Head Chef · macOS · Windows · Linux
Plug in. Roll a band. Play until something catches your ear, then keep it. Head Chef is a compact music studio built around that moment: Jam Console to find the idea, Mini Bar to give it a voice, and a studio inside to turn a good session into a finished song, in Head Chef or in the DAW you already use.
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Jam Console rolls a chord progression and a backing band together. Mini Bar plays the chords, Substance takes the bass, and the Voltage drum machines bring the groove. Listen to how the parts work as a band, then imagine your part on top.
The demonstration uses Head Chef’s own instruments. The User Guide describes playing along with the band, recording takes and moving music between Jam and Studio.
One studio, three moments
Roll a backing band in one click. The chords, the bass, the drums and the percussion arrive together, in a style, at a tempo, with a feel. Plug in a guitar, a microphone or a keyboard and play.
Inside Jam ConsoleThe one that surprised you is already recorded. Keep it with its sounds, its takes and the band that played under it. Come back tomorrow and it is still there.
How Jam remembersOpen the pass as editable tracks in Studio. Record over it, arrange it, mix it with the included strip and spaces, then export a mix, aligned stems and the MIDI for Head Chef or the DAW you already use.
Finish the songJam Console · Included in Head Chef
Press Roll and a band shows up. Mini Bar plays the chords, Substance takes the bass, and the Voltage drum machines bring the groove. A roll starts as an editable eight-bar idea and grows into sections, a song form and an ending.
A good groove leaves space for you. Jam Console is a place to practise a part or follow a melody long before anyone says the word arrangement.
Hold a bass line you like while you try different chords around it, or roll a fresh idea with a new style and tempo together. Hold a part, hold the vibe, let the rest evolve. Save what catches your ear in Your Jams.
Read about Jams in the User Guide →
Jam Along
Plug in a guitar and play through the built-in Amp, with NAM models and cabinets on tap and a tuner that listens to your input. Sing into a microphone. Put a MIDI keyboard on any Mini Bar or Voltage sound. The band keeps time; you keep playing.
Count-in and record
Press record when the idea arrives, with a count-in of one bar, two bars or four. Jam keeps your dry take and the band that played under it, so you can change the amp sound later or return to the idea you played over. Earlier takes stay with the jam.
Chord alternatives
Select a chord in the sequence to hear alternatives. Listen to one, then Keep change to rebuild the band around it or Revert to the original. Explore related chords by movement, by fifths or by voice-led paths between two chords, and transpose the whole progression in a click.
A small change can suggest a different melody. Follow it.
Add a contrasting section, repeat the one that works, make a variation. Build song places fills between sections and a two-bar ending, and Play song runs the whole form. Follow chords keeps every part on the progression you wrote.
Jam remembers your recent passes. Keep this pass holds the one that surprised you, with its sounds, its takes and its harmony. Save Jam keeps the sketch in Your Jams. Reopen it when you want to play again. The same Jam can start several Sessions, each with its own direction.
Copy selected backing parts into Studio as editable tracks, with your takes beside them. Choose Create Studio session, or Add to Studio session if one is already open. Explore in Jam brings a Studio phrase back into a sketch to develop it further. Your original stays available, and each copy remains editable.
Mini Bar · Instruments included
An electric piano might suggest a different part from a nylon guitar. Mini Bar puts both within reach, with organs and strings alongside brass, acoustic piano and a shelf of digital sounds, each one voiced to play well together.
Find one you like and play. Your MIDI keyboard or computer keyboard plays the selected instrument in Jam Console and in Studio, and the backing band draws on the same sounds. Quick controls follow the sound: drawbars for an organ, breath control for winds, touch with decay for keys.
A room, a chorus and a tremolo are built in, levels stay steady when you switch sounds, and the session remembers every choice. No sample library the size of a hard drive. Browse the artwork below, or hear the instruments in the film above.
Explore Mini Bar
Artwork preview. The instruments play inside Head Chef.
Studio · Included in Head Chef
The jam becomes tracks. The tracks become a song. Studio is a real recording and mixing environment, built so the idea has room to grow, no console lesson required.
Overdub a vocal or a guitar from the cursor with a count-in, keep another take, and punch in on the bar that needs it. Low-latency monitoring through the strip, with the click kept out of your render.
Split, trim, slip, nudge, fade, all from single keys. Comp the best phrases from several takes. Fit a loop to the song’s tempo and key. One gesture, one undo, originals always kept.
Name a chorus, loop it, duplicate it, shorten a verse and move the bridge. The audio travels with the MIDI and the automation, and tempo changes keep their musical meaning.
Chicken Strip on every channel, Voltage Spaces on the sends, rides you can draw or ride by hand. Render a reference mix, aligned stems and MIDI with tempo, ready for Logic, for Ableton, for Cubase, for Pro Tools, for REAPER, or for the next Head Chef session.
Audio carries the sound you hear; MIDI gives you notes to edit. Read about export choices or take the workspace tour.
Third-party product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Compatibility references do not imply affiliation.
Chicken Strip · Included on every channel
Chicken Strip puts a gate, EQ with Pop Top, two compressors, Character processing and an output limiter on your audio tracks, instruments, aux returns and Main output.
Catch peaks with FET in one compressor and settle the level with Opto in the other. Clean, Punch and Glue are also available, independently on each stage. Place the EQ before the compressors, between them or after them.
The ten-band Graphic EQ handles broad tonal shaping; Pop Top adds upper-frequency lift. Input Tenderizer works on the incoming source, while Gate or Expander mode reduces spill between phrases.
Chicken Strip sits in a reorderable processing chain on each channel. Place the strip ahead of or after built-in Voltage Spaces, Char Press and MADRE Chorus inserts or hosted CLAP and VST3 plug-ins, with level-matched chain bypass and post-chain Sound Trim.
Analog Magic adds harmonic colour. Turn More to shape its amount, use the continuous Secret Sauce control for weight and density, then set the limiter’s final ceiling.
When you want a complete starting channel in one click, factory channel presets such as Late Night Tine, Glass Echoes, Concrete 80 and Focused Bass load a voiced instrument, Chicken Strip setting and insert chain while keeping your recorded MIDI notes, audio clips, fader balance and sends intact.
For quick moves, adjust EQ and compression beside the clips or use the console’s Character controls. The full strip opens when you want every setting in view.
Explore the Chicken Strip controlsVoltage Spaces · Reverb and echo included
Lush brings movement into the reverb tail. Natural gives a dry recording a sense of distance and place. Choose an engine and a preset, then shape the space with six main controls.
Echo can follow the song’s tempo. Send several tracks into the same space and blend its return with the direct channels.
Explore Voltage Spaces
Voltage Drums and Voltage Synths · Included
Voltage 80 plug-in shown. Head Chef plays its native drum voices from the session.
Synthesized drum machines with deep kicks and sharp hats. Voltage 80 brings weight to the rhythm; Voltage 78 adds its own percussion voices and character. In Jam Console they share one shuffle, so the whole band swings together.
Hear the drum machines
Deep bass and biting leads come from two oscillators, a sub octave and a driven ladder filter. Legato glide pulls the next note into place. The controls invite you to keep playing.
Hear Substance and OctetEight voices make room for sustained chords and moving pads. Start with a factory sound, then shape the complete instrument from its own panel.
Add an edge to drums or push a parallel return into dark distortion. Pressure and Flame shape the weight and drive; the return fader blends the result with your dry tracks. MADRE Chorus is also included as a native chorus return.
Buying Head Chef also brings Voltage Drums, Voltage Synths and Voltage Spaces into your other DAWs as standalone plug-ins. See what is included.
Built-in MCP · Available now
MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects your assistant to the session. Follow-up requests keep their context, so “that frequency” still means the chorus A you just matched.
You have an idea
Keep talking. The note and the section stay in context.
Add an 808 style kick matching the fundamental of the A in the chorus
Click the mic to follow the conversation.
Still in context
A scripted browser illustration of conversations with a connected assistant. Voice input comes from your assistant, when it supports dictation.
The pitch-matching example uses identified sections and MIDI parts, with an installed Chicken EQ plug-in on a separate chorus-kick channel. The vocal’s wide layer uses chorus. The track setup uses preferences and presets already supplied to the assistant; its balance is a starting point for your ears.
The browser illustrates the edits and does not play audio. In Head Chef, connected tools make edits in the same session and Undo history as your own.
MCP is available now. Connect your own assistant or scripts to inspect and edit the session.
We’re working on an integrated mix assistant too. It will bring the conversation inside Head Chef.
Installed CLAP and VST3 effects and compatible VST3 ARA 2 editors can also work on your audio. Read about the workflow and compatibility.
A fresh foundation
About 40 MB to download on macOS, instruments included. Head Chef opens before the idea goes cold, and its audio core sums every channel exactly. For the same input samples and processing state, changing channel order does not change the summed samples. Playback and Render Mix use the same mix engine.
Explore the audio engine and application footprintCrash-isolated plug-in hosting
Host your external CLAP and VST3 effects plus compatible VST3 ARA 2 clip editors. External plug-ins run in separate worker processes outside the main audio engine: if a third-party plug-in hangs or crashes, Head Chef mutes that slot so playback, Undo history and your session stay intact.
Built-in instruments and effects run directly inside the mixer with zero plug-in wrapper overhead, one shared Undo/Redo history across the studio, and single-file session recall.
Existing projects
Compatible project files, such as .ptx and .rpp sessions, can supply audio and selected timing details; other formats have their own transfer limits. Multiple clips and MIDI parts need particular attention.
Plug-in settings and automation stay in the original DAW. Consolidate separate regions there before import.
Check what transfers from your projectHead Chef 1 · Perpetual ownership
One complete Head Chef edition
Jam Console, Mini Bar and Studio, with every included instrument and effect, in one purchase. Your Head Chef 1 licence never expires, and all 1.x updates are included. Future major upgrades are optional.
Buying Head Chef also includes permanent standalone macOS AU and VST3 plus CLAP licences for Voltage Drums, Voltage Synths and Voltage Spaces, worth €257 / $257 at their standalone prices. Use them in other supported DAWs too.
For macOS · Windows · Linux, with a complete 90-day trial and nothing to subscribe to.
The bitsnacks Vending Machine installs Head Chef, your included Voltage plug-ins and the free channel tools, and carries your licences.
The complete Head Chef trial includes its native tools for 90 days. Voltage plug-ins used in other DAWs retain their own 14-day trials until purchase.
Eligible Voltage purchases count toward Head Chef. Your best eligible offer is calculated automatically. A future major upgrade is optional; its price will be announced separately. You can skip editions and keep using the one you own.
A purchase within 12 months before the next edition’s first stable release includes that edition. When a new edition ships, the previous edition receives macOS compatibility and bug fixes for at least 24 months.
Read the Head Chef 1 User Guide · Contact support about Head Chef
Why Head Chef exists
No sample library the size of a hard drive. No subscription. No dongle. No setup evening before the first note. A studio that opens in a second, plays like a band and gets out of the way of the music.
Some sessions start with a melody. Others start with a sound you want to keep playing. Head Chef gives those moments somewhere to go.