Questions, answered.

Sonora is a free, open-source digital audio workstation (DAW) for the Mac. You can record, program, arrange, mix and export music with it, alone or together with other people. It's made for starting new music, especially electronic music like trance, house and techno.

No. Sonora is a completely new program, written from scratch, with its own audio engine, devices and interface. It contains no Ableton code, presets, samples or fonts. It is not made by Ableton, and it isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Ableton.

On purpose. Many producers learned on Live's Session and Arrangement workflow. Following the same layout, shortcuts and colors means you can start working in Sonora right away, without learning a new program.

Because everyone should be able to make music, whatever they can afford. Sonora is open source, so it can be built, fixed and improved by the people who use it.

If you're a professional, or you have the money, yes: Ableton Live is amazing software, and you'll get support with it. If not, give Sonora a try.

Sonora was started by a long-time enterprise architect who makes music as a hobby, and it's built in the open with everyone who wants to help. Read more on the About page.

Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 13 or later. There are early alpha builds for Windows x64 and Linux x64 too, but they're even less tested. Intel Macs aren't supported. See platforms.

It means very early. Some features are unfinished, and things change quickly between versions. Save often and keep backups, and don't rely on it for deadlines yet.

Often. On the Mac, Sonora updates itself with small delta updates that download only what changed, and it never restarts while you're playing or recording. See updates.

On GitHub Issues. The Community page explains what to include so we can fix it quickly.

It can open sets saved by Live 12, edit them and save them back. But that isn't what we recommend Sonora for: it's made for new music. A set may sound different or be missing devices. See Opening Live sets.

Not always. Your plug-ins are the same plug-ins with the same saved state, but Sonora's native devices are original implementations and may sound different. Some devices aren't supported at all. The device status table shows where each one stands.

The set still opens. Unsupported parts are skipped and listed in the load report. They stay in the file when you save, so nothing is thrown away.

Only when you choose Save, and Sonora keeps a backup copy of the previous version. Use Save As to keep the original untouched.

No. Sonora doesn't use any part of Live.

Sonora's own wavetable synth: three wavetable oscillators, sub and noise, two filters, four envelopes, ten LFOs, a 64-slot modulation matrix with drag-to-modulate, macros, an arpeggiator and an effects rack. It saves its own .prism presets, and it's free.

Yes, on Apple silicon Macs: install the Sonora Prism VST3 package from the download page, then rescan plug-ins in your DAW. It's alpha too, so please report problems.

It listens to a recorded bass line or melody, creates editable MIDI from it, and builds an instrument that resynthesizes the sound from harmonics and modeled noise. You can then play new notes and reshape the sound like a synth. It works best on dry parts with one note at a time. Everything runs on your Mac.

Not yet. Sonora Resynth works inside Sonora only for now.

The host shares a session and sends an invite link, or guests on the same network find it and ask to join. Everyone edits the same project at the same time and sees each other's cursors. Samples are sent to guests automatically.

Yes, through a relay server that helps the computers connect. The relay is open source and you can run your own. A public relay isn't online yet, so for now internet sessions need a relay you host. On a local network no relay is needed.

Yes. Each person's Sonora runs the plug-ins on their own Mac. If someone is missing a plug-in, its settings are kept so nothing is lost.

Not yet. Voice is planned. Use your favorite call app alongside Sonora for now.

No. There's no telemetry, no analytics and no account. Sonora goes online only for the update check (which you can turn off), an AI provider you set up yourself, and collaboration sessions you start or join.

No. The built-in assistant stays off until you configure a provider and a key. Outside agents can't reach a project until you tick "Allow MCP access to this project".

OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, GLM, OpenRouter, or any endpoint with a compatible API. You pay your provider directly, and your key is stored in the macOS Keychain. Your prompts and the project data the assistant looks at are sent to the provider you choose. No audio is uploaded.

MCP is an open protocol that lets AI agents use tools. Sonora's MCP bridge lets an agent such as Claude or Codex, running on your own Mac, inspect the project you allowed, write MIDI, add devices and change parameters. Every change is checked and can be undone, and access ends when you switch projects or quit. Setting it up is a developer task for now.

Yes. Sonora is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later. Use it for any music, commercial or not, read the code, change it, and share it under the same license.

Making, opening, saving, exporting and updating music in Sonora will never need an account or a subscription.

You do. The license covers Sonora's code, not what you create with it.

Please do. See the Community page.