A DAW where tuning is the instrument.
DonutStudio's central idea: every note's frequency comes from its link chain, not from a fixed grid position. You draw a tuning relationship between two notes — a perfect fifth as 3/2, a natural seventh as 7/4, any ratio at any harmonic — and the engine retunes them as exact frequencies. Move a master note and every note linked to it retunes with it. Linking is the tuning: one automatic system, not manual per-note microtuning. 12-TET is just the starting point — just intonation, EDO, and arbitrary ratios are all first-class.
The free workstation tier.
Draw notes on a piano roll that understands tuning as a graph, not a grid. Link chains carry ratios across the whole piece; move a master and every linked note follows.
Chord templates built from the harmonic series. Auto-link from a chord lays down a perfectly tuned voicing in one gesture; progression-aware retuning keeps every chord in the same harmonic context.
Quantize, humanize, retrograde, legato, staccato, transpose, scale velocity, set track, mute, set cents offset. Batch transforms run in one undo step over a selection or the whole project.
A real arranger page with audio + MIDI clips, automation lanes, tempo maps, and per-track volume, pan, and mute/solo. MIDI and audio recording are first-class.
Read and write the open DAWproject exchange format with microtuning preserved. Move a piece into Bitwig, Reaper, Studio One, or back without losing ratios.
Instruments, effects, and an instrument store.
Sixteen-voice analog VA synth with full ADSR, modulation matrix, and the same microtonal playback the rest of DonutStudio has. Pitch drifts with the tuning, not against it.
Seven-operator FM synth with a deep preset library. Frequency modulation and ratios are both first-class — OP-7 plays 12-TET, just intonation, and EDO without re-tuning.
1,300+ instruments, GM-compatible, microtonal playback. Drop a soundfont in, browse presets, audition with the correct tuning.
Chris Airwind's full catalog (console emulations, dynamics, harmonic treatments, time effects, mastering) plus a Donut Devices layer of clean utility effects. All effect chains carry the JI context through.
Drop any VST3 or CLAP instrument or effect into a track. Hosted plugins receive the right tuning, and DonutStudio's per-note cents offset propagates into the host via MTS-ESP when available.
Browse and install instruments and effects without leaving the app. Pro-only content is gated by license.
A real editor on the beat grid.
Import, cut, warp-to-tempo, color-grade, scopes, LUTs, transitions, text, frame interpolation, export. The free video editor is a full non-linear editor, not a teaser.
Generative visuals driven by notes, microtonal tuning, JI ratios, and harmonic content. The visuals read the score — modulate generators and effects with per-note data, harmonics, and clock.
Score view, in beta.
Staff-notation overlay that draws accidentals as up/down arrows, not sharps and flats. HEJI is in beta; the score view renders JI and EDO natively.
Choose which notes are shown in the score and how they are grouped by hierarchy. Useful for printing lead sheets in just intonation.
Exposed to AI agents by design.
JSON-RPC over HTTP. The full editing surface — notes, links, transports, tracks, instruments, pitch bends, batch transforms, file I/O, checkpoints — is callable from any MCP-compatible client.
Same surface, callable from Lua scripts. Drop scripts into the install directory; they show up in the in-app menu.
Ready-to-use agent skills for the major coding agents, plus a DonutStudio Video Editing skill. See /donutstudio/agents for the canonical entry point.
DonutStudio Free is a full harmonic DAW. Download it for Windows, macOS, or Linux.
Inline links to every page an AI agent or non-JS client might need. The page top nav (Features … Download) is JS-rendered from data/projects.json:donutstudio.subnav.