Ovrtone, answered

What is Ovrtone?

Ovrtone is a DAW (digital audio workstation) for macOS with an AI engineer built in. You record, write and arrange your song the way you would in any DAW. When you want it to sound better, you say so in plain words ("the vocal sounds thin", "make it warm and close") and the engineer does the engineering: it picks plugins, sets them, and gain stages your tracks by measurement. What Ovrtone can do.

Is Ovrtone an AI song generator like Suno?

No. Suno and Udio generate songs from a text prompt, and Suno Studio puts that inside a DAW in the browser. Ovrtone doesn't generate songs. You make the music; Ovrtone's engineer mixes what you made, inside a native Mac DAW, with your own AU and VST3 plugins, and you can see and change every setting it touches. More on the difference.

Does it use my own plugins?

Yes. Ovrtone hosts AU and VST3 plugins and builds chains from the ones you already own first: your FabFilter, Valhalla or UAD plugins, for example. When it reaches for one of Ovrtone's own stock plugins instead, it tells you why (say, a plugin of yours looks like it's running in demo mode). Each plugin is checked before it's used, so a plugin that crashes or passes audio unprocessed is caught.

Will the AI change my mix without asking?

No. The engineer changes your project when you ask it to, and bigger changes come as a plan you hear first: A is your mix, B is the plan, played at the same loudness so louder can't fool you. Apply it or discard it. Every change it makes, planned or not, is one undo step, snapshots let you go back further, and it asks before anything destructive, such as removing a track or a plugin. Why the loudness has to match.

How does it mix without seeing the screen?

It reads measurements, not screenshots. The engine taps the audio before and after every plugin and reports peak, true peak, loudness (LUFS), gain reduction and alerts: clipping, a loud spike, a track monitoring a live mic, a plugin that looks like a demo. Plugins have a map of what each control means, and Ovrtone drafts one for any plugin that doesn't have one yet. So it knows a compressor is pulling 4 dB, and that a plugin's output is within 1 dB of its input.

What levels does the engineer aim for?

These are the targets Ovrtone's engineer works to when it gain stages a track and builds a chain:

• Vocal peaks of −10 to −6 dBFS going into the chain.
• FET compressors (1176 style) at 3–5 dB of gain reduction.
• Opto compressors (LA-2A style) at 2–3 dB of gain reduction.
• Each plugin's output within ±1 dB of its input, so you judge what it does, not how loud it is.
• The master's true peak at or below −1 dBTP, with a safety limiter on the master.

It measures before and after every change to check them. More on gain staging vocals.

What do I need to run it?

A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 15 or later, and any audio interface macOS supports (or the Mac's own speakers and microphone). Windows isn't supported yet.

Can it make plugins I don't have?

Yes, on Pro, Studio and the license. Ask for one ("make me a harmonizer"), and the engineer writes it, builds it, measures it and loads it into your chain, with its own editor. You can tweak it like any other plugin.

Can Claude or other AI agents control Ovrtone?

Yes. Everything in Ovrtone is a command (daw <noun> <verb>): the app, the keyboard, the command line and the built-in engineer all use the same ones. Ovrtone also runs an MCP server, so an AI agent such as Claude can open a project, read the meters, add plugins and mix, with the same guardrails: plans, undo, a safety limiter on the master, and permission before anything destructive.

Can it record?

Yes: audio from a microphone or instrument, several tracks at once, with count-in, metronome, punch-in and loop recording into take folders, plus MIDI from a keyboard into the piano roll.

When can I get it, and how much is it?

Ovrtone 1.0 is out: download it for your Mac and Setup walks you through. Plans with Ovrtone's engineer are $15, $29 or $59 a month, with two months free if you pay yearly, and Starter and Pro start with a 7-day trial (card required). Power users with their own AI can buy the license instead: $149 once. See the plans.