Expression & Automation is core
Editable points, curves, freehand pitch gestures, dynamics, pan, vibrato, portamento, and per-note performance controls ship as part of the base editor.
Notes with structure and intent
Compose relationships, gestures, and new ideas.
Tune exact harmonic connections, shape expression directly on notes, transform phrases, and invite local symbolic tools into the same editable score.
The editor underneath the add-ons
Start with ordinary, editable musical material.
Record or draw MIDI, arrange it in clips, move between piano-roll and score views, and shape pitch, dynamics, pan, vibrato, and portamento directly on each note. Add-ons extend that same material without turning core expression into a separate product.
- Piano roll + score
- Clip arrangement
- Per-note expression & automation
- Pitch curves, dynamics, pan, vibrato, and portamento
- MIDI import and export
Tuning
Choose how pitch, harmony, and tuning relationships behave.
JI Tuning
Make every pitch part of a harmonic relationship.
Link notes by exact ratios, work in EDO or imported scales, and carry those frequencies into the rest of your session.
Inside the workflow
A harmonic graph you can hear and edit
A master note anchors exact-ratio voices. Move the root and every linked frequency resolves again while the graph stays explicit.
- AnchorA4 · 440 Hz
- Exact links3:2 · 5:4 · 7:4
- Session outputMTS-ESP · MIDI · DAWproject
Ratios stay explicit
The graph stores every musical relationship as a named ratio.
More than one grid
JI, EDO, and Scala scales all share the project-wide tuning system.
Tuning follows the arrangement
Root Path Tune and linked masters can retune a progression while its structure remains editable.
Composer Tools
Shape notes, gestures, chords, and rhythm directly in the piano roll.
Chord Tools
Build chords that understand their own tuning.
Detect voicings, explore harmonic suggestions, and create exact-ratio links from the chord structures you choose.
Included with DonutStudio Free
Inside the workflow
Start with a fragment and grow a tuned chord
Select a root or partial voicing, browse compatible structures, then place a complete chord whose voices keep exact harmonic links.
- FragmentRoot + selected voices
- SuggestTriads · sevenths · altered color
- PlaceVoicing + exact JI links
Suggestions contain your selection
The system expands the harmony you started and preserves its root relationship.
Voicing stays controllable
Choose inversions and richer templates while preserving the intended root relationship.
Harmony is structural
Created voices arrive tuned and linked, ready for later graph edits.
Advanced Transforms & Groove
Turn a selection into a performance.
Keep every note editable as you add groove, strum, arpeggiation, voicing movement, and repeatable logical transformations.
Inside the workflow
One phrase, a more human performance
Preview groove, strum, arpeggiation, and voicing movement on selected notes, then keep editing the transformed result.
- BeforeQuantized chord phrase
- ShapeGroove · strum · arpeggio
- AfterEditable performed notes
Per-chord control
Different chord groups can receive different voicing, strum, and arpeggio values in one pass.
Logical transforms
Preview typed selection rules and actions before applying them destructively.
Rhythm survives
Humanization can preserve the phrase identity while loosening timing, velocity, and length.
AI
Local models join the composition process while every phrase stays on your machine.
Symbolic AI
Continue the idea under your direction.
Ask a local symbolic model to extend a phrase, then bring the generated notes back through DonutStudio's harmonic tuning system.
Inside the workflow
The model continues the MIDI phrase
Start from unfinished MIDI, generate a compatible continuation, then run the new notes through the same harmonic tuning and editing tools as your own material.
- PromptSelected unfinished phrase
- ContinueLocal symbolic model
- Re-authorEditable notes + JI tune pass
Symbolic output
The result is note data you can move, delete, reharmonize, and perform.
Local model setup
The optional environment and model install on the machine and run locally.
Tuning remains DonutStudio's job
Generated notes return through the harmonic graph for project-aware tuning.