plip FAQ

plip is a pocket groovebox that runs in your browser: twelve instruments, a step sequencer, a playable keyboard, live FX pads and a crowd of pixel critters who dance to whatever you make. You can make a whole track on a phone in minutes, go as deep as you like (1,000+ sounds, sound design, MIDI, live FX), play live with friends in the same room or worlds apart, and share it as a video or on the Wall. It's free, with no ads and no sign-up. New to it? TAP what's plip? on the welcome screen for the one-card version.

Yes. Everything is free right now, with no ads and no sign-up. plip is made by one person, so some extras may cost something one day. If that happens, you'll hear about it first, and the songs you made stay yours.

There are no accounts at all: your jams live on your device until you choose to share them.

Any phone, tablet or computer with a modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox). It's made for phones first: hold it upright to build, turn it sideways for a big keyboard. On a computer you get a wider layout and keyboard shortcuts.

TAP PRESS START. The first time, the demo song plays and a 30 second tour shows you around. After that, NEW JAM gives you an empty jam: TAP + ADD YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT, pick a critter, then TAP its squares. Or tap one of the genre chips under it (LO-FI, HOUSE, TRAP, POP, CHILL, D&B) for a ready-made starter beat to change.

Yes: open the ? help and TAP TAKE THE QUICK TOUR. On a blank jam it brings in a KICK and a LEAD to try things on, and while you practise recording a simple kick keeps time (the practice is cleared when you move on; the two instruments stay).

Yes. On iPhone and iPad: Safari's Share button, then Add to Home Screen. On Android: the browser menu, then Install app or Add to Home screen. It then opens full screen like an app. On phones, PRESS START also goes full screen (the corner button goes in and out).

Yes, by itself, every few seconds, on this device. Next time, BACK TO YOUR JAM picks up where you left off. FILE keeps copies (MY SAVED JAMS: give each a name when you save it, and tap a name to change it) and the jams you left on each visit (RECENT JAMS). Teachers can send any named copy to a class as its starting beat. Clearing your browser's data for plip removes them, so share or save anything you love.

Almost everything can be undone: TAP UNDO (top row, or the arrow in the keyboard bar). HOLD UNDO to redo. On a computer: Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z. To take back just one square (say, one note of a recording), HOLD it and tap UNDO HERE.

Open an instrument (TAP its name) and TAP the squares: each one is a 16th note. Squares you tap play in time on the next pass of the loop (tapping is silent on purpose). DRAG sideways from an empty square to fill a whole run in one swipe, like 16th-note hats.

HOLD a square still for a moment: its options open. Drums get LEVEL (normal, accent, soft), ROLL (x1 to x4, or FLAM) and CHANCE (how often it plays). Melody notes get the note, length, chord and slide. Every square also has COPY and PASTE (paste into any square, on any instrument or pattern), and UNDO HERE, which puts just that square back the way it was before its last change: perfect for one wrong note in a take you otherwise love. Press it again to go further back.

HOLD it and DRAG sideways. Up and down after a hold changes a melody note's pitch (or a drum's roll).

Each instrument has its own loop, from 1 to 128 steps (up to 8 bars). TAP the STEPS badge to pick a length; the pages 1 to 8 above the squares show each bar. Tapping a square past the end grows the loop to 2, 4 or 8 bars (never an odd 3 or 5), repeating what was there.

Yes. TAP the STEPS badge, then use SHIFT at the bottom: pick THIS ONE (the instrument) or WHOLE PATTERN (every instrument together), pick 1 STEP or 1 BEAT, then TAP ◂ EARLIER or LATER ▸ as many times as you like. Notes wrap around the loop, knob motion moves with them, and UNDO takes back each tap. Great for turning a beat around, or starting a riff on the off-beat.

It plays that instrument at HALF, NORMAL or DOUBLE speed against the rest. Double makes each square a 32nd note: great for fast hats.

HOLD a page number (1, 2, 3...) to copy that bar, then TAP any page, on any instrument or pattern, to paste it. UNDO takes the paste back.

Yes: DOUBLE-TAP a page number to loop it while everything else plays along. DOUBLE-TAP more pages to add them; TAP a looping page to let go.

Patterns: separate versions of your whole jam, like a verse and a chorus. There are 16 (A to P, four at a time; the little arrow shows more once D has music). TAP one to switch at the next bar, DOUBLE-TAP to switch now. An empty pattern starts as a copy of the one you're on. COPY copies the current pattern to the next.

Yes, so a song can go from a soft kick in A to a big open one in B. With two or more patterns, TAP the instrument's sound name: the top row says FOR: ALL PATTERNS or JUST PATTERN B. Pick JUST PATTERN B, then any sound (or HOLD one to shape it in the Sound Lab). Pattern B plays it, the other patterns keep theirs, and a song changes sound right on the bar. The pattern's letter shows on the sound name. The instrument's VOL, DIRT, LPF, ECHO and VERB stay the same in every pattern. ALL PATTERNS goes back to the shared sound, and UNDO brings it back.

Turn on SONG and fill its slots (up to 32): TAP a slot to pick the next pattern with music, HOLD it to choose any pattern, add one after it, or remove it. + at the end adds a slot; - at the start takes the last one out. In a song, each pattern keeps its own length: recording and CAPTR fill the pattern that's playing without stretching it.

TAP the speaker at the left of its row to mute it. HOLD the speaker (or the instrument's name) to solo it. In FILE, SETTINGS you can make mutes wait for the next bar, like launching clips.

+ ADD AN INSTRUMENT (under the instruments) opens the picker: one of each of the twelve critters. REMOVE (with the little bin) at the end of an open instrument’s page row takes it out of the jam: it asks first, and UNDO brings it back. HOLD the empty part of an instrument's header and DRAG to move it up or down.

It writes a fresh random part for that instrument, a quick way to find ideas. UNDO takes it back.

They fold every instrument down to one line, or open them all. Folded instruments still show a little preview of their notes.

Yes. On a phone held upright, the party, the knobs, the FX pads and the main buttons stay pinned at the top while the instruments scroll under them. On a small phone that can leave room for only an instrument or two, so TAP the little pushpin at the top right, beside the full-screen button: the whole page then scrolls together, party included. TAP it again to pin the top back. plip remembers your choice, and it's in FILE, SETTINGS too.

The keys at the bottom play whichever melody instrument is picked in the tabs above them (DRUMS shows drum pads instead). OCT- and OCT+ move the keys. SLIDE along the keys to glide between notes.

It locks every note to a scale (major, minor, pentatonics, blues and more), so nothing can sound wrong. SCALE FREE plays every note. KEY (in the top knobs) moves the whole song to another key.

TAP a melody note: a slim strip of down and up arrows appears just above or below it, never over another square. TAP them to move it a note at a time (in the scale), or HOLD to keep going. With a note picked, the keyboard also sets it. TAP the picked note again to remove it.

Yes. Open a melody instrument (BASS, LEAD, ARP, PAD or VOX) and TAP ROLL at the end of its page row. You see every note of the pattern with its real length, on rows of pitches with note names, and chords named on little chips. TAP to add a note, DRAG it to move it, DRAG its end to stretch it, DOUBLE-TAP to take it out, and HOLD it for its step options. UNDO sits in the roll's own header.

Under the notes are lanes: LEVEL (soft, normal or accent for each note) and the knobs (TONE, FILTER, VOLUME, ECHO, REVERB and more, SYLLABLE on VOX). Draw a curve in a lane and it plays like a recorded knob move, even through a long held note. Swipe to scroll, pinch to zoom. On a computer, the arrows move the picked note and Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and Delete work.

TAP REC, then play. From a stop it counts you in one bar and starts at the top of the loop. Recording into an empty melody instrument lets the loop grow while you play (up to 8 bars), then it closes to fit what you played. Every note keeps the length you played, short or long, and plays back the way it sounded; keys pressed together become a chord. Recording over notes that are already there adds to them (your note joins the chord on that square) instead of erasing them; BASS plays one note at a time, so it takes the new note. UNDO takes back a whole pass.

Yes: the little metronome next to REC. TAP it for the click, HOLD it to choose the count-in (none, 1 bar or 2 bars). The click is only for you: it never goes into videos or to friends. It starts off every time you open plip, and while REC is on the metronome glows softly until you've tried it once.

TAP CAPTR. It keeps what you just played (playing on doesn't change it) and asks how much to bring in: THE LAST 1, 2, 4 or 8 BARS, each showing how many notes it holds. The gold one holds your whole last phrase. The bars end on the bar line after your last note, so everything lands on the beat where you played it; take more bars than the loop has and the loop grows to fit, repeating what it had underneath. It adds to what's there, closing the panel takes nothing, and UNDO takes it back.

You get a big keyboard with the instrument you're playing on top: its squares, knobs and patterns, plus a pitch bender at the side. On a short screen the instrument panel starts folded so the keys get the room: TAP SHOW PANEL for it (or FOLD to put it away), and FULL for full screen if your browser bars are showing. Turn it upright to go back.

It types in a melody one note at a time. TAP a square of a melody instrument, then play a key: the note goes into that square and AUTO moves on to the next one, so you can fill the squares in order with no timing needed. Use it with REC off (with REC on and the music playing, the keys record in time instead); it’s easiest with the music stopped. With AUTO off, a picked square takes one note and then the keys play freely again.

On a phone turned sideways, or on a computer or big screen, TAP CHORDS in the keyboard bar: the keys become big pads, one per chord of a progression, in its order from left to right (repeats included; 8 and 12 bar progressions take two rows). TAP the progression's name to pick from 68 well-loved progressions, filed by their chords in four tabs (MAJOR KEY, MINOR KEY, BORROWED for chords from outside the key, SEVENTHS for jazz, soul and blues), fewest chords first, each with a feeling like DREAMY or EPIC. HOLD one to hear it. The next pad glows, so you can just follow the glow; the little list of chords above the pads marks the one you're playing. Each pad plays its chord exactly, with the root in the bass, even when the scale is locked, so borrowed chords keep their color. Every pad plays at the same level; with TOUCH VELOCITY on (FILE, SETTINGS), tapping lower on a pad plays it louder, like the keys. Pads record like chords played on the keys, BASS plays the roots, and ARP turns each chord into an arpeggio.

Yes: turn on TOUCH VELOCITY in FILE, SETTINGS. Then where you strike a key or pad sets how hard it plays (lower is louder), and recordings keep it.

Yes, in Chrome and Edge on computers and Android (Safari has no web MIDI). Plug it in and play: notes, velocity, sustain and pitch bend work, and drums on channel 10 play the drum pads.

SPACE plays and stops. A W S E D F T G Y H U J K O L P ; play notes (A to J hit the drum pads in DRUMS), Z and X change octave, 1 to 8 hold the FX pads, Shift+1 to 4 switch patterns, Esc backs out of anything. Right-click does what a hold does.

TAP the sound's name on its row (the little screen with the arrow). STYLES has the originals and LO-FI, EDM, POP and CHILL rows; the EXPLORE worlds (SPACE, CRITTERS, MACHINES, DREAMS) have far-out sounds; MY SOUNDS has the ones you made: HOLD any sound to open it in the Sound Lab, change it, and SAVE TO MY SOUNDS. About 1,180 sounds in all.

HOLD a knob and DRAG; DOUBLE-TAP resets it. The first two shape the sound (like TONE and DECAY). DIRT adds grit, DUR sets note length (LEAD has ATTACK before DECAY instead: turn it up and notes fade in; a step's own LENGTH sets how long it holds), VOL is volume, LPF darkens it, ECHO and VERB send it to the echo and the reverb.

Yes: turn a knob while REC is on and the movement plays back every loop. HOLD that knob still (or right-click it) to clear the movement; UNDO brings it back.

In a song (SONG on, with two or more slots), what you record goes to the song slot that's playing, not to its pattern, so a filter sweep can run across the whole arrangement and two A slots can move differently. Slots with their own motion get a small gold line in the SONG bar; HOLD a slot for CLEAR ITS MOTION.

Yes. With REC on, HOLD an FX pad (and drag it, as you like) and plip records exactly what you did: it plays back by itself in the loop, or in that slot of your song, and the pad lights up while it does. Hold the pad again with REC on to record over it, or CLEAR the pattern; UNDO brings it back. Your hand always wins while you hold a pad. Recorded pad moves are in videos, WAV and MP3; FOR YOUR DAW stems stay clean of them.

Yes: HOLD a VERB knob for about a second for six rooms, from THE CLUBHOUSE to SUTRO'S CAVE. HOLD an ECHO knob the same way for five echo styles, like SPRING BURROW and NEON '85. Echoes always follow your tempo.

They change the whole song: TEMPO (or TAP TAP in time), SWING, KEY, then FILTR, PHASE, TAPE (wobble and hiss), CRUSH (lo-fi bits), DRIVE (warm grit) and PUMP (the ducking groove of dance music). HOLD a pattern button to keep these knobs with that pattern.

Your own sound designer: HOLD a sound's name (or any sound in the list) to open it. Draw a wave, drag the envelopes, set the filter, then add CHARACTER (drive, FM, ring, a wooden or glass body, shaped noise) and two LFOs that can follow the tempo. SAVE TO MY SOUNDS keeps it; jams and share codes always carry their sounds with them.

Every sound opens just as it sounds. The PLIP and STYLES sounds come from plip's own built-in engines, so for those the Lab shapes the real sound from on top (filter, envelopes, noise, body, pitch, LFOs), and every control starts where it changes nothing. Drawing your own wave replaces the engine, and the Lab asks first. CANCEL always brings the old sound back.

A darker skin inspired by classic drum machines, with an LCD screen instead of the party. HOLD the plip logo (top left) for 1 second to switch either way.

They're live effects: HOLD one and the effect plays while you hold; DRAG while holding to bend it. STUTR stutters, CHOP chops the sound, FILL plays a drum fill (letting go simply hands the beat back), RISER builds the longer you hold, REVRS plays backwards, DUB throws a tape echo (let go and its repeats ring out for a few seconds), PITCH shifts everything, STOP slows to a halt like a turntable. Let go and it's gone (DUB's echoes trail off first).

They remember the last setting you pulled to, so a quick tap repeats it, handy for performing.

TAP SHARE, then MAKE A VIDEO: it records right away. Under it, LOOK picks THE APP (the party on top, your screen below) or JUST THE MUSIC, and LENGTH picks 15 S, 30 S or UNTIL I STOP. The line at the top names your song (TAP it for the name, the artist and the caption). Square videos and other lengths are in FILE, SETTINGS. When it's done, plip pauses so your clip plays back smoothly (TAP PLAY to carry on), and you can share it straight to an app or save it.

Every video ends on a short card: the music fades with a little three-note plip, your critter hops, and REMIX THIS SONG shows a QR code and a short link that open your song in plip. JUST THE MUSIC makes a vertical video with no controls: your critter in the middle of a pixel spectrum in your instruments' colours, rings on the kick, notes bursting out on every hit, the chord playing right now, a critter for every instrument lighting up as it plays, MADE ON A PHONE (or MADE TOGETHER WITH your friends), your song's name and plip.studio.

REMIX THIS: a private link to your song, made while the video records, as a QR code and a short address (like plip.studio/s/Ab3dE7kQx). Anyone who scans it or types it opens your song in plip, ready to play and remix. It never goes on the Wall and can't be searched. A Wall song you're listening to uses its own Wall link. Don't want it? Turn it off in FILE, SETTINGS. Students in a class never get one.

Pick one under MAKE A VIDEO in SHARE. MAKE A VIDEO then makes a vertical clip of about 15 or 30 seconds (whole 4-bar phrases, from the top of your loop), with your caption over the party where Reels and TikTok leave room. It opens on two beats of just the party, big, with your caption, and it loops: the end card comes over the last seconds while the music keeps playing, so when the app replays it the song runs straight back into bar 1. TAP the name line at the top of SHARE to write your own caption or pick an idea. More ideas for creators: plip for creators.

SHARE, then SEND A PRIVATE LINK. You get a short link (like plip.studio/s/Ab3dE7kQx) to send in any message. It opens your jam in plip, ready to play and remix. It never goes on the Wall and can’t be searched; only people with the link can open it. Links from before plip 1.8.22 were very long and some messaging apps broke them up: send a new one.

Yes: in SHARE, TAP audio files and stems, then WAV AUDIO or MP3 AUDIO (how long is set in FILE, SETTINGS). SEND A PRIVATE LINK makes a short link to your jam (like plip.studio/s/Ab3dE7kQx) that fits in any text message. Anyone who opens it can play it and remix it; it never goes on the Wall.

Taking it to GarageBand, Ableton or other music software? See the next answer.

Yes. SHARE, audio files and stems, then STEMS AND MIDI (it's also in FILE, SHARE). Pick STEMS + MIDI, STEMS or MIDI, all of your music or one pattern, how many times a pattern plays, and MIXED or DRY, then TAP EXPORT. The size shows before you start. You get one .zip named with the song, tempo and key.

Inside: a WAV for each instrument with notes (all start at bar 1 and are exactly the same length, so you just drop them in), the full mix to check against, a MIDI file with a track per instrument (drums on channel 10 with General MIDI notes), and a short READ ME. The MIDI holds exactly the notes plip plays: the scale lock and KEY, chords, lengths, slides, rolls, flams, swing, speeds and the song order. Loops end where they begin, so they repeat without a click.

All of your music is the default: your arranged SONG, or with no song, every pattern with music once each, in order (A, B, C...). One pattern exports its full cycle, so parts of different lengths all come back round (a 3 bar lead over a 4 bar beat is 12 bars).

MIXED is the song as plip plays it: each instrument with its echo, reverb and plip's master effects, and put together they add up to the full mix. Choose it to keep plip's sound and just arrange or add to it.

DRY is each instrument on its own, with no echo, reverb, PUMP or master effects; the echo and reverb come as two files of their own. Choose it to mix in your own software. The KICK file is ready to drive your own sidechain for a pumping sound.

A public place for songs made in plip. TAP WALL on the party to listen, like and remix, or POST YOUR JAM HERE to share yours. The hottest song is featured at the top of HOT. Songs show NEW until they have three likes. When three or more new songs have gone up since you last looked, the WALL button says how many (like 5 NEW). TAP an artist's name to hear more by them, or search.

Your song (all its patterns and sounds) goes up with a song name and an optional made-up nickname. Names are checked, and anything personal (real names, schools, ages, phone numbers) is refused. You can delete your own posts any time.

Yes. Post from TOGETHER (or from a session you kept in FILE, or soon after you leave) and the POST form shows MADE TOGETHER WITH your friends, ticked: everyone's part goes up exactly as it played, with their critter or nickname. Untick it to post only your part. On the Wall it says MADE TOGETHER, and listeners hear the whole band with each friend's critter on the party. REMIX makes the poster's part yours, and the others keep playing along.

REMIX on any Wall song makes it yours to change. When you post it, it says REMIX OF the original, and the original shows how many remixes it has.

When someone remixes a song you posted, the next time you open plip a small chip on the party says who remixed it (their Wall nickname, like KAI REMIXED MY FIRST BEAT): TAP HEAR IT to play their version (MY JAM brings yours back). It shows once for each new remix, only on the phone you posted from.

Yes. FILE, SETTINGS, YOUR CRITTER (or TAP your critter at the party): pick one of six shapes, twelve colours and an extra (SHADES, a SCARF or CHEEKS). It walks around your party, hops on the end of your videos, sits beside your Wall posts and shows up for your friends in TOGETHER, where it's also your name in the credits (like MINT FROG). It's kept on this device only: no account.

Open the link: the card shows the song's name, who made it and their critter. TAP PLAY IT and it plays right away. Like it? REMIX THIS (gold, in the bar at the top) makes it yours to change; MY JAM goes back to your own music.

Each week the Wall suggests a small creative idea. Post a song for it to earn that week's sticker in your sticker book (on the POST tab). No ranking, no winners: just for fun.

TAP TRY IT to start: a new song, the jam you have, or (for most weeks) START FROM A BEAT that suits the idea. For the rest of that week your videos carry the sticker and #plipchallenge, and Reels clips get #plipchallenge as their caption unless you wrote your own. SHARE says so, with TURN OFF.

TAP the ! on that song to report it: it disappears for you right away, and reports are reviewed.

TAP TOGETHER, then INVITE FRIENDS. Friends scan the QR code or type the word (in TOGETHER, JOIN A FRIEND). Everyone plays their own part on their own phone, on the same beat and in the same key, in one room or across the world.

Pick what you'll play on the YOU'RE IN! card (drums, bass, keys or voice), then TAP squares or play the keys. Your friends hear the squares you fill and what you record, from the next loop.

Your squares and your recordings, on the next pass of the loop. Notes you just play live on the keys stay on your phone (the internet adds too much delay for live notes), so TAP REC to share a part you play.

Yes. While you play together, the FX pads you hold (STUTR, CHOP, FILL, RISER, DUB, PITCH) reach every phone within about a second and shape only your part, never your friends'. STOP and REVRS still move the whole room. When one phone is THE SPEAKER, its mixer can point its own pads at one friend with FX on their strip.

Yes. By default every phone plays the whole band, with its own part a little louder. Plugged into a real speaker? On that phone, TAP THIS PHONE IS THE SPEAKER: the other phones play just their own part, quietly.

The YOU / FRIENDS slider under the party balances your part against everyone else. On the speaker phone, the MIXER starts folded so your instruments keep the screen: tap OPEN for a fader per person, mute (M) and solo, and FX to aim the pads at one person. TIMING on the mixer lines the phones up if they ever sound messy.

The person who invited everyone sets the tempo. With MATCH KEY on (the default), everyone shares the key and scale too.

Open TOGETHER and TAP SOUNDS OFF? FIX IT (on the speaker phone, TIMING on the mixer goes straight there): every phone takes a fresh look at the beat and lines up. If a phone goes to the background (another app, the lock screen) while you play, it lines itself up when it comes back, and every phone shows a bar with LINE UP: one tap from anyone lines everyone up. Still off? TAP ALONG with the clicks, or use the slider: DRAG the critter slowly left (sooner) or right (later) until the phones sound like one band, or TAP A LITTLE SOONER / A LITTLE LATER.

Bluetooth adds 150 to 300 ms of delay that no app can remove. TAP ALONG measures it and makes up for it. Wired headphones or the phone's own speaker are quickest.

Yes: KEEP THIS JAM (in TOGETHER) files a copy of everyone's parts on every phone, in FILE, PLAYED TOGETHER. You can play it back, change it and export it later. Videos made together say MADE TOGETHER and credit everyone.

When a friend joins, every phone counts down 3, 2, 1 and then shows IN SYNC on the same bar for four bars, with everyone's critters hopping and a light that hops from phone to phone on the beat. Want to film it? TAP FILM THE MOMENT in TOGETHER, get a camera ready, and the countdown starts on every phone a few seconds later.

A video of what you just played, so a great moment is never lost. While the music plays, plip keeps the last 30 seconds or so. When the little yellow camera beside SHARE lights up, TAP it and pick the last 15 or 30 seconds (whole bars): it becomes a JUST THE MUSIC video while the music keeps playing. Playing together, the camera (and CLIP THAT in the mixer) makes a video with everyone's critters and the credits.

When your video is ready, TAP COPY CAPTION and paste it into your post: your song, @plip.studio and #madeinplip. Tag @plip.studio and we might share your video. On challenge weeks it adds #plipchallenge too.

A simple way to run a music class with plip. One word gets the whole class in, with no accounts and no names (every student is a critter, shown on their own screen too). Students make their own songs on their own devices and hand them in to you. The public Wall is off for them.

Open the ? help and TAP TEACHING A CLASS? TRY CLASSROOM MODE (or TOGETHER, then START A CLASS). The card has three settings you can change later: STUDENTS SEE WHEN YOU LISTEN, STARTER BEATS (whether students can pick a starter beat themselves; turn it off to keep everyone building from the instruments or from the beat you give them) and QUIETER PHONES (every student phone plays at half volume). Then START A CLASS: you get a word (like PIXEL42), a QR code and a link. Put the word or the QR on the board.

They scan the QR code, open the link, or open plip and TAP "in a class? type the word" under PRESS START (or TOGETHER, then JOIN A CLASS) and type the word. Joining starts them on a fresh, empty jam (whatever they had is saved in FILE). A student who leaves the class by mistake and joins again keeps their critter and their song. A class is made for up to 60 students, each with a critter no classmate shares. Class words always end in two numbers (PIXEL42) and friends' words never do, so if someone types one in the wrong box, plip says so and offers the right one.

From the CLASS chip on the party, or SHARE: HAND IN TO YOUR TEACHER, with an optional song name. Only you hear it. Each student's five latest hand-ins are kept. If they're about to hand in a starter beat or your jam without changing anything, plip asks gently whether they'd like to make it theirs first (CHANGE IT or HAND IN ANYWAY).

Your CLASS chip shows every student as their critter, each with where they are: NOTHING YET, STARTER ONLY (they loaded a starter beat and haven't changed it yet), MAKING, HANDED IN, AWAY (their phone stopped checking in) or LEFT, with a count of each at the top. So you can see at a glance who needs a hand. TAP a critter to listen in to what that student is making right now, and TAP PLAY on any hand-in to play it for the room.

HUSH EVERYONE stops every student's music and shows EYES UP HERE on their screens until you TAP LET THEM PLAY. Phones get it on their next check-in, within about 6 seconds, so the button counts them as they go quiet (QUIET 9 OF 15) and says HUSHED once every phone has it.

Yes. Every hand-in says where the song started and what changed: "from scratch", "starter NIGHT DRIVE (TRAP), unchanged", or "from starter NIGHT DRIVE (TRAP): 12 squares changed, added VOX, new sound on LEAD". The same line shows in CLASS SONGS and in the Made column of the class file. A song that started from your jam (GIVE EVERYONE A STARTING BEAT) says "from the class jam". While they work, STARTER ONLY on a critter means they loaded a starter beat and haven't changed it yet.

TAP HAND IN NOW: ASK FOR SONGS in the CLASS panel. Every student who hasn't handed in yet (a song handed in a few minutes before counts) gets one card asking for their song, finished or not: HAND IN NOW or FINISH FIRST. A student who hasn't made anything is told to make something quick. Their SHARE button glows until they hand in, and your button counts the songs as they arrive (ASKED 2 MIN AGO . 9 OF 12 HANDED IN). Then KEEP ALL AND END saves everything on your device.

Yes. In the CLASS panel, TAP GIVE EVERYONE A STARTING BEAT and pick what they start from: your jam as it is now, one of your saved jams, or any starter beat by name (LATE NIGHT STUDY, NIGHT DRIVE...). TAP SEND IT, or OPEN IT HERE FIRST to listen or change it in your own jam (UNDO brings yours back), then pick YOUR JAM NOW and send that. Every student's phone gets it within a few seconds, students who join later too, and the button then names what they started with. It's theirs to change. Whatever they had is saved in FILE on their phone, and UNDO brings it back. Each send arrives once: a reload never replaces a student's work with it again.

Yes. In the CLASS panel, TAP a student's critter to listen in: you hear their jam as it is now, and changes they make (squares, recordings, sounds) reach you within a few seconds. Keys they play without recording don't travel. NEXT moves to the next student, MY JAM brings yours back.

Each student's critter (like GOLD CAT) shows in the corner of their party, and no two students in a class share one. While you listen, their critter and party glow gold with TEACHER IS LISTENING, so you can glance up and spot whose phone it is, and students know when they're being heard. You can turn the glow off in the CLASS panel (STUDENTS SEE WHEN YOU LISTEN: ON or OFF); plip remembers your choice for your next class.

END CLASS lets everyone go, and plip deletes the class from its server. Its big button is KEEP ALL AND END: it first saves every hand-in, and each student's latest work, on your device (FILE, CLASS SONGS). The small button skips that, and says how many songs it would delete (END AND DELETE 7 SONGS). A class also ends by itself after 12 hours, so keep anything you want before then. If you come back to plip after a while with a class still open, it asks once: KEEP IT or END IT.

During class, TAP KEEP on any hand-in, or KEEP EVERYTHING SO FAR. When you end the class, KEEP ALL AND END saves everything. Kept songs live in FILE, CLASS SONGS on your device, grouped by class, where PLAY plays any of them.

DOWNLOAD saves a class file: one page with every student who joined, every song, who made it, what it was made from, when, a link that opens each song in plip, and an empty column for notes or a grade. A student who made nothing still has a row (joined, made nothing yet), so you can tell them from someone who wasn't there. Keep it in Google Drive, email it to yourself or print it: it works on any device, and it's the safe copy for the long term (a device holds a few hundred songs).

Want a student's song in music software? PLAY it, then SHARE, FOR YOUR DAW: you get its stems and MIDI, one song at a time.

Students never type names into plip. You can add them yourself: TAP TYPE NAMES in the CLASS panel for a box beside every critter (Enter moves to the next), or HOLD one critter (or right-click it). Names stay on your device only (plip never sends them anywhere) and show next to their critter, on their hand-ins, in CLASS SONGS and in the class file. The bar that shows while you play a song for the room names the critter, never the student, in case it's on a projector. Names are kept per class, since critters are handed out fresh for each class.

Students have no accounts and no names, there's no chat, and while they're in class their songs go only to you: plip's server refuses their Wall posts, and after class the Wall stays closed on that device until plip is opened again. Song names with a real name and an age, a school or a phone number are refused, and the student is told why. Students can still pair up with TOGETHER: each keeps their own song as their part.

Headphones help a lot in a full room, and QUIETER PHONES helps when they're missing. Start with the starter beats, one instrument each, or GIVE EVERYONE A STARTING BEAT for a shared starting point. Watch for NOTHING YET on the critters, use HUSH EVERYONE when you need attention, and play a few hand-ins for the class at the end: hearing their songs played is the best part.

Nothing personal. There are no accounts, names or emails. Your device gets a random id, and the server only keeps a one-way scrambled version of it. plip counts how many people play and which countries and cities they're in, as totals only, never who you are.

On your device, until you share them. A private LINK keeps that one jam unlisted on plip, under a secret link: never on the Wall, never searchable, and it goes after a year nobody opens it. TOGETHER shares your jam only with your session and clears it when you leave. The Wall stores only the songs you post.

Yes, it's made to be. There's no chat and no personal data. Wall names are checked in layers, anything personal is refused, and a report hides a song at once. Classroom mode keeps students off the public Wall.

Check your volume, then TAP PRESS START or PLAY (browsers only allow sound after a tap). On iPhone, flip the silent switch on the side to ring: it mutes web audio.

That was a bug on some Android phones, fixed in 1.8.19: reload plip to get the fix. STOP now silences any held note too.

Wired headphones or the phone's speaker are quickest; Bluetooth always adds delay. In FILE, SETTINGS, SOUND: FAST is the default and quickest.

Some phones slow their processor down when nobody is touching the screen, and the sound breaks up (it often plays fine while you scroll). On a phone, leaving plip pauses the music and coming back picks it up where it was, with a short fade in (playing together keeps going). In FILE, SETTINGS, choose SOUND: SMOOTH (a little more delay on the keys, much steadier sound), and close other apps. plip notices when the sound keeps breaking up and offers SMOOTH in a banner at the top. Very busy jams with many long, rich sounds take more power.

Try BACK TO YOUR JAM on the welcome screen, FILE, RECENT JAMS (the jams you left on your last visits) and FILE, MY SAVED JAMS. UNDO also brings back recent changes.

Videos need a browser that can record them (all modern Chrome and Safari can). If sharing isn't offered, plip saves the file instead and says where to look (your Downloads or Files app), with SAVE AGAIN if you missed it. Recording plays in real time, so keep plip open until it's done.

They need an internet connection to plip.studio. Some school or work networks block them. Everything else works offline once plip has loaded.

TAP the corner button at the top right. plip remembers your choice.

One person: Kelly Warner (imagined by @kellywarnercreates). plip is free and ad-free thanks to people who chip in.

Share your songs, tell your friends, or say thanks (SHOW GRATITUDE in the help). Every bit keeps it free.

Write to Kelly: EMAIL KELLY (tap it to show the address), or message @plip.studio on Instagram. Ideas, bugs and songs you're proud of are all welcome, and that's where news and new songs show up too.