A keyboard-centric digital audio workstation written in Zig (0.16), for the terminal and as a native GUI.
wstudio borrows vim's modal model instead of a mouse-first workflow:
normal mode navigates the project and drives the transport, insert
turns the keyboard into a piano, visual selects and yanks ranges, and
command mode runs : commands. It ships with grand and upright pianos, a
harpsichord, synths, samplers, a drum machine, a sample-chopping slicer, and a
full effects rack (gate, compressor,
multiband compressor, OTT, limiter, expander, clipper, crossover, transient shaper, EQ, multimode filter, utility, stereo width, auto-pan/tremolo, saturation, bitcrush, chorus, phaser, flanger,
tape, frequency shifter, pitch shifter, delay, reverb) built in, so there's no plugin
hunting before the first note.
nix develop # zig, zls, audio libs
zig build run # launch the GUI on a blank project
zig build run -- demo.wsj # open the curated four-track demo
zig build run -- --tui demo.wsj # open the TUI instead
zig build run -- render demo.wsj demo.wav # render saved project without frontend
zig build run -- render-stems demo.wsj stems # render each track without frontendOn Linux, devShell also supplies Odin 2, Surge XT, sfizz, Chow Tape Model,
Uhhyou, and LSP plugins across CLAP and VST3. Both formats scan this stress-test
set automatically through CLAP_PATH and VST3_PATH.
Without Nix, install Zig 0.16, libsndfile, speexdsp, Lua 5.4 and, on Linux,
the ALSA development libraries, then build the same way; see
CONTRIBUTING.md for the full development setup. The Linux
release tarball links libsndfile dynamically, so a distribution package of it
(libsndfile1 on Debian and Ubuntu) has to be present to run it; Windows x64
and Arm64 archives carry their own DLLs. Once running: enter on a blank track
opens the
instrument picker, space plays/stops, and :help lists every command.
Choosing Acoustic starts on the bundled grand piano. Use :preset <name>
or press f to browse the bundled pianos, organ, guitars, basses, winds,
strings, harp, and mallets.
SoundFont is the separate instrument for your own .sf2 banks: :load
picks the file, f browses its presets.
wstudio hosts stereo CLAP instruments and effects using the
CLAP 1.2 ABI. Discovery follows
CLAP_PATH and the platform paths required by the CLAP specification.
On Linux, plugins of both formats load in a separate process by default, so
one that crashes or hangs degrades to silence in its own slot rather than
taking the session with it. Set wstudio.o.sandbox_plugins = false to host
them in-process instead. Other platforms always host in-process.
wstudio clap-scanList backend-native audio and live MIDI device IDs with wstudio devices.
Use those values for wstudio.o.audio_output_device,
wstudio.o.audio_input_device, and wstudio.o.midi_input_device.
Explicit playback devices fail with backend error instead of silently switching
to silent playback.
The instrument and effect pickers divide devices into Internal and
External sections. External CLAP plugins are scanned automatically from
the platform's canonical directories. Use RESCAN beside the External
section, or :plugin-scan, after installing a plugin while wstudio is open. Set
wstudio.o.clap_plugin_path = "/path/to/clap" in init.lua to scan only a
fixed custom directory instead.
wstudio also hosts VST3 instruments and effects. Discovery checks VST3_PATH
before standard Linux, Windows, and macOS VST3 directories. Set
wstudio.o.vst3_plugin_path = "/path/to/vst3" to scan one custom directory,
or inspect discovery with:
wstudio vst3-scanVST3 supports one mono or stereo main output for instruments, and one mono or stereo main input and output for effects. Notes, mapped MIDI CC and pitch bend, transport, generic parameter editing, opaque component/controller state, latency queries, restart notifications, and native editor windows are supported. Multiple buses, sidechains, surround, and sample-accurate parameter ramps are not supported.
The scan prints <plugin-id> <name> <path>. In either frontend, select a
track and use:
:clap-instrument <plugin-id> <path>
:clap-fx <plugin-id> <path>
:clap-param <1-based-index> [plain-value]
CLAP audio, notes, MIDI, transport, parameters, opaque state, latency, tails,
logging, main-thread callbacks, parameter flushes, dirty-state notifications,
and native floating or host-windowed GUIs are supported. Use :clap-gui on a
CLAP instrument or focused effect to toggle its window. Plugin identity and
state are saved in the .wsj project. Surround buses, polyphonic modulation,
plugin-requested restarts, and plugin-requested thread pools are not supported
yet.
External controller input accepts MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 Universal MIDI Packets through ALSA sequencer on Linux, CoreMIDI on macOS, and Windows MIDI Services. Note velocity, CC, pitch bend, pressure, and per-note pitch bend retain MIDI 2.0 resolution through built-in synth routing; program and bank changes reach hosted plugins. Windows falls back to MIDI 1.0 WinMM when Windows MIDI Services is unavailable. Profiles, Property Exchange, SysEx, Flex Data, and Stream messages are not advertised as supported. See MIDI 2.0 input.
The first public beta is live and audible. Expect rough edges, and keep
project-file backups while the .wsj format continues to evolve. Linux is
used daily by the maintainer and is the most exercised platform; Windows has
had some manual testing, with TUI, GUI, and audio confirmed working. macOS
has no hardware available to test on: it only gets CI compiling and running
the test suite, with no human having run it. If you're on a Mac, trying it
and reporting back is one of the most useful things you can do right now.
See CONTRIBUTING.md to report a bug or send a focused
change.
wstudio is scripted with Lua: options, keymaps, custom : commands,
autocmds, and the project itself, down to notes, drum steps, FX chains, and
arrangement clips. On first run it writes a fully documented template to the
user configuration directory as init.lua
(see examples/init.lua);
a broken config never blocks startup. The full API is documented in
docs/lua-api.md. Nix users can enable wstudio via
nixosModules.default or homeManagerModules.default, configuring it
with typed settings or raw Lua:
programs.wstudio = {
enable = true;
settings.default_tempo = 128;
};- docs/ - editing grammar, UI conventions, undo/redo, and GUI color identity
- CHANGELOG.md - what changed in each release
- FORMAT.md - the
.wsjsave format and versioning contract - CONTRIBUTING.md - bug reports and development setup
GPL-3.0-or-later, Copyright (c) 2026 zexk. See LICENSE. Releases up to and including v1.0.0-beta.9 were published under the MIT License and stay available on those terms.
Bundled assets keep their own licenses: src/assets/fonts/wstudio-icons.ttf is
a subset of Symbols Nerd Font Mono (MIT, see src/assets/fonts/LICENSE),
DejaVu Sans Mono is Bitstream's (see src/assets/fonts/DEJAVU-LICENSE), and the
bundled acoustic sample library is public domain (CC0) from the VCSL,
FreePats and VSCO 2 CE projects (see src/assets/library/README.md).