Notes are relationships

Click a hotspot to see what each interaction does on the piano roll.

Shift-click to link — Pick a master, pick a slave. The slave's frequency becomes a pure ratio of the master: 3:2 for a fifth, 5:4 for a major third, 7:4 for a harmonic seventh.
Double-click to cycle — Step a link through the harmonic series. From H1, H3, H5, H7, all the way to H32, every interval from the overtone series is one click away.
Dynamic hierarchies — Any note can be master and slave at once. A → B, B → C, C → D, and the whole graph resolves in real time.
Move the anchor — Transpose a root and every dependent note cascades along, preserving every relationship. The graph just follows.

The full tension spectrum

DonutStudio gives you the widest range of harmonic tension, from absolute consonance (zero beating, pure fusion) to extreme dissonance (collisions between different harmonic anchors that create beating patterns like Balinese gamelan), including intervals the ear has no template for. The harmonic series is a space to explore. Every ratio is a creative choice, and the composer is the one who arbitrates.

Chord tools that understand harmony

DonutStudio's chord tools work with pure ratios and harmonic relationships, so a detected chord is a structure of intervals.

JI-aware chord detection

Real-time analysis against 50+ chord templates built on pure ratios. DonutStudio reads what a voicing actually is harmonically, including harmonic 7ths, neutral thirds, and altered extensions that 12-TET has no name for.

Auto-link from chords

Detect a chord and generate the harmonic links that match. A major triad spawns 5:4 and 3:2 links automatically. Turn an entire progression into a fully linked harmonic graph in seconds.

Root Path Tune

Hand DonutStudio a chord progression and it picks the optimal tuning root for each chord automatically. A I–vi–ii–V retunes per chord with no comma drift, no wolf intervals, and no compromise between keys. DonutStudio handles the hard part of just intonation for you.

Circle-of-fifths overlay

See your progression as motion through JI space. The circle-of-fifths overlay draws the pure-fifth relationships between your roots as arrows, so a I–vi–ii–V reads as a path you can follow and adjust by ear and by ratio.

Harmonic analysis

See the actual frequency relationships between notes. Inspect how a voicing's ratios stack up, where the beating sits, and how each link contributes to the chord's character. Cmaj7 is detected as 4:5:6:15/8.

Tune every note exactly, or let a scale do it

Links are one way to place a pitch. Sometimes you want the number. Microtune any note by an exact cents offset, or mark it as a tuning root and let the rest of the graph resolve around it, all independent of the 12-TET grid underneath.

Cents-exact microtuning

Nudge any note by precise cents, or pin it as a tuning root. The piano roll stops being twelve fixed pitches and becomes a continuous tuning surface.

Scala import & tuning presets

Load any .scl scale and switch between saved tuning presets from a browser. Bring your favorite EDO, JI, or historical temperament straight into the editor.

Root Path Tune

Hand DonutStudio a chord progression and it picks the optimal tuning root for each chord automatically, so a whole passage stays in tune with no comma drift and no wolf intervals.

MTS-ESP, in and out

DonutStudio is an MTS-ESP master: the microtuning you build here retunes every MTS-ESP-aware plugin in your session live. It's also a client, so it can receive tuning from elsewhere. Your tuning travels with you across the session.

Draw the pitch of every note

Every note carries an editable pitch curve. Open the expression editor and shape per-note pitch-bend points by hand, with tension and S-curve controls on every segment. Draw natural vibrato, scoops, microtonal slides, and vocal-style portamento directly on the roll. Generate a vibrato curve from depth/rate/shape, then refine it point by point, or freeze the sections you've dialed in so later edits leave them alone.

Transforms

30+ transforms, from quantize to euclidean rhythm machines

Apply across selections, individual tracks, or the whole project. Every transform respects harmonic links and is fully undoable. Hold Shift while you pick one to open the per-chord overlay. Dial in different parameters for each chord in your selection and apply them all in a single pass.

Timing & rhythm

Quantize — Snap notes to grid
Legato — Extend per-pitch to fill gaps
Staccato — Shorten notes by factor
Reverse — Mirror positions in time
Humanize — Random timing & velocity nudges
Double length — Scale position + duration ×2
Halve length — Scale position + duration ÷2
Arpeggio — Spread chord notes across time with shape, span, and direction controls
Strum — Stagger chord starts like a strum, S-curve sweep with adjustable timing
Euclidean — Distribute hits evenly using Euclidean rhythm patterns
Ratchet — Subdivide a note into rapid repeats
Flam — Add grace-note offsets for a flammed attack
Ghost — Drop in low-velocity ghost notes around the beat
Groove — Apply swing/groove templates to the selection
Riff machine — Generate riffs and patterns over the selection

Harmony & linking

Auto Tune — Smart chord grouping retunes selection to pure JI ratios
Auto Link — Link selected notes to the hovered master in one shortcut
Chain Masters — Wire masters together end-to-end into a single hierarchy
Chain Retune — Walk a master chain and re-resolve every dependent note

Pitch & expression

Transpose — Shift selection by ± semitones
Voicing Spread — Distribute pitch classes across octaves at a target interval
Vibrato — Generate pitch-bend curves with depth, rate, and shape
Draw Pitch — Hand-draw the F0 contour directly on a note
Erase Pitch — Wipe user pitch edits, restore the source curve
Freeze Pitch — Lock specific sections of the pitch curve so other edits don't disturb them
Bake Pitch to Points — Convert a continuous pitch curve into editable breakpoints
Load Rendered Pitch — Pull the rendered F0 from a vocal render back as edit data

Note management

Consolidate — Merge overlapping fragments into single clean notes
Split Notes — Break a long note into N equal pieces
Merge Notes — Join adjacent notes of the same pitch into one
Generative — Algorithmic note generation across a selection
Mute — Toggle muted state on the selection
Set Track — Move selection to another track (0–15)
Consolidate Sample — Render attached audio with all transformations into a clean WAV

Velocity

Set Velocity — Absolute value across selection
Scale Velocity — Multiply current velocity by a factor

Vocal-specific

Split Sentence — Split multi-word lyric notes into one note per word — equal, syllable, or phoneme distribution
Fill Lyrics — Auto-distribute a lyric block across selected notes

Think in relationships

Beyond the freeform roll, the same project arranges into clips on a multi-track timeline, and a synced grand-staff score view auto-derives Helmholtz-Ellis (HEJI) just-intonation accidentals from your links (beta). The harmonic MIDI editor is free in DonutStudio and expands into a production system in DonutStudio Pro.

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