Understanding the DAW panel
The top row has three framed groups: Project, Personal library and Jam library. Project contains the name, Key, Transpose, MIDI, Export and Import. Labels sit above fields; colors distinguish common commands from the two save destinations.
Below, transport, count-in, meter, Snap and piece boundaries sit beside the loop group. The status area shows bar, BPM, duration, position, completed loops and messages at the bottom right. Audio recording, DAW Player, Whole piece and Full screen remain available.
Each track shows its name, then the abbreviated source module and current chord, followed by five compact commands: drag, Mute, Solo, Duplicate and Delete. During Play, the Chord field follows the clip harmony when available. Clicking a track or opening Edit selects the instrument matching the part. Low, Mid, High and Vol control the mix.
The timeline displays MIDI notes. Musical sections, loops and the fade region appear above the tracks. Whole piece fits even long projects into view; Full screen expands the editor.
On mobile, the upper controls scroll within a limited area and the session bar scrolls horizontally. Tracks stay visible in an area that scrolls in both directions. Track controls fit beside the faders without overlapping; scroll the page to reach the rest of the editor.
Transpose the whole project
The Key field shows the project reference key. Choose a destination and press Transpose: all melodic parts move together while drums remain unchanged. Transpose is disabled when the choice matches the current key, including equivalent enharmonic spelling. If the key cannot be recovered from project data, the control stays unavailable; the first chord is not used to guess it. Transposition is retained in the project and subsequent saves.
From iReal Pro to the Jam
Backtrack Management → Import from iReal Pro opens the DAW importer. It imports chords and form and generates editable MIDI accompaniment: the project remains the source. Jazz uses walking bass, comping and sampled drums; pop, rock, soul and funk use sounds and arrangements suited to their genre. Provenance credit remains in project data. Managing the Jam library requires an administrator.
Editing and saving
Edit directly reopens the clip source. Harmonic and bass parts from automatic iReal import use Jam Progression, dedicated to this flow and absent from menus: the sequence remains fixed while you can change key, sound, inversions or bass line, BPM and groove. Drums open Drum Licks with kit, pattern and grid restored. Overwrite clip updates the clip. At the top, Personal library and Jam library use Load, Delete and Save; the same name updates, a different unused name creates a copy. Genre, playlist and order are retained in the Jam; edits are heard from the next start.
Playlists and live instruments
Choose the track in the shared popup with search, genre, playlist and a paginated table. BPM, count-in and transport are compact; playback continues with the popup closed. Performance parameters places instruments and control transfer in a row of equal-height cards. Each instrument has a horizontal 0–200% volume above its named mute button: changes affect everyone without restarting. Refresh preserves fader gestures. To transfer control, select another musician; the list excludes the backing client and current user. Preferences are retained and restoration does not trigger actions.
Chord PDF and song form
Saving to the Jam generates or updates the chord PDF: a bar grid with chords, sections, repeats and endings present in the form, using the DAW Player renderer. Repeats are not invented. The download uses the track name instead of chart.pdf.
Audio preparation and cache
On first start, the server prepares audio from MIDI parts: progress is shown and playback starts only when everything is ready. The cache stores MP3 by track, revision, BPM and instrument and reuses existing results. Editing and saving from the DAW changes the revision and prevents reuse of the old version. The default limit is 1 GB, configurable through JAM_BACKING_CACHE_LIMIT; older generations are removed to make room. Backtrack Management offers manual cleanup. The MIDI project remains editable and the cache stays outside Git.
In source editors with a compatible instrument panel, Show TAB switches between the instrument view and tablature with notes and chords. Your preference is saved and the study PDF follows the selected view; switching views does not change DAW clips or their musical content.