Recording Instruments
AnalogDAW can host virtual instruments — software synths, samplers, and drum instruments — that you play live and record straight to audio. You get the expressiveness of a software instrument with the simplicity of an audio track.
How it works: you perform the instrument live (from a MIDI keyboard or the on-screen keyboard), and AnalogDAW records its audio output as a normal clip — exactly like miking an amp. The result is plain audio you edit and mix like any other.
AnalogDAW is not a MIDI sequencer. There are no MIDI clips, no piano roll, no step sequencer, and no note editing — and no MIDI performance is ever stored. Performance is live only; the thing you keep is the recorded audio. If you want to change a part, you perform and record it again.
What you can host
- macOS: Audio Unit instruments — both AUv2 and AUv3 (for example, sampled drum instruments and software synths you've installed).
- iPhone/iPad: AUv3 instruments.
Only instruments installed and validated on your device appear in the picker. If you see "No instrument plug-ins found," you don't have a compatible instrument installed.
Step 1 · Set a track's input to an instrument
On the track's channel strip, open the Inserts (INS) section, open the input source picker, and choose the Instrument submenu, then pick an instrument. Instruments are grouped into submenus by manufacturer; if you'd rather type the name, choose Search Instruments… for a searchable browser that filters as you type (case- and accent-insensitive, and every word you type has to match). The track's input is now that instrument.
Choosing a plug-in under Instrument loads a new instance on the track, starting with its Main output on a stereo track. For instruments with several outputs, you can then give each output its own track from Existing Instruments (see below).
Step 2 · Play it live
Once an instrument is assigned, you can perform it:
- Hardware MIDI controller — connect a MIDI keyboard (USB or Bluetooth) and play. AnalogDAW detects MIDI sources automatically, including hot-plugging.
- On-screen keyboard — tap the piano Keyboard toggle in the main control bar. It is available in both Edit and Mix, and its selected state shows whether the keyboard is open. In the compact track inspector, tap the piano Play instrument action in the header; it dismisses the inspector and reveals the keyboard directly. ⌘K toggles the same drawer on iPhone, iPad, and Mac whenever a keyboard is connected. Mac also provides View ▸ Performance Keyboard.
Track selection is optional. Opening the keyboard uses the selected playable destination, then the last-used or first available one. With no destination loaded, the panel opens with setup guidance. The inspector's header action is available on audio tracks too. Use ⌘1 for Edit and ⌘2 for Mix on any platform with a hardware keyboard.
The instrument button beside the input selector opens the plug-in window for patches, samples, and sound controls.
The keyboard floats over the lower workspace in a centered panel and leaves the transport accessible. Drag its title bar or empty background to move it within the workspace. Its floating position is remembered when you expand, reduce, or reopen it. Drag its center handle up or down to resize it, or drag downward far enough to close it. Tap Expand keyboard or double-tap the handle to fill the available workspace below the toolbars; tap again to restore the floating panel and its previous size. Rotation and window resizing keep the panel within the available width and height, including folded iPhone Duo landscape. In short landscape windows the controls share one row, leaving more height for the keys.
Tap or hold a key to play it. Slide across keys to play successive notes, and lift your finger or release the pointer to stop. Multiple fingers can play chords.
The keyboard plays the MIDI destination named in its header. Selecting another track for inspection does not redirect it; use Choose MIDI destination to change the target. For an instrument input, opening the drawer turns on that track's input monitoring if it was off, so you can hear what you play, and preserves record arm. Closing the drawer or choosing another track turns that monitoring back off, unless you changed it yourself in the meantime or a take is in progress. Arm the track and press Record to capture the instrument's audio. The octave buttons change the playable range, Edit opens the instrument, and Close keyboard hides the keys and releases held notes.
On Mac, the menu shortcut can be changed in System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ App Shortcuts, using the exact menu title Performance Keyboard. See Apple's shortcut guide.
Some sampler plug-ins come in two variants. The Instrument variant plays the samples it already holds but does not receive your microphone, so an empty input meter there is expected. To sample the microphone, load the plug-in's Effect variant as an insert on a track with a hardware input and input monitoring enabled. Move the insert above Record Point if you also want AnalogDAW to record the plug-in's processed output.
MIDI-capable effects on audio tracks
The piano's destination menu also lists loaded, active track inserts that report MIDI input support. Each entry names the track, insert slot and plug-in. Choose the entry to send piano note-on/off messages to that exact plug-in, including while transport is stopped. Ordinary audio effects, bypassed/failed inserts, and frozen tracks are excluded. The track keeps its existing audio input, monitoring and record-arm settings.
This route sends live piano notes on MIDI channel 1; it does not sequence MIDI clips, send continuous controllers, or redirect the hardware MIDI controller's instrument focus. To capture a MIDI effect's processed audio, move it before Record Point and arm the track. For microphone sampling, also select the hardware input and enable monitoring.
If a MIDI-capable effect plays the wrong pads or none at all, check its own MIDI settings: it should listen on channel 1 (or all channels), and any note offset should line up with the keyboard's leftmost key, C3 (MIDI note 48). Some sampler pads play a one-shot to the end after you lift your finger; AnalogDAW still sends the note-off.
Step 3 · Arm, monitor, and record
From here it follows the same basic flow as Recording Audio:
- Arm the track.
- Turn on Input Monitoring to hear the instrument through the channel strip while you play.
- Press Record and perform. The instrument's audio is captured as a clip.
You can switch Input Monitoring on or off during the take. It changes what you hear; each armed output continues recording. Monitoring enabled during the take stays enabled when you stop.
Clips already on the instrument track still play during ordinary transport playback with Input Monitoring on, so you can audition the recorded part while continuing to play the instrument. They are joined after Record Point and are not captured into the next take.
To commit track processing with the performance, open Processing Order and move the desired processors above Record Point before recording. For example, an insert before Record Point is baked into the instrument take; one below it stays editable. Record Point is at the top by default, so the instrument's selected output is recorded dry unless you deliberately move it.
No microphone needed. Recording an instrument-only track doesn't require microphone permission and doesn't touch your audio input — so you can perform and record instrument parts quietly. If you record a mix of mic tracks and instrument tracks at the same time, AnalogDAW captures them all together.
Give each instrument output its own track
For a drum instrument, for example, you can record Kick, Snare, and Overheads to separate tracks while playing one kit:
- Load the instrument on one track as usual. That track plays its Main output.
- Add a track for each sound you want to separate.
- On each new track, open the input picker and choose Existing Instruments, then the instrument, then the output (for example Output 2). The track switches to mono or stereo to match the output and turns on input monitoring. The output this track uses is checked; outputs that another track already uses show that track's name. Wider outputs appear as channel pairs, with a final mono channel when needed.
- Open the instrument's editor and route each sound to its output inside the plug-in. Choosing an output on a track doesn't change the kit's own routing.
- Some instruments also send every sound to Main. If you hear a sound twice, turn off input monitoring (I) on the Main track; its recorded clips still play.
- Arm the tracks you want to record, then press Record and perform. Each armed output produces its own aligned audio clip.
Each output has independent processing, fader, pan, sends, mute, and solo. Selecting any output track targets the same instrument for live MIDI, and its keyboard and editor open that shared instrument. Removing a track does not remove the instrument while other tracks still use it. Switching to a different instrument releases held and sustained notes on the previous one; selecting another output of the same instrument keeps them playing.
Existing Instruments appears only when an unfrozen track is already using an instrument as its input, and it shares that loaded kit. Choosing a plug-in under Instrument loads a new, independent instance instead. Each output choice is one Undo action.
If a preset changes the instrument's output layout, the change is picked up when you close the instrument's editor (and before every take). Tracks on outputs that no longer exist keep their names and recordings and are marked Unavailable; choose a replacement from Input → Existing Instruments. Until then the track can't be armed or monitored, so it never joins a take; its arm and monitoring settings are saved with the session and come back as soon as its output is available again. If the only armed output disappears as you press Record, recording stops with an input error; it does not start a new microphone recording. An extra output the instrument can't provide at the current sample rate isn't offered; the other outputs keep working. If the instrument can't initialize its Main output, all of its outputs are unavailable until it can load a compatible layout.
Working with the recording
Because the take is plain audio, you can:
- Trim, fade, split, and comp it like any clip (see Editing Clips and Takes & Comping).
- Mix it with the full channel strip and inserts.
- Stack multiple takes with loop recording.
- Freeze the track once the part is finished. Because the take is plain audio, the instrument itself is no longer needed to play it back — freezing prints the processed track and unloads the instrument once all tracks that use it are frozen. A shared kit stays loaded while another output track is live. Unfreeze when you want to play the part again.
Cross-device note
A session that uses an instrument remembers which instrument and which patch it used. If you open that session on a device where the instrument isn't installed — or can't run, such as a Mac-only instrument opened on iPhone or iPad — the track's input picker on its channel strip reads "Instrument name — Unavailable" with a warning sign. On a Mac, hover over it to see why; on iPhone and iPad, tap it and the reason is shown at the top of the menu. While the instrument is unavailable, the track can't be armed or monitored, and its on-screen keyboard and instrument editor are disabled; a frozen track keeps playing its frozen audio.
Nothing is lost: the instrument and its patch stay in the session, and so does the track's record-arm and monitoring setting — saving the session on a device without the instrument doesn't change them, and they switch back on by themselves once the instrument loads. Install the instrument, then choose Instrument ▸ Refresh Audio Units from the track's input picker — or simply reopen the session — and the track works again. When the system reports the instrument as newly available, AnalogDAW also tries it again on its own. Your already-recorded audio clips play everywhere.
Next: Takes & Comping →