Workflows

This chapter strings the other chapters together into complete jobs, from an empty screen to a finished file. Each recipe says who it suits, what you need, the steps, what you should hear or see along the way, and the most common snags. The links lead to the full explanation of each step.

Sketch in Jam, finish in Studio #

Who it is for: songwriters and producers who like to react to a backing before they decide on an arrangement.

What you need: Head Chef and headphones or speakers. You do not need a session, an audio input or a MIDI keyboard.

1. Click Jam ↗ in the Studio toolbar to open the separate Jam window. On the start screen you can also click Start a jam. See Open Jam.
2. Click + New Jam, then ▶ ROLL AN IDEA under MAKE A START. Choose a sound, such as Tine, from the visible selector on the Chords row.
3. Click ▶ PLAY. Head Chef shows Preparing instruments… and a Cancel button until the sounds are ready. Checkpoint: you then hear an eight-bar loop with four parts, and the four backing rows each show a horizontal preview of their notes. The readout below the jam's name shows its style, tempo, key and length.
4. Click Roll again until an idea grabs you. The old backing stops while the new sounds get ready, then the cue selected under Setup ↓ > Count-in leads into bar one of the new idea at its own tempo and meter. Choose No count-in to start without a cue. Roll again also starts playback when the jam was stopped. Open Shape › and click Previous roll to go back. See Roll a backing band.
5. Keep what works. Open Shape › to hold tempo, style or vibe. Open a part's chevron for Hold and Vary. Checkpoint: a held part shows HELD, and the selected hold controls stay highlighted.
6. Under CHORD SEQUENCE, choose 4, 8 or 16 chords and select a card. Click an alternative under TRY AN ALTERNATIVE, then ▶ PLAY to hear the whole sequence with that change. Choose [ Keep change ] or [ Revert ]. Use Edit ↓ for detailed fields and Explore › for the additional views. See Edit chords and explore harmony.
7. Click Save Jam. Checkpoint: your jam appears in Your jams.
8. To store variations, open Sections ›, then use + Section, Variation, Repeat and Build song. Jam playback still repeats the current idea; stored section ordering does not change what you hear. Select the idea you want to take into Studio. See Build a song from sections.
9. Click Save Jam again.
10. Click Create Studio session → if no session is open, or Add to Studio session → if one is open. Check the named destination and the selected part rows. Leave Keep Jam timing for a new session. Click Open editable tracks →. See Use a jam in Studio.
11. Checkpoint: Head Chef brings Studio forward and creates a session at the jam's tempo, with one editable instrument track for each included part and its sound retained. The chords play through Mini Bar or Octet, the bass through Substance and the drums through Voltage 80 and Voltage 78, unless you chose other sounds in the jam. The Jam window stays open.
12. Press ⌘S and save the new session.
13. The parts are now ordinary instrument tracks. Edit notes in the Piano Roll, choose sounds under SOUND in the Inspector, and mix as in Mix a song from stems from step 4.

Common snags:

• Starting a new jam or opening another one does not keep unsaved changes. Click Save Jam first.
• Parts that are muted in the jam start unselected in the transfer review. Click a part row to include it.
• When a session is already open, printed tracks start at the playhead. Press Return first if you want them at the start, and choose Fit Studio tempo if the session has a different tempo from the jam.

Build a beat and a bass line #

Who it is for: anyone who wants to program drums and bass by hand, with or without a MIDI keyboard.

What you need: Head Chef. A MIDI keyboard is optional; you can enter every note with the mouse.

1. Press ⌘N. In Start with, choose Voltage 80, pick a Sound and click Create. The dialog notes Eight bars · 110 BPM · 4/4. Checkpoint: Arrange shows one Voltage 80 track holding an empty eight-bar clip.
2. If the song needs another tempo, choose Settings > Session Settings…, type the tempo in Tempo / BPM and click Apply. MIDI parts follow tempo changes, so you can also do this later. See Set the tempo.
3. Double-click the Voltage 80 clip to open the piano roll. In Snap, choose 1/16.
4. Double-click the grid to add notes, or choose Draw and click. Each MIDI key plays a different drum voice; see the table after these steps. To change a selected note's voice, type its key in PITCH / MIDI KEY and press Return.
5. Set the VELOCITY of a few hits to 127 for an accent, and leave the rest at 100. Press Q on a selected note to quantize it. See Set velocity.
6. Press Space. Checkpoint: you hear the beat, and the playhead moves through the clip. Press Space to pause and Return to go back to the start.
7. Click Close to leave the Piano Roll, then choose Add Instrument > Substance. Head Chef adds a Substance track with an empty clip and opens its panel. Close the panel when you have heard a few sounds.
8. Double-click the Substance clip and write a bass line. Substance plays one note at a time, so write the line as single notes. Use ↑ and ↓ to move a selected note by a semitone, and ⇧→ to make it longer by one snap step.
9. Checkpoint: with Return then Space, you hear drums and bass together.
10. Click Mix. On the Voltage 80 strip, click Preset…, choose Concrete 80 and click Use preset. Do the same with Focused Bass on the Substance strip. See Use channel presets.
11. Set the two faders so the kick and bass sit together, and press ⌘S to save.

While Kick play mode is Drum map, Voltage 80 plays these voices:

Common snags:

• Playing a MIDI keyboard sounds the selected instrument but does not write notes. Write the notes in the Piano Roll. See Play from a MIDI keyboard.
• Notes must sit inside their clip, and each instrument track holds one clip, eight bars long in a new session. For a longer arrangement, build sections in Jam and print them, as in Sketch in Jam, finish in Studio.
• Changing a sound in the Inspector stops playback and returns to the start. Choose the sound first, then play.
• Head Chef hosts its own five instruments only. Third-party instrument plugins are not hosted.

Record a take to the click #

Who it is for: singers and players who want to capture a part and then build the song around it.

What you need: an audio interface or microphone, headphones, and a few minutes to set up. Decide the tempo before you start.

Head Chef 1 records one mono take into a new session whose only track is an empty mono audio track. You hear the metronome while you record, not a backing track, so this recipe records your part first and builds the rest afterwards. Read Before you record for the full list of conditions.

1. Press ⌘N. Choose a Sample rate your interface runs at, choose Mono audio track in Start with and click Create.
2. Choose Settings > Session Settings…, set Tempo / BPM and the Time Signature, and click Apply.
3. Press ⌘S and save the session in a folder you can write to.
4. Click Choose input… on the track header. In the Mono recording input window, click Enable input and allow microphone access, then choose your input channel and click Close. Checkpoint: the track header shows the device and channel. See Choose the recording input.
5. Click Arm on the track header, or press ⇧R. Checkpoint: Arm lights up.
6. Click ♩ to turn the click on. Right-click ♩, choose Play & Rec or Rec Only under Click Mode, choose 2 Bars under Count-In Bars, and turn the count-in on. See Count in before recording.
7. For this first-take workflow, turn on your interface's direct monitoring so you hear yourself and leave Head Chef input monitoring Off. See Monitoring.
8. Click ⏺ Rec. Checkpoint: the status line shows Record ready · Press Space to record, and the track meter moves when you sing or play. If you see Input clipped. Reduce the interface input gain., turn the gain down on the interface.
9. Press Space. The count-in plays, then the take starts. Perform, then press Space to finish. Checkpoint: the status line shows Take recorded with its length, and the take appears as a clip at the start of the track.
10. Press Return, then Space, to listen back. If you want another try, press ⌘Z. The take is removed and the track is empty again. Press Return and record again from step 5.
11. When you keep the take, shape it: trim the silence before you start singing with A, add a short fade in with D, and set its level with clip gain. See Editing audio.
12. Build the song around it. Add drums with Add Instrument > Voltage 80 and write a part as in Build a beat and a bass line, or import a backing with File > Import Audio…. Then mix as in Mix a song from stems.
13. Press ⌘S.

Common snags:

• Save your session before recording. appears: save the session, then click ⏺ Rec again.
• Match the session and input sample rates before recording. appears: create the session at the interface's rate. The rate cannot change once the session holds audio.
• With Head Chef input monitoring Off, use a saved empty session for this workflow. To record over existing backing, choose Input or Auto monitoring on the armed empty destination; see Record another take over the song.
• Each new take needs an empty mono destination. Keep an earlier take on its track and use another empty mono track for the next one; see Recording audio.
• If Head Chef stops during a take, click Recovery… and choose Keep take. See Where takes are stored.

Mix a song from stems #

Who it is for: anyone with a set of audio files exported from another app, a collaborator or a session player, who wants to balance them and print a mix.

What you need: the stems as audio files that all start at the same moment, ideally WAV or AIFF at one sample rate.

1. With no session open, click Import Audio… on the start screen, select every stem in one go and click Open. Head Chef creates a session at the files' sample rate, named after the first file. With a session already open, use File > Import Audio… (⇧⌘I) instead. See Import audio files.
2. Checkpoint: the footer shows Importing audio with a count, then each file appears as its own track with its clip at the start of the session. One ⌘Z removes the whole import.
3. Press ⌘S to save the session.
4. Click Mix, or press ⌘=. Pull every fader down a little, then build the balance up from the most important part, usually the drums or the vocal. Use S and M to solo and mute while you listen. See Set level, pan, solo and mute.
5. Turn the pan knobs to give each part its own place from left to right.
6. Shape individual channels with Chicken Strip. Select a channel, click Inspector, open the Strip tab and click Quick. Turn on the EQ under GRAPHIC EQ and the compressor under COMPRESSOR 1, and set THRESHOLD / dBFS until Peak gain reduction shows a few dB on the loudest notes. Checkpoint: the GR readout on the strip moves with the music. See Shape the sound with Chicken Strip.
7. Add a shared space. Choose Track > Add Effect Return > Voltage Spaces. Checkpoint: a new strip of type AUX RETURN appears in Mix.
8. Select a channel that should sit in that space, open the Inspector's Sends tab, choose the return from Choose return and click Add send. Turn the send level up until you hear the space, then repeat for the other channels. See Send to an Effect Return.
9. To make the echo follow the song, select the return, open the Effect tab, click All, and turn on Echo On and Echo Sync. See Echo that follows tempo.
10. Play the loudest part of the song and watch the MASTER strip. Lower the Main fader, or the loudest channels, until the meter stays out of the red. See The Main channel and headroom.
11. Press ⌘S, then follow Prepare a mix for release to render.

Common snags:

• If stems use different sample rates, keep the default resampling choice in the import options to preserve their speed and pitch. See Importing audio.
• Stems that do not line up were exported from different start points. Export them again from the same start point, or line them up with the Place dialog.
• Supported imported stems have no fixed combined file-size allowance. Head Chef keeps their audio on disk; allow enough free space for imported audio, conversion work and saved copies. See Performance and memory.
• A session holds up to four Effect Returns. Share one Voltage Spaces return between many channels rather than adding one per channel.
• With third-party plugins in the session, moving the cursor anywhere except the start may be unavailable. Play from the start, or remove plugins you do not need.

Prepare a mix for release #

Who it is for: anyone sending a finished mix to a mastering engineer, a distributor or a streaming service.

What you need: a finished, saved mix and the delivery requirements of the place you are sending it, such as file format, sample rate and a loudness or peak target.

Head Chef measures loudness and peaks in the finished file. It does not raise the loudness to a target for you, so you check the numbers and adjust the mix.

1. Unmute and unsolo every channel you want in the mix. Render Mix uses mute and solo exactly as they are when it starts. See What the render includes.
2. Play the whole song and watch the MASTER meter. Click the meter to clear it, and play the loudest passage again. If it turns red, lower the Main fader until it stays clear. That leaves headroom for the file.
3. Choose File > Render Mix… (⌥⌘B). For a check render, set Container to WAV, Sample rate to Project rate and Sample format to 32-bit float. Set Tail / seconds long enough for the last reverb or echo to die away. See Render your mix.
4. Click Choose Output…, name the file, for example check.wav, and click Save.
5. Checkpoint: the progress window moves through Rendering mix… to Mix rendered and lists Rendered audio with Integrated loudness, Loudness range, True peak estimate (4×) and Sample peak. See Read loudness and peaks.
6. Compare the readouts with your target. If the true peak estimate is above the target, lower the Main fader by at least the difference and render the check again. If the mix is quieter than the target and has peaks to spare, raise the Main fader or use Chicken Strip's compressor on Main, and check again.
7. Render the delivery file. For a 24-bit master, choose WAV, Project rate, 24-bit PCM and TPDF dither. For CD-style delivery, choose 44.1 kHz and 16-bit PCM. See Choose the sample format and Choose dither.
8. Render other formats you need, such as FLAC (Lossless) or AIFF, the same way. Read loudness and peaks from the WAV render.
9. Press ⌘S so the session matches the files you sent.

Common snags:

• A PCM render stops with Render failed when a peak goes above 0 dBFS, and no file is saved. Lower the level, or check with 32-bit float first as in step 3.
• Changes you make after starting a render are not in that file. The window says Changes after rendering started are not included. Render again after you change the mix.
• Render Mix always writes the whole session from the start, plus the tail. It never overwrites a file; choose a new name for each version.
• The metronome click is never in a render, so you do not need to turn it off first.
• One render runs at a time. Wait for it, or click Cancel Render.

Finish a project from another music app #

Who it is for: people moving a song they started in another music app into Head Chef to mix or finish it.

What you need: the project file and its audio folders, together as the other app saved them. Head Chef recognizes the project by its file extension, such as .rpp, .als, .ptx, .logicx, .dawproject, .aaf or .mid. The full list is in Open a project from another music app and File formats.

1. Make sure the project's audio is next to the project file, as the other app saved it. Head Chef looks for the audio there.
2. Choose File > Open Session… (⌘O). The file type list shows All supported sessions. Select the project and click Open. You can also drag the project file onto Arrange.
3. Checkpoint: a new, unsaved session opens with the project's tracks in order, its audio clips at their positions, and its volume, pan, mute, solo, tempo and time signature. Play it from the start and compare it with the original.
4. Choose File > Save Session As… (⌃⌘S) and save it in a new folder. Head Chef writes a .headchef session and copies the audio next to it. The original project is never changed. See Save the result.
5. Choose Settings > Session Settings… and check the tempo and time signature. If Head Chef shows a note that 4/4 is assumed, click the Keep button or enter the right time signature, and click Apply. See An assumed time signature.
6. Plugins and their settings from the other app do not come across. Rebuild the processing on each channel with Chicken Strip, a channel preset, built-in effects or your own effects through + Third-party Plugin. See Add a plugin from a channel.
7. For a Standard MIDI File, each MIDI track arrives as an instrument track playing Voltage 80 (for drum-channel parts) or Octet. Swap instruments with Change… under INSTRUMENT in the Inspector. See Change the instrument on a track.
8. Finish the mix as in Mix a song from stems from step 4, then prepare it for release.

Common snags:

• A message starting Cannot open audio: means the audio folder is missing or moved. Put the project back in its original folder with its audio beside it, and open it again.
• How much comes across depends on the file and the app that saved it. Instrument parts that the other app plays through its own instruments may need to be exported as audio files or as a Standard MIDI File first. Export them in the other app, then add them with Importing.
• The session can hold up to 128 source tracks. Leave enough free disk space for the audio and saved copies; there is no fixed allowance for their combined file size.
• If the current session has unsaved changes, Head Chef first asks Save changes to this session?

Mix with a control surface or an assistant #

Who it is for: people who prefer real faders to a mouse, and people who want an AI assistant to do the setup work, such as naming tracks or building groups, while they listen.

What you need: for a surface, a hardware control surface that supports the protocol named in Connect a control surface. For an assistant, an assistant app that supports MCP. You can use either one, or both on the same session.

Use a control surface #

1. Set the surface to the right mode, connect it, and choose Settings > Control Surface….
2. Choose the surface under MIDI input and MIDI output and click Enable. Checkpoint: the status reads Connected. Click Done.
3. Open a session. Checkpoint: motorized faders move to the levels of the first eight channels.
4. Touch a fader, move it and let go. Checkpoint: the strip in Head Chef follows, and ⌘Z undoes the whole move in one step.
5. Use the bank buttons to move to the next eight channels and the channel buttons to move by one. The Main fader controls the Main channel.
6. Use the surface's Play and Stop buttons to listen back without reaching for the keyboard. See What the surface controls.

Use an AI assistant #

1. Open Head Chef and the session you want to work on, and save it.
2. Connect your assistant app as described in Connect an AI assistant.
3. Ask the assistant to describe the session. Checkpoint: it lists your tracks, instruments and mix settings.
4. Ask for setup work the app window leaves to the connection, for example: rename and color the tracks, put the drum tracks in a folder, or create a group with a VCA master for the backing vocals. See Folders, groups and VCA masters.
5. Checkpoint: each change appears in Arrange and Mix as it happens. A VCA master appears as a VCA MASTER strip and a summing folder as a FOLDER BUS strip.
6. Ask for mix moves in plain words, such as "lower the guitars by 2 dB" or "send the vocal to the Voltage Spaces return". Listen after each one, and press ⌘Z to step back from anything you do not like.
7. When you are happy, press ⌘S.

Common snags:

• The surface's MIDI input is reserved for the surface. It appears with (Control Surface) in the MIDI keyboard settings and cannot play instruments.
• Finish a fader move before you press Solo or Mute on the surface.
• If you change the session while the assistant is working, its next edit is refused rather than overwriting your work. Let it read the session again. See One shared session.
• The assistant connects only while Head Chef is running. If it cannot connect, open Head Chef and check the command path in the assistant app.