Watch a Song Take Shape

Step 02

It plans before it writes a note

With Pro Mode, Aether reasons about the whole piece first, out loud. It states the arc (tender reflection, a troubled minor-key departure, an embellished return, a peaceful resolution), picks a chorale texture of half-note chords under a singing melody, writes a three-note hook to develop, and maps the form bar by bar: a tender opening, a restless contrast in C minor, an intensified return, and a coda that resolves home to E-flat. This is real music-theory-aware planning, not a black box.

Step 03

Hear the first idea

The plan becomes playable MIDI, colour-coded by part: orange bass, indigo harmony, green lead, the same hues the plugin's own piano roll gives those layers. This is the first take, on Aether's own grand piano. Press play; mute a part to hear it on its own. Listen for the chords quickening from half notes to quarter notes when the music turns restless at bar 9. A complete first draft, but suppose you want the return at bar 17 to feel more alive…

Step 04

Iterate on the Idea

“On bar 17 add another layer that weaves between the existing layers and adds more movement” Aether re-plans against what it already wrote. Bass, harmony and lead stay exactly as they were; the one new part is a cello counterline that enters at bar 17, moves in eighth notes beneath the melody's held notes, thins out as the coda begins, and falls silent for the last four bars. It edits the piece it composed; it doesn't reroll from scratch.

Step 05

Hear the cello arrive

Same piece, one new layer: the pink Cello chip. The first sixteen bars are untouched, so its entrance at bar 17, about 48 seconds in, lands as an event. Mute Cello and you're back to the first take, note for note.

Step 06

Then ask for more

“Change up the lead to make it a bit more complex and add an additional layer throughout the composition” This time Aether rewrites one part and adds another. The lead grows from 79 notes to 127, trading long tones for paired eighths and dotted rhythms while keeping its phrase beginnings and cadences, and a new viola inner voice moves beneath it across all 32 bars. Bass, harmony and the cello counterline are left exactly as they were.

Step 07

Hear where it landed

Five layers now: the original bass and harmony, the rewritten lead, the cello from the first refinement, and the new viola in cyan. Press play and take it apart: mute Viola and Cello to hear the first take's bones under the busier lead, or mute everything but Lead to hear how far the melody moved.

Step 08

Drag it into the session

When it's right, the clip drags straight out of Aether and onto a track. A layered generation lands as a multi-track .mid: a tempo track plus one named track per layer (here Bass, Harmony, Lead, Cello, and Viola), each on its own MIDI channel, ready to route to your own instruments. You can also drag a single layer out on its own. Works in Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Cubase, Fender Studio Pro, Reaper, Bitwig, or anything else that hosts AU or VST3.

That's a different session, start to finish: a jazz part written, refined, and dragged out. There's one more session video on the homepage if you want to see it again in Ableton Live.