Your First Project

This guide takes you from an empty Mikoto Studio window to a rendered, exported audio file. You will find a step-by-step guide to the Arranger, piano roll, lyric entry, and export dialog.

The main window at a glance

Mikoto Studio is divided into three main areas that are visible at all times:

• Toolbar: the strip at the very top of the window.
  • Library: opens the Library panel on the left
  • Add track: create a new track in the Arranger
  • Add marker: place a navigation marker at the current position for easy jumping between sections
  • Transport controls
    • Play: start playback
    • Stop: stop playback. Click twice to return to project start.
    • Record: record MIDI input
    • BPM: change the tempo of your project. Enter a number and hit enter to apply.
    • Time signature: change the time signature of your project. Enter a number and hit enter to apply.
    • Position display. Right click to change between Bar:Beat and Seconds.
    • Scale: currently not implemented
    • Activity: lights up when peripheral (MIDI) activity is detected.
    • Metronome: toggle the metronome
  • Multi-tool: the default cursor for selecting, creating, moving and resizing clips and notes.
  • Pencil tool: click and drag to draw new clips and notes. Switch back to the Multi-tool to move or resize them.
  • Enhancer: opens the Enhancer panel on the right, where you can adjust voice/instrument parameters and add effects.
• Arranger: the project area below the toolbar. Shows your tracks as horizontal lanes and your clips as coloured blocks on a timeline. This is where you arrange the structure of your song.
• Editor area: the panel below the Arranger, switching between notes (piano roll) and mixer views using the tabs at the bottom of the screen.

Two optional panels slide in from the sides:

• Library panel (left): browse and assign singers. Toggle with the Library button at the far left of the toolbar.
• Enhancer panel (right, open by default): voice controls, effects, and presets for the selected clip. Toggle with the Enhancer button at the far right of the toolbar.

Creating a new project

1. Go to File → New. A blank project opens with one default Singer track already added.
2. Go to File → Save as… and choose a location. Mikoto Studio projects are saved as .msq files.

Tip: Use File → Save (or Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) regularly. Starting from version 0.5.4, Mikoto Studio automatically takes a snapshot of your project every 5 minutes and keeps the most recent two copies as a backup. In the future, you will be able to view these snapshots and restore them from within the editor. Settings for autosave and backups will also be added.

Setting up a Singer track

A new project starts with one Singer track. To assign or change the voicebank:

1. Open the Library panel using the Library button in the toolbar or by clicking the Singer icon in the track header.
2. In the singers tab, click the voicebank you want to use.
3. The track header updates to show the singer's icon.

To add another Singer track, click the Add track button in the toolbar, or go to Project → Add Track.

Good to know!
In Mikoto Studio, a Singer is actually just one type of Instrument. In a future update, you will be able to swap between Singer and non-Singer instruments seamlessly on any track. Future Instruments can be built-in, MiFX/CLAP/VST3 plugins, or even external hardware devices!

Each track has controls in its left-hand header:

• Track name: double-click to rename.
• Instrument icon: click it to open the Library panel to assign or change the track's instrument/singer.
• Mute: silence the track during playback.
• Solo: when enabled, only this track (or other soloed tracks) will be heard during playback.
• Arm for recording: when enabled, the track will record MIDI input when you press the Record button in the transport controls.

Creating a clip

Clips are the coloured blocks that sit on tracks in the Arranger. Each clip contains the notes (and lyrics) for a (vocal) part of your song.

1. Make sure the Multi-tool is active.
2. Double click on an empty area of a track in the Arranger. A new clip appears, and the piano roll opens in the editor area below.
3. To move or resize an existing clip, switch to the Multi-tool and drag the clip body to move it, or drag its right edge to resize it.

Opening the piano roll

Click any clip in the Arranger to open it in the piano roll. The editor area at the bottom of the window switches to the notes view.

The piano roll shows:

• A vertical keyboard on the left. Click any key to preview that pitch.
• A grid where notes appear as horizontal bars. Pitch is on the vertical axis, time on the horizontal axis.
• An optional parameter panel below the note grid (pitch, vibrato, etc.). You can toggle this panel using the Automation button.

Adding notes

1. You can add notes in the piano roll in two ways:
   • Click using the Pencil tool to create a new note. Click-and-drag gestures will be added in the future.
   • Double click using the Multi-tool to create a new note.
2. Use the Multi-tool to move notes (drag the note body) or resize them (drag the left or right edge).
3. To delete a note, select it with the Multi-tool and press Delete, or right-click and choose Delete.

Entering lyrics

Each note has a lyric displayed on it. To enter or change lyrics:

1. Double-click a note with the Multi-tool active. A text cursor appears on the note.
2. Type the lyric syllable for that note.
3. Press Tab to advance to the next note, or Shift+Tab to go back.
4. Press Enter (apply changes) or Escape (discard changes) to finish editing.

Mikoto Studio automatically converts lyrics to phonemes based on the voicebank's configured language. If the conversion produces unexpected results, you can regenerate phonemes from Tools → (Re)generate phonemes.

Mikoto Studio includes a special parsing layer that allows you to use any UTAU voicebank with any project file, granted that the language is supported by the voicebank. Seamlessly switch between VCV, CVVC, and other formats without changing any aliases. Phoneme input carries over too!
You can force language selection through the Language modal inside the editor. Here you can also select the phoneset to use, as well as the desired accent (future).

Mikoto offers multiple ways to input lyrics and phonemes:

All of these can be entered on separate notes or in bulk on one note separated by spaces. Legacy Mode cannot be used in this way, since aliases may contain spaces. Combined input support for Legacy Mode will be added in a future version.

The Enhancer panel

Click the Enhancer button at the right side of the toolbar to open the Enhancer panel. It has three tabs:

• Voice: adjust vocal parameters like tension, breathiness, roughness, and dynamics.
• Effects: add and configure audio effects for the selected clip's track.
• Presets: save and recall parameter configurations and automation.

Rendering

Mikoto Studio automatically re-renders Singer clips in the background as you work. Sometimes Mikoto might miss a change or you might want to force a re-render for another reason. To do this:

1. Right-click the clip in the Arranger.
2. Choose Render to synthesize.

You can make adjustments to the way Mikoto executes rendering jobs in File → Settings → Engine.

Playback

Use the transport controls in the toolbar to control playback:

• Play / Stop - start or stop playback from the current playhead position. Press Space as a shortcut.
• Add marker - places a timeline marker at the current playhead position for navigation.

The Follow Playhead toggle (in the editor area controls) keeps the piano roll scrolled to the playhead during playback. Options are Always, Smart and Never.

Exporting audio

When your project is ready, go to File → Export... to open the Export audio dialog.

Further explanation will be added in the near future.

Click Export to open a save dialog, choose a destination and Mikoto Studio will render and write the file.

Next steps

• Troubleshooting - common problems and how to solve them.
• - the technical reference for project files.