects, Modules or hosted plugins	Library
Interface colours and skin	Appearance
Key bindings	Shortcuts
Standalone audio interface or MIDI keyboard	Audio & MIDI
Activation on this computer	License

General

Setting	Description
Show the Home screen on start	Choose whether startup begins at Home
Open in: Perform / Create	Choose the startup path and the default action for Enter on Home
Tooltips	Show explanations when the pointer rests on controls
Tooltips on cables	Name the connected nodes and pins when hovering a cable

The startup preference is separate from a saved project's Open Mode, chosen in Save Preset.

Factory content

Factory is MNodes' included collection of ready-made node presets, subgraphs, modules and projects (with their artwork). MNodes offers to download it automatically after activation when no Factory pack is installed. Accept Download in that popup to install it. Use the Factory content button here if you skipped the offer, need an update or want to reinstall.

The button label tells you the current state:

• Install in the Factory content row while nothing is installed yet. The row says Nothing installed yet until content has been installed.
• Update when MNodes finds a newer pack on the Hub. The row shows the installed and available versions.
• Reinstall once a pack is installed. Reinstalling only refreshes the official content; it never touches your own work.

Where the content lands:

• Factory content goes into read-only Factory folders inside your Library.
• Your own work lives under User and stays untouched.
• Anything you download from the Hub stays separate too.

Reinstalling only writes to the Factory folders. It can never overwrite or delete your User content or your Hub downloads.

Three ways to get factory content

1. The setup offer ("GET FACTORY CONTENT?") appears when you open MNodes with an active license. Choose Download to install the collection, or Skip to leave it for later. It may appear on your next launch, after the initial plugin-scan prompt. Skipping stops further offers; if a download fails, MNodes offers it again on a later launch.
2. Settings → General → Factory content → Install lets you get the collection straight away after activation, or later if you skipped the offer.
3. Drag a .mnpack file onto the graph to install a local pack straight from disk.

Needs an active license

Every way of getting factory content (the button, the first-run prompt, the Hub download, and dropping a .mnpack) needs a valid license. Nothing is downloaded or installed until you have activated a correct serial. See License below.

MNodes checks for newer Factory versions and shows Update when one is available. Reinstall downloads the current pack again, which can restore missing Factory files.

Crash reports and plugin logs

Under Support, two buttons open the folders to attach to a bug report:

• Crash reports opens what MNodes wrote down the last times it closed unexpectedly.
• Plugin logs opens what happened with your hosted plugins. See When a plugin misbehaves.

Graph

Use these settings when graph connections are hard to follow:

Setting	Effect
Cables on top of nodes	Draw graph cables above node bodies
Highlight the selected node's cables	Keep the selected node's connections prominent
Faded cable opacity	Choose how visible the other connections remain
Cable tension	Adjust the cable curve
Scrollbars on the canvas	Show graph scrollbars

These change how the graph is displayed. They do not change which nodes are connected. For plugging panel jacks, see Patch Cables.

Library

This page holds Projects, Node Presets, Subgraphs, Modules and Fonts folder locations. Hover a folder row to reveal Choose another folder and Back to the default folder. Click the path itself to open that folder; an overridden location can be reset. Rescan folders refreshes the content index.

Choosing a new folder changes the location MNodes uses; it does not move the old folder's files for you. See Preset Library before relocating content.

Plugin folders below those rows belong to the Plugin Host node: they tell MNodes where to find plugins it can host inside a patch. They do not tell your DAW where the MNodes Instrument or MNodes FX plugin is installed.

Shortcuts

Choose a command in Shortcuts to change its key binding. Check this page when a shortcut in a guide behaves differently on your setup. Reset all restores the factory bindings.

The Keyboard Shortcuts guide is the reference for the default bindings. Move focus out of text fields before using graph shortcuts.

Audio & MIDI

Setting	Description
Audio driver	Select audio driver (ASIO®, WASAPI, CoreAudio, etc.)
Audio device	Choose your audio interface
Sample rate	Set the sample rate
Buffer size	Set the audio buffer size (lower = less latency, more CPU)
MIDI input device	Select MIDI controller (standalone only)

TIP

In plugin mode, audio and MIDI settings are managed by your DAW. These settings only apply to standalone mode.

On Windows, the standalone app ships with ASIO driver support for the lowest latency with audio interfaces: pick your interface's ASIO driver under Audio driver. The native Windows drivers (WASAPI, DirectSound) remain available and stay selected by default.

ASIO is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

Multichannel input and output

MNodes opens in stereo by default, so existing sessions are unchanged. The main input and output buses can each widen to up to 8 channels, independently of one another.

In the standalone, enable more than two input or output channels here in Settings > Audio & MIDI to work with a multichannel audio interface. Once the bus is wider, an Audio In node can read those extra inputs and an Audio Out node can feed those extra outputs.

TIP

You set the channel count on each node with the Channels slider on the Audio In and Audio Out nodes. See the node reference for the details.

Appearance

The Appearance section changes the application’s colours and skin. It themes the whole interface, and the UI updates live as you make changes. Appearance is a personal preference saved in your UI settings: it is not baked into your projects or presets, so sharing a project never carries your colours with it.

Text Contrast

A Text Contrast slider at the top of the section raises the opacity of elements drawn in Main, such as graph text, icons and borders. It keeps the colour's hue intact and defaults to 100%. An existing saved setting keeps its value. Use Interface text and Secondary text to change the text colours in Home, Library, Hub and the header.

Colours

Each colour has its own picker:

Colour	What it paints
Background	The Home, Library, Hub and app background
Main / Accent	Active controls, selections and graph accents
Chrome	The header, side panels and Settings background
Surfaces	Cards, menus and featured project backgrounds
Hover	Highlighted menu items and cards
Borders	Interface outlines and separators
Interface text	Text in Home, Library, Hub and the header
Secondary text	Descriptions, hints and secondary icons
Text on accent	Text and icons on filled accent buttons
Audio	The Audio wire colour
MIDI	The MIDI wire colour
Data	The Data wire colour
CV	The CV wire colour
Wire Objects	A Scene's objects on their way to it (shapes, lights, views): their pins and cables, violet unless you change it
Wire Material	A Scene 3D Material on its way to shapes and models: its pins and cables, orange unless you change it
Wire Surface	Per-pixel colours, textures and masks between Surface nodes and Material map inputs; distinct from CV, Object and Material wires
Graph Background	The node graph canvas fill
Grid	The graph grid lines
Node Body	The card fill behind every node
Scene Nodes	The line round the Scene nodes in the graph
Front Panel	The surround around the front panel
Panel Grid	The front-panel grid lines

Eyedropper

Every colour picker has an eyedropper button in the swatch strip, drawn in your theme's Main colour, to grab a colour from anywhere on the screen. Click it to enter pick mode, move the mouse to preview the colour under the cursor live, and click anywhere to apply it. Press Escape to cancel.

On Windows the cursor turns into a crosshair while you pick, and the click is consumed so it doesn't fall through to whatever is under the cursor. On macOS it uses the system colour sampler.

Skin presets

Built-in skin presets give you a full look in one click, and you can build your own from there. You can also import and export "look" files to save a palette or share it with someone else.

Home, Library, Hub and the editor header use these same colours and update immediately. Changing any swatch marks the skin as Custom. Older look files receive suitable interface colours based on their saved Background and Main colours. Project artwork and the instrument's own front-panel design keep their original colours.

Edit tools

While you are tuning a look you also get:

• Reset to factory to return to the default palette.
• Randomise to roll a fresh set of colours.
• Undo / redo for the colour edits you make here.

License

Setting	Description
License status	Shows the current license state and the name of this computer
Active licenses	Shows the used activations and the allowance reported for your license
Activate	Enter your email and serial to activate MNodes on this computer
Version info	Current plugin version
Deactivate this Computer	Release the license from this computer so it can be used on another one. You can also manage your licenses from your account at marionietoworld.com