DAW Integration¶

AI Music Studio supports three tiers of DAW integration, from fully automated to manual import.

Integration Tiers¶

graph LR
    MIDI[Generated MIDI] --> T1[Tier 1: Automated]
    MIDI --> T2[Tier 2: Semi-automated]
    MIDI --> T3[Tier 3: Manual Export]

    T1 --> FS[FluidSynth]
    T1 --> TM[TiMidity]
    T2 --> GB[GarageBand]
    T2 --> LP[Logic Pro]
    T3 --> EX[MIDI / WAV file]

Tier	Backends	Platform	Automation Level
1	FluidSynth, TiMidity	Linux, macOS, Windows	Fully automated via subprocess
2	GarageBand, Logic Pro	macOS only	Semi-automated via AppleScript
3	File export	Universal	Manual import

Tier 1 — FluidSynth¶

FluidSynth renders MIDI to WAV using a SoundFont (.sf2).

Setup¶

# macOS
brew install fluidsynth

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install fluidsynth fluid-soundfont-gm

# Windows
choco install fluidsynth

Download a SoundFont. Good free options: - GeneralUser GS — general MIDI - FluidR3_GM — bundled with Ubuntu

Set the path:

export SOUNDFONT_PATH=/path/to/soundfont.sf2

Usage¶

python scripts/generate_demo.py \
  --genre blues \
  --key A \
  --mode minor \
  --render-audio \
  --backend fluidsynth

Tier 1 — TiMidity¶

TiMidity++ is an alternative software synthesizer.

Setup¶

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install timidity timidity-patches

# macOS
brew install timidity

Usage¶

python scripts/generate_demo.py \
  --genre pop \
  --key C \
  --mode major \
  --render-audio \
  --backend timidity

Tier 2 — GarageBand (macOS)¶

The GarageBand backend uses AppleScript to open the generated MIDI file in GarageBand and trigger playback or export.

macOS Only

This backend requires macOS and GarageBand to be installed.

Usage¶

from audio_engineer.daw.garageband import GarageBandBackend

backend = GarageBandBackend()
backend.open("output/session_full.mid")

Tier 2 — Logic Pro (macOS)¶

Similar to GarageBand but targets Logic Pro via OSA.

macOS Only

This backend requires macOS and Logic Pro to be installed.

Tier 3 — File Export (Default)¶

The default backend (export) writes:

File	Format	Contents
`<session-id>_drums.mid`	MIDI	Drum track (channel 10)
`<session-id>_bass.mid`	MIDI	Bass track
`<session-id>_guitar.mid`	MIDI	Guitar track
`<session-id>_keys.mid`	MIDI	Keyboard track (if enabled)
`<session-id>_full.mid`	MIDI	All tracks combined

Import the combined file into any DAW (Ableton, Logic, Reaper, etc.).

Backend API¶

All backends implement AbstractDAWBackend from audio_engineer.daw.base:

class AbstractDAWBackend:
    def export(self, session_id: str, midi_file: MidiFile, output_dir: Path) -> list[Path]:
        """Write output files and return their paths."""
        ...

    def render_audio(self, midi_path: Path, output_path: Path) -> Path:
        """Render MIDI to audio. Optional — raises NotImplementedError if unsupported."""
        ...

To add a new backend, subclass AbstractDAWBackend, implement export(), and register it in daw/__init__.py.