Songwriting Songwriting

Feel a tempo, put the idea down, and it’s already looping. Stack your layers. Write the words, fill in the chords and hit export. One sitting, one app and you’re writing your next song.

00:00.0100 BPM·4/4no takes yet

Try it. Hold to record a loop.

Coming soon to the App Store

A recording in the app: tempo, sections, and lyrics with rhyming words colored by sound, chords set over the words
Words & chords

The 4am problem

Ideas don’t wait. At best they resurface.

Voice memos will record your idea, but you can’t build on a memo. A DAW will build it, but by the time the session’s open, the spark has moved on.

Songwriting is the missing middle — quick as a memo, and providing enough tools to write a song.

Loop & Layers

Play it through once and it starts looping.

Put on your headphones and pick out your tempo and time signature: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 5/8, 7/8. Songwriting counts you in, you put the idea down, and the loop is going right when you play, sing, or say your part.

Not one for counting bars? Go Endless — just record until you’re done. Trade the bar counter for a plain clock if you like. The musical stuff is all still there; it just steps out of the way.

  1. Set the feel

    Tempo, time signature, bars — or Endless, when you’d rather just hit record and go — and a “hear this tempo” button so you can trust it before you commit.

    New recording setup: loop length with an Endless option, tempo, and time signature
  2. Get counted in

    Four beats, an accent on one, and you’re rolling. The moment you finish, it loops.

    Recording live: count-in and beat display mid-take
  3. Stack your layers

    Layer up to 6 layers per stack on headphones, each with its own waveform, volume, mute, and name. Group the stacks. Keep writing new parts.

    Four colored layers stacked — blue, gold, green, purple waveforms

Words, lyrics & chords

Write your words in rainbows.

As you type, rhymes find each other, matched by sound, not spelling, so the slant rhymes count too. Each rhyme family takes a color, and you can see the shape of a verse the way you’d hear it. And when you want them, chords go right over the words — letter or Roman numeral, whichever way you prefer. Export your song to take to any gig or keep for your own records.

Velvet Night 76 BPM · 6/8

This box is live. Add a line, watch the rhymes find each other.

The lyric editor with real chords set over the words and rhymes colored by sound
Chords over the words, rhymes matched by sound.

The part we needed to solve

Your layers loop in time. On any headphones.

Here’s the quiet problem with recording on a phone mic with Bluetooth headphones: latency, something any recording engineer fears. Most apps ignore it, and your looped layers drift late. Songwriting listens instead. The first time you record with a new pair of Bluetooth headphones, it plays a small sound and listens for it to come back. It remembers each pair forever. It doesn’t guess, it’s smarter than that.

74 ms

You’re set.

Done in seconds and you only gotta do it once.

Calibration: the app plays a sound and listens for it coming back
It listens
Your headphones, measured and remembered
It remembers your gear
When a reading isn't clean, the app says so and offers Try Again
It never guesses

Light or dark

Songwriting, after dark.Songwriting, after dark.

A full dark mode for the late-night sessions.

Keep it

From loop to song to stems.

Export real files

A mixed master, the stems, or a beautifully set lyrics-and-chord sheet. Off your phone and into the session.

Parts become recordings

Sketch a verse, a chorus, a bridge, then hear the whole idea back.

Private backup

Optional iCloud sync, off by default. Your recordings live in your iCloud, and nobody else can see them.

A metronome you can watch

A pulse on screen, or a flash from the torch. Keep time with the sound down.

Widgets

Start a recording from the Lock Screen (for all you ADHD queens).

Every kind of layer

The world is your soundbox, record your layers and most importantly have fun creating with it.

The library, full of recordings
Your library — every idea, kept.
Perform mode: big lyrics with chords set above the words and rhyme colors, a speed slider and play controls
Perform — your words, hands-free.

When it’s time to play it

Big enough to sing from.

Tap Perform and the screen clears down to just your words — sized to read from across the room, moving at your pace while the loop plays underneath. Line up a folder and it becomes a setlist: play the whole night straight through, nothing to fumble for between songs.

In and out of the studio

Leave with a demo. Come back with your part.

Take the session with you. Pull a rough mix or the stems out of your DAW and into the app. Spend the time you need to work out the harmony, the second verse, the line that never sat right in the session. Then walk back in with your part ready to record.

Layers stacked in the app
Import your demo, write your parts, work like a pro.

PDF export

Your band will like you more.

The app creates a beautiful PDF featuring your title, tempo and chords over your lyrics.

Print it and tape it to the wall. Hand it to whoever’s playing on your track. Treasure your work, because it’s worth it.

Exported chord sheet — 'Velvet Night', 6/8 at 76 BPM, chords set over the lyric lines

“If you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.”

— David Lynch

Songwriting is built to honor your creative time. Write out entire ideas in a single sitting.

— Clay & Kelsy

Songwriting is made by Clay and Kelsy Instruments — our cute little software company. We build the instruments and the tools we need to keep producing music. Our music has been streamed over 2 million times, and our instruments downloaded over 10,000 times.

Before you start

Your songs are yours.

Songwriting is made by two people, not a data company. Here’s the whole deal:

  • Your recordings stay on your phone.They leave only if you switch on your own iCloud backup. Even then, we can’t hear them.
  • No account. No tracking. No ads.Nothing in the app watches what you do. No analytics, no pixels, no ad kits.
  • We never sell your data.We never collect it, so there’s nothing to sell.
  • No tricks.No countdowns, no fake urgency, no cancel mazes. The free version stays free.

Made to honor your creative time. That’s it.

Good questions

A few honest answers.

Will it work with my headphones — even Bluetooth?

Any headphones, wired or Bluetooth. The first time you use a new pair, the app plays a quick sound and listens for it to come back — so it learns exactly how much delay to cancel. After that, every layer lands right where you sang it, and it remembers each pair for next time. Nothing to set, nothing to tune.

Why can’t I hear my own vocals in my headphones?

Just like a vocal booth: once the takes start piling up and it gets hard to hear yourself, slip your headphones off one ear and keep layering. Nothing’s wrong — one ear on the mix, one on the room is how singers have tracked forever.

Do you keep or sell my recordings?

No. Your recordings stay on your phone unless you switch on your own iCloud backup, and nothing in the app watches what you do. We never collect your data, so there is nothing to sell. The whole promise is just above.

Does the app replace Ableton, or any DAW?

No — it’s the step before. It’s for catching and shaping the song while it’s still alive; when it’s ready for full production, export your masters and stems and take them into Ableton — or any DAW. It gets the song down; your DAW turns it into a record.

What it costs

Free to start. Really start.

Start free and make three recordings with everything the app can do. Want more room? $7.99 a month, or $29.99 for a year.

Free

$0forever

  • Everything the app does
  • Up to three recordings in your library
  • No ads, no watermarks

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The download is free. Whatever you’re chasing, we hope you catch it.