Quickstart: your first practice session

This guide walks through opening a song, separating stems, setting a practice loop, and adjusting tempo. This is the core workflow. Everything else builds on these steps.

1. Open a song

From the session screen, click Open or drag an audio file into the window. Supported formats: MP3, WAV, FLAC.

The app loads the waveform and runs stem separation. This takes 30-90 seconds depending on the song length and your CPU. A progress bar shows the separation status.

After separation completes, you'll see four stem tracks: Drums, Bass, Vocals, and Other.

2. Mute your instrument's stem

Each stem has a mute button (the speaker icon). Click it to mute or unmute.

If you're a bassist: mute the Bass stem. If you're a guitarist: try muting Other (which typically contains guitars). If you're a drummer: mute Drums.

Play the song. You should hear everything except your instrument. Now play along.

3. Set a practice loop

Click and drag on the waveform to select a region. The selection becomes the loop. Click the Loop button or press L to toggle looping on and off.

The loop toolbar shows start and end times. You can adjust them by dragging the loop handles on the waveform, or by typing exact times.

A 4-bar or 8-bar loop is typical for focused practice. A 1-2 bar loop works for drilling fast solo passages or complex fills.

4. Adjust the tempo

Use the tempo slider to slow down (or speed up) the audio. The pitch stays the same.

Start at a tempo where you can play the looped passage cleanly — even if that's 50% of the original speed. As you get comfortable, bump the tempo up 5-10%. Repeat until you're at full speed.

The tempo display shows both the percentage and the effective BPM.

5. Save your session

Click Save (or Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) to save your session. The session file stores:

• Which song is loaded
• Which stems are muted
• Loop points
• Tempo setting
• All your adjustments

When you reopen the session, everything is exactly as you left it. No need to re-separate stems or re-set loops.