Edition draft-56 · Draft · Source-reviewed instructions · Native coverage incomplete

Chapter 26

Add-ons

The public catalog #

The website groups 18 DonutStudio products into Free, Free + Pro and Pro. Free + Pro means a Free workflow with additional Pro controls. Pro is one bundle; these tools are not separate purchases. The public Store shows the current offer.

  • Free: Chord Tools, Airwindows Effects, Built-in Synths, Donut Effects, Patch Bay, Stem Separation, YouTube Mode, URL Media Download and Auto Subtitles.
  • Free + Pro: JI Tuning, Advanced Transforms & Groove, Instrument & Effect Grids, Per-Note Audio, Video Editor and Media Machine.
  • Pro: Symbolic AI, Vocal Synth and Social Publishing.

Enable and install #

Open the in-app Store > Add-ons to change which optional tools appear. Enable is a workspace preference. It does not purchase a license or prove that a required model or helper is installed. A Pro license does not automatically enable every optional tool.

In the first-run picker, an available add-on has a workspace-selection control. An item that fails the app's availability check shows Explore. Selecting Explore applies your staged selections and opens Store > Add-ons. The picker does not install a payload, activate Pro or show why an item is unavailable. Select the Terms checkbox to enable Continue and Store actions. If Store is unavailable in your app, you can still select available add-ons and continue.

For a tool built into the app, enabling it can make its controls appear. For a tool with a separate runtime, installation must finish before the app can use that runtime. Check the available, enabled and installation state instead of inferring it from the license plan.

The current native picker has 18 optional entries, but it is a different list from the website. It includes Ableton Link Support and omits Video Editor because Video Editor is already a core workspace. This difference does not create a separate purchase or remove the public Video Editor product.

Arranger, expression and automation, media browsing, Lua scripting, DAWProject exchange and Split View are also core tools. They do not need optional add-on checkboxes.

Optional runtimes #

Auto Subtitles needs the local Whisper runtime and model. Stem Separation needs its supported runtime and model. Symbolic AI needs its own runtime and Pro authority. Ableton Link Support installs a separate Link helper. Use the offered installation or repair workflow and read its status before starting the operation.

Video Editor remains visible even when a helper is missing. Helper-dependent preview or rendering may still be unavailable. URL Media Download uses the system yt-dlp tool. Presence of a menu alone does not prove that those dependencies are usable.

Changing an optional add-on's Enable preference does not delete project objects. The app closes or hides its gated authoring views. Playback and rendering of retained content still depend on that workflow's license, media, devices and runtime. Save versions before disabling a tool or removing a runtime used in a project.

Beta and experimental tools #

The native catalog marks Symbolic AI experimental. Vocal Synth, Instrument & Effect Grids, Media Machine, Patch Bay, Video Editor, Auto Subtitles and Stem Separation carry beta labels. Their source implementations do not establish complete runtime acceptance on every platform.

Use a separate project version when testing these tools. If an operation fails, report the selected tool, runtime status, input type and exact displayed error. Avoid repeatedly overwriting the only working version while diagnosing it.