Getting Started

Your first session

1. 01

   Open the set you want to work on. Dawbrain acts on the session in front of you, so start from a real project rather than an empty one. Live stays open the whole time.

2. 02

   Check that Dawbrain is selected under Settings → Link, Tempo & MIDI → Control Surface. That connection is how it reads and writes your session. If the chat says it cannot see Live, this is almost always why.

3. 03

   Put the chat tab beside Live rather than in front of it. You want to watch clips and devices appear while you type.

4. 04

   Ask for something small first, from the list below. A quick move takes seconds and shows you what the loop feels like before you spend a request on a full arrangement.

Prompts to try first

Quick moves

• "load a punchy analog kick on track 1 and write a four-on-the-floor pattern"
• "shift the bassline up an octave"
• "put MPC 60 swing on the hi-hats"
• "set the delay time to a dotted eighth"
• "add an EQ Eight to every track and tell me what's clashing"

Full builds & mixing

• "build a 32-bar deep house loop at 122 BPM in F minor: kick, rolling bass, warm electric-piano chords, a pad, and light FX"
• "make an evolving boom-bap beat at 90 BPM with ghost snares that come and go each loop"
• "load one-shots from one of my packs into a drum rack and program a driving psytrance pattern at 142 BPM"
• "add reverb and delay sends to the chords and lead, and drop a riser at bar 16"
• "copy the drum and bass clips into the Arrangement at bar 17"
• "play the loop, watch the levels, and improve the mix, but ask before changing anything"

What to expect

Free allowance

The free plan gives you 20 credits a month, plus 130 to start that do not expire. A credit is one step the assistant takes toward your request, so a message that takes several steps spends several. Paid plans are available from inside the app. See pricing.

Undo is one press

Everything Dawbrain does in a single request collapses into one Live undo step, so a whole arrangement comes back out in one press rather than thirty. Ask freely: you are never more than one undo away from where you started.

You get ordinary Live material

MIDI clips, devices and mixer moves, all editable by hand. Nothing is locked to Dawbrain, and nothing needs it installed to keep working.

It reaches for your own samples

Your installed library is searched by key, pack, source and type, so "a one-shot kick from my trap packs" loads one of yours rather than a stock sound. Name the pack when you have one in mind.

Big requests take minutes, and ask first

Small edits come back in seconds. A full arrangement runs for minutes, because it is dozens of separate operations landing one after another. For anything large Dawbrain asks what you want and shows you the plan before it builds.

More questions about what it sends, what it needs, and where it runs? See the FAQ.