Miao Manual

Miao is a browser DAW for arranging audio regions, sketching chords, editing MIDI, playing built-in instruments, importing samples, recording live audio, mixing tracks, automating effects, collaborating in real time, and exporting a project ZIP.

This manual describes the current application behavior. It is organized around the visible UI: the transport bar, timeline, right inspector, bottom panel, project menu, command palette, and context menus.

Product Screens

Piano roll editing with timeline context, note inspector, and velocity lane.

Chord tools combine key/scale setup, diatonic chords, presets, preview, and MIDI generation.

Chord-generated MIDI opens as regular piano-roll notes that can be edited or regenerated.

Track Effects use skinned modules with visual feedback and precise parameters.

Console-style mixer strips keep volume, pan, routing, meters, and arm controls close.

Recording shows the armed lane, moving playhead, live region, input level, and stop control.

Built-in instruments can be searched, filtered, previewed, and loaded into the sampler.

Real-time collaboration shows live users, remote playheads, and synced project state.

Action Locations

The Project menu contains create, unlock, save, export, history, link, file cleanup, and manual actions.

The Audio menu groups input monitoring, metronome, count-in, MIDI connection, and audio errors.

The command palette exposes project, transport, timeline, track, Library, MIDI, edit, and mix commands.

Region context menus keep destructive edits, loop handles, fades, and track moves close to the selected clip.

MIDI note menus expose editing, performance cleanup, chord generation, and arpeggio actions.

The Track Effects menu is the compact entry point for EQ, dynamics, drive, modulation, delay, reverb, pitch, and limiting.

The Library inspector shows project audio state and the actions to place audio or load it into the sampler.

The Annotations inspector manages timeline comments, replies, resolution state, and markers.

Best Starting Points

Goal	Read
Make sound quickly	Quick Start
Understand the screen	Workspace Tour
Save or reopen work	Projects and Storage
Record audio	Recording
Sketch chords and scales	Chords and Scales
Write MIDI	MIDI Editor
Choose sounds	Instruments and Sampler
Mix and route tracks	Tracks, Routing, Mixer
Add effects and automation	Effects and Automation
Share a project	Collaboration
Export a mix	Library and Export

What Miao Stores

Miao projects are identified by a unique project ID and protected by a project password. There is no account system in the current app. When a project is unlocked, the browser receives a temporary unlock token that lasts 12 hours.

Project snapshots, history entries, uploaded audio files, and export ZIP files are stored by the Cloudflare Worker using R2. When a project is unlocked, Miao restores the audio files referenced by the saved project.

Current Environment

Miao is designed for desktop Chrome. The app is built around a dense desktop DAW layout and assumes enough screen space for a timeline, inspector, and bottom panel. Chrome-only features such as Web MIDI and the experimental HTML-in-canvas direction are allowed to fail gracefully where unsupported.

Manual Scope

This manual covers:

• Project creation, unlock, save, history, copy, and unused file cleanup.
• Timeline navigation, selection, region editing, loop handles, fades, waveform and MIDI region display.
• Audio recording with count-in, metronome, monitoring, live region drawing, and mono/stereo input handling.
• Chord lane editing, project key/scale, diatonic chord palette, chord preview, snap-to-scale, and chord-to-MIDI generation.
• MIDI input, computer keyboard playing, piano roll editing, velocity editing, quantize, humanize, strum, triad, and arpeggio actions.
• Built-in instruments, sound previews, sampler controls, drum pads, and custom sample loading.
• Track types, buses, sends, Track Effects, mixer strips, meters, mute, solo, record arm, and input monitoring.
• Master effects, Track Effects, contextual Master FX automation, and linear/stepped automation.
• Real-time collaboration, presence, remote playheads, temporary edit locks, and sync expectations.
• Import, project file restore, garbage collection, and export.