Head Chef 1 User Guide · Chapter 27

What's new in Head Chef 1

Applies to Head Chef 1.0 and later 1.x releases

This page lists what each Head Chef 1 release adds or changes, newest first. Each item links to the chapter that explains it.

Head Chef 1.0 #

Head Chef 1.0 is the first release of Head Chef, a music production app for macOS. It covers the path from an idea to a rendered mix: sketching, recording, editing, playing instruments, mixing and delivering a stereo file.

Workspace #

Head Chef has two contexts. Studio holds the Arrange and Mix views for building a song; Jam is a sketchpad for quick ideas. ⌘= switches between Arrange and Mix. See The workspace.
The Inspector shows every control of the selected channel, and the Editor panel shows the selected clip under the timeline.
The mixer, the region editor and a floating transport can each open in their own window, so you can spread a session across several displays.
A searchable Keyboard Shortcuts reference lists every shortcut by category, and single-letter editing keys in Arrange can be turned on or off. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Sessions and setup #

Sessions save as a .headchef file with their audio kept in a folder beside it. Every change to the song, from adding a track to moving a clip, is one step in an edit history of up to 512 steps. See Getting started.
The Audio Engine window chooses the output device, the default recording input, the sample rate and the buffer size, and shows input, output and round-trip latency. See Troubleshooting.
Session Settings set the tempo, the time signature, the sample rate and the pan depth. Songs that carry a tempo map keep their tempo changes, and you can move a tempo change. See Tempo and session settings.

The clock shows bars and beats, minutes and seconds, or samples. A second clock in the Floating Transport can show a different format at the same time.
Trackpad and mouse gestures zoom and scroll the timeline, and dragging in the ruler scrubs the audio like tape.
The metronome offers three click sounds, three click modes and its own level, and a count-in of one, two or four bars can play before recording. See Transport and navigation.

Recording #

Head Chef records a mono take from one input of your audio interface onto an armed audio track, with an optional count-in.
Each take is written to disk while you play, so a take survives an unexpected stop and can be kept or dismissed afterwards. See Recording audio.

Editing #

Four edit modes decide how a dragged clip moves: Ripple, Free, Place and Grid, with absolute and relative grid, Snap to Grid and Ripple Lock.
Clips can be trimmed by dragging or to the cursor, placed at an exact sample by their start, sync point or end, and nudged, or their audio nudged inside them.
Clip gain sets the level of one clip from -144 dB to +36 dB, with a badge on each clip and a gain line for changes over time. See Editing audio.

Instruments and MIDI #

Five built-in instruments: the Voltage 80 drum machine, the Voltage 78 percussion machine, the Substance bass synthesizer, the Octet polyphonic synthesizer and Mini Bar, a collection of 27 playable keyboard sounds.
The piano roll writes and edits notes with Select, Draw and Erase tools, snap values from 1/4 to 1/32, quantize and per-note velocity.
MIDI keyboards connect automatically, and Mini Bar can be played from the Mac keyboard. See MIDI and instruments.

Jam #

Jam Console opens in its own window, with a chord sequence above a four-part backing band and JAM ALONG input controls. Roll an eight-bar idea, choose sounds, hold the parts you like and vary the rest. Roll again starts a new idea from bar one after your selected count-in. See Roll a backing band.
Try an alternative chord in the playing sequence before choosing [ Keep change ] or [ Revert ]. Edit individual chords or a whole progression, change the chord count and move the progression up or down a semitone. See Try chords and explore harmony.
Connect a guitar or microphone, watch the input meter and monitor your playing beside the backing band. Recording is optional; Save Jam keeps your takes with the jam. See Jam Along.
Open your backing parts and recordings as editable Studio tracks while keeping the jam available in its own window. Review the destination, included parts and timing before clicking Open editable tracks →. See Use a jam in Studio.

Mixing #

Every channel, Effect Return and the Main channel starts with Chicken Strip, the bitsnacks channel strip, with EQ, compressor, character and low-end controls. In Arrange, the Mix Layer puts its main controls on each track.
Three built-in effects: MADRE Chorus, Voltage Spaces and Char Press. Voltage Spaces has an echo that follows the session tempo, including tempo changes.
Up to four Effect Returns take post-fader sends from any track.
Channel presets store Chicken Strip, the effect chain and, for instruments, the instrument and its sound. Eight factory presets are included. See Mixing.
Inside the mix, channels and Main carry levels above full scale without distortion.

Plugins #

Head Chef hosts CLAP and VST3 effects on any channel, scans the standard plugin folders and any folders you add, and recovers when a plugin stops responding.
An ARA 2 editor can work on an audio clip. See Plugins.

Importing #

Import Audio adds WAV and AIFF files as new tracks, one track per file. Dragged files in other formats and at other sample rates are converted to the session rate.
Standard MIDI files and projects saved by other music apps open as new Head Chef sessions, with track names, clip positions, levels, tempo and time signature. See Importing audio and projects.

Rendering #

Render Mix writes the song to one stereo file, with 32-bit float or 16, 24 or 32-bit PCM, dither choices and an adjustable tail.
Rendering runs in the background, so you can keep working. A finished render reports integrated loudness, loudness range, true peak and sample peak. See Rendering your mix.

Control #

Control surfaces that use the common hardware control protocol for DAWs drive faders, pan, mute, solo and the transport.
An AI assistant app can connect to Head Chef on your Mac and read and edit the open session through the same commands you use. See Control surfaces and assistants.