A hybrid-performance brain.
Four channels of live inputs and beatgrid players under DJ-style hands, a sample-accurate MIDI clock that the rest of your rig follows, and an assist layer that can hold the mix together while you play hardware on top.
Perform — the mixer: four strips, each running a live input or a deck from your collection, under one master section.

Composer — a bar timeline where the set is laid out in advance: one lane per deck, each track a full-length clip that launches its deck as the master playhead crosses it.

Collection — the library you load from, scanned and sorted: waveform, BPM, key, beatgrid confidence and stems status in the columns.

Sampler — a non-destructive editor for snipping regions out of tracks: select on the beatgrid, then save the piece, or collect regions into a strip and render them as one crossfaded clip.

Live inputs, prepared clips and hardware all meet on the same four channels. Cadence holds the tempo, the grid and the structure of the set in one place, so there is a single thing to look at when the room is dark and something needs to change now.
A sample-accurate 24-PPQN MIDI clock, phase-locked to the audio clock rather than driven by a timer, with transport start and stop, tap tempo and Ableton Link. Cadence is built to be the one clock in the room, not another device negotiating for sync.
The assist layer can carry a transition on its own — key-aware, paced how you like it, looping the build into the drop. That buys you both hands for the modular, the drum machine or the synth, and you take the mix back whenever you want it.
Each channel takes a live input or its own internal player. Three-band EQ with full kills, one HP/LP filter knob per channel in the DJ idiom, a pre-fader cue bus with selectable master and cue output routing, and master metering. Per-channel delay and a shared reverb send sit on the same strip.
24-PPQN MIDI clock out, sample-accurate and phase-locked to audio, driving eurorack, Elektron boxes and drum machines with transport start and stop. Tap tempo for anything unclocked, Ableton Link for anything on the network.
Quantized bar launch, warp and vari-speed sync to the master tempo, flexible grid with key-lock, eight hot cues and cue preview from the browser. Waveform lanes show phase and sync against the beat grid, and a composer view runs a master playhead over the whole set.
Automatic beatgrid and structure detection marks intro, break, drop and outro, with auto-sections snapped to bars, mood descriptors and clip-safe gain. The library stores the analysis, so a track you prepared once stays prepared.
Key-aware transition modes, adjustable pacing, a build-up loop into the drop and FX ramps. When tracks are separated, transitions use the stems themselves — real bass swaps and vocal handovers, not just EQ moves. Hand it the next stretch and it holds the mix; take it back mid-transition and nothing jumps.
MIDI-learn on everything, with A/B bank switching so a small controller still reaches the whole surface. A phone remote joins over the local network by QR code. OSC broadcasts clock phase, beat, BPM and transport alongside master band energy, kick onsets, per-stem levels and a drop-aware intensity signal.
Cadence separates a track into its four parts on your machine — no cloud, no upload — and then treats them as performance surface: kill a vocal, keep the drums under the next tune, solo a bassline, and let the auto-DJ trade basslines instead of EQ bands.
One right-click separates a track into drums, bass, other and vocals with a state-of-the-art neural model running locally — around forty seconds for a club track on Apple Silicon. Results live in the library cache, so a track is only ever separated once.
Each stemmed deck grows four mute chips and a solo per part, all quantized to the grid — a queued kill blinks until the bar line and drops exactly on it, or shift-click for an instant stab. Key-lock holds pitch throughout, and every chip is MIDI-learnable.
Transitions become stem-aware when the material allows it: bass swaps trade the actual basslines on the swap bar, the incoming vocal waits until the outgoing one is out of the way, and with both tracks separated it hands over drums first, then bass — the way you would.
Phosphor listens to Cadence over OSC and locks the visuals to the clock. Motion lands on the beat, parameters move with bass, mid and high energy, kicks flash, and the image surges when the drop arrives and settles back through the breakdown. This is how the two apps already behave together, not something on a roadmap.
Beat and clock phase, BPM and transport, master band energy across bass, mid and high, kick onsets, and a drop-aware intensity signal — plus live per-stem levels and drum-stem onsets when a deck plays separated stems. Broadcast continuously over OSC while you play.
Scene motion locks to beat phase, reactive parameters follow the bands, kick onsets fire shockwave ripples, and intensity drives the whole image up into the drop — fullscreen on the projector.
And the bundle is the whole studio: alongside Cadence and Phosphor it includes Cell, Contour, Spazio, Glue, Stesso and Tonnetz — every instrument, effect and mastering tool in the line.
A Tonnetz link — Cadence following and steering harmony via note-follow over OSC — is planned for the bundle.
Bundle pricing announced at release.
Cadence's performance workflow owes an honest debt to deadmau5's Autopilot. Its DAW-style set preparation and hybrid performance thinking pushed us to ask how much of a set can be prepared in advance before it stops being a performance and becomes a playback.
Cadence goes its own way from there: it is a hardware-first brain, putting out a sample-accurate MIDI clock that your modular and drum machines follow; it is open at the edges, broadcasting clock, structure and energy over OSC to a paired video synth that reacts to the shape of your set; and every control on it maps to whatever gear you already own.
Cadence is a premium SHLabs app in active development. This page is an early look.
The macOS build is in testing and a Windows alpha is running alongside it. Pricing and availability are announced when it ships. For early access, or if you want to know whether Cadence will clock the specific box on your desk, write to us.