Head Chef 1 User Guide

Open Head Chef, choose your audio device, create, open and save sessions, and make a short first song in about ten minutes.

• Open Head Chef
• The welcome panel
• Choose your audio device
• Create a session
• Open a session
• Save your work
• Undo a change
• Make your first song in ten minutes

A guided tour of the Head Chef window: what each area of Arrange and Mix does, how they work together, and where to learn more about each one.

• The Arrange view
• The Mix view
• How the areas work together
• When the window is smaller
• Find your way back

The ideas behind Head Chef: sessions, tracks, clips and channels, edits that never touch your files, musical time, the signal path and one undo history.

• Sessions, tracks, clips and channels
• Edits never change your audio files
• Two kinds of time
• The signal path
• Selection and keyboard focus
• One history for the whole session
• Studio and Jam
• Many hands on one session
• Preparing playback

Find your way around the Head Chef window: Studio and Jam, Arrange and Mix, the toolbar, menus, lists, track heights and separate windows.

• Studio and Jam
• Switch between Arrange and Mix
• Show the Inspector and Editor
• The toolbar
• The menus
• The Tracks list and Clips list
• Change track heights
• Magnify waveforms
• Open separate windows
• The status bar
• Language and number formats

Create, open, save and close Head Chef sessions, understand the files a session keeps beside it, and move or back up your work safely.

• What a session holds
• Create a session
• Open a session
• Save a session
• Unsaved changes
• Close a session
• Recover an interrupted take
• Where your files live
• Move, copy or back up a session
• Session limits
• Change session settings

Connect an audio interface, headphones, speakers, microphones and MIDI keyboards to Head Chef, and read every setting in the Audio Engine window.

• The Audio Engine window
• Choose a buffer size
• Read the latency line
• Read the sample rate and clock line
• Headphones and speakers
• Inputs and microphone access
• MIDI keyboards
• Control surfaces
• If Head Chef does not see a device

Play, stop, loop and move around a session: the clock and its formats, zoom, trackpad gestures, ruler scrubbing, metronome, count-in and the chef's hat.

• Play, pause and stop
• Repeat a section
• Rewind and forward
• Record
• Read the clock
• Zoom and fit
• Navigate with a trackpad or mouse
• Scrub along the ruler
• Move between clip boundaries
• Mark places in your song
• Turn on the metronome
• Count in before recording
• Play the chef's hat sound

Add audio tracks, instrument tracks and Effect Returns, then select, solo, mute, arm, resize and organize them in the Arrange window.

• Add a track
• Read the track header
• Select tracks
• Name and color tracks
• Solo and mute
• Arm a track for recording
• Change track heights
• Use the track header context menu
• Folders, groups and VCA masters

Bring audio files, MIDI files and projects from other music apps into Head Chef, with automatic conversion to your session's sample rate.

• Import audio files
• Drag files into Arrange
• Open a MIDI file
• Open a project from another music app
• Limits
• Tips

Record a mono take in Head Chef 1: give microphone access, choose an input, arm a track, use count-in, then finish, cancel or recover the take.

• Before you record
• Give Head Chef microphone access
• Choose the recording input
• Arm the track
• Monitoring
• Use a count-in
• Record a take
• Record another take over the song
• Cancel a take
• Recording states
• Messages before a take starts
• When a take stops on its own
• Where takes are stored
• Latency

Move, trim, place, nudge and fade audio clips with the Ripple, Free, Place and Grid edit modes, set clip gain, and undo any edit.

• Make selections and use the cursor
• Choose an edit mode
• Set the grid and nudge values
• Move a clip
• Trim a clip
• Place a clip at an exact time
• Nudge a clip
• Snap a clip to the playhead
• Add fades
• Set clip gain
• What happens at the clip boundaries
• Sync points
• Lock or mute a clip
• Letter shortcuts
• Undo, redo and the edit history

Add Head Chef's built-in instruments, choose sounds, write notes in the piano roll and play live from a MIDI keyboard or your Mac keyboard.

• The built-in instruments
• Add an instrument track
• Choose a sound
• Change the instrument on a track
• Open an instrument's editor
• Browse and shape Mini Bar sounds
• Edit notes in the piano roll
• Play from a MIDI keyboard
• Play from your Mac keyboard
• Preparing playback
• Open a MIDI file
• Tips

Set a session's tempo, time signature, sample rate and pan depth in Session Settings, and move tempo changes in a song with a tempo map.

• Open Session Settings
• Set the tempo
• What a tempo change does
• Set the time signature
• Songs with a tempo map
• Choose the sample rate
• Choose the pan depth

Play guitar or microphone over a backing band, audition chord changes, record optional takes and open editable tracks in Studio.

• Open Jam
• Jam Along
• Start a new jam
• Roll a backing band
• Try chords and explore harmony
• Build a song from sections
• Save and manage jams
• Use a jam in Studio
• Explore Studio material in Jam
• Use the Jam Window

Balance and shape your session with faders, pan, Chicken Strip, effects, channel presets, sends, Effect Returns and the Main channel.

• Open the Mix view and the Mix Window
• Read a channel strip
• Set level, pan, solo and mute
• The signal path of a channel
• Work in the Inspector
• Shape the sound with Chicken Strip
• Build the processing chain
• Use channel presets
• Send to an Effect Return
• Echo that follows tempo
• The Main channel and headroom
• Mix in Arrange
• Tips

Add CLAP and VST3 effects, manage plugin folders, open bitsnacks product panels, recover a stopped plugin and edit audio with an ARA 2 editor.

• Plugin formats Head Chef uses
• Open the Plugin Browser
• Drag plugins onto tracks
• Add a plugin from a channel
• Plugin folders and rescanning
• Open plugin windows
• bitsnacks product panels
• Play and record with Amp and Tuner
• If a plugin stops
• Edit audio with an ARA 2 editor
• Play from another point
• Tips

Render your mix or separate audio and MIDI tracks, choose layout, sample rate, bit depth and dither, and read progress and file results.

• Render your mix
• What the render includes
• Choose a file format
• Export individual MIDI tracks
• Export individual tracks as audio
• Choose the sample rate
• Choose the sample format
• Choose dither
• Set the tail
• Keep working while it renders
• Read loudness and peaks
• If a render does not start

Draw and revise a saved channel-volume ride, mix with a Mackie Control surface, and connect an AI assistant to your open session.

• Draw a channel-volume ride
• Connect a control surface
• What the surface controls
• Connect an AI assistant
• One shared session
• Stay in control
• Tips

Step-by-step recipes for whole jobs in Head Chef 1: sketch in Jam, build a beat, record a take, mix stems, prepare a release and move projects in.

• Sketch in Jam, finish in Studio
• Build a beat and a bass line
• Record a take to the click
• Mix a song from stems
• Prepare a mix for release
• Finish a project from another music app
• Mix with a control surface or an assistant

Already know another music app? Map familiar ideas to Head Chef 1, keep your keyboard habits, see what works differently and bring your projects in.

• Concept map
• Keyboard habits that carry over
• What is different by design
• Moving your projects in

Open the searchable Keyboard Shortcuts reference, turn the Arrange letter keys on or off, and look up every shortcut by category.

• Read the key symbols
• Open the Keyboard Shortcuts reference
• Turn the Arrange letter shortcuts on or off
• Sessions
• File
• Edit
• Edit Modes
• Clip Editing
• Clip Gain
• Arrange Letter Shortcuts (A–Z)
• Transport & Navigation
• Mix
• Workspaces & Windows
• Settings
• Help
• More keys in Arrange
• When a shortcut does nothing

Every click, drag, scroll and pinch in Head Chef, with the modifier keys for fine adjustment, reset, free movement and quick menus.

• Scroll and pinch
• Arrange timeline
• Ruler and playhead
• Track headers
• Tracks list and Clips list
• Clip gain
• Faders and knobs
• Mix channel strips
• Edit toolbar
• Piano roll
• Audio clip editor
• Toolbar and Floating Transport
• Drag and drop

Every command in Head Chef's menu bar and right-click menus, with its shortcut, what it does and when it is unavailable.

• File
• Edit
• Settings
• Track
• Add Instrument
• View
• Options
• Window
• Transport
• Help
• Right-click menus
• Menus you open from a button

Every setting you can change in Head Chef, where it lives, its choices and default, and whether it is saved with the session or in preferences.

• Audio Engine
• Session Settings
• New Session dialog
• Options menu
• Metronome and time display
• Control Surface
• Render Mix dialog
• View menu and the window layout
• Edit toolbar
• MIDI keyboard settings
• Plugin folders
• Piano roll
• Settings that belong to tracks and clips

The audio, MIDI, session and plugin files Head Chef reads and writes, with sample rates, bit depths, channel counts, size limits and conversions.

• Head Chef sessions
• Import audio
• MIDI files
• Projects from other music apps
• Recording
• Render Mix output
• Plugins
• Settings files

Fix common problems in Head Chef by symptom: sound and devices, recording, playback, plugins, sessions, MIDI, rendering, Jam and control.

• Sound and devices
• Recording
• Playback and performance
• Plugins
• Sessions and files
• MIDI devices
• Rendering
• Jam
• Control surfaces and assistants
• Where Head Chef keeps your work
• Get help

Release notes for Head Chef 1: what each release adds to recording, editing, instruments, mixing, plugins, Jam, rendering and control.

• Head Chef 1.0