Head Chef 1 User Guide · Chapter 20
Coming from another music app
If you have made music in another app, most of what you know carries over to Head Chef. This chapter translates the ideas you already use into Head Chef's terms, points out the keys that will feel familiar, and is plain about where Head Chef 1 works differently or leaves a feature out. It ends with how to bring your existing projects across.
Concept map #
The first column uses the general terms common across music apps. Where Head Chef 1 does not have a concept, the middle column says what Head Chef does instead.
| If you know… | In Head Chef | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Project, song or session file | A session: a .headchef file, with hidden .headchef-media and .headchef-recordings folders beside it. Move or back up the whole folder. | Sessions, Where Head Chef keeps your work |
| Project template | Use as Default in the New Session dialog remembers the sample rate and the starting track. Channel presets keep a channel's sound. | Create a session, Use channel presets |
| Region, clip, event or item | A clip. Each track holds one clip. | Editing audio |
| Playlists, take lanes or comping | Not in Head Chef 1. A take is the one clip on its track. Undo removes a take you do not want, so you can record again. Keep alternative versions with File > Save Session As…. | Record a take |
| Cycle or loop playback | Not in Studio, where playback runs from the playhead to the end of the session. Jam loops its ideas and sections. | Build a song from sections |
| Punch-in recording | Not in Head Chef 1. Every take starts at the beginning of the session on an empty mono audio track. | Before you record |
| Software input monitoring | Not in Head Chef 1. Use your interface's direct monitoring to hear yourself. | Monitoring |
| Inserts or insert slots | The channel's processing chain, shown as PROCESSING on each strip and in the Inspector's Chain tab. Sound flows from top to bottom. | Build the processing chain |
| Console channel strip | Chicken Strip, on every channel, Effect Return and Main. You can bypass and move it but not remove it. | Shape the sound with Chicken Strip |
| Sends, returns and aux tracks | Sends to Effect Returns. Sends are post-fader. A session holds up to four returns, each built around Voltage Spaces, MADRE Chorus or Char Press. | Send to an Effect Return |
| Bus or submix | Every channel feeds Main. Folders group tracks in Arrange, and their tracks still feed Main directly; a folder's FOLDER BUS strip in Mix is an Effect Return that its tracks reach through sends. Folders are created through the assistant connection. | Folders, groups and VCA masters |
| Master bus or stereo out | The Main channel, whose strip is labeled MASTER. | The Main channel and headroom |
| Group or linked tracks | Groups that link edits, faders, mute and solo. They are created through the assistant connection; ⇧⌘G suspends them. | Folders, groups and VCA masters |
| VCA fader | A VCA master, shown as a VCA MASTER strip. Coalesce writes its level into its members. | Consolidate a VCA master |
| Automation | No automation lanes. Fader, pan, send and effect settings hold for the whole song. For level changes inside an audio clip, draw the clip gain line. | Set clip gain |
| Bounce, export or mixdown | File > Render Mix… (⌥⌘B) writes the session from start to end, plus a tail, to one stereo file. Mute and solo apply, so solo a part to print it on its own. | Rendering your mix |
| Edit modes: move freely, snap to a grid, close gaps, type a position | FREE, GRID, RIPPLE and PLACE, on F2, F4, F1 and F3. | Choose an edit mode |
| Snap value | The Arrange GRID is set in time, such as 500 ms, not in bars. The Piano Roll Snap uses note values from 1/4 to 1/32. | Set the grid and nudge values |
| Nudge | Nudge by the NUDGE value with ⌥, and ⌥., or Num - and Num +. | Nudge a clip |
| Markers or locators | Not in Head Chef 1. Jump between clip boundaries with Tab, type exact positions in the Place dialog, or use a clip's sync point. | Move between clip boundaries |
| Tempo map or tempo track | A session you create has one tempo and one time signature. A tempo map from an imported song is kept, and you can move its tempo changes. | Songs with a tempo map |
| MIDI editor or key editor | The piano roll. | Edit notes in the piano roll |
| MIDI recording | A MIDI keyboard plays the selected instrument live but does not write notes in Studio. Write notes in the Piano Roll. | Play from a MIDI keyboard |
| Instrument track | An instrument track playing one of five built-in instruments. Third-party instrument plugins are not hosted. | The built-in instruments |
| Folder track | A folder, shown indented in the TRACKS list. Folders are created through the assistant connection. | Folders, groups and VCA masters |
| Renaming, reordering and deleting tracks | Name and color a track when you create it in the Add Track dialog. The assistant connection can rename, recolor, reorder and hide tracks. Head Chef 1 has no command to delete a track; Undo removes a track you have just added. | Name and color tracks |
| Mixer window | The Mix view (⌘=) or the separate Mix Window (⇧⌘=). | Open the Mix view and the Mix Window |
| Crossfades between clips | Clips on a track never overlap, so there is nothing to crossfade. Shape the start and end of a clip with the clip gain line. | Add fades |
| Key commands | A fixed set of shortcuts, listed and searchable in Help > Keyboard Shortcuts… (⌃⇧K). | Keyboard shortcuts |
Keyboard habits that carry over #
Head Chef's shortcuts follow common music-app conventions where they can. The complete, searchable list is in the app under Help > Keyboard Shortcuts…, and the same list is in Keyboard shortcuts.
Function keys for edit modes #
F1 to F4 choose Ripple, Free, Place and Grid, and the grave accent key steps through them. ⌥1 to ⌥4 do the same without function keys. Pressing F4 again while in Grid switches between Absolute and Relative Grid. See Choose an edit mode.
Numeric keypad transport #
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Num 0 | Play and pause |
| Num 1 / Num 2 | Rewind and forward two seconds |
| Num 3 | Record |
| Num 7 | Metronome click on or off |
| Num 8 | Count-in on or off |
| Num - / Num + | Nudge the selected clip earlier or later |
| ⌘ Num 1 | Floating Transport |
| ⌘ Num 2 | Session Settings |
Command chords #
The standard Mac chords work as you expect: ⌘N, ⌘O and ⌘S for sessions, ⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z for Undo and Redo, ⌘, for the audio settings and ⌘W to close a window. Music-specific chords include ⇧⌘I to import audio, ⌥⌘B to render the mix, ⌘= to switch between Arrange and Mix, ⌘L to lock a clip and ⌘M to mute it.
Single keys in Arrange #
With the Arrange timeline focused, single letters work without a modifier: A and S trim to the cursor, D, G and F fade, R and T zoom, P and ; change track, and Z undoes. Turn them off with Options > Arrange Letter Shortcuts (A–Z) if they get in your way. See Turn the Arrange letter shortcuts on or off.
Keys that may surprise you #
- Space plays and pauses, and Return stops and returns to the start of the session.
- ⌘Space records, but macOS may use it for its own search. Use F12 or Num 3 instead.
- ⇧S, ⇧M and ⇧R solo, mute and arm the selected track.
- Letter keys and keys marked "from Arrange" need the timeline to have keyboard focus. Press ⌥⌘1 to give it focus.
What is different by design #
A few things in Head Chef 1 work differently from other music apps on purpose. Knowing them early saves time.
- One clip per audio track. Each audio track holds one clip, so clips never overlap and edits never hide audio under other audio. Ripple mode keeps that clip against the session start. To layer or sequence material, put it on separate tracks. See Editing audio.
- A full channel strip on every channel. Every track, Effect Return and Main starts with Chicken Strip, with EQ, compression and character controls ready to use, so you add effects only for what the strip does not do. See Mixing.
- Two contexts: Studio and Jam. Studio is for arranging, editing and mixing a session. Jam is a sketchpad that rolls a backing band, builds sections and explores chords, and it does not need a session. the Studio transfer button prints a jam to ordinary tracks, and Explore in Jam… opens a review of Studio material. See Jam.
- Recording starts clean. Head Chef 1 records one mono take into a saved session whose only track is an empty mono audio track, from the start of the session. Record your main part first and build the song around it. See Record a take to the click.
- One edit history for everything. Edits you make in the window, from a control surface and through an AI assistant share one Undo history of up to 512 steps. See Control surfaces and assistants.
- Third-party plugins run outside the app. If one of your plugins stops, Head Chef keeps running and your session stays intact. See If a plugin stops.
- Rendering runs in the background. You keep working while Render Mix writes the file, and it renders the mix as it was when you started. See Keep working while it renders.
Moving your projects in #
Head Chef opens many projects from other music apps directly. It recognizes each one by its file extension, such as .rpp, .als, .cpr, .song, .ptx, .logicx, .dawproject, .aaf, .omf or a Standard MIDI File. Choose File > Open Session…, or drag the project onto Arrange. Head Chef builds a new session from it and never changes the original. See Open a project from another music app, and File formats for the complete list.
What comes across is the structure of the song: tracks in order, audio clips at their positions, volume, pan, mute and solo, tempo and time signature. Plugins, their settings and the other app's instruments do not. Before you move a song:
- Keep the project's audio folders next to the project file, as the other app saved them.
- For parts played by the other app's instruments, export them as audio files, or as a Standard MIDI File to play through Head Chef's instruments.
- Note any processing you want to rebuild, so you can recreate it with Chicken Strip, the built-in effects or your own CLAP and VST3 effects.
If a project does not open cleanly, export the song from the other app as stems that all start at the same point and import them with File > Import Audio…. The recipes Finish a project from another music app and Mix a song from stems walk through both routes from start to finish.