You stop playing to program the drums.
Keep the idea while it is warm
You have a loop going and you want drums under it now, not after ten minutes in a menu. Hold Shift+A, say it, and the groove lands under the loop you are still playing.
Free DAW · Windows 10/11 · macOS (Apple Silicon) in beta
Forty minutes of loops.
No song.
Not anymore.
Muse™ by smartgroove is a free DAW that loops with you, then arranges, writes and mixes when you ask. The parts that stall you: one sentence away.
- Free account
- No card
- Works offline
- You own what you make
- The whole DAW is free, for as long as you like
- Ask for drums or a bass line. It lands in your song
- Say "arrange this into a song" and the sections appear
- Say "mix this project" and it mixes, one undo away
How it works
From a loop to a song, in three moves.
No setup wizard, no course. Install, play, and ask for the parts you would otherwise put off.
-
Download
A free account, the installer, done. Windows shows a SmartScreen warning on first run. Choose More info → Run anyway. The macOS (Apple Silicon) build is signed and notarized.
-
Loop
Play the part you have. The first loop sets the length. Overdub, undo a layer, keep going. Your footswitch or MIDI controller plugs in and maps to the looper with MIDI Learn.
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Ask
"Arrange this into a proper song, with an intro, a verse and a chorus." "Mix this project." Type it, or hold Shift+A and say it. The assistant needs credits and an internet connection.
In the session
The stage you put off, done while you watch.
Mixing is the stage many producers say they avoid. In this sixty-second recording one sentence runs the passes: gain staging, balance, cleanup, dynamics, depth, loudness. Each is measured, kept or revised, and undone with Ctrl+Z if you say so.
Mixing uses AI credits. The DAW itself is free.
What happens in the video
- Stems are dropped into a new session.
- "mix this project" is typed to the assistant.
- It gain-stages, balances, cleans up, then handles dynamics, depth and loudness, one pass at a time.
- Each pass is measured and kept or revised.
- The plugins land on real inserts, with the settings it chose.
- A Mix A/B row compares the original at matched loudness.
- "make the vocals more present" becomes one measured move.
- The reply names what changed. Ctrl+Z undoes it.
Why musicians stay
Built for the night you want to finish something.
A looper that feels like a pedal, a timeline that feels like a DAW, and help with the parts you do not enjoy, inside both.
You have forty minutes of loops and no song.
Turn the jam into sections
Ask for an intro, a verse and a chorus, and the assistant arranges your loops into them, with markers on the timeline. Move what it got wrong. Ctrl+Z undoes any of it.
You hear a bass line no one is here to play.
The parts you cannot play yet
An upright bass, a Rhodes, a sax take: generated in your key and tempo, landing as a clip you can trim, pitch and loop. One to three takes to pick from. Nothing arrives that you cannot open.
You do not trust a tool that takes the wheel.
It tells you what it did
Every action is verified against the engine before it reports back, the reply names each move, and Ctrl+Z puts it back. VST3 plugins (plus AudioUnit on macOS) run in their own process, so a crash never takes the session down.
Side by side
What changes, side by side.
Against the two things a musician reaches for instead. Your footswitch is not one of them: it plugs in and maps to the looper.
| What you get | Muse™ | An AI song generator | A traditional DAW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loop live, hands on the instrument | Yes | No | Varies Varies |
| Works with your MIDI footswitch or controller | Yes plug it in, map it to the looper with MIDI Learn | No | Varies Varies |
| Arrange, mix, host plugins, export | Yes | No | Yes |
| Ask for a part in plain words | Yes a part, in your key and tempo | Yes a whole song | Varies Varies |
| The result lands as an editable clip in your session | Yes | No a finished file you cannot open | Varies Varies |
| Undo anything the assistant did | Yes | No | Varies Varies |
| Works offline | Yes the DAW does, the assistant needs internet | No | Yes |
| Cost to start | Yes free, no time limit | Varies usually a subscription | Varies Varies |
Categories, not products: "varies" means it depends on which one you have.
Pricing
Free is the full DAW. Paid plans add AI credits.
Finish the song on Free for as long as you like, no card. Add Pro when you want the assistant to arrange, write and mix with you. Paid seats are limited during the beta.
Free
$0 forever
$0 forever
The whole DAW: looping, arrangement, mixing, plugins, export. No time limit, no card.
- Live looping, arrangement, plugin hosting
- Save / load / export to WAV + MP3
- No AI credits
- Free account required
A free account, then the installer. Never limited.
Pro
$29 / month
$24 / month, billed $290 yearly
Save 17% against monthly
Everything in Free, plus the assistant: it writes, generates and mixes on request.
66,667 AI credits a month: about 270–330 short audio takes a month, or about 740–1,300 multi-step requests.
- Everything in Free
- 66,667 AI credits per month
- Credits refill every billing month
- Cancel anytime
Paid seats are limited during the beta · Refund policy
Studio
$99 / month
$83 / month, billed $990 yearly
Save 17% against monthly
Everything in Pro, with 5× the credits for heavy assistant use.
333,333 AI credits a month: about 1,300–1,700 short audio takes a month, or about 3,700–6,700 multi-step requests.
- Everything in Pro
- 333,333 AI credits per month
- Five times the Pro allocation
- Cancel anytime
Paid seats are limited during the beta · Refund policy
Cancel anytime from Settings → Account. Your plan runs to the end of the period, then you are back on Free, which is yours for good. Payments are handled by our payment provider as Merchant of Record, named at checkout, and local VAT or sales tax is theirs to add.
Before you download
The questions people ask first.
Short answers, caveats included. More on the FAQ page, or write to [email protected].
Is it really free?
Yes. Free is the full DAW: live looping, arrangement, mixing, VST3 hosting (plus AudioUnit on macOS), WAV and MP3 export. No time limit, no card. The one thing Free lacks is AI credits, so the assistant waits until you add Pro or Studio.
Windows warned me about the installer. Is that normal?
Yes, for now. The Windows installer is unsigned, so SmartScreen shows a warning on first run. Choose More info → Run anyway. The macOS (Apple Silicon) build is signed and notarized and opens without a warning.
Can it turn my loops into an actual song?
Ask for an intro, a verse and a chorus, and the sections land on the timeline with markers. The arrangement is yours to drag, trim and rewrite, and Ctrl+Z undoes any of it. On Free you arrange by hand in the same timeline. The assistant needs credits and an internet connection.
Will my plugins and my footswitch work?
VST3 plugins on Windows and macOS, plus AudioUnit on macOS, each in its own process, so a crashing plugin never takes down your session. Any MIDI footswitch or controller plugs in and maps to the looper with MIDI Learn. AudioUnit plugins get no sidechain input yet.
Does the assistant take over my song?
No. It does what you ask, one request at a time, names what it did, and Ctrl+Z puts it back. Nothing it writes or generates is hidden: MIDI lands as MIDI, audio as a clip you can edit. You own what you make with Muse™. smartgroove claims no royalty and does not train on your sessions.
What if I do not like what the mix did?
Each pass is measured and kept or revised, the reply names every plugin it added and every fader, pan and send it moved, and a Mix A/B row compares the original at matched loudness. Ctrl+Z undoes it. A narrower request ("make the vocals more present") is one measured move.
What is a credit worth?
A simple command (set the tempo, add a reverb) is about 10–25 credits, a multi-step request about 50–90 credits, and a short generated audio take about 200–250 credits. Pro's 66,667 credits a month is about 270–330 short audio takes a month. Every generation is quoted before it runs. The quote is the most you pay, and a failed one is refunded.
Does it run on my machine?
Windows 10 and 11, and macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later) in beta, both from the same Download button. Intel Macs and Linux are not supported. The DAW works offline. The assistant needs an internet connection and credits.
Finish one tonight.
The whole DAW is free: loop, arrange, mix, export. Add Pro when you want help with the parts you keep putting off.
- Free account
- No card
- Works offline
- You own what you make