What is Blokkily?
Blokkily is an experimental, pattern-based digital audio workstation for making music with notes, audio clips, instruments and effects. It lets musicians edit patterns in a tracker, piano roll or step grid, then arrange them across multiple tracks. The project is aimed at people who want a flexible desktop environment for composing, recording, arranging and mixing, including users working with hardware or notation. Builds are available for Linux, Windows and macOS, with Linux as the primary platform.
Blokkily Features:
Synchronized Pattern Editors: Edit the same musical pattern in a tracker, piano roll or step grid, with changes reflected across the views and heard during playback.
Arrangement Timeline: Lay named patterns and audio clips across multiple tracks, with tempo steps and ramps, meter changes, and loop points.
Live Scene Launcher: Trigger patterns as scenes, set a tempo for each scene, and record a live performance into the arrangement.
Instrument Support: Use CLAP, VST3 and LV2 plugins, SoundFont instruments, built-in samplers, or hardware instruments connected through MIDI.
Recording and Mixing: Record audio and MIDI, then mix with inserts, sends, returns, sidechains, automation and modulation.
Audio Export: Export arrangements as WAVE, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, render stems, and exchange songs as Standard MIDI Files or DAWproject files.
Score Notation: Read and write music in the Score view, and import or export notation using MusicXML.
Blokkily Benefits:
Faster Iteration: Trying different ways to shape a pattern does not require rebuilding it in separate editors, and playback can continue while you make changes.
Flexible Composition: Pattern-based editing and a multi-track timeline support both short musical ideas and songs developed into full arrangements.
Live to Arrangement: Recording a scene-launcher performance into the timeline gives you a starting point for refining an improvised or performed sequence.
Fewer Export Surprises: Using the playback engine for export, with plugin latency compensation, helps keep the rendered result aligned with what you hear in the project.
Notation Exchange: MusicXML import and export makes it possible to move score material between Blokkily and notation software.
Use Cases:
Pattern-Based Songwriting: Build a track from repeating rhythmic or melodic patterns, edit the notes in a preferred view, and arrange the parts into song sections.
Live Electronic Sets: Launch scenes with per-scene tempos, perform pattern changes, and record the set into the arrangement for later editing.
Hardware Sequencing: Send MIDI parts and clock from tracks to external synths or drum machines, or follow the clock from another machine.
Audio Production: Record audio and MIDI, warp or stretch clips to fit a project, mix tracks, and export a finished arrangement or separate stems.
Score-Based Projects: Bring a MusicXML score into a session, work with its parts in the arrangement, or write notes directly in the Score view.