What is Studio3 BOX
Studio3 BOX is an in-browser beat maker / DAW at /tools/studio3-box.
You build music from a 16-step sequencer — no install, no plugins, no external
samples. Everything plays via Web Audio API straight in the browser.
What it can do
- Drum sequencer 16 steps × 5 sounds (kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, perc) with 3-level velocity per step (soft / medium / hard) and round-robin (3 variants per drum)
- 8 drum kits + Custom with distinct character (Studio, Rock, Lo-Fi, Latin, Hip-Hop, Acoustic, Trap, Tech-House) + user-editable Custom with 6-slider editor
- Chords + chord rhythm — automatic accompaniment (pad, stab, strum, skank, arpeggio in various flavors including arp-oct and arp-stab)
- 9 chord voices (saw, warm, bright, ambient, dark, bell, organ, piano, strings)
- Bass line — either Smart auto-generate (10 styles: root-quarter, walking, syncopated, disco, reggae, latin, funk, jazz-walking + 2 base + custom 16-step); 4 voices (punch, sub, wobble, pluck)
- Polyphonic melody — 16-step grid, click multiple notes in one column for a chord; 7 voices (lead, piano, e-piano, strings, bell, organ, synth lead)
- Song sections A/B/C/D — 4 pattern variants you switch between (intro, chorus…)
- Live Loops — Ableton-style clip launcher (Sequencer ↔ Live Loops toggle)
- Master effects — reverb + delay + compressor preset (gentle/medium/aggressive)
- sidechain ducking (kick → pad/melody pumping, off/light/heavy)
- Swing — humanize timing (0-50%, off-beats shift later for triplet feel)
- 8 drum pattern presets — Rock 4/4, Hip-hop boom-bap, House, Trap, Disco, Reggae one-drop, Jazz brush, Drum'n'Bass (dropdown above the drum grid)
- Multi-octave melody — 3/4/5 picker above grid; dot indicator on cells with notes in another octave
- Export — save as MP3 (everyone) or WAV (Premium) to personal library
- Save unfinished tracks to your profile — full state (4 sections, chords, voices, FX, custom kit, swing, sidechain) into DB for later re-opening and further edits
- Builder integration — saved tracks appear as music source in Presentation Builder (section "My tracks — Studio3 BOX")
How to start
- Open
/tools/studio3-box - Click "Play" — you'll hear an empty bar with metronome
- Click into the drum grid (5 rows: kick/snare/closedHat/openHat/perc) — each click cycles velocity: 0 → soft → medium → hard → off
- Pick a chord in the "Chords" section (4 bars × C/Dm/Em/F/G/Am) or use a template (pop, fifties, jazz, classic, sad, uplift)
- Try voices — pad voice on chord (warm, bell, piano…), lead voice on melody (piano, strings, synth lead)
- Save via "Save to library" → MP3/WAV
Sequencer vs. Live Loops
| Sequencer | Live Loops | |
|---|---|---|
| Concept | Classic pattern in 16-step grid | Clip launcher — fire pre-built loops |
| Best for | Building your own track step by step | Improvisation, live performance, exploration |
| Voices | Full control (chord/lead/bass voice) | Shares drum kit + FX, loops have fixed sound |
| Song sections | A/B/C/D with own content | None (clip layering replaces them) |
| Drum velocity | Per step (soft/med/hard) | Per loop preset |
| Switching | Top-bar toggle "Sequencer ↔ Live Loops" | Top-bar toggle |
Keyboard shortcuts
- Space (currently no effect — planned) — start/stop transport
- Cmd/Ctrl + Z — not implemented; save often via Library
Tips
- Kit is global — switching kit applies to all sections A/B/C/D
- Voice picker is per-section — section A can use warm pad, B bell pad, etc.
- Master FX (reverb + delay) is shared between Sequencer and Live Loops
- Velocity affects both loudness and timbre — soft hits are darker, hard hits are brighter (sample bank holds 3 buffers per drum)
- Pre-render on kit change — you'll see "Loading samples…" for 200-700 ms, then it plays from memory = better timing and lower CPU