# Solarum

> Solarum is a free, open-source techno drum machine, beat maker and sampler for Mac and Windows. Your groove is a little solar system: every track is an orbit round the sun, every step a planet. Beginners pick a vibe and a mood instead of scales and chords; since version 0.10 you can record, draw or import your own sounds, and since 0.10.1 breed them; Luna, the robot in the auto mode, plays an endless techno set with breakdowns, build-ups and drops.

- Made by Tom Fischer (GitHub: tj537), written in Rust, MIT license
- Runs on macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon and Intel) and 64-bit Windows 10/11; Linux, iPad and Android tablets are planned; phones are not supported
- No account, no ads, no tracking; the download is a few megabytes
- Current version: 0.10.1; still young and changing fast ("in development")

## Download

- [Download for Mac](https://github.com/tj537/solarum/releases/latest/download/Solarum-macos-universal.zip): universal zip; macOS asks once on first launch (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway) because the app isn't notarized yet
- [Download for Windows](https://github.com/tj537/solarum/releases/latest/download/Solarum-windows-x64.zip): unzip and double-click Solarum.exe, no installer; Windows asks once (More info → Run anyway)
- [All releases and release notes](https://github.com/tj537/solarum/releases)

## What it does

- Orbit step sequencer: tracks are orbits, steps are planets, a beam of light sweeps round once a bar
- Eight tracks: kick, clap, rim, hats, open hat, ride, bass and a 303-style acid line, with 51 built-in sounds named for space (Pulsar, Comet, Nebula …) – all synthesized
- Ten vibes: Dub, Minimal, Melodic, Hypnotic, Electro, Peak time, Acid, Rave, Industrial, Hard – each with its own tempo, sounds and pattern rules; SHUFFLE rolls a new groove that follows the genre's rules
- Moods instead of music theory: Dark, Hypnotic, Deep, Sad, Euphoric, Dreamy, Epic, Sunny, Mysterious – each brings its own chords
- Auto mode (SOLAR OS with Luna): an endless DJ-style set, every change picked by ear, learns your taste from thumbs up/down; type commands like `acid`, `drop`, `mood dark`, `bpm 135`, `seed <word>` (the same word always rolls the same beat)
- Luna levels up (new in 0.10.1): playing, breeding and keeping sounds earn stardust; ten levels unlock antennas, colours, shades and wings for Luna, plus new lines – no shop, no money, only progress
- AUTO SONG turns saved favorite grooves into a whole track: intro, groove, break, build-up, drop, outro
- Live effects (stutter, echo, wash, crush, gate, tape stop, filter pad), DROP, MIDI keyboard input, WAV recording of everything you hear
- LIGHTS and FACE visualizers for a big screen or a projector
- For experienced users: per-step accents, slides and probability, tune and decay per track, master EQ

## Your own sounds (new in 0.10)

- Start screen → SOUNDS → + New sound, in three steps: Start › Breed, Record or Draw › Finish
- Breed a sound (new in 0.10.1): hear four sounds for a track, click the best and it gets four children, each a little different; a few rounds and the sound is yours – no drawing, no knobs
- Luna's sounds of the day (new in 0.10.1): three new sounds a day for three different tracks, the same for everyone that day, kept with one click
- Record with a microphone or audio interface (up to 30 seconds; silence trimmed and level set automatically)
- Draw a sound on a drawing board: a pitch lane and a loudness lane, blank or from a track's template (kick, clap, hat …)
- Import WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC or OGG files, or drop them onto the window
- Sampler editor: cut start and end, fade in and out, pitch, tone (thinner/darker), crush, reverse, loop, undo; the original audio is never changed
- Every sound plays on one track; pick it in the track's sound menu under "Your sounds"; on bass and synth it follows the notes and the key
- A project carries up to 32 of your sounds in its .solarum file, so it plays the same on another computer
- Microphone access: macOS asks once (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone); on Windows allow desktop apps under Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone

## Similar to

Solarum sits between beginner beat apps (GarageBand, Groove Pizza, Chrome Music Lab) and techno drum machines and samplers (TR-808/909 and TB-303 emulations), with a generative auto mode that plays whole sets.

## Links

- [Website](https://tj537.github.io/solarum/) (with a 22-question FAQ)
- [Release notes](https://github.com/tj537/solarum/releases)
- [Source code and README](https://github.com/tj537/solarum)
- [Report a bug](https://github.com/tj537/solarum/issues/new?template=bug_report.yml)
- [Support on Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/tj537)