TESSERINGLearnV1.3

Getting Started -- Your First Spatial Mix

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

Headphones are required. Spatial audio relies on binaural processing that only works through headphones.

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.
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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. Tesser is the default on mobile devices.
  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 with motion presets (Orbit, Swirl, Rush, Float, and others). 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 workspace has three zones: the Audio Panel on the left for per-stem audio and spatial controls, the Motion Panel on the right for motion speed, and the drawer at the bottom with transport controls (play, loop, A/B toggle, undo/redo) and a resizable timeline with per-stem lanes. Lanes can be split, moved, resized, and edited segment-by-segment, and clips move freely across the fixed lane grid — drag a clip onto an empty lane to spin it into its own stem.
  4. What they share. Both modes use the same spatial canvas, 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.
TESSERORCHESTRATE

Audio Panel — Per-Stem Audio & Spatial Controls

The Audio Panel appears on the left side of the workspace in Orchestrate mode. The Motion Panel appears on the right. Each stem has its own independent Audio Panel state — select a stem to see its 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 on a 0–100 scale (a plain number, no percent sign; new stems start at 100), with mute and solo buttons for quick isolation.
  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. "Apply to all stems" below each slider broadcasts the current value to every stem.
Each parameter shows a small indicator next to its name: a diamond ◆ means the parameter has keyframe automation, a circle ○ means it's at a static value. Sliders update smoothly during playback when keyframes are animating.
Each section is collapsible — click the header to expand or collapse. Speed and Volume are expanded by default. Spatial, Clarity, and Room are collapsed.
Double-click any readout to reset to default.
The panel can be resized by dragging its right edge, or hidden by dragging it fully to the left. When hidden, hover the left edge to reveal the expand tab.

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.

Spatial Audio — How Tessering Renders 3D Sound

Tessering renders all spatial audio with SADIE II — it's what you hear live and what every export captures. There's no engine to choose or switch; spatial rendering just works, the same way for every project.
  1. SADIE II uses measured head-related impulse responses from the University of York's SADIE II dataset (D2 KEMAR, diffuse-field equalized and spectrally smoothed) — so positions sound where they should around your head, not just panned left or right.
  2. The spatial dataset loads quietly in the background the first time you play — there's a brief moment before spatial audio engages, then it's instant.
  3. Move an orb on the canvas and SADIE II tracks its position in real time, with a brief position-update smoothing (~25ms) that keeps rapid spatial motion feeling clean rather than jumpy.
  4. Exports always render with SADIE II — the binaural WAV sounds exactly like what you heard in the studio.
SADIE II handles the hard positions smoothly — including the lateral poles, where a sound passes directly past your left or right ear. The rendering chain transits those points cleanly, without the audible discontinuity older spatial methods could produce.
Spatial rendering is the same for everyone — it's how the app works, not an add-on. Listen on headphones; binaural audio relies on per-ear processing that only comes through over headphones.

Convolution Reverb

Tessering's reverb is convolution-based — it uses measured impulse responses captured from real rooms, so a space sounds true to life because it's the actual response of that room, not a synthetic approximation.
  1. Open the Audio Panel and scroll to the Reverb section.
  2. Pick from eight presets.
  3. Mix is the on/off — at 0 the stem is fully dry and the reverb is silent; raise Mix to bring the room in. Then shape the tail with Decay, Damp, and Pre-Delay.
Reverb is dry by default. Until you raise Mix above 0, the stem plays completely dry — no room, no tail. Mix is the single on/off for the whole reverb.

Preset list

  • Measured rooms: Tight Room, Live Room, Stone Chamber, Concert Hall, Cathedral, Infinite Space.
  • Synthetic: Plate, Spring. Marked SYNTH in the preset list — modelled, not captured from a physical space.
Convolution sounds most natural on acoustic material — drums in a cathedral feel like drums in a cathedral. Lower the Mix or pick a tighter room when you want the space to sit back.
Convolution renders in exports exactly as you hear it live.

Creative Muffle Filter

A creative low-pass sweep, not a realistic head shadow. Use it to go from a clear open sound to an underwater or behind-the-door feel — then back again.
  1. Select a stem and open the Audio Panel.
  2. Move the Muffle slider. 0% is fully open (no effect). 100% is deep underwater (low-pass around 200 Hz).
  3. Drop keyframes during playback to automate the sweep — muffled verse rising into a clear chorus is the classic move.
Muffle is off by default (0%). It only colors the signal once you move it — no penalty for stems you aren't sweeping.
Per-stem, and keyframeable with independent timing from your other parameters.

Motion Presets -- Bring Your Stems to Life

Motion presets are available in Tesser mode. In Orchestrate mode, stem movement is controlled by keyframes.
  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).

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Keyframes — Choreograph Movement & Automate Parameters

Keyframes are an Orchestrate mode feature. In Tesser mode, you place a single stem in space with motion presets — no timeline or keyframes needed.

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 press the add-keyframe-at-playhead button to drop a keyframe at the current time without moving the orb.
  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 a keyframe in the timeline to reposition it in time. When multiple keyframes are selected, dragging one moves all of them together while preserving their relative timing.
  8. If a segment containing keyframes is moved on the timeline, the keyframes travel with it. See Segment Editing for details.
  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.
  6. Diamond and circle indicators next to each parameter slider in the Audio Panel show whether that parameter is keyframed at the current keyframe (diamond) or interpolated (circle).

Selection and editing

  1. Click a keyframe diamond in the timeline to select it. Click an empty area of the canvas or timeline to clear the selection.
  2. Lasso select — drag across the timeline to draw a selection rectangle; every keyframe inside is selected. The marquee works over clips too — hold Shift and drag across a clip to lasso the keyframes on it without moving the clip.
  3. Cmd+A selects all keyframes across all lanes. Esc clears the selection.
  4. Drag diamonds on the canvas to reposition a keyframe's spatial coordinates without changing its time. Drag diamonds on the timeline to reposition in time without changing position.
  5. Arrow keys nudge the selected keyframes left or right by small time increments. Hold to repeat.
  6. Right-click any keyframe to open its context menu — Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Delete.
  7. Keyboard shortcuts mirror the context menu: Cmd+C copy, Cmd+V paste, Cmd+D duplicate, Delete or Backspace to remove.
  8. All keyframe edits are undoable with Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). Cmd+Shift+Z redoes.
Select a clip in the timeline and its source orb lights up on the canvas — so you can see at a glance which orb a clip drives.
A diamond indicator (♦) means the keyframe has an explicit value set. A circle indicator (○) means the keyframe inherits the interpolated value.
Double-click any readout to reset that keyframe's parameter to default.
All keyframed parameters — volume, speed, spatial intensity, and motion speed — are included in export.
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Segment Editing — Slice and Reshape Your Timeline

Segment editing is available in Orchestrate mode only. In Tesser, each stem is a single continuous clip with no segment operations.

What is a segment

  1. Every lane in Orchestrate starts as one continuous segment that spans the full length of its stem.
  2. The razor tool slices a lane into multiple segments. Each segment becomes independently editable — you can move it, resize it, delete it, or duplicate it without affecting the rest of the lane.
  3. Segments can't overlap. The app prevents you from dragging or resizing a segment into space already occupied by another segment on the same lane.
1. STARTING STATE0:000:082. AFTER SPLIT3. MOVED & RESIZED

Split with the razor

  1. Press the pink razor icon in the drawer header to enter razor mode. The cursor turns into a razor blade when hovering over lanes.
  2. Click on any segment at the time you want to split it. The segment splits into two at the click point.
  3. Razor mode stays active — click again on any segment to make another split. You can split multiple lanes in a row without re-toggling.
  4. Hold Shift while clicking to split every stem at the same time. Useful for breaking your project into bars, sections, or markers across the whole arrangement.
  5. Press the razor icon again to exit razor mode. The cursor returns to normal and segments become drag-editable.

Move a segment

  1. With razor mode off, click and hold anywhere on a segment's body to start moving it.
  2. Drag horizontally to reposition the segment along its lane. A tooltip near the cursor shows the segment's start and end times in m:ss.sss format (for example, 0:02.345 → 0:05.678).
  3. Keyframes inside the segment travel with it. Their timing relative to the segment is preserved.
  4. Drag a clip onto another lane to move it there — a clip carries its own audio wherever it lands, so a cross-lane move reshapes your layout without changing what it sounds like. See Stem Management for the lane grid.
  5. Release to commit the move. Press Esc during the drag to cancel and snap the segment back to its original position.

Resize a segment

  1. Hover near a segment's left or right edge. The cursor changes to a horizontal resize indicator within an 8-pixel zone at each edge.
  2. Click and drag the edge to extend or shrink the segment. A tooltip shows the dragged edge's time in m:ss.sss format.
  3. If keyframes fall outside the new segment bounds after resizing, they're dropped. The tooltip shows the count of keyframes that would be dropped before you commit. Cmd+Z restores them.
  4. Segments can't resize into a neighboring segment. The edge stops at the neighbor's boundary; a thin white marker line appears at the limit while you continue dragging.
  5. Release to commit. Press Esc during the drag to cancel and restore the original size.

Delete or duplicate

  1. Right-click any segment to open its context menu.
  2. Delete removes the segment and frees up its space on the lane. Other segments stay in place.
  3. Duplicate creates a copy of the segment immediately after the original, including any keyframes inside it.
Click a clip to select it — a red outline marks the selected clip, and edits act on it. Click empty space on the timeline or canvas to deselect.
Every segment operation — split, move, resize, delete, duplicate — is undoable with Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). Cmd+Shift+Z redoes.
Looping works across multiple segments. With loop on, the whole arrangement restarts together at the end of the longest lane — every clip on every lane replays from the top. It's a whole-timeline loop, not a per-clip one.

Live Slider Feedback

During playback, every parameter slider — volume, speed, muffle, spatial, clarity — shows the current interpolated keyframe value in real time. What you see is what you hear.
  1. Press play. Sliders animate along your automation curves.
  2. Drag any slider to override the current value. The nearest keyframe is auto-selected so your edit gets captured.
  3. Release the slider — it resumes tracking the automation on the next tick.
Use this to "perform" values against the playing mix, then tidy up the keyframes afterwards.

Stem Management -- Organize Your Workspace

Clips and lanes

  1. In Orchestrate, audio lives as clips arranged on a fixed grid of lanes -- up to ten rows in the drawer timeline. Each lane holds one stem.
  2. Drag a clip onto an empty lane to spin it into its own stem -- the clip materializes as a new stem on that row, with its own orb on the canvas.
  3. Drag a clip across lanes to move it. A clip carries its own audio wherever it lands, so the move rearranges your layout without changing what it sounds like.
  4. Drag a clip into space another clip occupies and the neighbor ripples out of the way instead of disappearing -- the timeline rearranges to keep both.
  5. Deleting the last clip on a lane removes that stem. If the stem still holds unsaved audio, Tessering guards you before anything is lost.
A clip keeps its own audio wherever it lands -- drag a bass clip onto the melody lane and it still plays bass. Moving clips reshapes your layout, never your sound.

Drawer minimize

  1. Drag the drawer resize handle all the way down -- the drawer collapses to just the transport bar.
  2. Click the chevron icon in the transport bar header to restore the drawer.
  3. This gives you full canvas space while keeping playback controls accessible.
The drawer always opens at one-third screen height on first load.

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.
Export works without an account. Your spatial layout is not saved unless you sign in and save the project.
Exports always use SADIE II, Tessering's spatial engine. The HRTF processing is level-transparent — your exported audio maintains the same volume and clarity as the original.
Per-stem speed and volume settings are included in the export. If you've slowed a stem to 0.85x or set its volume, the exported WAV reflects those settings — and a slowed or sped-up stem renders in full, at its complete stretched or compressed length, never cut short.
Your timeline reshape work is captured in the export. If you've sliced a stem with the razor, moved a segment, or resized a segment's edges, the exported WAV reflects exactly the arrangement you hear in the studio.
All keyframed parameters are captured in the export — if you've automated volume fades, speed changes, or spatial intensity sweeps across keyframes, the exported WAV includes them.

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, and timeline segments (~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.
Your projects are private. Only you can see and access them.

Keyboard Shortcuts

ShortcutAction
SpacePlay / Pause
Cmd/Ctrl+SSave project
Cmd/Ctrl+ZUndo
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+ZRedo
EscapeCancel current action / Close popover

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