Help & support

Getting started

Make your first piece of music in about two minutes.

1. Open the studio. Go to tracks.jfound.net/studio and click once (or press any key) to start audio — browsers require one click before they play sound.
2. Pick the armed track. A new project opens with a few tracks and a short demo. Click a track's name on the left to arm it — your computer keyboard now plays that track.
3. Make a clip. Double-click an empty spot on a track's lane to create a clip, then double-click the clip to open it in the piano roll below. Click in the grid to draw notes.
4. Play it. Press Space to play and stop. Press Enter to jump back to the start. Drag across the ruler at the top to set a loop region.
5. Export it. When it sounds good, click Export WAV (or MP3) in the top bar to download your track. That's it — the file saves straight to your device.

From here, add more tracks, record a vocal, mix it, and automate anything. The rest of this page covers every control in detail.

The transport bar

The strip across the top controls playback and the whole-song settings.

Play / Stop

Starts and stops playback. Keyboard: Space.

Back to start

Returns the playhead to the beginning. Keyboard: Enter.

Loop

When on, playback repeats the loop region. Set the region by dragging across the ruler; drag its edges to resize.

Metronome (click)

Toggles the click track. It accents the first beat of each bar. The click is for monitoring only and is never included in exports. Set its volume in Settings.

BPM

The tempo in beats per minute — drag the value or type it. You can also create tempo changes across the song (see Tempo map under the ruler).

Key

The project key and scale (for example A minor). It drives note snapping in the piano roll and the target for autotune.

Sig

The time signature (for example 4/4). It sets how many beats are in a bar for the ruler and grid.

Session

Switches to the session / clip-launch view (see Session view).

Settings

Opens the app settings panel (see Settings).

Open / Save

Open a saved .tracks.json project, or save the current one to your device.

Export WAV / MP3 / Stems / MIDI

Render your song (see Saving & exporting).

The ruler, markers, and tempo map

• Loop region — drag across the ruler to set it.
• Markers — double-click the ruler to drop a named marker; click a flag to jump to it; Alt-click a flag to delete it.
• Tempo changes — Shift + double-click the ruler to add a tempo flag; click it to edit the BPM; Alt-click to delete. The tempo can ramp across the song.

Tracks

Each track holds one instrument (or audio) and its clips. Add tracks with the + buttons.

+ Synth

A subtractive + FM synthesizer track.

+ Drums

An 808/909 drum machine track.

+ Sampler

A chromatic sampler — play one audio sample across the keyboard.

+ SoundFont

Load a .sf2 instrument and play its presets.

+ Pads

A 16-pad sampler bank for one-shots and chops.

+ Audio

A track for recorded or imported audio (vocals, loops, stems).

+ Group

A group / bus track that other tracks can route into for shared processing.

Track controls

Arm / select

Click a track's header to select it and open its instrument; the armed track is the one your computer keyboard plays.

Rename

Double-click the track name.

Delete

Use the delete control in the track header.

Freeze

Bounces the track to audio to save CPU while keeping the sound (see the mixer).

Instruments

Select a track to open its instrument in the Instrument tab. On-screen, the keyboard shows which computer keys play which notes ("Keyboard — your computer keys play these notes").

Synth

A full subtractive + FM engine: oscillators, filter, envelopes, and LFOs, with a large library of presets across bass, lead, pad, keys, bells, and more. Pick a preset from the dropdown, or open the sound editor to design your own. An insert FX rack is available per track (see Insert FX).

Drums

A synthesized drum machine with 808 and 909 kits and 14 voices (kick, snare, hats, toms, and more). Each voice has Level, Tune, and Decay dials. Tap a pad to play it; each pad shows the computer key that triggers it. On a drum track the piano roll rows are labeled with drum names.

Sampler

Load one audio sample and play it chromatically across the keyboard (it repitches per note). Controls include root note, gain, attack/release, and loop.

SoundFont

Load a .sf2 SoundFont file and choose one of its presets. SoundFont files stay on your device and are never included in shared exports.

Pads

A 4×4 grid of 16 sample pads. Drop an audio file onto a pad (or select one and use Load sample). Per pad: Gain, Tune, and a One-shot / Gate mode (one-shot plays the whole sample; gate stops on release). Pads sit on piano-roll rows P1–P16 so you can sequence them. Each pad shows its trigger key.

The piano roll

Double-click a clip to edit it. The piano roll is where you draw and edit notes.

Add a note

Click in the grid. Drag the right edge to change length.

Move / delete

Drag a note to move it; delete selected notes with Delete.

Select multiple

Shift + drag a box around notes (marquee). Shift + click a note adds or removes it from the selection.

Velocity (VEL)

The velocity lane below sets how hard each note hits. Vary it so parts sound human.

Quantize

Snaps notes to the grid. Choose the grid value in the toolbar.

Swing

Delays the off-beats for groove (0 = straight). Set the amount in the roll toolbar.

Humanize

Adds subtle timing/velocity variation.

Transpose

Moves selected notes (or the whole clip) up or down in pitch.

Working with clips

New clip

Double-click an empty lane.

Copy / paste

Cmd C / Cmd V — paste lands at the playhead.

Duplicate

Cmd D.

Split at playhead

Cmd E.

Delete

Delete removes the selected clip.

Undo / redo

Cmd Z / Shift Cmd Z.

Recording

Microphone

Add an Audio track, arm it, and press record. The first time, your browser asks for microphone permission — allow it. Use headphones so the backing track doesn't bleed into the recording. A count-in (set in Settings) gives you a bar or two of clicks before recording starts.

MIDI keyboard

Connect a MIDI keyboard and pick it under MIDI in in Settings (Chrome/Edge support Web MIDI). It plays and records the armed track with velocity, pitch-bend, and sustain.

Takes & comping

Recording over an existing audio clip stacks as a new take. In the audio clip editor you can Play this take, Delete this take, or assemble the best parts:

Comp

Choose which take plays across each part of the clip — swipe across the comp lanes to build one strong performance.

Clear comp

Resets to a single take across the whole clip.

Audio clips & editing

Drag an audio file onto a track (or use Import audio) to add it. Clips show a waveform. Open an audio clip to access editing tools.

Fades

Set fade-in and fade-out lengths; overlapping faded clips crossfade automatically.

Trim

Drag a clip's left edge to trim its start.

Warp

Match a clip to the song tempo — repitch (speed changes pitch, like vinyl) or stretch (tempo changes, pitch stays).

Autotune

Snaps a vocal to the project key. Set speed and amount, then Apply Autotune. Slower/lower = natural; fast/full = the hard "tuned" effect.

Normalize / Reverse

Maximize the level, or play the audio backwards.

Slice to pads

Detects transients and chops the clip onto a new Pads track, with a clip that replays it in the original rhythm.

Extract stems

Splits a mix into drums, bass, vocals, and other on separate tracks, all in your browser.

All edits bake into a new copy, so undo always restores the original.

The mixer

Open the Mixer tab for a channel strip per track plus the master. Each strip runs: input → EQ → dynamics → sends → pan → volume → mute.

Volume / Pan / Mute

Level (drag the fader, double-click to reset), stereo position, and mute per track.

Equalizer (EQ)

A parametric EQ with up to 8 bands. Open the editor to drag bands on the response curve over a live spectrum; scroll a band to change its Q; click empty space to add a band. Each band has a type, frequency, gain, and an enable/bypass toggle.

Compressor

Evens out the level. Transparent when off.

Gate

Silences audio below a threshold — set Thr (threshold) and Floor.

De-esser

Tames harsh "s" sounds — set Amt (amount) and Freq.

Sends

Post-fader sends to two shared buses: A (plate reverb) and B (feedback delay).

Group / output routing

Route a track's output to a Group bus instead of the master for shared processing (the "Out" selector). The master strip shows a LUFS-M loudness meter.

Sidechain duck

Make one track dip when another plays (the classic kick-ducks-bass "pump") — set the source track and amount.

Freeze

Bounces a track to audio so its instrument and effects stop using CPU, while sounding identical. Toggle Freeze/Frozen in the track header; frozen tracks can be un-frozen to edit again.

Insert FX

Every track has an insert effects rack (the Insert FX button) for per-track effects ahead of the channel EQ.

Automation

Automate almost any channel parameter — volume, pan, sends, and EQ bands — so it moves over time.

Automation lane

Open a track's automation ("A" in the header), pick a parameter, then click to add breakpoints, drag dots to move them, and double-click to delete.

Curve shapes

Alt-click a breakpoint to cycle linear / hold / exponential.

Write mode

Turn on W (write), press play, and move a mixer knob — your moves are recorded as breakpoints at the playhead.

Session view

Click Session in the transport bar for a clip-launch grid of scenes × tracks — great for jamming and building arrangements live.

Fill a slot

Capture the selected arrangement clip into a session slot.

Launch a clip

Click a slot to loop that clip; it overrides the arrangement for that track until you stop it. Launches quantize to the next bar.

Launch a scene

Trigger every clip in a row at once ("Launch every clip in this scene").

+ Scene

Add another scene (row).

Edit / clear a slot

Edit a session clip in the piano roll, or clear the slot.

Saving & exporting

Save / Open project

Save downloads a .tracks.json project file (with your samples embedded); Open loads one back. This is how you keep and move your work.

Export WAV

Renders the whole song to a high-quality WAV file.

MP3

Renders a smaller MP3 (set the bitrate in Settings).

Stems

Renders each track to its own WAV file.

MIDI

Exports all note tracks as a standard MIDI file.

Settings

Open Settings from the transport bar. Everything here is saved in your browser.

Output volume

Overall monitoring level (does not affect exports).

Click volume

Metronome level.

Count-in

How many bars of clicks play before recording starts (0, 1, or 2).

Voice cleanup

Microphone mode: raw input, or browser voice processing (echo cancellation + noise suppression). Raw usually sounds best for singing.

Clip snap / Grid

Whether clips and edits snap to the grid.

Autosave

Automatically keeps your current session in the browser between visits.

MP3 bitrate

Quality for MP3 export (128 / 192 / 320 kbps).

WAV/MP3/stem sample rate

Export sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz).

MIDI in

Choose your connected MIDI input device.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? inside the studio to see this list any time.

Your data & privacy

Tracks is local-only by design. Your projects, recordings, samples, and SoundFonts stay in your browser and on your device — nothing about your music is uploaded to any server. To keep or move a project, use Save to download a project file, or export audio. If you clear your browser's site data, switch browsers, or use private browsing, your in-browser session will not carry over, so save anything you want to keep.

Troubleshooting

No sound

Click once on the page first (browsers block audio until you interact). Check the output volume in Settings and your system volume. Make sure the track isn't muted.

Microphone won't record

Allow microphone access when the browser asks. If you denied it, re-enable it in your browser's site settings for tracks.jfound.net, then reload.

Stuck or hanging notes

Press Escape to stop all notes. Some laptop keyboards can't register many keys at once (hardware limit) — an on-screen keyboard or MIDI controller avoids this.

My project disappeared

Projects live in the browser only. If you cleared site data or switched browsers, it won't be there. Save a project file to keep work safely.

MIDI keyboard not detected

Web MIDI works in Chrome and Edge. Connect the device, then select it under MIDI in, in Settings.

Best browser

Use a current Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari on a desktop or laptop for the full experience.