Now in early access for macOS, Windows and Linux
Hear what you're looking for.
ToneTrace listens to your own sample library and tags every file by instrument, mood and genre, so you find sounds by how they sound rather than by what someone named them.
Both models run on your machine. Nothing is uploaded in the current build.
Find sounds in seconds
Type what you're after, or pick a sound and ask for more like it. Search covers file names and every tag ToneTrace has heard, and Find Similar ranks the rest of your library by how close it sounds.
Hears samples the way you do
Two open audio models listen to each file. One recognises instruments and sound events, the other describes mood, genre and production character. Every tag carries the model's own confidence.
Stays in your creative flow
Audition with play, loop and volume, then drag the file straight into your DAW. Tags can be written into the files themselves, so browsers that read audio metadata see them too.
The library view
Your folders, your files, now with ears
Files stay exactly where they are. ToneTrace builds a folder tree from your library, shows a real waveform and the top tags on every card, and keeps a transport bar ready for auditioning.
Local by default
Your audio stays on your computer by default
ToneTrace is a desktop app. In the current build, analysis, search and playback all happen on your own machine and nothing is uploaded. Processing is local by default. An optional faster processing path may be offered at launch for machines that cannot keep up; it would be opt-in and announced together with pricing.
Models run on your CPU
Both models run locally through ONNX Runtime. Analysis takes about a second and a half per file on a laptop.
Library lives on your disk
Tags, waveforms and audio fingerprints are stored in a local database next to the app.
Analysis needs no connection
In the current build, ToneTrace makes no network requests. A studio with no Wi-Fi is not a problem.
Nothing to upload, nothing to meter
Early-access builds need no sign-in and send nothing. How licensing and any optional processing options work at launch will be announced with pricing.
How it works
Drop in a folder. Get a library that listens.
- 01
Import
Drag files or folders onto ToneTrace, or pick a folder. Every audio file inside is queued.
- 02
Listen
YAMNet picks out instruments and sound events. CLAP describes mood, genre and production character. When they disagree about similar instruments, both are weighed before the tag is chosen.
- 03
Tag
Each file gets its tags with a confidence figure, its duration, size and a real waveform. Files are fingerprinted, so nothing is analysed twice.
- 04
Use
Search names and tags, find similar sounds, audition, then drag into your DAW or write the tags into the files.
Who it's for
Built for people who work from a library
Producers
Stop scrubbing through folders named by someone else. Find the kick you're hearing in your head.
Sound designers
Field recordings and textures get tags for what is actually in them, not the day you recorded them.
Bedroom producers
Growing collection, no time to organise it. Point ToneTrace at the folder and keep making music.
Educators
Shared sample libraries that students can search by sound, processed on the school's own machines by default.
Questions
Straight answers
Does my audio ever leave my computer?
Not in the current build. ToneTrace is a desktop app: both models run on your own CPU, the library database lives on your disk, and the app makes no network requests.
Local processing is the default and will stay the default. For launch we are evaluating an optional faster processing path for machines that cannot keep up, which would send audio for analysis. If it is offered, it will be opt-in, clearly labelled, and announced together with pricing.
Which audio formats are supported?
MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, AAC, OGG, WMA, AIFF. Decoding is handled by a bundled copy of FFmpeg.
Which DAWs does it work with?
Any of them, in two ways. Files drag out of ToneTrace as native operating-system file drags, which every DAW, sampler and file browser accepts. And ToneTrace can write its tags into the files themselves as standard metadata (ID3 for MP3, Broadcast Wave for WAV, a JSON sidecar otherwise), so browsers and sample managers that read that metadata will show the tags. No plugin is needed and none is planned to be required.
Be among the first to try ToneTrace
Early access is free. Pricing will be announced at launch. Tell us your DAW and platform and we will let you know when a build is ready for you.