Sioto Loops Documentation

Requirements and installation

• Windows 10 or Windows 11, x64.
• Extract the portable ZIP and run Sioto Loops.exe.
• No installer is required.
• For low-latency recording, use the ASIO driver supplied with the audio interface.
• Low-latency, shared, and exclusive WASAPI modes are available when ASIO is unavailable.
• VST3 effects are supported. Legacy VST2 effects are not supported.

The current package is not code-signed, so Windows may display a SmartScreen warning.

Projects and files

• Create a project inside a dedicated folder.
• Save songs as readable .sioto JSON project files.
• Open existing projects from the File menu.
• Use Save to update the current project.
• Access the 10 most recent projects directly from the File menu.
• Access up to 20 additional recent projects through the expanded recent-project submenu.
• Use Exit to close the application.
• Project loading uses an in-window loading splash.
• Recorded samples are stored inside <project>/Recorded.
• The project Recorded folder is automatically shown in the sample browser and cannot be removed.

Transport and timing

• Play and stop controls.
• Space plays or stops everywhere except while typing in a text input.
• Pause is not used: stopping returns immediately to the stored playlist cursor position.
• Press Stop again when already at the stored cursor position to return to the start of the song.
• Only clicking the playlist ruler changes the stored cursor position.
• Playback loops to the start after the final sample ends.
• Adjust tempo from 30 to 300 BPM by dragging the tempo number vertically.
• Beat position and elapsed song time are shown in separate displays.
• A parameter display shows the value of the currently hovered knob, slider, control, or automation curve.
• Enable or disable the metronome from the toolbar.
• Recording always begins with a four-beat count-in, even when the normal metronome is disabled.

Sample browser

• Add and remove persistent sample-folder roots.
• Folder selections are saved between application sessions.
• Browse the complete hierarchy below every selected folder.
• Filter folders while selecting them from disk.
• Filter the folder list inside the folder-selection dialog as text is entered.
• Browse WAV, WAVE, AIFF, AIF, FLAC, MP3, and Ogg files.
• Click a sample to preview it once.
• Drag a sample from the browser onto a valid playlist lane.
• Drag supported audio files directly from Windows Explorer into the playlist.
• Drop a sample onto the Add Channel row to create a channel and place the sample there.
• Ctrl-drag a sample onto another channel to create a new channel and place the sample in it.

Playlist and channels

• Create and delete an unlimited number of playlist channels.
• Create a playlist track from the Add Channel row at the bottom of the playlist.
• Create a channel below another channel from its context menu.
• Create subchannels that have independent playlist lanes but share their parent mixer channel.
• Subchannels and automation lanes are indented below their owner channel.
• Mixer buses appear as short, grayed playlist rows that cannot contain audio clips.
• Automation lanes are kept directly below the channel or bus they automate.
• Reorder channels by dragging playlist headers.
• Ctrl-click channel headers to select multiple channels.
• F2 renames the selected channel. Double-click does not rename channels.
• Mute or unmute a playlist channel from its header.
• Playlist channel headers contain stereo VU meters.
• Routed channel groups are kept together and outlined.
• The tools and channel headers remain pinned while scrolling horizontally.
• The ruler and tool header remain pinned while scrolling vertically.
• Every four beats uses an alternating grid background.
• Visible grid subdivisions become finer as horizontal zoom increases.
• Snapping follows the subdivisions currently displayed.
• Horizontal and vertical playlist zoom have extended maximum ranges.
• The cursor has a left-side playback glow that fades when playback stops.

Clip editing

Tools

• Select: drag a marquee over clips.
• Move: move clips between valid playlist lanes and beats.
• Paint: place the selected sample repeatedly next to existing placements without overlap.
• Audition: hold the mouse on a clip to play only that clip from the clicked position; release to stop and restore the previous transport position.
• Slice: split a clip at the clicked position.
• Slip: move the source audio inside the clip without moving the clip itself.
• Mute: mute or unmute a clip.
• Erase: delete a clip.

Selection and movement

• Click a clip to select it.
• Ctrl-drag a marquee to add clips to the current selection.
• Click outside the playlist to clear clip selection.
• Move all selected clips together.
• Shift-drag selected clips to duplicate them and move the copies.
• While dragging between lanes, clips are drawn at their actual proposed destination.
• Clips cannot be dropped on bus or automation rows.
• Drop a moved clip on the Add Channel row to create a channel.

Length, source, and stretching

• Drag either clip edge without Ctrl to reveal or trim source audio without time-stretching.
• Hold Ctrl while dragging either edge to time-stretch the clip.
• Hold Alt during supported edits to disable grid snapping.
• Choose whether time-stretching preserves pitch.
• Fit a sample to the song tempo from the clip context menu.
• Pitch-shift a clip without changing its length.

Gain, pan, fades, and overlaps

• Adjust per-clip gain, pan, and pitch with the controls at the bottom of the clip.
• Vertical progress indicators show the value of gain, pan, and pitch.
• Right-click a clip parameter to set an exact value, copy, paste, or reset it.
• Clip gain supports values up to +120 dB.
• Drag the handles at both ends of a clip to adjust fade-in and fade-out durations.
• Drag fade curve handles to bend each fade.
• Set fade curves exactly or select bend down, linear, or bend up.
• Overlapping clips remain translucent so both waveforms stay visible.
• Overlapping waveforms are visually blended.
• Overlapping clips crossfade automatically.
• Edit crossfades manually or reset them to automatic mode.
• Clip fades affect the rendered waveform and audio.
• Handles and edges remain accessible when clips overlap.
• Parameter changes apply to every selected clip.
• Merge selected clips into a project-local audio file from the context menu.

Automation

• Automate mixer knobs, buttons, sliders, effect mix values, clip parameters, and VST3 parameters.
• Create an automation lane for the last-tweaked parameter from the current channel.
• Create automation directly from supported parameter context menus.
• Automation lanes appear as subchannels below the channel or bus they control.
• The current automation value is shown below the automation lane title.
• Click an automation line to create a point.
• Drag points horizontally and vertically.
• Internal points are atomic: moving or deleting one does not move the others.
• The first and last points remain anchored to the start of the first clip and end of the last clip in the owner group.
• When the owner range changes, only the final anchor moves with the end.
• Edit the curve from any point to the following point.
• Curve handles capture relative mouse movement.
• Set point values and curve values exactly.
• Copy, paste, and reset point or curve values.
• Delete internal automation points.
• If an automation lane exists, automation controls the parameter during playback. Otherwise the normal mixer, clip, or plug-in value is used.

Mixer and routing

• A fixed Master channel is always at the far left and cannot be moved.
• New channels route to Master by default.
• Create playlist channels and mixer-only buses from the right side of the mixer.
• Route any regular channel or bus into any other valid mixer destination.
• Routing prevents cycles.
• Connection lines use the source channel color.
• Channels routed into the same bus are automatically placed together and grouped.
• Select one mixer strip by clicking it.
• Ctrl-click strips to add or remove them from the current mixer selection.
• Click elsewhere to clear mixer selection.
• Apply volume, pan, mute, solo, arm, input, and routing changes to all selected channels.
• Select every mixer channel, every channel routed to the clicked destination, or every channel sharing a destination.
• Reorder mixer channels by dragging strips. Master remains fixed.
• Rename the selected strip with F2.
• Control channel volume with a thin color-matched fader.
• Control pan with a circular knob whose filled region uses the channel color.
• Mute channels and right-click mute to solo or unsolo.
• Arm a channel for recording and processed input monitoring.
• Enable or bypass the entire effect chain on a channel.
• Stereo VU meters show left and right levels, colored green through -6 dB, orange to 0 dB, and red above 0 dB.
• VU meters include peak hold and glow.
• Save a mixer channel or bus as a preset and load it later.
• Copy or cut a complete effect chain from one channel to a selected destination channel.
• Right-click supported mixer parameters to set exact values, create automation, copy, paste, or reset.

VST3 effects

• Automatically scan the standard Windows VST3 locations.
• Rescan VST3 folders manually.
• Cache scan results between sessions.
• Track scan progress and avoid repeatedly loading a plug-in that crashed during scanning.
• Filter the plug-in list by plug-in or manufacturer name.
• Mark plug-ins as favorites and filter the list to favorites.
• Add any number of effects to a mixer channel.
• Display the selected channel’s effects as a vertical ordered list.
• Drag effects to reorder the processing chain.
• Open the native VST3 editor in a custom application window.
• Set a wet/dry mix value for every effect; the default is 100%.
• Set the effect mix exactly, automate it, copy it, paste it, or reset it.
• Copy a single VST3 and its complete saved state, then paste it into another channel.
• Persist plug-in state in the project.
• Automate exposed VST3 parameters.
• Copy, paste, reset, and enter exact values for supported plug-in parameters.

Audio and recording

• Prefer installed ASIO drivers and fall back to WASAPI when necessary.
• Persist the selected driver, input/output channels, sample rate, and buffer size.
• Choose from every buffer size advertised by the current audio device.
• Open the active ASIO driver control panel.
• View device input/output latency and XRUN count.
• Use a mono physical input.
• Use stereo physical inputs 1 and 2.
• Use the always-available Windows output (loopback) option to record the stereo Windows speaker mix.
• Windows loopback capture runs on a dedicated WASAPI capture thread and remains selectable while the DAW uses ASIO.
• Audio processing runs separately from the user interface.
• Triple buffering is used for audio/UI state exchange.
• Armed physical inputs are monitored through the channel effects while stopped, playing, and recording.
• Windows loopback is not fed back to the speaker output, preventing recursive feedback.
• Record multiple armed channels at once.
• Recording always uses a four-beat count-in.
• Draw the recorded waveform live up to the current transport position.
• Stream takes to 24-bit WAV files instead of retaining the complete take in memory.
• Add completed takes to the playlist automatically.

Export and metadata

• Open the export dialog from Export....
• Export WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, M4A/AAC, or MIDI.
• Select sample rate, bit depth, bitrate, mono/stereo output, floating-point WAV, and tail behavior where applicable.
• MP3 and M4A export use FFmpeg when it is available.
• Edit title, artist, album, genre, year, track number, comment, and copyright from Properties....
• Apply project metadata to supported exported formats.

Undo and redo

• Use an indefinite named undo/redo history for project edits.
• Undo or redo one action from the Edit menu.
• View action names in the Undo History and Redo History submenus.
• Select a named action to move multiple steps through history.
• Use Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z, or Ctrl+Y.

Shortcuts and mouse controls

Keyboard

Playlist

Mixer, parameters, and transport

Build from source

Requirements: Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop C++ workload, CMake 3.24+, PowerShell, and Windows 10/11. JUCE 8.0.13 is fetched automatically unless SIOTO_JUCE_PATH points to an existing JUCE checkout.

git clone https://github.com/martinpetkovski/SiotoLoops.git
cd SiotoLoops
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\Dev.ps1 build
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\Dev.ps1 run -NoBuild
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\Dev.ps1 test
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\Dev.ps1 package

• Build output: artifacts/build
• Portable packages: artifacts/packages
• Available scripts: configure, build, run, rebuild, clean, test, package, format, and doctor.

Current limitations

• This is an early functional release, not a replacement for a mature production DAW.
• Audio clips are decoded into memory for playback.
• There is no MIDI editing or sequencing.
• There is no automatic plug-in delay compensation.
• VST2 is not supported.
• The Windows release is not code-signed.