Sonodrift Studio user manual

Manual home · Ambient Loops · Sonodrift Editor

Sonodrift Studio creates an instrumental arrangement from a text seed, a musical style, and the settings on its board. Open /studio/ to listen, change the band while it plays, keep a reproducible board as a link, or render a downloadable audio file. The current interface includes 18 styles, each with three to six substyles. All instruments and environmental sounds are synthesized; Studio does not load recordings that you upload.

This chapter describes the controls and behavior implemented in the project's current code. The style catalog at the end lists the actual musical menus and instrument choices, including the four Chiptune machines.

Contents

• Make your first track
• Find your way around
• Playback and when changes arrive
• Setup: style, seed, and length
• Roles, instruments, and the mix
• Feel controls
• Musical controls and song structure
• Keep, recall, and compare boards
• Playlists, Random play, and randomization
• Generate and download
• Send a track to Sonodrift Editor
• Local storage and troubleshooting
• Style catalog

Make your first track

1. Open Studio. Without a shared link, it opens on Rock with a fresh random seed, a 30-second length, and Seamless loop enabled. Playback waits for your action.
2. Press Play live ▶, the first button of the transport under Setup. The button shows a starting state, then becomes Pause as the clock starts, and the meters for the band's parts, already on the Stage, start moving. The LIVE readout identifies the resolved key, scale, tempo, and time signature.
3. Choose a Style. The Roles panel changes to that style's band. Leave instrument and Musical menus on Auto for an initial arrangement; their Auto labels show what the seed chooses.
4. Adjust each role's Level and use Space and Stereo width to set the mix. These controls respond immediately. Change an instrument or a Musical setting and listen for the change at the next bar.
5. Press the dice beside Seed for a new tune. To keep a tune, press Copy link: keep this or Save to my playlist.
6. For a file, press Generate track, wait for completion, then press WAV in Download. Generating does not start a separate file player; the live desk remains the listening surface.

The free interface supports the entire live board and 15- or 30-second WAV files. The Studio license unlocks the longer lengths, certificate download, loudness normalization, MIDI, stems, saved user presets, and A/B comparison. See licensing and recovery for the shared license workflow.

Find your way around

Hide header collapses the heading and navigation. Its button remains visible as Show header so you can bring them back. Studio remembers this preference on the device. The Stage stays at the top as you scroll from page load on: before the first play, and while playback is running, paused, or stopped. On a short viewport where it would cover more than 45% of the window, as on most phones, it scrolls with the page, and only the transport stays at the top. On a phone held sideways (a window 500 pixels tall or less), and wherever the whole transport would still take more than a quarter of the window, it stays as one row: play or pause, back to start, stop, and the time. Theme switches the site's shared light/dark preference.

Hover a Feel or Musical control's title, or focus it with Tab, to read its explanation. Sliders support normal keyboard adjustment. The mouse wheel adjusts the currently focused, enabled slider by one step per wheel event, even if the pointer is elsewhere; move focus away to resume page scrolling. A collapsed select menu does not take over this wheel behavior. Volume is the exception: it carries data-wheel="off" and ignores the wheel, and while it has focus Space plays or pauses, Left/Right pause and scrub the playhead (1 s per tap or per second held; Shift 3 s, Ctrl 8 s; playback resumes 0.3 s after the last release, and only if it was playing), and Up/Down still set the volume. See studio/scrub-keys.ts.

Playback and when changes arrive

Volume and master Mute are shared listening preferences across the boards and survive reloads. They do not change a share link, preset, certificate, WAV, MIDI, or stem. Muting an individual role is different: that changes the track's audio mix.

The little timing dots and pending highlights distinguish three kinds of live change:

Musical changes recompose a take and crossfade into it at a bar boundary, retaining the corresponding bar position rather than always restarting at zero. The moved control highlights while its change is queued. The LIVE line says what is queued and returns to the settled key/tempo readout when the change lands. Several quick changes can replace the pending take; the desk has one pending take at a time.

An automatic next tune waits for the current take's loop boundary and starts at its own beginning. The readout distinguishes this from a next-bar edit. Use Back to start if you want to hear a changed arrangement from the beginning. Changes made while paused can remain pending until audio resumes.

The desk repeats the selected length. Turning Seamless loop off changes the way the take is rendered; it does not turn the transport into a one-shot player.

Setup: style, seed, and length

Style selects the arrangement vocabulary, musical choices, instruments, default mix, and room character. See the catalog for all 18 choices. A style change resets role levels, mutes, and instrument picks, and resets Substyle, Scale, Form, Chords, and Chip to Auto. Swing returns to the style's default groove. The tempo range changes to the new style's range; an active manual tempo returns to that style's preferred value. The selected Key survives a style change, as do the other Feel sliders, Mood, Detail, length, and loop setting.

Substyle: right after Style, chooses the kind of track within the style. Every style has three to six kinds, listed in the catalog's Substyle lines in menu order. On Auto, the seed draws the kind, and the Auto label names the kind Auto plays with the current Scale and Chords pins. A named kind stays while you roll the dice, type seeds, or let Random play draw new seeds. The kind sets auto tempo's band, the kits, the scale, chord and form weights, the usual instruments, and the vocabulary of the generated parts. The Tempo slider keeps the style's range, and a manual tempo stays. A Substyle change lands at the next bar and does not rebuild the Roles strips: levels you moved, mutes, and instrument picks stay, and Pop renames its sixth strip for the kind. Where the new kind has its own default level or groove swing (Reggae's Dub: Lead 0.62, Bubble 0.40; each Reggae kind's swing; Minimalism's Additive pulse: Sustain 0.20), a level or Swing you haven't moved follows the new kind, and one you've moved stays where you put it. A level counts as unmoved while it sits where the strips were built or last followed a kind, or at the previous kind's default; Swing, while it equals the previous kind's swing. On Auto, Swing sits at the style's own value (Reggae's 0.16, which a style change puts on the slider), whatever kind the seed drew, and choosing Auto returns an unmoved Swing there. With Substyle on Auto, a new seed moves neither. A kind is not a Form: choosing the Dub substyle does not pin the dub form. Substyle is free, is carried by share links, presets, playlists, and A/B slots, and is not a randomizable control.

Seed is the tune's identifying text. You can type any text; leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed. An empty field uses my-first-track. The Auto labels update while you type, and the committed change queues the new tune when you leave the field. The dice generates a new readable seed such as amber-drift-204. If any randomization dots are enabled, the dice also redraws those selected controls. Typing a seed does not redraw marked controls.

A seed identifies the music together with the complete board settings. The same seed with another style, tempo, instrument, or mix is a different board. Save the full link when keeping a result. Shared links use the current engine when reopened; retain the actual WAV and certificate when preserving a finished export across engine updates.

Length sets both the generated file's duration and the live take's repeat length. Choosing a longer locked length highlights the Studio license area without selecting it. Opening a longer board through a link or preset on an unlicensed browser caps it at 30 seconds and resets paid loudness normalization to Natural.

Roles, instruments, and the mix

A role is a musical job: drums, bass, rhythm, harmony, lead, counterline, texture, or percussion. The visible names can be more specific. Examples include Country's Steel and Answer, Classical's Ostinato, Minimalism's Phase A and Phase B, and Ambient/Lo-fi Weather. Only the roles actually fielded by the style or chip appear. Lo-fi currently exposes eight roles; other styles can use fewer.

Each strip has:

• An enabled checkbox. Checked means the part is included. Uncheck it to mute the part in live audio and WAVs, and leave it out of audio-stem exports. The fader keeps its position, so checking it again restores that level.
• A Level slider from 0 to 1, in 0.01 steps. These are linear level values, not decibels. Level 0 produces the same silent mix contribution as muting.
• An instrument menu, when the role offers more than one instrument. Auto (instrument name) shows the seed's actual choice. Selecting a named instrument pins the choice. A role with only one permitted instrument has no redundant dropdown.

Instrument selection changes what plays that role, and can change the resulting notes or articulations. It is not an audio-file replacement operation. There are no separate pan, per-role reverb-send, solo, EQ, compressor, or effect-chain controls on the Studio board. Stereo placement, send balance, and any distinctive instrument processing come from the style and voices; Space, Brightness, and Stereo width provide the exposed global sound controls.

Saving a muted board stores the part's effective level as zero. On recall, the part remains muted, but its hidden pre-mute fader position is not preserved by the link; unmuting a recalled part brings back the style's rebuilt default level. An instrument pin only restores if it is valid for the recalled style or chip.

The role meters show relative activity for the individual parts. They stay on the Stage whether or not the desk is playing: empty before the first play and after Stop, held still while paused. Because master Volume/Mute sit after the meters, the meters can continue moving while your speakers are muted. Environmental voices such as thunder can be intermittent rather than audible continuously.

Feel controls

All Feel sliders move in 0.01 steps. Except for Swing's style-dependent default, the initial values below apply to a fresh board.

House starts with Swing 0.08, Lo-fi with 0.62, and Reggae with 0.16. Other styles with a groove currently start at zero. Moving a subtle control on a 15-second fragment may be harder to assess than on a longer arrangement.

Musical controls and song structure

The Musical menus begin on Auto. Auto lets the seed make a choice within the current style; the displayed Auto option names the resolved choice where applicable. Selecting a named item pins that decision until you change it or a style reset clears it. Scale, Form, Chords, and instruments are limited to choices the style supports.

Each seed draws one kind of track unless Substyle names one. With Substyle on Auto, pinning Scale or Chords, but not both, can change the kind: the seed draws a kind that plays the pinned choice in key. Punk, Metal, House, Chiptune, Ambient and Bluegrass can change kind this way, and the new kind brings its own tempo band, kit and instruments. In House, Chiptune and Ambient the kind must also pair the pin with no diminished chord (Chiptune: no augmented chord either). In the other styles a pin never changes the kind. With both Scale and Chords pinned, the kind is the seed's own draw. With a Substyle chosen, the kind stays: your pin plays, and the other of Scale or Chords is picked to stay in key where it can.

Major (ionian) and Minor (aeolian) are the familiar major and natural-minor collections. Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, and Phrygian are alternative modes; harmonic minor and pentatonic choices appear where a style uses them. Chord names use the style's menu notation, often Roman numerals or scale-degree numbers: I/1 refers to the tonic chord, IV/4 to the fourth degree, and lowercase Roman numerals commonly indicate minor harmony. Use the name to keep and compare progressions; you do not need to read notation to try them.

A Form menu selects an arrangement recipe, rather than a fixed number of seconds per section. Studio scales each template's relative section sizes to the available bars. Very short takes may only fit the leading sections. Names such as intro, verse, chorus, bridge, build, drop, breakdown, climax, and outro describe the role of each section. loop-a/loop-b and theme-a/theme-b indicate contrasting repeating material. Forms remain instrumental; a section called verse does not add a singer or lyrics.

Choose a longer length to hear more of a song form develop. For an aligned repeating file, keep auto tempo and Seamless loop on. A manually chosen tempo can leave a partial final bar even when the file's audio boundary is crossfaded.

Changing Chip resets that machine's role levels, mutes, and instrument selections. Three machines expose four role strips, while SID exposes three and has no separate harmony strip. With Chip on Auto, a new seed (the dice, a typed seed, or the next tune in continuous play) can land on a different machine. The strips then change to that machine's channels: levels you moved and mutes are kept, a new machine's untouched levels start at its defaults, and an instrument pick the new machine lacks returns to Auto. To keep a Chiptune board's channel layout steady while trying seeds, choose a named chip instead of Auto. The exact channel labels and voice choices are listed below.

Keep, recall, and compare boards

Share links

Copy link: keep this copies the current board, including seed, style, substyle, length, loop setting, Feel controls, musical pins, instrument pins, mix, and any paid loudness target you are entitled to use. Enabled randomization marks and a restricted style pool also travel in the link. If the browser denies clipboard access, a prompt lets you copy the link manually.

Opening the link recalls its board without autoplaying or automatically generating a file. Press Play live ▶ to listen, or Generate track for a download. A link does not contain an audio recording, Editor edits, your playlists, or your monitoring volume. The receiving browser applies its own license restrictions.

The board shown by the controls is what Copy link captures. If you have just changed a next-bar control and its change is still pending, the link describes that updated board. Automatically queued tunes do not replace the visible board until they land.

Starting points and user presets

The Starting points shelf is free to load and currently contains these ten built-in boards:

Each starting point uses a 30-second seamless take and explicitly sets its Feel controls, with the style's default Swing. Built-in starting points cannot be deleted.

With a Studio license, enter a name and press Save preset to store your current board on this device. An empty name becomes Preset 1, Preset 2, and so on. Saving again under an existing name replaces that named preset. Click a saved preset to recall it; its ✕ removes it. Presets save board settings, not Editor edits, playlist order, randomization policy, or monitoring preferences. Loading a saved preset is available independently of the saving gate, with length/loudness restrictions applied to the current browser's tier.

Loading a starting point or preset updates the visible board. If the desk is already playing, mix changes reach it immediately and the new arrangement arrives at the next bar. It does not generate a replacement WAV automatically; press Generate track when ready.

A/B comparison

With a Studio license, press Set A to capture the current board, make a change, then press Set B. Apply A and Apply B switch between the stored boards. Empty Apply buttons are disabled. Both slots persist on this device and are replaced the next time you set that slot.

A/B stores settings rather than audio takes. It uses the same live recall timing as a preset and does not regenerate files on each switch. Monitor volume is not part of either slot, which lets you compare at a consistent listening level.

Playlists, Random play, and randomization

Build a playlist

Playlists are free and saved in this browser on this device. They hold boards rather than WAV files or edited projects. The Track Editor reads them for its Playlist and Track selectors; choosing a playlist or track there never changes Studio's playlists, its current choice, or its board.

1. Press Save to my playlist, in Keep this, to append the current board to the active list. If no list exists, Studio creates My playlist. Its result is reported on the line under the Keep this controls.
2. Press New to create another list. A name field opens in place of the list selector, pre-filled with My playlist and selected; type a name, then press Enter or leave the field to create the list. Escape closes the field and creates nothing. At 20 lists, New reports the limit instead of opening the field. Use the list selector to switch between lists; it shows each list's name and track count.
3. Press the pencil beside the list selector to rename the list in the same field, which opens on the list's name. Enter or leaving the field saves; Escape cancels. The adjacent ✕ deletes the whole list after confirmation.
4. Click a track name to recall its board. If the desk is running, it queues that board at the next bar. If stopped, press the transport's Play live button ▶ to begin listening; the row itself does not start a stopped desk.
5. Drag a track by its name to reorder it, or focus its name and use Alt+Up / Alt+Down to move it one place.
6. Use a track's pencil to rename it inline. Enter or leaving the field saves; Escape cancels. Its ✕ removes the track immediately.

Names are trimmed, whitespace is collapsed, and names are capped at 60 characters. Empty rename text retains the previous name. A list holds at most 200 tracks, and the interface allows at most 20 lists. Saving an exact board already in the active list reports the duplicate instead of appending it again.

To add another Studio board, paste its full share link, a query beginning with ?, or its raw query parameters into Paste a Sonodrift link, directly under Save to my playlist in Keep this, then press Add or Enter. The import must include a seed and Studio style; Ambient Loops links are rejected, and an empty or unreadable paste creates nothing. The result is reported under the field. This is a board-link importer, not an audio, MIDI, certificate, or Editor-track importer.

Choose what plays next

Play: off makes the active list a manual shelf. Play: in order follows its displayed order and wraps from the last track to the first. Play: shuffled follows a shuffled order, which is reused until the order is rebuilt by a list/mode change or a new session. Next recalls the next item immediately through the normal next-bar update when live; it also works in off mode by using the displayed order.

Automatic advancement requires Random play to be checked. Selecting an ordered or shuffled playlist mode alone does not start or advance the desk. With Random play enabled:

• If the active list has tracks and its mode is in order or shuffled, the next tune comes from that playlist.
• If no playable list is selected, Studio draws a new seed using the current board and its randomization settings.
• Each tune stays for at least about two minutes according to the repeats table in Setup. A five-minute take plays once before advancing.
• The next tune starts at a loop boundary. next up identifies it once queued.

Random play is initially off and is remembered locally. Turning it off keeps the current tune repeating. Focusing the Seed field temporarily cancels the queued next tune so you can type; advancement can be armed again after you leave the field. A next-bar musical edit takes priority over an automatic successor and restarts the current tune's repeat count. Seeking manually is not treated as a completed repeat.

Choose which settings randomize

The small hollow/filled circle beside a markable control is a button. Hollow means the dice keeps your current value; filled means each new generated tune redraws it. You can toggle a circle in place, or press Randomize settings, choose the rnd buttons shown beside controls, then press Done.

Markable controls are Style; all six Feel sliders; Key, Scale, Form, Chords, Mood, Detail; each available role's Level; and each role's instrument where there is an instrument menu. Length, manual Tempo, Chip, Substyle, Loudness, role enable checkboxes, and monitoring controls are not directly markable. Auto menus can still change their resolved choices when the seed changes, even when their randomization circle is hollow.

Marked controls redraw when you press the dice or when Random play creates a fresh tune. Typing a seed, recalling a saved board, or playing a playlist item preserves that board's saved values rather than applying a new settings draw.

When Style is marked, use Randomize settings, then the all 18 / n of 18 button beside Style to open the style pool. Check the styles you want, use Just this one to limit it to the current style, or All styles to restore the full set. Removing the last checked style restores all styles, so the pool cannot be empty. If Style redraws to a different style, its band and style-specific musical choices reset as part of the change, even if their individual controls were not marked; Substyle returns to Auto.

Randomization uses musically limited ranges, not always the entire slider sweep:

These draws are determined by the new seed, so the resulting board can be saved and reproduced. Marks and the style pool survive reloads. A shared link's explicit randomization settings override them for that session without silently replacing the device's saved setup; changing the marks or pool yourself saves your new preference.

Heard just now

Heard just now: this session appears after Random play has advanced past tunes. It remembers up to eight distinct recently completed boards, newest first. It does not record every manual edit or every seed tried, and it disappears when the page session ends.

Click a recent tune to recall it. This turns Random play off so you can stay on the tune. Use Copy link, Save to my playlist, or a licensed Save preset to keep it beyond the session.

Generate and download

Render a WAV

Generate track takes a snapshot of the current board and renders a stereo, 44.1 kHz, 24-bit PCM WAV on your device. The interface has no sample-rate, bit-depth, MP3, or other audio-format selector. A progress line reports rendering, followed by elapsed time and peak when complete. Cancel stops an in-flight track render; you can Generate again afterward. Rendering can run while the desk plays.

The Download area is visible but inactive until the first successful render. Click WAV to download the completed file. Its usual filename is seed-style-duration.wav, with duration written as seconds. The WAV remains the last completed render until replaced.

Changing an audio-affecting board control during a render can cancel that render; the status tells you to Generate again when ready. Monitoring Volume/Mute do not change the board's audio snapshot and do not cancel it. After a completed render, changed controls mark the downloads as out of date. Regenerate to make the files match the current board. A committed new seed or dice draw also automatically generates a new file once a previous board has been rendered, provided no render is already running.

Seamless loop: enabled initially, uses a crossfade at the file boundary and influences loop-aware composition. Turn it off for short fade-ins and fade-outs at the file edges instead. It does not extend the selected duration with a separate exported tail. A live musical switch includes a transition and may have a different device sample rate or current room state from a rendered file; use the generated WAV as the final audio artifact.

Loudness

After the first render, licensed users can choose Natural, −14 LUFS · YouTube / streaming, −16 LUFS · podcast, or −23 LUFS · broadcast (EBU). These are the interface's target labels. Natural applies no requested loudness normalization. Choosing another target requires Generate track again before it changes the downloadable WAV. Studio also uses the completed render's gain information to help align the live desk's level with the file.

Monitoring Volume is independent of loudness normalization. Lowering the listening volume does not make the WAV quieter. Lower role levels to change the mix itself, or choose a supported loudness target with a license.

Certificates

Certificate downloads the licensed generation certificate as JSON alongside a normal, unedited generated WAV. It records the engine and resolved generation information needed by the verifier, along with audio identity information. The status can say certified for a free render even though downloading the certificate requires the Studio license.

Keep the matching WAV and certificate together. Verify a certificate → opens the shared verifier. See the manual home for the verification procedure and limits. MIDI and stems are derived exports and do not receive separate generation certificates. The certificate always describes Studio's own render of the board; nothing done in the Track Editor affects it, and the Editor's edited files carry no certificate.

MIDI

With a Studio license, first Generate the board, then press MIDI. Studio composes the same generated score used by that completed render and downloads a .mid file named from the seed and style.

The export is a Standard MIDI File, format 1: a conductor track holds tempo and meter, and each active score role gets its own track. Drum notes use General MIDI percussion channel 10. MIDI carries notes, velocities, and supported bends and slides; Singing lead guitar also exports its selected vibrato and connected slide movement. Its note endings follow the played gates. A channel with pitch movement receives an RPN 0 message asking for the file's bend range: the widest gesture rounded up to a semitone, with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 24. Wider gestures are omitted rather than clamped. Because one pitch wheel serves a whole channel, overlapping notes may be shortened and simultaneous chord notes may omit individual pitch movement. A DAW that ignores the requested range uses its own setting, usually ±2 semitones; set its instrument to the range the file requests.

MIDI does not embed Sonodrift's synthesized audio, guitar amplifier, harmonica hand-wah sound, reverbs, stereo mix, loudness normalization or role-fader/mute gains. Choose instruments in your DAW to hear it. A different synth will not sound like the Studio WAV, and environmental sounds are not captured as recordings in MIDI.

MIDI uses the last rendered board even if the current controls have changed. Generate again before exporting when you want the new board's score.

Stems

With a Studio license, Generate the board, then press Stems. When rendering finishes, individual links appear for each role WAV plus reverb.wav. Download the files separately; the interface does not bundle them into a ZIP.

The role files contain the separate dry role contributions with the rendered mix's level choices, and the reverb file contains the shared return. Import all at the same start time and sample rate to reconstruct the mix before master processing. Studio does not apply the full WAV's Stereo width, soft clipping, peak ceiling, or LUFS normalization to these stems. Add the desired master processing in your DAW; simply summing the files is not an exact reconstruction of the finished WAV. Small floating-point and PCM quantization differences can also occur.

Muted or zero-level roles are omitted from the exported stem list. A zero-level part can still exist in the score and MIDI. Reverb belongs to its own file rather than being duplicated into every role. Stems use the last rendered board's settings. Generating a new board clears the old stem links.

Send a track to Sonodrift Editor

Press Edit track… to open the current board in Sonodrift Editor. You do not need to Generate first. Studio hands the Editor the board as a link, /studio/editor/?board=…&from=studio, and nothing else; the Editor composes that board's track itself, exactly as Studio's live desk plays it, and keeps it in its own storage. When the board is an entry of the selected playlist (the playing entry, else the first entry with the same settings), the link also carries the entry's name, so the Editor names the track as the playlist does.

The Editor recognizes a board it already keeps by its settings, in a canonical form, and reopens its edits, even after an engine update. Changing anything included in the board link makes a different track. Without a license the Editor keeps one track and asks on its page before an edited one is replaced; with a Studio license it keeps every track that is edited. Copy links and playlist/preset entries do not contain those edits.

Studio never reads anything back from the Editor. Studio's live desk, Generate, WAV, Certificate, MIDI, and Stems always use Studio's own board; edited audio, MIDI, and stems are downloaded from the Editor's own download row. The Editor's Studio links return to the board this tab left.

Local storage and troubleshooting

Playlists, named presets, A/B slots, randomization marks/pool, Random play preference, header preference, and monitoring volume/mute are stored locally, as are the Track Editor's kept tracks. Recent tunes and generated download blobs last only for the page session. A normal visit without a link does not reopen your last visible board; it starts with a fresh seed. Reopen a saved link, playlist item, or preset when you want a particular board.

Browser storage belongs to this site's browser profile, rather than an account library. Clearing site data, switching browser/profile, or losing storage can remove local work. Playlist saves are checked and failures are reported under the control that made them. Preset/A/B/preference storage failures can leave those features usable only for the current session without a prominent error. Keep finished WAVs and certificates as files, and keep important board links outside the browser's site storage.

The Library panel's Export writes this browser's playlists, presets, and library settings to one .sonodrift file; Import adds a file's playlists and presets without replacing your work, and an item that differs from one already kept arrives as a copy marked (imported). The panels update after a successful import. If browser storage prevents the imported items from appearing immediately, the status explains that they are kept in the library and will be applied when storage becomes available. Neither file action carries the Track Editor's tracks: Export leaves them out, and Import skips them and reports how many were left out. The Editor's Load opens them.

Connect your own cloud storage

The Your cloud storage row appears when a provider is configured. This source snapshot enables Google Drive. Press Connect with a Studio license, sign in to your Google account, and grant access to Sonodrift's application storage. No Sonodrift account is required. A connection synchronizes the library; Sync now checks it again. Playlists, presets, library settings, and tracks kept by the licensed Editor share this library. Generated WAVs, stems, MIDI, certificates, and your license code are not cloud library items.

Read the status before leaving. Saved on this device confirms only the local copy; Saving to Google Drive… means a save is in progress; Saved to Google Drive confirms the provider accepted it. Offline changes stay on this device until a successful sync. Sign in again restores an expired session. Studio also checks synchronization when the page regains focus, so use Sync now when you need an explicit confirmation.

When another device changes the same item, both versions are retained and a choice appears: Keep both versions, Use this device's version, or Use the cloud version. Read that prompt before choosing which version keeps its name. Disconnect stops synchronization and deletes neither the local library nor the files in your storage. Without a Studio license, cloud saving pauses while local work remains available. Keep file backups for finished work.

Style catalog

The following lists are generated from the current style packs, using the same option names and instrument labels as Studio. Default level is the style's assigned strip value; a browser slider uses its 0.01 grid. A single listed instrument means there is no instrument selector for that role. Every selectable instrument list additionally offers Auto.

The Form names are shown exactly as the menus display them, including legacy prefixes such as lofi-, sw-, chip-, and min-. Section sequences show each template's intended order; their actual lengths are scaled to the chosen take duration. Chords lists the exposed progression names rather than promising that each name is literal notation for every scale.

In Pop, Indie-pop, Rock, Punk, Metal, EDM, House, Synthwave (the Stabs), Lo-fi, Reggae (the Skank), Country, Bluegrass (the Guitar) and Blues (the Shuffle guitar), the Rhythm role's strum, stab or comp pattern is generated for each seed from its kind of track: a few bar patterns, one per phrase. It is not one fixed figure per style. Every style now draws one kind of track per seed, unless Substyle names one. Each style's Substyle line lists its kinds as the menu shows them, after Auto, and the style's paragraph gives each kind's tempo band.

Styles with drums select distinct rhythmic backbones within their substyles, rather than varying only fills or hit strength. Arrangements can return to a recognizable groove, answer it with another compatible groove, or change it at a section boundary. Defining hits and deliberate rests are protected, so a steppers beat keeps its four-beat kick while a one-drop beat can leave beat one empty. Repetition remains part of the music; a new seed is not a promise that every bar will be unique. Ambient, Classical, Minimalism, and Bluegrass remain drum-free.

In Blues, Rock, Punk and Metal, generated guitar melodies shape their accents, leave phrase-end spaces and vary their answers before returning to familiar ideas. Lead guitar, Singing lead guitar, Metal lead guitar, and Shred lead guitar use electric-string voices with distinct sustain and tone. Suitable same-string hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides retain the vibrating string across connected notes. Short picked phrases stay separated, while a sustained melody carries nearly to its next note instead of being shortened by a generic gate. Explicit staccato, palm-muted strokes, phrase-ending rests, bends, and written gaps keep their intended articulation. Harmonica parts shape breath strength over a phrase, leave recovery gaps, and use occasional feasible bends, shakes, and hand wah.

Where a substyle calls for a coordinated rhythm section, guitar attacks, bass support, and the selected drum groove use a shared section plan. This includes the kick-linked Metal groove, Punk driving patterns, Rock riffs, and Blues shuffle/boogie phrasing. Bass can support an important guitar attack, hold beneath it, or answer between strokes; it does not copy every guitar note. This behavior is generated automatically, with no new coordination slider. Choose a substyle and seed to change the musical idea; use the Editor's note lengths and How it's played controls to refine a particular result.

Pop · Indie-pop · Rock · Punk · Metal · EDM · House · Synthwave · Chiptune · Lo-fi · Reggae · Country · Bluegrass · Blues · Ambient · Classical · Minimalism

Pop

Bright, programmed, catchy. Tempo 92–132 BPM; style preference 116 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, kit, chords, instruments and parts: a Dance-pop song (118–128), a Synth-pop song (104–122), a Piano ballad (92–104), or a Funk-pop groove (106–120). The sixth part is named for what it plays: Riff in Dance-pop and Funk-pop, Arp in Synth-pop, Answer in Piano ballad. In Dance-pop, Funk-pop and Synth-pop, some songs' Rhythm patterns leave the downbeat to the kick and bass for whole phrases and stab or chop the offbeats, always short; Dance-pop's and Synth-pop's stabs are accented, and Synth-pop's fall mostly outside the chorus.

Substyle: Auto; Dance-pop; Synth-pop; Piano ballad; Funk-pop.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Minor (aeolian); Dorian, warm minor.

Chords: Auto; I-V-vi-IV; vi-IV-I-V; I-vi-IV-V; I-IV-vi-V; IV-I-V-vi; I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V; I-iii-vi-IV; i-VII-VI-VII; I-bVII-IV-I; i7-IV7; i-IV-v-IV.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → prechorus → chorus → verse → chorus → outro.
• ballad: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.

Indie-pop

Jangly, warm, roomy. Tempo 100–140 BPM; style preference 120 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, kit, chords, instruments and riff style: a Jangle band (118–140), a Bedroom acoustic song (100–116), or a Synth-led song (110–130). In some Synth-led songs a Rhythm pattern leaves the downbeat to the kick and bass for whole phrases and plays short, choked chords on the offbeats.

Substyle: Auto; Jangle band; Bedroom acoustic; Synth-led.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Dorian, warm minor; Lydian, floating; Minor (aeolian). Auto never picks Lydian: every indie-pop chord pattern would put a diminished chord on its fourth step.

Chords: Auto; I-V-vi-IV; IV-I-V-vi; I-IV-V-IV; vi-IV-I-V; I-vi-IV-V; I-V-IV-V; I7-IV7; IV7-iii7-ii7-I7.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.

Rock

Backbeat and power chords. Tempo 96–150 BPM; style preference 124 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, kit, riff style and instruments: a Driving riff band (118–150) with dense, root-heavy riffs, a Spacious half-time groove (96–120) with fewer, longer riff notes and the keys forward, or a Swung boogie (124–150), where a shuffle kit swings the whole band.

Substyle: Auto; Driving riff band; Spacious half-time; Swung boogie.

Scale: Auto; Mixolydian, relaxed; Major (ionian); Minor (aeolian); Dorian, warm minor.

Chords: Auto; I-bVII-IV-I; I-V-vi-IV; vi-IV-I-V; I-IV-V-IV.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.

Punk

Fast, raw, dry. Tempo 150–220 BPM; style preference 180 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: Three-chord buzzsaw punk (160–184), a Pop-punk singalong (168–200), Skate punk (196–220), D-beat hardcore (184–220), or Angular post-punk (150–168). In about one Pop-punk singalong song in four, the verse's Rhythm pattern plays short, open upstroke chords on the offbeats while the kick and bass keep the downbeat, and the chorus always strikes it; Angular post-punk sometimes chops its chords off the beat for whole phrases.

Blues harmonica and Rock harmonica are optional Lead choices in Punk; Auto continues to choose guitars.

Substyle: Auto; Three-chord buzzsaw; Pop-punk singalong; Skate punk; D-beat hardcore; Angular post-punk.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Minor (aeolian); Major pentatonic.

Chords: Auto; I-IV-V; I-V-vi-IV; I-bVII-IV; vi-IV-I-V; I-bVII-IV-I-modal; I-IV-I-V; IV-I-V-vi; i-bVI-bIII-bVII.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• anthem: intro → verse → prechorus → chorus → verse → prechorus → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.

Metal

Heavy, dark, double-kick. Tempo 100–200 BPM; style preference 150 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: Pedal-tone thrash (168–200), Galloping heavy metal (144–176), a Syncopated groove where riff and kick lock together (116–148), Slow heavy half-time (100–118), or Neoclassical harmonic minor (128–160, about 1 in 11 tracks on Auto). Each kind pairs only scales and chord patterns that stay in key. Harmonic minor comes only with the neoclassical kind: its charts resolve through a major V chord, voiced with root and fifth low and the third above. The Rhythm guitar mixes palm-muted chugs on its low strings with open chords: verse and intro bars stay muted, other sections chug between ringing accents, and the chorus and loop-b strike every on-beat chug open. Slow heavy half-time lets its verse chords ring, with muted chugs only as pickups, and Syncopated groove strikes only where its kick pattern or snare does, except that about half its choruses end on one bar of fast muted chugs with an open stroke on each beat. In the loop form, about half the tracks play that bar once, at the end of the first loop-b; the second loop-b, which ends the track, never does.

Blues harmonica and Rock harmonica are optional Lead choices in Metal; Auto continues to choose guitars. Notes outside a real diatonic harp retain their written pitch without added reed bends or shakes.

Substyle: Auto; Pedal-tone thrash; Galloping heavy metal; Syncopated groove; Slow heavy half-time; Neoclassical harmonic minor.

Scale: Auto; Minor (aeolian); Phrygian, dark; Minor pentatonic; Harmonic minor.

Chords: Auto; i-bVI-bVII-i; i-bVII-bVI-v; i-iv-i-v; i-i-bVI-bVII.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.

EDM

Four-on-the-floor and supersaw. Tempo 120–140 BPM; style preference 128 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: a Big-room festival track (124–136), Progressive house (120–128), Electro (120–132), or Trance (128–140). Drum fills play over the kick. The kick stops only on the last beat before each drop, fill or no fill. The Rhythm stab is generated for each seed as whole chords between the kicks: it is silent with the kick in that last beat (sometimes the last two), and a chord rings across a kick only where its pattern holds it. Trance's stab never lands on a beat.

Substyle: Auto; Big-room festival; Progressive house; Electro; Trance.

Scale: Auto; Minor (aeolian); Major (ionian); Dorian, warm minor; Minor pentatonic.

Chords: Auto; vi-IV-I-V; i-VI-III-VII; i-VII-VI-VII; I-V-vi-IV; i-III-VII-IV; i-iv-VII-III; i-VII-v-IV; IV7-V7-iii7-vi7; vi7-IV7-I7-V7.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → build → drop → breakdown → build → drop → outro.
• festival: intro → build → drop → breakdown → build → drop → outro.
• progressive: intro → build → drop → breakdown → build → drop → outro.
• trance: intro → build → drop → breakdown → build → climax → outro.

House

Deep groove and piano stabs. Tempo 118–128 BPM; style preference 124 BPM. Default Swing 0.08. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form, kit and instruments: Deep house (118–128), Piano house (120–128), Tech house (124–128), or Garage house (120–128). The Rhythm stabs and the Arp's rhythm are generated for each seed, and the kick stays on every beat.

Substyle: Auto; Deep house; Piano house; Tech house; Garage house.

Scale: Auto; Dorian, warm minor; Minor (aeolian); Major (ionian); Minor pentatonic.

Chords: Auto; i-IV; i-VII-IV-i; i-IV-V-IV; vi-IV-I-V; i7-IV7; i7-VII7-IV7-i7; ii7-V7-I7; I-V-vi-IV.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• deep: intro → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• anthem: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• tech: intro → verse → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• garage: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.

Synthwave

Gated snare and sixteenth-note arpeggios. Tempo 84–126 BPM; style preference 104 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: a Roadtrip (104–126), Darksynth (112–126), Dreamwave (84–104), or Retro-pop (96–120). The Stabs are generated for each seed as keyboard chords that move between voicings, never on the sixteenth after the backbeat snare and never broken into single notes. In Roadtrip, Darksynth and Retro-pop only the chorus may leave the downbeat to the kick (in about 29%, 19% and 36% of songs), and Dreamwave holds its chords and lets them ring, also in the verse.

Substyle: Auto; Roadtrip; Darksynth; Dreamwave; Retro-pop.

Scale: Auto; Minor (aeolian); Dorian, warm minor; Major (ionian); Harmonic minor; Phrygian, dark.

Chords: Auto; sw-i-VI-III-VII; sw-i-III-VI-VII; sw-i-VII-VI-VII; sw-i-i-VI-VII; sw-VI-VII-i-i; sw-i-iv-VI-V; sw-i7-VI7-VII-VI7; sw-I-V-vi-IV; sw-I-vi-IV-V; sw-i-VII; sw-I-iii; sw-sus4-i-VI-VII; sw-i-IV-i-VII; sw-I7-IV7; sw-I-iii-IV-V; sw-IV-V-iii-I; sw-ii7-V7-I7; sw-IV-I-V-vi; sw-vi-IV-I-V; sw-i-VI; sw-i-iv.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• sw-song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → breakdown → build → chorus → outro.
• sw-loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• sw-drive: intro → loop-a → loop-b → breakdown → loop-b → outro.

Chiptune

Four machines and frame-rate arpeggios. Tempo 120–180 BPM; style preference 150 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of game track before the machine, unless Substyle names one, so every kind plays on every machine and Substyle and Chip are independent: an Action stage (144–176), an Overworld (128–156), a Town and menu theme (120–138), a Dungeon (120–136), a Racing track (162–180), or a Boss fight (156–180). The lead tune and the arpeggio's chord rhythm (short stabs, or a stream in some sections) are generated for each seed, and racing and boss tracks generate their bass line too.

Choose Auto to let the seed pick a machine, or pin one of the four machines below. Changing machines rebuilds the band.

Game Boy (DMG)

AY-3-8910 / YM2149

Master System (SN76489)

SID (6581)

Substyle: Auto; Action stage; Overworld; Town and menu; Dungeon; Racing; Boss fight.

Scale: Auto; Minor (aeolian); Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Dorian, warm minor; Harmonic minor; Lydian, floating; Phrygian, dark.

Chords: Auto; chip-I-V-vi-IV; chip-i-VI-VII-VII; chip-bloody-tears; chip-i-VI-VII-i; chip-face-your-destiny; chip-royal-road; chip-boss-i-iv-i-V; chip-lament; chip-victory; chip-menu-sevenths; chip-I-IV-V-IV; chip-I-bVII-IV-I; chip-i-III-VII-iv; chip-i-VI-iv-V; chip-i-VI-vamp; chip-i-iv-vamp; chip-I-bVII-vamp; chip-ii-V-I; chip-I-II-vamp; chip-I-V-vi-iii; chip-I-vi-ii-V.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• chip-stage-loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• chip-stage-intro: intro → loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• chip-boss: intro → loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b → climax.
• chip-title: intro → theme-a → theme-b → theme-a → theme-b → outro.

Lo-fi

Swung, dusty, easy. Tempo 70–90 BPM; style preference 82 BPM. Default Swing 0.62. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form, kit and instruments: Chill beats (78–90), Jazz-hop (80–90), Boom-bap (76–88), or Ambient lo-fi (70–80). The Rhythm comp, the Loop's rhythm and the lead tune are generated for each seed. Every generated part stays on the eighth-note grid, so only the kit swings.

Substyle: Auto; Chill beats; Jazz-hop; Boom-bap; Ambient lo-fi.

Scale: Auto; Dorian, warm minor; Minor (aeolian); Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed.

Chords: Auto; lofi-i7-IV7; lofi-ii-V-i; lofi-i-VII-VI-V; lofi-i7-sus-IV7; lofi-i-III-VI-V; lofi-IV-iii-ii-i; lofi-i-vi-ii-V; lofi-iii-vi-ii-V; lofi-i-iv-VII-III; lofi-i-VI; lofi-i7-v7; lofi-i-v-VI-IV.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• lofi-loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• lofi-study: intro → loop-a → loop-b → loop-a.
• lofi-tape: intro → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• lofi-beat-tape: intro → loop-a → loop-b → breakdown → loop-b → outro.
• lofi-drift: intro → loop-a → breakdown → loop-b → outro.

Reggae

One-drop drums and offbeat skank. Tempo 60–90 BPM; style preference 72 BPM. Default Swing 0.16. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form, kit and mix: a Roots one drop (64–82), Steppers with a kick on every beat (74–90), Rockers (68–86), or Dub (60–74). Dub sets Lead 0.62, Bubble 0.40 and larger reverb sends. The kinds' groove swing is 0.16 for Roots one drop, 0.08 for Steppers, 0.12 for Rockers and 0.20 for Dub; Studio moves the Swing slider to it only on a Substyle change, under the rule in Setup. On Auto the slider sits at the style's 0.16, whatever kind the seed drew. The Skank, which never strikes a beat, and the lead tune are generated for each seed. The Bubble plays one of several patterns, and a chorus is never sparser than the verse.

Substyle: Auto; Roots one drop; Steppers; Rockers; Dub.

Scale: Auto; Minor (aeolian); Dorian, warm minor; Mixolydian, relaxed; Major (ionian); Minor pentatonic.

Chords: Auto; one-chord; i-VII; i-iv; I-IV; i-VI-VII; iv-i.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• riddim: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• version: intro → loop-a → loop-b → breakdown → loop-a → loop-b.
• dub: intro → loop-a → breakdown → loop-b → loop-a → outro.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → outro.
• rocksteady: intro → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.

Country

Train beat and pedal steel. Tempo 72–152 BPM; style preference 112 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: a Nashville radio single (96–128), a Train-beat band (116–152), a Honky-tonk shuffle (100–140), or an Acoustic ballad (72–96). The honky-tonk kind shuffles in every form; the other three draw only the straight song forms. A pinned shuffle form still shuffles its drums.

Substyle: Auto; Nashville radio single; Train-beat band; Honky-tonk shuffle; Acoustic ballad.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Minor (aeolian).

Chords: Auto; 1-4-5-1; 1-5-6-4; 1-4-1-5; 1-1-4-5; 1-4-5(7)-1; 1-6-4-5(7); 4-1-5-1; 1-5-4-1; 8-bar-honky-tonk; 1-sus-4-5.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• radio: intro → verse → prechorus → chorus → verse → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.
• song: intro → verse → chorus → verse → chorus → outro.
• ballad: intro → verse → chorus → verse → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• shuffle: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• two-step: theme-a → theme-b → development → theme-b → theme-a.
• barn-dance: loop-a → drop → loop-b → climax → loop-a.

Bluegrass

Banjo roll and mandolin chop. Tempo 120–172 BPM; style preference 148 BPM. Swing is disabled. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form and instruments: a Fast breakdown (148–172), a Mid-tempo song (128–156), a Gospel song (120–140), or Newgrass (136–164), the only kind whose own draw includes the modal and minor charts. The banjo rolls, the guitar's boom-chick pattern and the fiddle tune are generated for each seed. The chop plays on every offbeat and never on a beat.

Substyle: Auto; Fast breakdown; Mid-tempo song; Gospel song; Newgrass.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Mixolydian, relaxed; Minor (aeolian).

Chords: Auto; 1-4-1-5; 1-1-4-5; 1-4-5-1; 1-1-5-1; 1-5-5-1; circle; lonesome-road; off-the-four; foggy-mountain; 12-bar; modal-flat7; modal-7-4; minor-6-7; hymn.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• song: intro → verse → chorus → bridge → verse → chorus → development → chorus → outro.
• breakdown: theme-a → theme-a → theme-b → theme-b.
• gospel: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.

Blues

Twelve-bar shuffle and boogie bass. Tempo 66–168 BPM; style preference 108 BPM. Default Swing 0.00. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one: a Chicago shuffle (96–132), a Slow twelve-eight blues with a walking bass (66–84), a Jump boogie with a horn riff in the Answer part (138–168), or a Straight-eighth and rhumba blues that does not shuffle (100–140), where the Answer part plays a riff. A pinned tempo changes the speed, not the kind. The Shuffle guitar is generated for each seed and follows the twelve-bar: each four-bar line is stated, answered, stated and turned, the line ends push into the next chord, and the last bar of each pass turns around with a push or a stop. Some songs play the two-string shuffle (the root under its fifth, sixth or flat seventh on two low strings), and a Jump boogie verse is often four short chords a bar. A harmonica, in Blues and wherever else it plays, sounds some notes as chords: slaps and double stops on accents, held chords on long notes, and on the Answer some phrases played as a chord rhythm.

Substyle: Auto; Chicago shuffle; Slow twelve-eight; Jump boogie; Straight-eighth and rhumba.

Scale: Auto; Mixolydian, relaxed; Dorian, warm minor.

Chords: Auto; 12-bar; 12-quick-change; 12-old-time; 8-free-to-roam; 16-doubled.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• song: intro → verse → verse → chorus → verse → outro.
• jam: intro → verse → chorus → chorus → bridge → chorus → outro.
• stop-time: breakdown → verse → chorus → breakdown → chorus → outro.
• vamp: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• jump: theme-a → theme-b → development → theme-b → theme-a.

Funk

Pocket, synth, and organ conversations. Tempo 60–160 BPM; style preference 102 BPM; meter 4/4. Automatic tempo follows the chosen substyle's band: Pocket Funk (92–112), Synth Funk (100–122), or Organ Funk (86–108). A legal manual tempo remains your choice.

Each public substyle contains four arrangements chosen by the seed. Pocket Funk can emphasize a bass pocket, a guitar hook, brass conversation, or the softer After Hours ensemble. Synth Funk can use an elastic exchange, octave pulse, longer melody, or percussive keys and horns. Organ Funk can trade phrases, carry an organ riff, sustain harmony, or feature the organ out front. There is no separate Approach menu. Keep a substyle selected and try new seeds to hear its different arrangements.

The parts share rhythmic and harmonic decisions. They leave answer windows and return to recognizable material instead of making every layer play continuously. After Hours uses a warm bass, soft guitar, mellow electric piano, and orchestral strings around its melody, with occasional flute replies. Its six accompaniment directions differ in their drum/bass relationship, guitar figures, keyboard attacks, and string entrances. An inactive Brass or Strings part remains visible in the mixer but has no notes until the selected arrangement calls for it.

The table gives base strip levels and every available instrument choice. The resolved arrangement can choose other default levels and change a role's displayed name; explicit instrument choices and mutes remain yours.

Substyle: Auto; Pocket Funk; Synth Funk; Organ Funk.

Scale: Auto; Mixolydian, relaxed; Dorian, warm minor; Major (ionian); Minor (aeolian).

Chords: Auto; Seeded ensemble harmony; vamp; two-chord; soul; turnaround. Auto uses the ensemble's own seeded harmony, including seventh/ninth chords and changes within a bar where the arrangement calls for them. A named chart pins the harmony while retaining the chosen substyle.

Forms:

• vamp: verse → chorus → verse.
• verse: verse → chorus → verse → verse.
• feature: verse → chorus → breakdown → verse.
• breaks: verse → breakdown → chorus → verse.
• orchestral-soul: intro → verse → chorus → breakdown → verse.

Use 60s or longer to hear more developed phrase exchanges and returns. Mood mainly leans automatic tempo here; the seeded arrangement sets its mode and melodic phrases. Swing uses Studio's units, which differ from the research lab's settings. The brass and clav-like keys are synthesized approximations, not recordings or complete acoustic instrument models.

Ambient

Spacious and floating. Tempo 44–96 BPM; style preference 60 BPM. Swing is disabled. Each seed draws one kind of track, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form and instruments: a Drone (44–62), a Cinematic swell (54–78), Rain and weather (56–80), or a Generative piano (62–92). The Motif's rhythm and the lead tune are generated for each seed. On Auto, about three tunes in ten are in 6/8.

Substyle: Auto; Drone; Cinematic swell; Rain and weather; Generative piano.

Scale: Auto; Lydian, floating; Dorian, warm minor; Major (ionian); Minor (aeolian); Mixolydian, relaxed.

Chords: Auto; 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; float; sway; pendulum; hush; hollow; circle; turn; glow.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-a → loop-a → loop-a.
• arc: intro → development → outro.
• tide: intro → development → loop-a → development → outro.

Classical

Chamber strings and winds. Tempo 66–108 BPM; style preference 84 BPM. Swing is disabled. Each seed draws one kind of piece, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, scales, chords, form and instruments: Baroque counterpoint (76–108), the Classical era (84–108), a Romantic character piece (66–84), or a String chamber piece (72–100). The lead tune is generated for each seed, and in baroque pieces the Counter role plays a generated second voice. About one piece in four is in 3/4, in every kind.

Substyle: Auto; Baroque counterpoint; Classical era; Romantic; String chamber.

Scale: Auto; Major (ionian); Minor (aeolian); Harmonic minor; Lydian, floating.

Chords: Auto; cadence; circle; half; predominant; romanesca; fifths; lament; ground; deceptive; period.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• loop: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• arc: intro → development → climax → outro.
• binary: theme-a → theme-a → theme-b → theme-b.
• sonata: theme-a → theme-b → development → theme-a → theme-b → outro.
• rondo: theme-a → theme-b → theme-a → development → theme-a → outro.
• ternary: intro → theme-a → theme-b → climax → theme-a → outro.

Minimalism

Phase pair and a steady pulse. Tempo 84–126 BPM; style preference 108 BPM. Swing is disabled. Each seed draws one kind of piece, unless Substyle names one, and the kind sets its tempo band, meter, scales, chords, form and instruments: Phase shifting (96–126), an Additive pulse (102–126), a Drone with arpeggios (84–108), or a Mallet ensemble (90–120). The phase pair's cell is generated for each seed, and the kind decides what the pair does: the twin slips a step per stage, grows the figure a unit at a time, plays it in canon, or builds it up a note at a time. Additive pulse sets Sustain to 0.20. On Auto, a little over half the pieces are in 3/4, the rest in 6/4.

Substyle: Auto; Phase shifting; Additive pulse; Drone with arpeggios; Mallet ensemble.

Scale: Auto; Dorian, warm minor; Lydian, floating; Mixolydian, relaxed; Major (ionian); Minor (aeolian).

Chords: Auto; min-static-sus2; min-static-seventh; min-open-fifths; min-vamp-I-IV; min-vamp-I-V; min-cycle; min-gate.

Form: Auto, or one of these templates:

• min-process: theme-a → development → theme-b → outro.
• min-pulses: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.
• min-arch: intro → theme-a → development → theme-b → outro.
• min-gates: loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b → loop-a → loop-b.

Sonodrift Editor user manual

Manual home · Sonodrift Studio · Ambient Loops

Sonodrift Editor shapes the notes and performance of a track made in Sonodrift Studio. Open it at /studio/editor/ through Studio's Edit track… button, or from one of Studio's playlists in the Editor's own header. You can move and stretch existing notes, change their loudness, create pitch slides, swap instruments, and shape how instruments play across the arrangement, then download the edited track as WAV, MIDI, or stems from the Editor itself.

Contents

• Start an editing session
• Understand the workspace
• Choose the bars and instrument
• Edit notes
• Change instruments and performance
• Listen, loop, and position playback
• Undo, restore, and keep your work
• Open, name, and keep tracks
• Export the edited track
• Keyboard and modifier reference
• Troubleshooting

Start an editing session

1. In Studio, choose the seed, style, length, arrangement, instruments, and mix you want to work with. Listen using Studio's live playback.
2. Press Edit track…. You do not need to press Generate track first. Studio hands the Editor the current board as a link (/studio/editor/?board=…), and the Editor composes that board's track itself, exactly as Studio's live desk plays it, including a pinned Chiptune chip.
3. The Editor opens with the first arrangement part selected. The header shows the track's name, style, speed, and key, and the Playlist and Track selectors. The first instrument with editable notes is initially active.
4. Press Play section to hear the selected bars, then select and change a note. Use Undo to compare with the previous state.
5. Download the edited audio from the Editor's own download row. Follow Export the edited track below.

A track is identified by its Studio board settings, in a canonical form: the same settings are the same track however a link orders them, and the same board saved in two playlists is one track. Changing anything stored in the board's share parameters, including the seed, style, duration, loop setting, instruments, mix, and Loudness target, makes a different track. Opening a board the Editor already keeps, edited, brings those edits back, even after a Sonodrift engine update; a kept track that holds no edits is composed again on the current engine. See Open, name, and keep tracks for how many tracks are kept.

Once the Editor has the track, nothing you do to it reaches back into Studio's board or its files. Studio's live playback, Generate, WAV, Certificate, MIDI, and Stems always use Studio's own board, never the Editor's edits, and choosing a playlist or track in the Editor never changes Studio's board, playlists, or what Studio is playing.

The navigation and footer Studio links return to the board this tab came from in Studio. With no such board (the Editor was opened directly), they open Studio as a fresh visit does. Prefer them to the browser's Back button, which can restore the link Studio was originally opened on rather than the board you left.

If you visit the Editor with nothing kept, it shows Nothing to edit yet. Use Go to the board, prepare a track, and press Edit track…, or pick a track from a playlist in the header. The same message appears when browser storage is blocked or the stored project cannot be read.

A Studio share link can prepare the generating board; it does not contain Editor note edits. With a Studio license, Save and Load keep a track, edits included, in a .sonodrift file. The Editor has no certificate or audio/MIDI import.

Understand the workspace

On wide screens, the map and section toolbar stay accessible while you scroll through notes; the instrument controls can also stay beside the workspace. Narrow screens stack the panels. Theme switches the shared light/dark appearance.

Read the map and notes

The map's little activity marks show how many events begin in each bar. A dashed empty cell means that instrument has no event starts in that part; it is not a mute switch. Part widths reflect their actual lengths. Names vary with the arrangement: for example, Intro, Part A, Chorus, Middle bit, or Ending. Repeated part names are numbered.

Notes run left to right through time. Their width represents duration, their vertical position represents pitch or drum piece, and stronger shading represents greater note loudness. A picked note has a prominent outline; additional selected notes have an accent ring. A small dot marks a note changed from its generated version.

Pitched lanes use rows drawn from the track's scale and that role's pitch range in this track: the style's range as the track's own kind of song (and, on Chiptune, its sound chip) sets it, so a part written higher or lower than the style's usual range is drawn and dragged at its real pitch. They normally show five to twelve rows, depending on the material. Descriptions such as low, middle, and high describe position within the lane. A row step follows the scale; it is not necessarily one semitone. Moving a note beyond the visible pitch window can move the window to keep that note visible, until the instrument's range is reached.

Drum lanes use five displayed pieces, from bottom to top: Kick, Floor tom, Snare, Hi-hat, and Crash. Moving a drum note vertically changes the piece. Some generated kit sounds share these display rows; moving them only sideways preserves their original sound.

Environmental voices such as weather are presented as the room itself. Their lane explains that there are no notes to move, and they have no performance sliders.

Choose the bars and instrument

Click a cell in an instrument's map row to select that whole arrangement part and make that instrument active. Drag sideways across cells to select several neighboring parts. All instruments remain visible; clicking a row does not remove the others from the workspace.

For finer time selection, drag the outlined selection's left or right handle. Each handle snaps to whole bars. You can also focus a handle and press Left or Right to move it by one bar. At least one bar stays selected.

Click an instrument's name beside its notes to direct How it's played to that instrument without changing the selected bars. Picking a note or focusing another instrument's selector also changes which instrument the panel follows. Changing the selected bar range clears any group of marked notes.

The note canvas keeps a readable scale and becomes horizontally scrollable for a longer selection. Use its horizontal scrollbar to reach later bars. There is no dedicated timeline zoom control; selecting fewer bars is the useful way to concentrate on a shorter passage.

What each edit reaches

Part settings apply to whole arrangement parts. Selecting one bar inside a longer Chorus and adjusting its performance slider affects that instrument throughout the Chorus. If the selection crosses several parts, a slider change or ready-made curve reaches each of them. The controls display the first overlapping part's values; different later values are not displayed as a mixed state. To shape parts independently, select them separately.

The note workspace includes notes whose starts fall in the selected bars. A sustained note starting before the selection is not shown there and is not retriggered by section playback. Select an earlier bar when you need to hear or edit that note's beginning.

Edit notes

Pick, move, and resize

Click a note to pick it. Its edge handles and inspector become available. Picking alone does not change the music.

• Drag the body horizontally to move the note earlier or later. Time edits snap to quarter-beat increments within the selected stretch.
• Drag vertically to change its pitch row or drum piece. A diagonal drag changes time and pitch together.
• Drag the right edge to move the note's end while keeping its start.
• Drag the left edge to change its start and length together.
• Press Longer or Shorter in the inspector to change its length by a quarter beat at the right edge.
• Use the arrow keys on the picked note. Clicking a note gives it keyboard focus. Up/Down change the pitch row, Left/Right move it by a quarter beat, Shift+Right/Shift+Left lengthen it at the end/start, and Ctrl+Left/Ctrl+Right (Command on macOS) shorten it at the end/start. Shortening moves one edge and leaves the other exactly where it was.
• Press Louder or Softer to change the note's strength. These steps are bounded; Softer does not delete or fully silence the note.

Length edits normally have a quarter-beat minimum. Moves stay inside the selection and cannot place a note's start beyond the audible track end. Stretches stop at the selection's end; playback still cuts off at the track's actual duration if its final bar is incomplete. If a note will not move farther in time, enlarge the selection; if it will not move higher or lower, it may have reached that instrument's range.

The drum synthesizers determine the length of their hits independently of note duration. Resizing a drum rectangle can therefore change its displayed length without changing how long the hit sounds. The drum performance panel omits a ring-length slider for this reason.

Edit several notes together

1. Pick the first note normally.
2. Hold Ctrl on Windows/Linux, or Command on macOS, and click other notes in the same instrument to add them to the group.
3. Drag any marked member to move the group. Drag a member's edge to resize the group, or use the inspector's Louder, Softer, Longer, and Shorter buttons.

The inspector states the number of notes and confirms that its buttons change all of them. Group movement uses a shared offset, preserving the notes' timing and pitch spacing. Resizing uses a shared length change. When one member reaches a limit, the group is limited together. One group action occupies one Undo step.

Ctrl/Command-click an additional marked note to remove it. The primary picked note stays in the group. A plain click on any note, marked or not, clears the group and picks that note. Starting a selection in another instrument clears the old group: groups cannot span instruments.

Arrow-key edits on a marked note reach the whole group. After a Ctrl/Command-click the picked member has keyboard focus, so the keys act on the group straight away. Moves, Shift lengthening and Ctrl shortening apply one shared quarter-beat step to every member, and stop together when any member reaches a limit, as a group drag does. An arrow key on a note outside the group edits that note alone and clears the group. This version has no note add/delete, copy/paste, or section duplication workflow.

Create a pitch slide

A link makes one pitched note slide toward the pitch of a later note in the same instrument. The slide happens across the first note's own duration; it does not extend that note to fill the gap.

1. Pick the note that should start the slide.
2. Hold Shift and click a later note of a different pitch in the same instrument.
3. A dashed curve and a round handle appear across the first note. Drag the handle vertically to change how early or late its pitch moves.
4. To remove the slide, pick the starting note and Shift-click the same destination again. Shift-clicking a different valid destination redirects the existing slide while keeping its shape.

The destination can be several notes later. Drums, notes in a different instrument, earlier or simultaneous notes, and notes with the same pitch are not valid destinations. If you move the destination's pitch, the slide follows it. An edit that makes the link invalid removes the slide.

For keyboard operation, focus the source note and press Enter or Space to pick it. Tab to the destination without picking it, then press Shift+Enter or Shift+Space. Focus the round curve handle and use Up/Down to reshape the slide: Up makes it move earlier; Down delays more of the movement toward its end.

Change instruments and performance

The selector beneath an instrument role lists the voices available to that role in the current style. An asterisk marks the voice that Studio originally generated. Choosing another voice keeps all existing notes and changes the sound across the entire track. A role with only one voice displays its name instead of a selector.

The How it's played panel follows the chosen voice family. Its heading names the part the panel is following, with the same role name its lane and Studio's Roles strip use (on Chiptune, the chip's channel name), followed by the instrument. Sliders rest at the generated performance, and moving one back to its resting point restores its neutral setting. Most rest at the center. For new Blues, Rock, Punk and Metal tracks with generated harmonica expression, Shake and Hand wah rest at 50, the center (as generated). Left reduces the generated amount, 0 removes it, and right increases it. Older projects retain their original 0-neutral controls, which add the technique from none.

The four electric lead voices, Lead guitar, Singing lead guitar, Metal lead guitar, and Shred lead guitar, can retain the vibrating string through suitable neighboring hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. A fresh pick damps the preceding notes; moving notes too far apart, giving them too much overlap, or changing to another string makes a connection play as a new pick. Held notes can carry the generated bends and vibrato. The four voices have different tone and sustain settings; switching voices does not rewrite the melody.

For an awkward gap in a guitar melody, select the affected notes and extend their right edges toward the next attack. For a whole part that should ring longer, move How long notes ring to the right, then check the sounding-length lines below the note boxes. Keep phrase-ending rests and palm-muted rhythm strokes short when they serve the groove. These edits change this track only; they do not retrain or reconfigure future generated songs.

Force controls change note strength, ring controls change note duration, and timing controls adjust note starts. Tight moves notes toward the beat; loose adds repeatable timing variation.

The note rectangles keep their written length, the one you drag. Where a pitched note sounds noticeably differently (by a thirty-second of a beat or more), a thin strip along its bottom edge shows where it actually sounds. That happens when the ring control scales it, when timing moves its start, or when the voice plays its articulation short (staccato). The strip is the note's gate, not its release tail, and it can extend past the rectangle. Drum lanes have no strip, because drum voices ignore duration.

On the two harmonicas, Breath strength changes breath pressure, which moves the tone as well as the level. Tone moves the reed's edge from the generated setting toward soft or raspy. Breathiness moves the breath noise from none to airy. Shake alternates each note with the reed of the neighboring hole, in the same breath direction. It needs a reed on the harmonica, so a note the harmonica cannot reach does not shake. Hand wah sweeps a cupped-hand filter over the note. Shake and Hand wah begin shortly after each note's attack. Shake speed and Wah speed set their rates in musical values of the beat. At the center, a new expressive harmonica track retains its per-phrase authored speeds and shows as generated: phrase speeds. Older projects use the tempo-based automatic rate. Away from the center, the controls select slower or faster musical rates and name the chosen value. A speed slider is active whenever the selected part has that technique, including generated expression at the neutral setting; returning the slider to the center restores the original rates. Chords sets how many notes play as chords (a slap, a double stop, an octave or a held chord). At the center you hear the chords the composer wrote, about 1 note in 5 on a blues harmonica lead. Left of center removes accents and held chords, always the same ones first; at the left end a lead plays every note alone. An Answer part's chord rhythm plays at every setting, because the slider thins only the accents and held chords. Right of center adds chords where the composer's own rule allows one, on a chord tone without a slide that is held long or falls on a phrase start or a strong beat, at least a beat from any other chord. In a Rock song, the right half also adds a looser tier to either harmonica: any other tone of the bar's chord without a slide, at least half a beat from any other chord, so the right end reaches about 1 note in 3 (about 1 in 9 at the center). The resulting share of the selected bars is named under the slider, for example about 1 note in 3, or about 2 notes in 3 when most notes play chords. A note that plays a chord shows a small stack of lines at the left of the rectangle. The chord's other reeds are voiced from the song's chord at the note's current position, so a moved chord note is re-voiced where it lands; a note that slides plays without its chord and shows no stack. A part switched to a harmonica plays chords too: accents and held chords, chosen from its written notes by the same rule, but not the chord rhythm, which would replace notes the editor cannot show or move. An Answer part switched to a harmonica chords about half of its own notes instead, at least half a beat apart: a chord on a tone of the bar's chord, an octave on any other note. Those figure chords, like the chord rhythm, play at every Chords setting. Such a part also drops the slides written for its previous instrument that the harmonica's reeds cannot bend, and the grid stops drawing them; a slide you link yourself still plays and is drawn. These settings act on top of individual note edits. They do not rewrite the rectangles' underlying note values, so the inspector describes the picked note before those part-wide performance changes.

Shape the Volume curve

The Volume graph has five draggable points across an arrangement part. Move a point up for stronger notes near that position, or down for quieter ones. Its caption identifies the active instrument and selected time range; the whole-part scope described above still applies.

Ready-made shapes provide a starting point:

The curve changes the strength of notes according to where they begin in their part. It is not a continuous master-volume fade over an already sounding note, and its lowest point is quieter rather than silent. A part containing a long sustained note may show little change late in the curve because there are no new notes starting there. Room/environment voices have no notes for this curve to shape. Use section playback to hear the material the curve actually affects.

When several parts are selected, a ready-made shape replaces the curve in each overlapping part. Moving one point changes that point in each part while retaining its other existing points.

Listen, loop, and position playback

There is one audio output. Switching between the whole track and a section switches what is heard; both do not play together. The incoming take starts at its beginning at the next bar boundary. While section playback is running, settling a new selection makes playback follow the new bars at a bar boundary.

Note edits, instrument changes, and part-performance edits also enter running playback at the next bar boundary. A note that is already sounding is not instantly replaced. Give the playhead time to reach the next bar, or stop and restart the section to hear from its beginning.

The green line in the map indicates position in the whole track. The line over the notes appears when playback is inside the selected bars. The note canvas follows it automatically during playback; pausing lets you scroll without the view pulling back to the playhead.

Drag a green line to choose a different playback position. The jump occurs on release, and the release never changes the transport. Playing continues from the new position. Paused stays paused there, and Resume plays from it. Stopped stays stopped, with the dim note playhead parked there, and the section's Play starts from it; a release at the selection's end parks at its start, where a take comes round. Whenever playback stops (Stop, the whole track's Stop, or the end of a take with Loop off), the note playhead returns to the selection's first bar, and so does a parked playhead when the selection moves away from it. While stopped, drag it back to the first bar to start from the top. A section's playhead stays within its section. Dragging the note playhead toward a horizontal edge scrolls through a longer selection. The map's playhead can be dragged only during playback.

The Editor's Loop is a listening preference for this visit. Studio's Seamless loop is a saved track/render setting. Ticking Editor Loop does not change the exported file's seamless-loop setting.

Monitor instruments

The checkbox beside each instrument means play this instrument here. Uncheck it to mute that instrument in Editor playback. Click its magnifying glass to hear it on its own. Clicking the same magnifier again restores the mute choices that were saved when it was enabled. Re-enabling another instrument, or muting the soloed instrument itself, ends solo mode.

These Editor instrument mutes and solos are listening choices. They are not saved as edits and do not change Studio's mix or any file the Editor makes. The initial checkboxes reflect any zero-level instruments passed from Studio. Re-enabling such an instrument in the Editor auditions it at the style's default level; its files keep the level Studio handed over, so change the Studio mix, and open the track again from that board, if that level should be part of the export.

The top Playback volume slider and Mute button affect listening only. Mute leaves playback advancing. These two preferences are shared with the other boards and persist in browser storage. If the playhead moves but nothing is audible, check both the master Mute/volume and instrument checkboxes.

The Editor inherits Studio's mix, space, brightness, and width for playback and for its downloads, as they were when the board was handed over. It has no separate mixer faders or effects panel. Set the source mix in Studio before pressing Edit track…, since changing board parameters makes a different track.

Reorder lanes

Drag the small three-line handle beside an instrument name. A floating stack shows possible insertion gaps; release over the desired gap. You can also focus the handle and press Up/Down to move it one place. The map and note lanes reorder together.

Lane order changes the display for this visit. It does not change the music, export order, or saved project, and it is not an Undo action.

Undo, restore, and keep your work

Undo restores the preceding edit, including its selected bars. It covers note edits, group edits, links, instrument swaps, performance changes, curve changes, and Put this part back. Up to 60 edit steps are kept during the current page visit. Reloading or leaving the page clears this history. Ctrl+Z (Command+Z on macOS) undoes from anywhere on the page. Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z (Command+Shift+Z on macOS) redoes an undone step. There is no Redo button. A new edit after an undo clears the redo steps. The shortcuts do nothing while a drag is in progress.

Put this part back returns selected material to its generated baseline. It acts across all instruments, not just the active one. It also clears part settings for every overlapping arrangement part and restores all instruments' baseline voices for the whole track. To remove every musical edit, expand the selection across the full map and use it. Undo can reverse that reset during the same visit.

Musical edits autosave to this browser on this device shortly after an edit, with a 400-millisecond delay. Pending changes are also written when the page is hidden or left. Reopening the saved Editor project preserves its notes, instrument choices, part-performance values, volume curves, and name. It opens again at the first part; selection, marked groups, lane order, pitch-window position, instrument mute/solo choices, Loop, and undo history are temporary.

If storage is full or blocked, editing continues in memory, and a notice under the download row says that edits last only while the page stays open. It stays until a save succeeds. Download what you need before closing such a page.

Two Editor tabs share the working copy. When another tab opens a different track or saves this one, this tab stops saving and says so; reload it to continue from what is kept. In a licensed browser, a tab whose track another tab replaced first keeps its track on this device. If Back or Forward restores an Editor page from the browser's cache after its track was replaced, the page reloads onto the track that is kept.

Open, name, and keep tracks

Open another track from a playlist

The header's Playlist selector lists Studio's playlists, read from this browser, labeled with each list's name and track count. The Track selector to its right lists the chosen playlist's entries by name. The open track is selected when an entry is the same board; otherwise the selector reads This track isn't in this playlist. Entries with a kept edit on this device are marked (edited); an entry this build cannot read as a board is listed as (can't be opened here) and cannot be chosen. With no playlists the Playlist selector reads No playlists yet: save one in Studio and the Track selector is hidden; an empty list reads This playlist is empty.

Choosing an entry loads the Editor page on that board, through the same rules as Edit track…: the kept edits come back, a free browser asks before replacing work, and a licensed browser keeps the track it leaves. A pointer or touch choice opens at once. From the keyboard, the Track selector's arrow keys only move through the list, a hint names the entry, and Enter opens it; Escape, or leaving the selector, restores the current choice. This avoids reloading the page on every arrow press. The Playlist selector opens no track, so a keyboard choice there shows that list's entries at once.

The Editor remembers its own playlist choice separately from Studio's. Choosing a playlist or track here never changes Studio's selected playlist or its now-playing entry. When Studio changes its playlists in another tab, the selectors repaint.

Name the track

The header shows the track's name. A track opened from a playlist entry takes the entry's name as it is now, even a track whose edits are kept, and so does one opened with Studio's Edit track… when the board is an entry of Studio's selected playlist; opening from Load keeps the name the track last had. Otherwise the name is the style and seed, for example Lo-fi · amber-drift-9. A name given with the pencil (below) takes precedence over the entry's. The seed is shown as the name's tooltip.

Press the pencil beside the name to rename the track in place. Enter or leaving the field saves; Escape keeps the old name; empty text keeps the old name. Names are cleaned (one line, control and direction characters removed) and capped at 60 characters. A rename is saved at once, is not an Undo step, and is never reverted by Undo or Redo. It belongs to the Editor's copy of the track only: Studio's playlist entry keeps its name. Downloads and saved files use the Editor's name.

How many tracks are kept

Free. The working copy is the one kept track. When a different track is opened while the working copy holds edits or a name the person gave it, the Editor shows an inline notice in place of the workspace, This replaces your edits to and the track's name, with Replace and Keep editing buttons. Focus starts on Keep editing: which returns to the kept track unchanged. Replace opens the requested track and discards the previous edits. A working copy with no edits and no name is replaced without a notice, because its board composes it again. No window dialog is used.

Licensed. Before another track takes the working copy, the working copy is stored in the browser's library (IndexedDB) when it holds edits or a name, and reopening that board brings it back. Nothing is written on every edit; a track is kept when it is switched away from and when the tab is hidden. A track whose edits have all been undone is no longer kept when you move on. If the license stops being active in this browser, kept tracks are hidden, not deleted, until it is active again.

Save and Load (Studio license)

Save writes the open track, with its edits, name, chip, and song family, to a file named after the track with the .sonodrift extension (for example Night_drive.sonodrift). The file is a library package holding one track: music data only, with no license, account, or device information. Where Save offers a choice of destination, To a file is this action.

Load opens a panel beneath the buttons:

• Kept on this device lists the other kept tracks, newest first, with style and the time each was last kept. The open track is left out. Selecting a row opens that track as a track switch. Each row's ✕ asks for confirmation in the row (Delete "name" and your edits to it?, with Delete and Keep; Escape keeps it) and then removes that kept track.
• From a file… opens a .sonodrift file. The file is treated as untrusted: its package format, size and structure, the project inside, and its board string are checked before anything is stored, and a refusal is reported in the status line without changing anything. A file holding several tracks lists them for selection. A track with neither edits nor a name opens as its board would. Otherwise the file's copy is kept and the page opens it; when the same board is already kept or open with different work of your own, the Editor asks before replacing it.

Load is shown on the empty Editor page too. Studio's Import does not open track files: it leaves them out and reports how many. Studio's Export does not include kept tracks.

Save and load through your cloud storage

When a provider is configured, the licensed Editor also shows Your cloud storage, using the same library as Studio. This snapshot configures Google Drive. Press Connect and sign in, or Sign in again when the session expires. With this row available, Save offers To a file and To your cloud storage; the cloud choice keeps the open edited track on this device first, then synchronizes it. Load → From your cloud storage synchronizes and refreshes the kept-track list. Select a track from that list to open it.

The status distinguishes a confirmed provider save from a local copy waiting to upload. When both devices changed a track, the Editor keeps both versions and asks which should keep its name. Sync now checks again. Disconnect stops synchronization without deleting either library. This transfers project data, not the rendered WAV or your license; activate Studio separately on another browser and download its edited audio in the Editor.

Export the edited track

The download row sits under Save and Load, near the top of the page. Each file is made from the edited score at the moment its button is pressed, in a background worker, by the same renderer Studio uses:

<name> is the track's own name (a rename, else its playlist entry's name), made file-safe; a track with neither uses its seed, as Studio's files do. Without a license, MIDI and Stems open the license dialog, and an unlock there takes effect without a reload.

Pressing WAV or Stems while the track plays stops playback first, so two synthesizers do not compete for the processor. MIDI is made instantly and does not stop playback. The status line shows progress; Cancel stops a render. An edit clears stem links already on screen, and a rename renames them.

The files use the board the track was opened from for everything the Editor does not edit: the mix levels, space, width, brightness, and, licensed, the Loudness target. The pack is resolved as the board set it or the seed drew it, including its chip and its kind of track (Studio's Substyle), and the length and seamless-loop setting are the track's own. An unedited track therefore downloads the same WAV Studio renders for that board. The Editor's instrument mutes and solos, playback volume, Mute, Loop, and lane order are listening choices and never reach a file.

A free WAV of a track longer than 30 seconds (one made while licensed) is its first 30 seconds. With Seamless loop on, that excerpt keeps the loop's crossfade, so its first two seconds blend in audio from just after the cut.

Edited files come without a certificate. A Studio certificate records how a track was generated from its seed and settings so the Verify page can re-create it; that describes the generated track, not the edited one. Studio's own Certificate is unaffected by anything in the Editor and is issued for Studio's generated WAV as usual.

Studio's live desk plays its generated board. To audition Editor changes, listen in the Editor or to the downloaded file. Live playback and offline rendering use the same edited musical score, but their audio is not guaranteed to match byte for byte.

The Editor has no Pro gate on its note-editing controls. Its track length follows the tier Studio handed over, and its exports follow Studio's entitlement limits. See Sonodrift Studio and the shared licensing guidance for activation and permitted use.

Keyboard and modifier reference

Undo and redo are the only page-wide shortcuts. They work wherever focus is, except during a drag. Every other control is contextual: first focus the relevant note, handle, or button. Tab moves focus; Shift+Tab moves backward. Moving keyboard focus to a note does not pick it, which allows you to reach a slide destination while keeping the source picked.

Space is a note-picking key when a note has focus; it is not a global Play/Pause shortcut. Use the visible transport. Group edits through the inspector can be operated by focusing its buttons, but there is no separate keyboard gesture for building a multiselection.

Troubleshooting

Sonodrift user manual

Ambient Loops · Sonodrift Studio · Sonodrift Editor

Use your browser's Print command to print this manual or save it as a PDF.

This manual explains the features implemented in the project's code as of October 8, 2026, including Studio engine 2.50.0. It covers creating music, mixing, editing, listening, saving your work, downloading files, cloud synchronization, and managing a license. Button names in bold match the applications. A deployed site running another build may have different controls or cloud providers.

Contents

1. Choose an application
2. Getting started and browser controls
3. Ambient Loops: complete guide
4. Sonodrift Studio: complete guide
5. Sonodrift Editor: complete guide
6. Saving, sharing, and moving your work
7. Audio files and certificates
8. Free features and licenses
9. Activating and recovering a license
10. Troubleshooting
11. Glossary

Choose an application

Ambient Loops and Studio compose and synthesize music on your device. A seed is a repeatable starting value, such as a word or phrase. It is not a prompt interpreted for meaning: writing “gentle piano in the rain” does not instruct either generator to add piano or rain. Choose the appropriate controls and instruments yourself.

A repeatable result depends on the seed, complete settings, and engine version, not just the seed. Studio's Editor adds another layer of information: your edits. A generator link does not include those edits.

Three short workflows

Background loop: open Ambient Loops → choose a mood → Generate loop → Play live → adjust the board → wait for the updated render → Preview seam → download WAV. See the Ambient guide.

Instrumental track: open Studio → choose a style → Play live ▶ → adjust the board → Generate track → wait for rendering → Download → WAV. Studio offers more export formats with a Studio license. See the Studio guide.

Edited track: prepare a board in Studio → Edit track → select a stretch in the whole-track map → move or stretch notes → WAV in the Editor's download row → wait for rendering. Without a license the Editor keeps one edited track, so keep the file before opening a different track. See the Editor guide.

Getting started and browser controls

Open the applications through the running Sonodrift website. JavaScript must be enabled. Live playback uses browser audio processing and background workers; the Editor also needs site storage to keep your edits between visits. A desktop or laptop with a pointer and keyboard gives the most room for detailed note editing.

Start sound with an explicit Play or Play live action. Loading a page or generating a file does not itself grant permission for browser audio playback. If live sound cannot start, follow the application's status message; see troubleshooting.

Volume, mute, and theme

• Volume changes how loudly you hear playback. It is shared across the apps and remembered in this browser.
• The main Mute button silences listening while playback continues. The clock and meters can continue moving. Click Muted to hear the track again.
• Playback volume and main mute do not alter WAV exports, stems, MIDI, certificates, or board links. Use board mix controls or musical edits when the downloaded audio needs to change.
• Theme switches between dark and light appearances and remembers the choice locally.

An instrument's mute is a separate control. Ambient and Studio board mutes change the mix; Editor instrument mute and solo are for auditioning. The individual guides explain their export behavior.

Keyboard and mouse wheel

Use Tab and Shift+Tab to move among standard controls. On the two generator boards, a focused slider accepts the mouse wheel: up increases its value by one step; down decreases it. This remains true when the pointer moves away from the slider. Click elsewhere or press Tab to return the wheel to page scrolling. Collapsed dropdowns do not use this custom wheel behavior.

The Editor has its own note, selection, envelope, and lane shortcuts. Read its keyboard reference before assuming that a familiar desktop music-editor shortcut is implemented.

Saving, sharing, and moving your work

You do not need a Sonodrift account. Presets, playlists, Editor work, licenses, and preferences start in the storage of the browser and site where you used them. Another browser, device, profile, or site address has a separate store. Studio's Library → Export and Import move playlists and presets as files. With a Studio license and a configured provider, Your cloud storage synchronizes library items, including tracks kept by the Editor, with your own Google Drive. The current configuration enables Google Drive; it does not enable OneDrive. Your license and listening preferences stay on each device.

Use Copy link rather than manually copying an arbitrary browser address. Save the copied link in your own notes if you need to return on another device. The link exposes the seed and settings to anyone who has it, so use a seed you are comfortable sharing. A recipient's free/Pro limits still apply.

Ambient and Studio links describe different engines and controls. Use the destination app for the link. Ambient does not hand its four-layer loop into the Studio Editor.

Preserve a finished piece

1. Stop changing controls and wait for the current render to finish.
2. Download the WAV and any related outputs you need. Check the filenames and that each download completed.
3. For an unedited Studio export, keep the matching certificate if your license enables it. Consider verifying the pair before archiving.
4. Save a board link separately from the files. A link is useful for reopening controls; the downloaded audio is your preserved result.
5. For an edited Studio piece, download the edited WAV from the Editor's own download row before starting another track in the Editor. With a Studio license, Save also keeps the edited track as a .sonodrift file that Load opens again.

Clearing site data removes locally saved work and activation. Private browsing, unavailable storage, and browser cleanup can also prevent it from surviving. Confirm a cloud save or keep exported files before clearing data; pending changes that never reached the provider have no cloud copy. The app sometimes asks the browser to retain site storage after saving valuable work or activating a license; this is not an external backup.

Do not clear site data as a first troubleshooting step while the Editor contains work you need. Download the edited audio first. Keep your license code outside the browser so that you can activate again if local storage is lost.

Audio files and certificates

Choose the right output

WAV is the finished sound. The generator exports use stereo, 44.1 kHz, 24-bit PCM WAV. There is no MP3 or AAC export selector. Import WAV into your video, game, podcast, or music software; convert it there if another format is required.

Stems are separate audio files for the available layers or roles. Their treatment differs between the apps; read the relevant export section before expecting their sum to equal the master WAV. The boards provide individual download links, not a ZIP archive.

MIDI carries notes and role assignments for another music application to play. Its instruments and effects will sound different unless you recreate an equivalent setup. Neither generator has an audio-recording or MIDI-file import workflow.

A certificate is a JSON record for an unedited generated Studio render. It records how the audio was made and the hashes used to check it. It is separate from a purchased license and contains the seed/settings rather than your payment information. Ambient's current board does not expose a certificate download.

Edited Studio audio cannot use the original generation certificate, because generating from the seed and settings alone cannot reproduce your note edits. The Editor's downloads therefore come without one. Studio's own WAV and certificate always describe the generated board and are unaffected by the Editor.

Verify an unedited Studio export

1. Open Verify from the site navigation (/verify/).
2. Choose or drop the certificate .json into the certificate area.
3. Optionally choose or drop its original .wav into the WAV area. Supply it when you want to check a particular file, rather than the certificate alone.
4. Press Verify and allow the browser to regenerate the audio. Longer tracks need more processing and memory.
5. Read the individual checks as well as the overall result.

Use the original WAV. Transcoding, trimming, adding tags, or processing it in another app can change the exact file hash, even when it still sounds similar. Retain both the original export and any later production version.

Verification reads the selected files and renders locally. It documents generation facts. As the certificate itself states, it does not establish copyright ownership, exclusivity, public-domain status, or a guarantee against third-party claims.

Free features and licenses

This table describes the implemented feature gates. The product's License page separately states the terms for using outputs.

The source configuration labels Ambience at $19 one-time and Studio at $49 one-time. An Ambience license grants commercial-use coverage for the Ambient board; all of that board's features are already free. A Studio license enables Studio's Pro features and also covers Ambience. An Ambience code does not unlock Studio Pro.

The project's License page permits free outputs in personal, non-commercial projects without attribution. Its commercial licenses describe perpetual, worldwide use in commercial projects without a per-use royalty. It restricts redistribution or resale of the raw outputs as an audio catalog/sample library and enrollment of the nonexclusive source audio in automated exclusive-claiming systems. Read that page for the full terms rather than treating a successful download or certificate verification as a rights grant.

Refund information

The project's refund policy describes a full refund within 14 calendar days while a code remains unredeemed/unvalidated. Activating a purchased code ends that automatic eligibility. It separately describes technical exceptions for an unresolvable defect reported within the 14-day window.

Read License → Refund policy for the displayed policy and request form. The form asks for the purchase email and license code. The support address configured in this snapshot is support@sonodrift.com.

Activating and recovering a license

After checkout

When checkout and the license service are configured, the purchase flow opens Stripe and returns to a Sonodrift activation screen. The application fetches the purchased code for you to copy and offers Activate on this device or Not now.

• Activate on this device validates the purchase and stores the signed license in this browser. The screen explains the effect on automatic refund eligibility before activation.
• Not now leaves activation deferred and, when the code was retrieved, keeps it visible with a Copy button until you choose Done. Save the code or keep the purchase email.
• Viewing the refund policy from this screen opens it over the dialog so you can read it without leaving checkout.

If a checkout return link has expired, use the purchase code instead; return links are short-lived. The app's message directs you to Already have a code?. Never share a checkout return URL as a board link.

Enter a code or activate another browser

1. Open the relevant License or Pro panel, or the site's License page and the appropriate product button.
2. Expand Already have a code?.
3. Paste your code and press Unlock. Purchased codes require a connection to the license service for this initial validation.
4. Check that the app reports the license as active. Allow the startup check to finish if a returning browser briefly displays free controls.

Stored signed licenses are verified locally on later page loads. They have no expiry field in this implementation. If browser storage is lost or a stored license cannot be verified, enter the saved purchase code again. Using another browser does not transfer presets, playlists, or Editor work with the license.

Recover a lost code

Inside Already have a code?, enter the original checkout email under Lost your code? and press Send it. The recovery area is available when the license service is configured. Its neutral confirmation does not disclose whether an address has a purchase and can also appear after a connection failure; it is not proof of email delivery. Check the purchase inbox and spam folder, then retry when connected or contact support if the code does not arrive. The recovery email goes to the address on the purchase record.

A connectivity error is different from a wrong-product code. Retry a temporary connection problem; use a Studio code to unlock Studio. If the message says the site cannot verify the license its server issued, contact support with the exact message and purchase details rather than buying again.

Troubleshooting

For a reproducible problem, note the app, build number shown on the page, browser/device, exact control sequence, and status message. Include the board link when it is relevant and safe to share. The Feedback page uses the configured contact route; in this snapshot it provides an email fallback. Keep license codes out of public bug reports.

Glossary