The Conservatory

The Glass Studio

Watch a record get made.

Below is a finished track — composed, arranged, performed, mixed and mastered end to end by the Conservatory engines — played back with every decision that made it left visible: the arrangement lanes, the theory verdicts, the measured mastering, the energy arc. Every sound but the synth pad and lead is a recording of a person playing an instrument: a drum kit through thirteen microphones, a Jazz Bass, two guitars, a grand piano — chosen strike by strike and played with a human's timing. Every number on this page was measured. Nothing is a mock-up, and nothing was copied from any recording.

The track, and its decisions

Press play and the timeline follows the music: each lane brightens while that instrument is sounding, and the playhead crosses the sections as they pass. The audio does not start by itself.

The full timeline as text
Sections and the layers sounding in each
SectionTimeLayers sounding
intro0–16 sHats & ride, Jazz Bass, Archtop, Grand piano
verse116–32 sKick, Hats & ride, Jazz Bass, Rhythm guitar, Archtop, Grand piano
pre132–48 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Jazz Bass, Rhythm guitar, Grand piano, Lead
drop148–80 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Claps, Jazz Bass, 808 sub, Deep boom, Drop guitar, Archtop, Grand piano, Pad, Lead, Risers & FX
verse280–96 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Jazz Bass, Rhythm guitar, Archtop, Grand piano
pre296–112 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Jazz Bass, Rhythm guitar, Grand piano, Lead
drop2112–144 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Claps, Jazz Bass, 808 sub, Deep boom, Drop guitar, Archtop, Grand piano, Pad, Lead, Risers & FX
breakdown144–160 sKick, Jazz Bass, Archtop, Grand piano, Risers & FX
build160–168 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Jazz Bass, Grand piano, Pad
drop3168–184 sKick, Snare, Hats & ride, Claps, Jazz Bass, 808 sub, Deep boom, Drop guitar, Archtop, Grand piano, Pad, Lead, Risers & FX
outro184–192 sHats & ride, Jazz Bass, Rhythm guitar, Archtop, Grand piano

The players

Every sound source on the record, and what it played
LaneSourceWhat it playedLicense
drumsDRSKit — real kit, 13 microphones, up to 49 strikes per drum1642 performed hits, 11 fills, ghost notes, swung 16ths; close mics time-aligned; record drum-mixCC-BY 4.0
bassKaroryfer Growly Bass — Squier Jazz Bass, recorded direct635 notes, legato, approach notes, slidesCC0 1.0
guitarsKaroryfer Emily — Epiphone electric; notes + recorded barre chordsdouble-tracked strums L/R, muted drop chucks, recorded chords under the drops; amp chain + roomCC0 1.0
archtopKaroryfer Shinyguitar — archtop, microphone signal439 picked notes — the hook, the verse motif, the breakdown lineCC0 1.0
pianoSalamander Grand Piano — 960 recorded samples751 notes, rolled chordsCC-BY 3.0
pad/leadSurge XT synthesiser — the only synthesised layera quiet high-passed pad under the drops only + the two-layer drop leadGPL-3.0

A harder hit is a different recording, not the same one turned up; two hits in a row are two different takes. The drummer's timing is not on the grid — the snare sits a few milliseconds behind the kick, the sixteenth-note hats swing, there are ghost notes and a fill every eight bars. The rhythm guitar was played twice and panned left and right, as records are. The bass player slides into notes and lets them ring into the next. Those are performance rules, applied to an original score the theory gates had already verified.

The sound, measured live

While the track plays, this is its frequency content measured in your browser in real time — the low end on the left, the air on the right. The mastering numbers above were measured on the finished file itself.

Studied, not copied

Spectral balance — reference vs this track (% of total energy)
BandReferenceThis track
Below 60 Hz (sub)25.4%14.9%
60–120 Hz (boom)15.6%22.4%
120–350 Hz (low mid)15.8%30.8%
350 Hz–2 kHz (music)39.7%26.4%
2–6 kHz (presence)2.3%3.7%

The brief for this track came from measuring a commercial dance record: its tempo, key, how its energy is spread across the spectrum, and the shape of its arrangement. Those are measured facts about a style — not anyone's melody. The hook and the harmony here are original, written by the engines and proven in key before a note was rendered; the section plan follows the genre's standard arc — intro, verse, build, drop, breakdown, drop, outro — which is a form, not a work. The engines and instruments are license-clean; the reference recording was analysed, never sampled, stored or extended.

  • Same tempo family — 120 BPM, four on the floor.
  • Same key family — A minor.
  • Zero copied notes — the melody is an original two-bar cell, theory-verified.
  • Zero synthesised drums, bass or guitar — every one is a recording of the instrument.

The DJ's view

Energy arc — measured per second

The loudness of the finished master, measured second by second — the shape a DJ builds a room around: lift, peak, breathe, peak again, land.

Harmonic mixing

Key
Camelot position
Blends cleanly with
Tempo

On the Camelot wheel, a track blends cleanly with its own position, its neighbours one step either side, and its relative major — the rule the set-planning engine checks on every transition it proposes.

Use it on your own music

Everything on this page ran through the same engines that power the free tool on the front page:

  • The producer's read — free, no account. Upload a track you hold and get its tempo, key, chord loop and cadence, groove and mix metrics in seconds, each with its confidence.
  • The handback. Stems, MIDI for every pitched stem plus the drums, and — if you tell it what you want — a new track composed in your reference's musical DNA, audited by the ear, with a verifiable record of how it was made.
  • Own what you get. The engines and instruments are license-clean, so what comes back is yours to use — with a record you can verify, not a licence you rent.

Try the producer's ear