What it does
- The workflow you know: patterns in the channel rack, melodies in the piano roll, the song in the playlist, the mix in a 16-channel mixer with sends and 14 effects.
- 150 instruments, sorted by family: recorded pianos, guitars, strings, brass, choirs and drum kits (in the desktop apps), the studio's own synths and wavetable synth, a drum machine and FX for builds and drops.
- Your keyboard: MIDI keyboards and pad controllers play the selected channel, and MIDI Out sends a channel to instruments in another program.
- VST3 instruments (Windows): instruments installed as VST3 plugins play on a channel like any other, with their own window, through the mixer, and in your exports.
- Your music is yours: use it for anything, commercial releases included. PulseGrid claims no rights to what you make.
- Cloud sync, if you want it: sign in and choose which projects follow you between computers. Without an account nothing leaves your computer.
- Export to WAV and MP3.
Install
- Windows: download
PulseGrid-Studio-Setup-<version>.msi from the latest release and run it. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn: choose More info → Run anyway. The app updates itself.
- Mac: download
PulseGrid-Studio-<version>-mac.dmg, open it and drag PulseGrid Studio into Applications. The app isn't signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so right-click it and choose Open the first time.
- Browser: open the web studio. Nothing to install; the recorded instruments are only in the desktop apps.
Build it yourself
You need Node.js 22 or newer.
git clone https://github.com/BerdalYe/pulsegrid-studio.git
cd pulsegrid-studio
npm install
npm run app:dev # the desktop app, reloading as you edit
npm run dev # the web studio and the website, at http://localhost:5173
npm test # the unit tests
npm run typecheck
The VST3 plugin host (native/plugin-host, C++) needs Microsoft's free Build Tools for Visual Studio
with the "Desktop development with C++" workload. npm run native builds it. Without it the studio runs as usual,
just without VST3 plugins. native/test-plugin is a tiny test instrument built alongside it, not shipped.
Installers:
- Windows:
npm run release builds the plugin host, then writes release/PulseGrid-Studio-Setup-<version>.msi, and the website with its update feed into dist/.
- Mac: a
.dmg can only be built on a Mac, so GitHub builds it. In the Actions tab choose Build the Mac app → Run workflow, and download PulseGrid-Studio-mac from the finished run.
If you publish your own build
package.json → pulsegrid points at the official update feed, releases and cloud sync. Change these in a fork you
give to other people, so your builds don't update themselves to the official releases or sign in to the official cloud:
updateUrl, releaseUrl and siteUrl: where your own releases and website live.supabase.url and supabase.anonKey: your own Supabase project. Create its tables with supabase/schema.sql.
How the code is laid out
| Folder | What's in it |
|---|
src/audio | The sound engine: sequencer, synth and SoundFont voices, effects, mixer graph, MIDI, WAV/MP3 export |
src/components | The studio's windows and panels (React) |
src/state | Project, session and settings stores (Zustand), undo |
src/presets | The instrument list, synth presets and demo songs |
src/sync | Optional cloud sync with Supabase |
src/site | The website's script and styles; the pages are index.html, legal.html, account.html |
electron | The desktop app: window, files, updates, sign-in, and the bridge to the plugin host |
native/plugin-host | The VST3 plugin host (Windows), with the parts of Steinberg's VST3 SDK it uses |
assets/soundfonts | The recorded instruments (GeneralUser GS) |
Contributing
Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md, or use Help → Report a problem in the app.
Licence
PulseGrid Studio is free software: you can redistribute it and change it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. It comes with no warranty.
Copyright © 2026 Mathias Verdal and the PulseGrid Studio contributors.
The recorded instruments are GeneralUser GS by S. Christian Collins,
under its own licence (assets/soundfonts/LICENSE-GeneralUser-GS.txt), which allows use in music and in software.
The other packages it is built from are listed with their licences in public/THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt
(npm run licenses regenerates it).
PulseGrid Studio is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Image-Line (FL Studio).
