Import and Export

Miao is region-first: imported and recorded audio appears as timeline regions. Reuse audio by copying, pasting, duplicating, looping, or turning regions into custom instruments. Miao handles project audio storage automatically. The Project menu handles export.

Import Audio

Use one of these:

• Drag an audio file onto the timeline.
• Right-click the timeline and choose Import audio here.
• Use the command palette and run Import audio.
• Drop onto an empty or existing timeline lane.

Right-click the timeline when you want the imported audio to land at a specific time and track.

Miao creates an audio region on the target lane. If you use the command palette instead of dropping onto a lane, the region appears on the selected audio track at the playhead. If no audio track is selected, Miao creates or chooses an audio track.

Import MIDI

Run Import MIDI from the command palette, or drop a .mid or .midi Standard MIDI File onto the timeline.

Miao creates MIDI tracks and MIDI regions at the playhead. Melodic source tracks stay as one track. General MIDI drum-kit tracks are split into playable Kick, Snare, Hat, Clap, Tom, and Percussion tracks using built-in one-shot instruments. The import keeps note channel, note-off velocity, controller changes such as sustain and attack, program changes, pitch bend, pressure, text metadata, key signature, tempo, and time signature for later MIDI export. Imported tempo changes also drive clip playback and export-render timing. Miao maps General MIDI program changes and instrument-name metadata to the nearest built-in instrument when there is a clear match.

Place Audio on the Timeline

Use one of these:

• Drag the audio file onto the timeline.
• Right-click the timeline and choose Import audio here.
• Use the command palette and run Import audio.
• Copy, paste, duplicate, or loop an existing audio region.

Miao places audio as a normal timeline region. There is no separate file-management step for normal work.

Use Audio as a Custom Instrument

Select or create a MIDI track, then use one of these:

• Select an audio region and click Use in {track name} or Create instrument from region in the Region inspector.
• Select an audio region, right-click it, then use available region actions to duplicate, loop, or copy it before sampling.

The audio becomes the custom instrument source for the selected MIDI track. For normal reuse, copying, duplicating, looping, or pasting the region is usually simpler than managing a separate audio library.

If there is no MIDI track, Miao creates one and loads the selected audio region into it.

Audio Restore

When reopening a project, unlock it so Miao can restore the project audio files. Browser-side working copies and remote project files are internal details; no file maintenance step is required in normal use.

Audio File Size Limit

The Worker rejects uploaded audio files larger than 100 MB.

Export

Open Project and click Export ZIP. Miao:

1. Saves the current project.
2. Creates an export job.
3. Collects referenced project audio files.
4. Collects built-in instrument samples referenced by the project.
5. Renders the project server-side.
6. Writes a ZIP file.
7. Shows Download ZIP when ready.

Export ZIP lives in the Project menu beside Create version, Previous versions, and Copy link.

Export ZIP

The download link is named miao-export.zip in the browser. The server download filename includes the project ID and export ID.

The ZIP contains project.json, referenced source audio files in media/, the rendered project-mix.wav, and per-track WAV files in stems/. The export renderer uses the same project document model as the realtime audio graph so timeline audio, MIDI clips, routing, Track Effects, master effects, and automation stay aligned.

Audio export currently supports projects up to 2 hours. Longer projects show an export error instead of downloading a clipped mix.

Chord lane data is saved in the project, but chords are rendered as sound only after you convert them into MIDI regions with Make MIDI, Arp, or Bass.

Export MIDI

Run Export MIDI from the command palette. Miao writes a browser download link for a Standard MIDI File containing the current MIDI clips and preserved MIDI performance metadata.