# Songen for Mac guide

Generate clips, record your own parts, arrange a song, and finish the mix in Songen for Mac.

Platform: macOS
Reviewed: 2026-10-25
Canonical: https://songen.app/guide/

## Quick start

1. **Start a full loop.** Open a new song and choose **Full loop**.
2. **Find an idea.** Explore the color sphere in **Feel**, or open **Genres** and choose a style you know. Mix multiple genres to discover cross-genre ideas. Use **Generate** or **New variation** until you hear something you like.
3. **Keep it.** Click **Use clips**. In a new, empty song, your loop appears on the timeline.
4. **Build your song.** Select clips and copy with **Command-C**, select their destination, then paste with **Command-V**. Repeat and rearrange them to create sections. Add tracks, record vocals, change instruments, and balance the levels as you go.
5. **Export.** Click **Export** to save the finished song as audio, or export MIDI and stems to keep working elsewhere. Export requires Premium.

**What next?** [Arrange clips](#arrange-clips-into-a-song) · [Add tracks and change instruments](#add-tracks-and-choose-sounds) · [Record vocals](#record-vocals-guitar-or-other-audio) · [Mix levels and effects](#mix-with-effects-and-track-groups) · [Export your song](#export-a-full-mix-stems-or-midi)

## Find your way around

Songen for Mac combines a MIDI generator with an audio and MIDI workstation. A **project** is your song. A **track** holds an instrument, audio recordings, or arrangement effects. A **clip** is a piece of music placed on the timeline. A **section** is a span of the arrangement that can contain several clips.

| Control | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Loops** | Opens or hides the panel of created parts and saved loops. |
| **Create** | Starts a full loop, chords, drum beat, bassline, or melody. |
| **Timeline** | Places clips in time and organizes tracks and sections. |
| **Play, Record, metronome** | Controls playback and recording. The metronome menu also contains recording options. |
| **Tempo and key** | Changes the song's BPM and musical key. |
| **Songs** folder menu | Creates, opens, and saves projects. |
| **Export** | Renders audio or writes MIDI files for sharing. |

The instructions below follow the current Create workspace. They do not use the older loop-painting workflow. iPhone has a different interface: use the [iPhone guide](/guide/iphone/) for that app.

## Create your first loop

**Start here:** the new-song chooser, or **Loops → Create → Full loop** in an open project.

1. Choose **Full loop**. In the new-song chooser, you can optionally set a starting tempo and key.
2. Explore the map to find a musical direction. Use **Genres** for named styles and **Feel** to explore by position on the map.
3. Click **Generate**, then **New variation** to try another result. Play the preview to hear it.
4. Lock tempo or key if you want future variations to keep those values. When adding material to an existing song, the explorer can follow the song's identity.
5. Click **Use clips** when you want to keep the parts.
6. On an empty song, the first created parts are placed on the timeline automatically. To place more copies or other created material, open **Loops** and drag a part onto a suitable track, or use its context menu's **Add on a new track** action.

**Result:** **Use clips** keeps the material in the creation panel and places it automatically when the song is empty. In an existing arrangement, ordinary Create keeps new assets available for placement; **Continue** adds them after the occupied sections. The timeline's playback and an explorer's preview are separate contexts.

For a single part, choose **Chords**, **Drum beat**, **Bassline**, or **Melody** from Create instead of Full loop.

In the full-loop explorer’s genre details, you can combine up to four genres, adjust their relative influence, and choose which musical roles each genre influences. Use **Equal mix** to reset the balance between the selected genres.

## Generate or replace one clip

**Start here:** an empty cell on an instrument track, or a clip's context menu.

1. Hover an empty cell and click **Generate**. You can also right-click a cell and choose **Generate clip…**.
2. Explore the available **Feel** or **Genres** controls, and audition variations.
3. Open the note preview if you want to inspect or edit the candidate.
4. Click **Keep clip** to commit it to that location. **Cancel** leaves the candidate uncommitted.

To change only a small part of a full-loop candidate, open **Edit** in the full-loop explorer. Click a section to regenerate it; click a track name to regenerate that whole part. This preserves the other parts of the candidate.

**Choose the scope first:** creating a new loop, replacing a timeline clip, and regenerating a chord section are different operations. Use the smallest scope that covers the change you want.

## Arrange clips into a song

**Start here:** the timeline.

1. Drag clips to the positions where they should play. Use **Snap** to choose the timing grid.
2. Drag a section header to reorder sections. Option-drag copies selected sections.
3. Select material and use **Repeat** or **Command-D** to repeat it after itself.
4. Use **Continue** at the end of the timeline to create more material for the song.
5. Right-click a section header for actions such as renaming, inserting space, repeating, or deleting sections.
6. Use a track's **M** button to mute it or **S** to hear it solo while arranging.

Right-click a clip for **Copy**, **Edit notes**, **Rename clip…**, **Mute clip**, and **Delete clip**. Select a clip before using Backspace/Delete. Escape clears timeline selection when the timeline owns keyboard focus.

Clips can have their own chord progressions. If a column contains different progressions, its section menu offers **Unify chord progressions…**. Review that choice before making the clips share harmony. A fit dialog can also appear when dropping material with a different duration or progression.

## Edit MIDI notes and drums

**Start here:** a clip's **Edit** button, double-click a MIDI clip, or right-click → **Edit notes**.

1. Use the hand tool to select and move notes. Drag a note's edge to change its length.
2. Choose the pencil to add notes. Hold Command to temporarily use the pencil; the duration control sets the length of new notes.
3. Use the timing grid and zoom to place notes precisely. The background highlights chord notes to help you choose pitches.
4. Open the MIDI controls for **Quantize**, **Swing**, **Humanize**, and note **Velocity**. Check whether the controls apply to selected notes or all notes.
5. On drums, switch between **Piano roll** and **Steps** to edit the rhythm in the view you prefer.
6. Use the editor's undo and redo controls to step back through note edits.

The chord buttons at the bottom regenerate notes for individual harmony sections. They change notes; they are not just playback markers. Use them when one part needs a new idea without replacing the entire clip.

Closing the piano roll returns you to the arrangement; your note changes remain in the project.

## Change chords, key, and tempo

**Start here:** the tempo/key display in the top transport, or a clip's context menu.

- Click the top **tempo and key** display. Use the key minus/plus controls to transpose the song's pitched MIDI material, and the tempo control to change BPM. Drum pitches are not transposed with the key.
- To change a particular clip's harmony, right-click it and choose **Edit chords…**. Work on that progression rather than shifting the whole song.
- In the creation explorer, use the key and tempo locks to constrain future generated ideas.

**Audio is different from MIDI:** imported recordings and vocals are audio, not editable note patterns. Do not rely on a MIDI key change to retune a recorded vocal. Use audio timing tools for recorded timing and pitch effects for audio pitch processing.

## Add tracks and choose sounds

**Start here:** **Add track** below the track headers.

1. Add a lead, chords, bass, or drums track for generated parts; choose **Add MIDI track** for a continuous instrument lane, or **Add audio track** for recordings.
2. Click the instrument name in a track header to open its sound controls.
3. Choose a built-in instrument or an installed **Audio Unit** instrument. Audio tracks use effects rather than MIDI instruments.
4. Load a sound preset or adjust the instrument and its effect chain.

Built-in choices include synths, drums, and a single-sample instrument. A sample instrument turns a loaded sound into something you can play with MIDI; importing audio onto the timeline places a recording in time instead.

Channel presets can include an instrument and effects. They do not include the track fader, pan, or automation. Third-party plugins and their external sound libraries must also be installed on another Mac that uses the preset.

The current project limit is **60 tracks**. Lead, chords, bass, and drums are musical roles, not a four-track limit.

## Record vocals, guitar, or other audio

**Requires:** a microphone or audio interface, permission for Songen to access the microphone, and an audio track.

1. Start with **Record audio** in the new-song chooser, or choose **Add track → Add audio track** in your song.
2. Set the desired input device as the Mac's audio input. If the device has multiple channels, choose a mono input or stereo pair in the audio track's input menu.
3. Click the track's record circle to **arm** it. The main Record button needs an armed track.
4. Set the playhead where the take should start.
5. Open the metronome menu to enable **Count in · 1 bar**, **Metronome**, or **Monitor audio input** as needed. Use headphones when monitoring a microphone.
6. Click the main **Record** button or press **R**. Perform your part, then stop recording with Record/R or Space.
7. Wait for the take to finish processing, then play it back and check its placement.

**Result:** an audio clip is placed on the armed track. Songen records one armed track at a time. A new take can replace material in the recorded interval, so duplicate a part you want to preserve before recording over it.

For repeated takes, enable a timeline loop range before recording. After recording multiple audio passes, **Choose your recording** lets you audition passes and keep one pass or **Use full recording**. This is a pass selection workflow, not a multitrack comping editor.

## Record MIDI and play instruments

**Requires:** an instrument/MIDI track and a MIDI input, such as a connected keyboard. Songen also has on-screen musical keyboard controls.

1. Add or select an instrument track and choose its sound.
2. Arm that track with its record circle.
3. Set the playhead, then enable a count-in or metronome if useful.
4. Press **Record** or **R** and play the part.
5. Stop recording and open the resulting MIDI clip in the piano roll to adjust notes, timing, and velocity.

MIDI records note performance rather than microphone audio. To capture the sound of a guitar or voice, use an audio track instead. To hear MIDI, the track needs an instrument and must not be muted.

## Import, trim, and stretch audio

**Start here:** **Add track → Import audio…**, or drag an audio file into the timeline.

1. Drop the file onto an audio lane at the intended position. The drag preview shows where it will land; the new-track drop area can create an audio lane for it.
2. Move the clip and trim its edges to choose the portion you want to hear. Use its context menu for clip actions such as splitting or reversing.
3. Open the audio timing editor to adjust timing. **Find attacks** helps reveal transients; click a dotted attack line to pin it, then drag the pin into place.
4. In that editor, use the length choices or drag the waveform's right edge to stretch the audio. Use **Reset timing** to remove timing changes.

Trimming chooses the part of a recording that plays. Stretching changes how long it takes to play. Moving timing pins changes the timing within the clip. These are separate operations, so choose the tool that matches the problem.

## Loop a section for playback

**Start here:** the repeat-shaped **Timeline loop range** button, or **C** while the timeline has focus.

1. Enable the timeline loop range.
2. Draw or adjust the range over the bars you want to hear repeatedly.
3. Start playback. The playhead returns to the start of the range at its end.
4. Turn the range off to continue through the song.

Looping playback does not duplicate clips. To add another copy to the arrangement, select the material and use **Repeat** instead. The playback range also defines the cycle when recording multiple passes.

## Mix with effects and track groups

**Start here:** the timeline's **Mixer** button, or **X** when the timeline has focus.

1. Balance track levels and pan positions. Use mute and solo to isolate problems.
2. Open an instrument or effect in a channel's signal chain to adjust it. Add built-in effects or installed Audio Unit effects through the insertion controls.
3. Reorder effects to change their processing order. The chain order affects the sound.
4. Use track grouping controls to route related tracks through a group bus and process them together.
5. Open the master effects for processing the full mix. Built-in options include EQ, compression, and a lookahead limiter.

Songen can mix and process the master inside the Mac app. You can also export stems to another workstation. **Audio Unit** is the supported third-party plugin format; do not look for a VST loading workflow.

## Automate a parameter

**Start here:** the timeline's **Automation** button, or **A** when the timeline has focus.

1. Show the automation lanes.
2. Open **Add automation…** or the lane's parameter chooser.
3. Select the track, instrument, or effect parameter you want to control. Master automation is also available.
4. Add and move points in the lane to set values over time.
5. Play the section to hear the result. Use the lane's enable control to compare with automation disabled.

Use automation for fades, pan movement, filter sweeps, and effect changes. An automated control follows its curve during playback; if a manual setting does not stick, check whether that parameter is automated.

## Add a riser or transition effect

**Start here:** **Add track → Add FX track**.

1. Add an FX clip using the track's plus button.
2. Choose a type such as **Rise**, **Release**, **Carry**, **Swell**, **Accent**, or **Reverse Bloom**.
3. Set its length and position so the effect arrives where you want the transition.
4. Shape its curve and sound, then use **Preview** to audition it.
5. Click **Add** for a new effect or **Apply** for an edited effect.

**Reverse Bloom** uses a capture step: choose its source and use **Capture & hear bloom**. Arrangement FX clips are positioned events on their own track; an inserted channel effect processes the audio flowing through that channel.

## Save, reopen, and recover a project

**Start here:** the **Songs** folder menu or the **File** menu.

1. Choose **Save** and pick a name and location for the `.songen` project.
2. Use **Open…** or recent projects to return to it.
3. Use **Save As** for a separate project copy when you want to explore a different direction.

The project stores your arrangement, notes, mixer settings, and plugin state. Recorded and imported audio is collected into the project package. Third-party plugin binaries and their external sound libraries are not bundled; install them on the receiving Mac too.

After a crash or interrupted session, use **Recover last unsaved project** from File when available. Recovery is a fallback, not a substitute for saving a named project. Saving and exporting require Premium.

A shared Premium entitlement does not mean Mac `.songen` project packages open on iPhone. Use MIDI or audio exports when moving musical material between different apps or platforms.

## Export a full mix, stems, or MIDI

**Requires:** a project with material and Premium.

1. Click **Export** in the top-right corner.
2. Select the music to export and the tracks to include.
3. Choose audio, MIDI, or both.
4. For audio, choose **WAV** for lossless files or **M4A** for smaller files. Choose a full mix or **Separate tracks** for stems.
5. For MIDI, choose a combined file or separate files. Use the drum options if you need separated drum tracks.
6. Start the export and choose where to save the results. Wait for rendering and file writing to finish.

**Audio** contains the audible instruments, recordings, and processing. **MIDI** contains instrument note data; it does not contain your vocal recordings or the sound of your plugins. Check mute/solo and included-track settings before exporting. Rendering time depends on the project and plugins.

## Connect an AI app

**Start here:** **Preferences → MCP connections…** on Mac.

Songen exposes a local MCP connection for compatible AI apps. Open the connection settings, follow the setup shown for your client, and keep Songen open with the project you want to work on. Use your connected AI app to request arrangement, automation, sound, or mix changes, then review the result in Songen.

This is separate from Songen's built-in, on-device music generation. An external AI app may have its own account and connection requirements. A helper that is only reading this guide does not automatically have access to your project.

## Troubleshoot common problems

| Problem | Check |
| --- | --- |
| I hear an idea in Create but cannot hear it in the song. | Commit it with **Use clips**. The first creation fills an empty song; later creations may need placement from Loops. Drag a part onto the timeline or use **Add on a new track**. |
| Record is disabled. | Arm an audio or instrument track first. Wait for an existing recording to finish processing. |
| My microphone is silent. | Check macOS microphone permission, the system input device, the track's input channel, and input monitoring. |
| MIDI notes are visible but silent. | Check the instrument, mute/solo, track level, and the output device in Preferences. |
| Only a few bars play. | Check the timeline loop range. Also check whether you are auditioning an explorer rather than playing the timeline. |
| A knob keeps moving back. | Check automation for that parameter. |
| A plugin is missing after reopening. | Install the same Audio Unit and any required sound library on this Mac. Saved plugin patches can be preserved even when a plugin is unavailable. |
| A recorded performance is out of time. | Check audio timing and recording latency settings; use the audio timing editor for adjustments within a take. |
| My exported MIDI has no vocals or effects. | MIDI carries notes. Export audio for recordings and the processed sound. |
| Save or Export opens the paywall. | Those actions require Premium. Restore an existing purchase using the app's purchase controls. |

When asking for help, include **Mac**, the screen or editor you are using, the selected track type, what you clicked, and what happened. Distinguish a generated candidate, a placed clip, and a saved project.