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Show HN: An experimental pattern-first DAW that supports MCP

github.com

84 pointsandrosynth8940 comments

You might not like that AI is getting its way into the art of music, but one thing I really didn’t like is how the whole music software industry has been stagnating for so many years.

Countless hours of work gone, because nobody dared to develop a versioning system for musical projects in any DAW.

Now the game has changed, if you don’t evolve or adapt, people will just develop their own stuff in no time.

Didn't Splice start out as a versioning tool for Ableton? I think it wasn't very popular.

I remember when it was released, Splice has definitely been an exception :) I used it in the past to share projects with others, I had a bit of a mixed experience but anyway their effort was really appreciated at that time.

> nobody dared to develop a versioning system for musical projects in any DAW

So pissed about that. 10y ago I was a random young amateur musician in a mediocre local band and I couldn't believe that versioning wasn't a first-class thing, let alone not a thing at all.

10y later I do music again, and I'm daily frustrated that _this is still not a thing_. Also infuriated by DAWs not supporting collaboration, or fckin commenting (taking notes). It's insane to me, there's a dozen DAWs that do mostly the same things and not one of them has differentiated by supporting these _basic_ things (in terms of need, not complexity, although note taking really can't be hard).

Soundtrap has basic versioning (nothing like Git), comments, and online multiplayer. I don't use it, but I was impressed by the presence of these features.

Friday-new_new_final.flp isnt a versioning system its a cope. Excited to see DAWs evolve.

I added a versions and notes feature, see if it meets your needs

I think there is enormous untapped potential in AI working with MIDI in a DAW. And I don't really get the handwringing about it. Does that make it less creative? What about using synth presets? Or sample packs?

From time to time I like asking AI to give me some suggestions for jazz chord progressions, but so far they haven’t been that incredible. Maybe I need to include a bit more of context, or maybe I shouldn’t mess with that and let that for humans.

I found that by adding all the scales and weird tunings into the system, the agent is more likely to try it. And you can specifically tell it to iterate in your specified direction.

Looks interesting, but elements of the README could be improved. Things like "CLAP is a required native plugin format, not a compatibility add-on." sound Claude-written and don't really make a lot of sense. CLAP isn't a "compatibility add-on" in any DAW, it is just one of many plug-in formats that could be supported.

That's fair, it's a bit Claudy.

I merged the PR from boomskats and he cleaned up the readme a lot.

One of about 2 to 4 plugin formats (CLAP, VST 3, VST 2 which is obsolete, Audio Unit only on Macintosh, LV2 and DSSI only on Linux), not many.

Not sure if looking for README feedback, but I think a ~30 second video with sound would help get an idea a lot.

Made a short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mbjwN5OBEg

Here's a song I made using it also: https://soundcloud.com/a_f_0/fuzz-cartridge-1

Which model did you use for this?

Using Opus 5.5

What part did you do?

I basically prompted it into existence. So all parts and yet none?

I've been experimenting with AI powered DAWs. I finally settled on using Pi Durable to embed the prompting directly in the UI.

I've also found AI good at building synths. I now have a bunch of synths, samplers, and drum machines that my DAW can configure through MCP. For example, I can tell it to configure a 303, generate a 4-bar arp pattern, slowly increase the resonance across the pattern, and add it to the song.

That seems interesting. yes I basically set up a similar thing. Made a few synths and made them expose via MCP. Originally I tried having the LLM be an embedded feature in the app but MCP works better, although I left the feature in in case it's useful.

Mmm, the readme is an impenetrable unorganised wall of text that jumps between broad high level things, and tiny intricate internal technical details.

All in all this feels a bit early to really show off. A recorded demo video would be good. Also, imo, the demo song should be setup in a way that it just plays out of the box.

Demo song does play out of the box

Right, I guess I didn't notice the text "No SoundFont installed - load a plugin to hear the song".

Readme looks much better now.

Thanks to boomskats for the PR.

Made a short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mbjwN5OBEg

yeeeeahh this is crazy confusing. i guess it's free so i should just try it, but like ... does it only do sequencing of soundfont instruments in its patterns? can it do audio clips? it seems like it ... but then what would i need soundfonts for lol

to me, the readme is not so much impenetrable as it presumes people want to know how the backend works, but it is entirely unclear how the FRONTEND works, to the extent that calling it a DAW seems, like, suspicious

all of that said, i totally want to try and use it and have a feeling i might be able to figure it out

Yes it supports audio clips and soundfonts also.

I sent you a docs PR, hope it helps.

Merged it with some changes. Thanks!

Looks interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcYl70vq_Ns

Looks good

Thanks!

nobody is downloading this w/o a video showing how it works friend.

Made a short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mbjwN5OBEg

Nice launch, good luck out there.

Thank you sir!

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