Getting Started -- Your First Spatial Mix

Turn your stems into spatial audio that orbits around the listener's head.

When you open the studio, you'll choose between two modes: Tesser for quick single-stem spatial placement, or Orchestrate for multi-stem projects with a full timeline and keyframes. Both modes share the same spatial canvas -- Tesser is fast, Orchestrate is deep.

1. Drag audio files onto the canvas or click the + button to import stems.
2. Each stem becomes an orb on the 2D spatial canvas.
3. Drag orbs to position them in the spatial field -- left/right and front/back.
4. Hit Play to hear your spatial mix.
5. The center of the canvas is the center of the listener's head. Further from center means more extreme spatial positioning.

Modes -- Choose Your Workflow

1. Choose at the start. When you open the studio, you'll see two mode cards. Your choice sets the workflow for that project.
2. Tesser -- Quick spatial. Import a single stem, place it in space, add motion, and export. The transport bar sits at the bottom with a seek bar for scrubbing. No timeline, no keyframes -- just direct spatial control. If you import a new file, it replaces the current stem.
3. Orchestrate -- Full control. Import multiple stems, position each one on the canvas, choreograph movement with keyframes on the timeline, and export a full spatial mix. The drawer at the bottom includes transport controls (play, loop, A/B toggle, BPM, undo/redo) and a resizable timeline with per-stem lanes.
4. What they share. Both modes use the same spatial canvas, motion presets (Orbit, Swirl, Rush, Float, etc.), room environments (Void, Studio, Hall, Bunker), and binaural export. The difference is depth -- Tesser is for quick results, Orchestrate is for detailed choreography.
5. Mode is set per project. You choose the mode when creating a project. Existing projects keep their mode when you reopen them.

Audio Panel — Per-Stem Audio & Spatial Controls

Audio Panel (left)

1. Open Orchestrate mode — the Audio Panel appears on the left side, the Motion Panel on the right.
2. Select a stem by clicking its orb on the canvas.
3. Speed — adjust playback speed (0.5x–2.0x). Speed affects pitch — slowing down lowers the pitch, speeding up raises it. Use preset buttons for common values. 0.85x is the classic "slowed + reverb" speed.
4. Volume — control the stem's level independently (0%–100%).
5. Spatial — set the 3D intensity (0%–100%). Toggle A/B per stem to compare spatial vs flat. Default 50%.
6. Clarity — global tone control. 0% = dark/warm, 50% = neutral, 100% = bright/airy.
7. Room — expand to choose a room preset (Void, Studio, Hall, Bunker) and fine-tune Space, Size, Decay, and Damping sliders.
8. The effective tempo readout shows your project BPM multiplied by the stem's speed.
9. "Apply to all stems" below each slider broadcasts the current value to every stem.

Motion Panel (right)

1. The Motion Panel appears on the right side in Orchestrate mode.
2. It controls motion speed (SPD) — how fast the orb moves between keyframe positions on the canvas.
3. This is separate from playback speed — motion speed affects visual movement, not audio.
4. The slider is keyframe-aware: select a keyframe to set its motion speed individually.
5. The panel can be resized, hidden, and restored — same interactions as the Audio Panel.

BPM & Beat Grid -- Tempo-Aware Timeline

1. Import a stem -- Tessering analyzes the audio and detects the tempo automatically.
2. The detected BPM appears in the transport bar. The first stem you import sets the project tempo.
3. The timeline switches from seconds to bar numbers (1, 2, 3, 4...) and a beat grid appears on the stem lanes.
4. To change the project BPM: edit the number in the transport bar directly, or select a stem and click "Use as project BPM" in the Audio Panel.
5. The beat grid shows bar lines (brighter) and beat lines (subtle) to help you place keyframes on the beat.

Motion Presets -- Bring Your Stems to Life

1. Select a stem by clicking its orb on the canvas.
2. The Motion Panel appears on the left sidebar.
3. Choose from six motion presets:

• Stop -- Stem stays at its position. No motion.
• Free -- Drag the orb freely while playing. Manual positioning.
• Orbit -- Circular motion around the home position.
• Swirl -- Spiral motion expanding and contracting.
• Rush -- Fast linear motion, directional energy.
• Float -- Gentle ambient wandering.

Speed (SPD) slider controls how fast the motion plays (0.1x -- 4.0x). In Orchestrate mode, speed is controlled per-keyframe in the Motion accordion or via the Audio Edit Panel.

Radius (RAD) slider controls how wide the motion path is in Tesser mode (0.1 -- 2.5).

Keyframes — Choreograph Movement & Automate Parameters

Spatial movement

1. The Score Drawer appears automatically at the bottom of the studio when you import stems in Orchestrate mode. You can resize it by dragging the handle at its top edge.
2. The drawer shows a timeline with lanes for each stem.
3. Drag an orb on the canvas to set its position — a keyframe is created automatically at the current playback time. You can also add keyframes by interacting with the timeline lanes.
4. Keyframes set the stem's position at a specific moment.
5. Between keyframes, the stem interpolates — it moves smoothly from one position to the next.
6. Select a keyframe and adjust the SPD slider in the Motion Panel (right side) to control how fast the stem moves between positions. Different keyframes can have different speeds — the stem accelerates and decelerates between them.
7. Drag keyframes to reposition them in time.
8. Each segment between keyframes can have a different motion type.
9. This is how you create complex spatial choreography — different movements at different times.

Parameter keyframing

1. Select a keyframe in the timeline to edit its parameters.
2. Volume keyframing — in the Audio Panel, the Volume slider shows the selected keyframe's value. Drag to set volume at that point. The stem's volume interpolates between keyframes during playback.
3. Speed keyframing — the Speed slider in the Audio Panel works the same way. Set different playback rates at different keyframes for tempo changes over time.
4. Spatial intensity keyframing — set different 3D intensities at different keyframes. The spatial blend morphs between them.
5. Motion speed keyframing — in the Motion Panel, the SPD slider sets how fast the orb moves between positions at each keyframe.

Stem Management -- Organize Your Workspace

Collapse to pill

1. Drag a stem lane upward in the drawer -- a "Drop to minimize" zone appears.
2. Drop the lane on the zone -- the stem collapses into a small colored pill above the remaining lanes.
3. Collapsed stems still play audio -- collapse is visual only, for focusing on specific stems.
4. Click a pill to restore the stem back to the drawer.
5. Click the mute icon on a pill to mute/unmute without restoring.

Drawer minimize

6. Drag the drawer resize handle all the way down -- the drawer collapses to just the transport bar.
7. Click the chevron icon in the transport bar header to restore the drawer.
8. This gives you full canvas space while keeping playback controls accessible.

Export -- Create Your 8D Audio

1. Click the Export button (share icon in the toolbar).
2. Tessering renders your spatial mix as a binaural WAV file.
3. The export captures all stem positions, motions, and keyframes.
4. The exported WAV sounds 3D when listened to with headphones.
5. Share on TikTok, YouTube, SoundCloud -- anywhere that plays audio.
6. For best results, export at the original sample rate of your stems.

Saving -- Keep Your Spatial Layouts

1. Press Cmd+S (Mac) or Ctrl+S (Windows) to save.
2. First save: choose a project name and whether to include audio stems.
3. "Save layout only": saves positions, motions, keyframes (~50 KB). You will need to re-import audio when reopening.
4. "Include audio stems": uploads your audio files to the cloud. Reopen on any device with full playback.
5. After first save, changes auto-save every few seconds.
6. Open saved projects from the Project Dashboard (avatar menu, "Projects").
7. Projects can be renamed or deleted from the dashboard.

Keyboard Shortcuts

In Tesser mode, Undo and Redo are inactive since there are no keyframe operations.