onomo Help Center

Studio (music production)

What it is

Onomo's full music studio — make a whole track in your browser.

Studio is a full DAW in your browser: program drums, play synths, record, arrange, mix and export a finished song, with Ono, an AI co-writer, built in. New to DAWs? The guides take you from an empty project to an exported track.

Areas and panels

Transport bar (top): Top strip: play/stop, record, loop, tempo (BPM), time signature, key/scale, metronome, undo/redo, and Save.
Arrange view (center): The timeline where your tracks live and clips are placed, moved, and arranged into a song.
Mixer (Shift+5): Channel strips with volume, pan, sends, and an effects chain per track, plus a Master.
Bottom editor (Shift+1): Edits the selected track: Piano Roll (instruments), Sequencer (drums), Sampler (pads), or Audio.
Sound Browser (Shift+4): Library, My Library, Presets, Project, and Exports — search, favorite, and drag onto a track.
Ono (AI) (Shift+6): Chat that can suggest ideas and, with your OK, take actions like set tempo, add a track, or place a clip.
Lyrics (Shift+7): Write lyrics in color-coded sections with a rhyme finder; round-trips with the Journal app.
Track FX (Shift+2): The effects chain for the selected track — add EQ, compression, reverb, delay, and more.

Key concepts

Track: A lane for one instrument, drum sequencer, sampler, or audio recording. Add as many as you need.
Clip: A block of notes/pattern/audio placed on a track's timeline. You move, resize, split, and duplicate clips.
Pattern: The musical content inside a clip — notes in the Piano Roll, steps in the Sequencer.
Bus & send: A shared channel (e.g. one reverb) that many tracks feed into via their 'send' knobs — efficient and cohesive.
Save vs Export: Save keeps your editable project; Export renders an audio or MIDI file. Do both when you finish.
Credits: Ono and the other AI features draw from one monthly credit pool shared across every app, with a monthly allowance on each plan. Everything that isn't AI (instruments, effects, recording, mixing, export) is on the free plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Studio and how is it laid out?

The Studio is Onomo's full digital audio workstation (DAW) — it runs entirely in your browser. The transport bar at the top has play/stop, record, loop, tempo (BPM), time signature, key/scale, the metronome, undo/redo, and Save. The center is the Arrange view (your tracks and clips on a timeline). The bottom opens an editor for the selected track — the Piano Roll for instruments, the Sequencer for drum patterns, the Sampler for pads, or the Audio editor for recordings. Press Shift+5 to flip the center between Arrange and the Mixer.

How do I add a track and pick an instrument?

Click the + (Add) button to create a track. On a brand-new project the Start your track dialog offers Sequencer (step drums), Synth (melodies & keys), Sampler (pads), Audio (record or import), Automation, plus Import and Start with AI. Once you're working, the same + shows Import, a TRACKS group (Sequencer / Sampler / Audio / Automation) and an INSTRUMENTS list where you pick the synth engine directly — there's a big roster of them, each with its own character and factory presets, and all of them are free to use. You can also drag a `.mid` or `.wav` file straight onto the arrangement to create the right track automatically.

How do I program a drum beat?

Add a Sequencer track — it opens in the bottom panel with an empty kit, so the first thing to do is load sounds: click the KIT dropdown (it reads *Empty*) to open the Kit Browser and pick a kit like Ono Drums, or hit Add Channel to place individual drum synths (OnoKick, OnoSnare, OnoHat…) one at a time. Now each row is a drum sound and each column is a step — click cells to place hits. Pattern Length (bottom bar) sets how long the pattern is, and the Sequence Settings button at the top-left of the grid opens SEQUENCE TOOLS: Quantize, Groove, Chop/Split, Randomize, Humanize, Shift All, Clear Pattern and Playback Mode. Press Space to play.

How do I write a melody in the Piano Roll?

Select a Synth track and the Piano Roll opens in the bottom panel. Click to place notes; drag a note up/down to change pitch and left/right to move it in time. Drag a note's edge to change its length. To keep notes in key, click the key badge in the bottom bar (it starts at *C Maj*) to open Pattern Scale, pick a root note and a scale, then press Apply — note that closing the panel without pressing Apply discards the change. Apply then asks how to treat notes you've already written: Snap Notes to Scale moves off-scale notes to the nearest degree, Reference Only just updates the highlighting and leaves your notes alone. This is per-pattern and separate from the transport's Key control. Use Shift+1 / Shift+2 to make the snap grid finer or coarser (those are the same keys that toggle the instrument editor and Track FX elsewhere — inside the Piano Roll they change snap instead), and Shift+L to legato (extend notes to the next one).

How do clips and the arrangement work?

A clip is a block of a pattern (MIDI notes, a drum pattern, or audio) placed on a track's timeline. Drag a clip to move it, grab its edge to resize, and use the arrange tools to edit: V Select, C Draw, B Split (cut at the playhead), N Erase, M Mute, Shift+T Stretch. Shift+D duplicates the selected clips (as a group, if you've selected several). The snap grid keeps clips aligned to bars/beats — turn it off for free positioning. Color-coded time regions (verse/chorus/etc.) help you organize sections.

How do I record audio (vocals or an instrument)?

Add an Audio track, then arm it (the red record button in the track header) and pick your input. Open the transport's Record menu to set a count-in (Off/1/2/4 bars), and turn on monitoring to hear yourself. Press Shift+R to arm recording, then Space to roll — recording starts after the count-in. Each pass is saved as a take you can comp, trim, fade, or pitch/time-stretch. Recording needs a secure (HTTPS) page and microphone permission, and you may need to click Play once so the browser's audio engine starts.

How do I record MIDI from a keyboard?

Select an Instrument track and open the transport's Record menu. Choose an input source (MIDI + Keyboard, MIDI only, or your computer's typing keyboard), pick your connected MIDI device, and set a quantize value so notes snap to the grid as you play (or Off for free timing). Set a record mode (Overdub adds on top, Overwrite replaces where you play, Replace clears the pattern). Arm with Shift+R, hit Space, and play.

How do I mix — levels, pan, EQ, and effects?

Press Shift+5 to open the Mixer. Each track has a channel strip with a volume fader, pan, meters, sends, and an FX chain; there's also a Master strip. Shift+2 opens Track FX for the selected track. The chain starts with a fixed Track EQ, then four empty slots — click Add Effect on any slot (or Add Slot for more) to open the effects browser. It's grouped by category: EQ · Reverb · Delay · Time · Dynamics · Distortion · Modulation · Pitch · Filter · Creative, and every entry has a one-line description of what it's for, so browse the category you need rather than memorising names. Every effect is included on the free plan. If you want a starting point: OnoEQ to carve space, OnoComp to control dynamics, OnoSat for warmth, OnoVerb for space, OnoLimiter on the Master. Reorder effects by dragging, and bypass any of them to compare. New effects get added regularly, so the browser — not this page — is the real list.

How do reverb/delay sends and buses work?

Instead of putting reverb on every track, create a bus in the Mixer, add a OnoVerb (or OnoDlay) to it, and use each track's send knob to feed signal to that bus. This is the classic 'one reverb, many tracks' approach — cheaper on CPU and more cohesive. You can also group tracks so one fader controls several at once.

What can Ono (the AI) do, and does it cost anything?

Press Shift+6 to open Ono, the in-Studio AI. It can chat about music theory and your project, generate patterns (drums, melodies, chords, basslines), and — with your confirmation — take DAW actions like setting the BPM/key, adding or editing tracks, and placing clips (it proposes the change and you approve it). It also supports voice input. Ono has three modes: Standard, Ultra and Composer (full-song builds, marked experimental). Ono draws from your shared credit pool: a Standard or Ultra message costs 1 credit no matter how much work Ono does behind the scenes, and a Composer request costs 3.

How do I save my project?

Press Cmd/Ctrl+S, or click the Save icon in the transport bar (on a narrow window the transport crowds up and Save can be the first thing to go — the shortcut always works). Projects save to your account in the cloud and the icon shows saving/saved status; a separate local autosave also guards against crashes (see the autosave question below). Saving keeps your editable project — it's separate from exporting an audio file. Reopening isn't automatic: coming back to Studio drops you on a fresh project, so pick yours from Recent in the Open-a-project dialog, the Projects panel (Shift+8), or Recent projects on your Backstage home.

How do I export my song?

There's no Export button in the transport — open the project-name menu at the top-left and choose Export Audio (or Export Tracks). Both open the Export panel, which has three tabs: Mixdown (the whole song to one file), Tracks (individual stems), and MIDI (your instrument performances, not audio). Pick a format (WAV or MP3), a quality (Low / Medium / High / Lossless) and a range (Full Song or Loop Region), then hit Export Mixdown. Save to my library is on by default, which drops the render into your Drive so it's reachable from every other Onomo app — uncheck it if you only want the download. MIDI export preserves note timing/velocity but not effects.

Where do I find sounds, presets, and my exports?

Press Shift+4 for the Sound Browser. Its tabs are Library (factory sounds), My Library (sounds you've saved to your account), Presets (presets for your loaded instruments), Project (sounds saved in this project), and Exports (audio you've rendered). Search, filter by category, favorite sounds with the star, and drag a sound straight onto the arrangement. Note: the Market (Shift+9) is a separate panel, and it isn't open yet — it currently shows a 'Market Coming Soon' screen, so downloadable packs aren't available at launch.

How do I write lyrics alongside my track?

Press Shift+7 to open the Lyrics panel. Add a song title and color-coded sections (verse/chorus/bridge), type your lyrics, and use the built-in rhyme finder and AI assist for ideas. Lyrics and notes round-trip with the Journal app, so what you write in either place follows the project.

What are the most useful keyboard shortcuts?

Space play/pause, . stop (press twice to panic-stop all audio), Shift+R arm record, ` loop toggle, Cmd/Ctrl+S save, Cmd/Ctrl+Z / Shift+Z undo/redo. Panels: Shift+1 instrument editor, Shift+2 track FX, Shift+4 sound browser, Shift+5 mixer/arrange, Shift+6 Ono, Shift+7 lyrics, Shift+8 projects, Shift+9 market (not open yet — it shows a 'coming soon' screen). Arrange tools: V/C/B/N/M/Shift+T, with Shift+D to duplicate clips. One thing to know: Shift+1 and Shift+2 are context-sensitive — globally they toggle the instrument editor and Track FX, but while you're focused in the Piano Roll they make the snap grid finer or coarser instead. Every shortcut is rebindable in Settings → Shortcuts.

Does autosave overwrite my saved project?

No — not anymore. Autosave keeps a separate working copy; the project you saved with Save / Ctrl+S is untouched until you save again. If you leave Studio with changes that aren't in the saved version, it asks whether to save them to the project. Reopening a project whose autosave is newer than its saved version asks whether to resume the autosave or open the last saved version.

How do I jump back to an earlier point?

Click the small chevron next to undo/redo to open History. Steps lists every undo step by what changed (Tracks / clips, Notes, Tempo, Key…) — click one to jump there. Snapshots are local checkpoints kept in this browser: one is taken on every Save, every 10 minutes while you have unsaved work, and whenever you press Snapshot now. Jumping takes a snapshot of *now* first, so it's always reversible. Snapshots aren't versions in your Drive — it's still one project.

Can I automate an effect's on/off?

Yes. Right-click the power button on any insert in the Track FX chain and choose Automate On/Off (it's also under the effect's Slot group in the automation sidebar). The lane is a switch — values snap to on/off. It fades the effect's dry/wet over 5 ms instead of rewiring the chain, so there's no click, reverb and delay tails ring out, and tempo-synced effects like Matryx stay locked to the grid.

How do I find the key of my project?

Open Key in the transport and press Detect from notes. It analyses the MIDI notes actually placed in your arrangement and lists the three most likely keys with a fit percentage. Applying a key never moves notes unless you choose Adapt notes in the confirmation, which tells you exactly how many notes would change first. Audio clips aren't analysed yet.

How do I loop the whole song without setting a region?

The loop button has a chevron: choose Whole song and the loop follows your arrangement's length automatically. Dragging a region on the ruler switches to Custom region. Placing the playhead inside the loop and pressing play starts from the playhead, not the loop start.

Do I need an account, and what's free?

Studio, Canvas, Motion and Journal need a free Onomo account — signed out, you're sent to sign in first. (Foundry and the Toolkit work without one.) Every tool, instrument, effect and export format is on the free plan; what costs something is AI, which spends credits from one pool shared across all the apps. Free gets 25 credits a month, 2 GB of storage and 10 saved projects in each app. Plus ($6/month or $58/year) keeps the same 25 text credits and adds unlimited projects, 20 GB and hosting live collaboration for up to 5 people, with no AI bundled in. Pro ($10/month or $96/year) adds Ono on top: 1,000 credits a month, AI images and video, 50 GB and hosting for up to 10. Joining someone else's session is free. Monthly credits reset each month (on Pro, unused credits roll over one extra month, up to 2,000); top-up credits last 12 months from your latest top-up. Invite friends from Settings → Invite friends: they start with 25 bonus credits, and you get 1,000 when one goes Pro (500 when one goes Plus). See your balance in Settings → Account & Usage. These are today's plans; if they change, you'll hear it from us first, and anything you've bought stays yours.

Why does Studio say it isn't on mobile?

Studio needs a screen at least 768px wide — a full DAW doesn't fit on a phone yet. Below that width you get a *Studio isn't on mobile yet* screen with links to things that do work on a phone: the Toolkit, Foundry and the Journal. On a laptop or desktop, make the browser window wider and reload — the width is checked when Studio loads.

Where do I find my projects?

Inside Studio: open the project-name menu (top-left) and use Open (the Projects panel, also Shift+8) or Recent; the Start your track dialog also has a Recent tab. Outside Studio: your Backstage home shows Recent projects, and View all takes you to your Drive. A project you haven't named yet is a draft — Free keeps 3 drafts and replaces the oldest when you start a fourth — so give anything you want to keep a name with Rename in the project menu.

How do I make cover art for a song?

Press Open in Canvas (the palette icon near Save — on a narrower window it moves into the transport's overflow menu). It opens Canvas in a new tab on an album-cover-sized project that's linked to the song — every save of that canvas becomes the song's cover. Other Canvas or Motion projects that merely use the song never change its cover.

Why does Onomo ask when I was born?

Everyone is asked for their birth month and year, never the day. It's used for two things: checking that you're old enough for an account, and switching on the right protections if you're under 18 (see "What is a teen account?"). Only you and Onomo staff can see it. It's never shown on your profile or to other people, and it's never sent to analytics or AI providers. It can't be changed after it's set, so pick carefully. If it was entered wrong, email support@onomo.io and staff can correct it after a review.

What is a teen account?

Accounts for people aged 13 to 17 are teen accounts. They come with protections that switch on automatically: - Private profile by default: only followers you approve see your posts and songs. Follow requests arrive in Messages → Requests. - Never listed in search, suggestions or Explore, and hidden from search engines, even if you make your profile public. - Messages and collab invites only work with people you follow. To message someone, follow them first. - Explicit posts and songs are hidden. - AI features use extra safety settings. To let signed-in people see your profile, open Settings → Privacy & Data and turn off Private profile. The protections lift by themselves in the month you turn 18, and your privacy settings stay the way you left them.

What does the E badge mean?

The "E" badge marks Explicit work: strong language or mature themes. Explicit posts and songs are hidden from teen accounts and from people who aren't signed in. If your post or song has strong language or mature themes, turn on Explicit when you post or publish. To start every new post and song as Explicit, turn on Explicit profile in Settings → Profile. A post that links an Explicit song is Explicit too, and so is a remix of an Explicit song. Moderators can also add the label, and a label set that way (or carried over from an original song) can't be turned off. Explicit is about language and themes only. Nudity and sexual content aren't allowed on Onomo at all, labeled or not.

Why was my image rejected?

Images that other people will see (avatars, banners, post images, covers, cover videos and images sent in messages) are checked automatically for nudity and sexual content, which aren't allowed on Onomo. If an image is flagged, it can't be used; pick a different one. Some images are held for a quick review instead. While that happens the image shows as "being checked". Post images and covers that are held show to others once they're approved; a held avatar or banner may be removed after review. AI-generated images follow the same rule. The check is automatic and can occasionally get it wrong. If you think it did, email support@onomo.io.

How do I report something?

Use Report on the post, song, comment, message or profile. Reporting a post, comment or message also hides it for you right away. Staff review every report, and content only comes down if it breaks the rules. If something has strong language or mature themes but no "E" badge, report it with the reason Should be marked Explicit. You can also block or mute anyone from their profile. If someone is making you uncomfortable, especially by asking for photos or to move the chat somewhere else, block them and report them. If you think someone is in danger, contact local emergency services first.

Why does Follow say "Requested"?

That account is private, so your follow is a request until they approve it. Click Requested to cancel it. If your own profile is private, requests to follow you arrive in Messages → Requests, where you can approve or decline each one.

Why can't I message someone?

Some accounts, including all teen accounts, only get messages from people they follow, so the Message button is replaced by a short note on their profile. On a teen account, you can message people once you follow them. The same rule applies to adding someone to a group chat, sharing a post into a chat, and inviting someone to collaborate. Blocks also stop messages both ways.

How do I replay a tour?

Open Help and choose Take the tour for the app you're in, or Replay the welcome tour for the quick look around Onomo. In the Toolkit and Foundry, click the (i) button and choose Take the tour. Tours can be skipped at any time with Esc.

Step-by-step guides

Make your first beat from scratch

A short looping beat with drums and a bassline, played back in the arrangement. (Level: beginner, about 12 min)

Studio opens on Start your track — name it, set the BPM (140 for trap, 120 for house), and pick Sequencer to begin with drums. (If you already have projects it may open on Recent — switch to the New tab.) You can change the tempo any time from the transport BPM — click it to type, or drag it left/right.
Your new Sequencer track opens with KIT: Empty — there are no drum rows yet. Click the KIT dropdown to open the Kit Browser and choose Ono Drums (or Random kit). You'll get Kick, 808, Snare, Clap, Closed HH, Open HH and two Percs.
Now place hits: a kick on beats 1 and 3, a snare or clap on 2 and 4, and closed hats on every 8th. Rows are labelled down the left — kick is the top row, hats sit further down. Press Space to hear the loop.
Click the Sequence Settings button (top-left of the grid) for SEQUENCE TOOLS, then try Humanize — set Timing and Velocity variation and press Humanize Pattern. Quantize tightens instead.
Click + again and pick a synth straight from the INSTRUMENTS list — Bazyr (Bass Reactor) is a good bassline choice.
The Piano Roll opens automatically. Click in a few low notes that follow your kick. To stay in key, click the key badge in the bottom bar, choose a root + scale in Pattern Scale, and press Apply (pick Snap Notes to Scale if you already have notes).
In the Arrange view, make sure both clips line up at bar 1. If the drum clip is shorter than the bassline, right-click it and Duplicate it until they match, then turn on the loop and press Space to play your beat.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save the project.

Turn a melody idea into an arrangement

A two-track section (lead + pad) arranged across a verse, saved to the cloud. (Level: beginner, about 15 min)

Click + and pick a bright lead synth from the INSTRUMENTS list. The Piano Roll opens in the bottom panel.
Click in a simple 4-bar melody. Drag note edges to set lengths; use Shift+1/Shift+2 to change the snap grid while you place notes.
Select the clip in Arrange and press Shift+D to duplicate it down the timeline into a longer section.
Add a second synth track with a pad/chord engine, and place sustained chords under the melody in its Piano Roll.
Use a color-coded time region to mark this as your 'Verse' so you can find it later.
Balance the two tracks: press Shift+5 for the Mixer and set the lead a touch louder than the pad.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save.

Record vocals or an instrument over your beat

A recorded take comped and trimmed over an existing beat, with one effect on it. (Level: intermediate, about 15 min)

Click Play once (so the browser's audio engine starts), then loop the part you want to play over: double-click a section flag above the tracks (like Verse), or drag across bars in that strip.
Click + and add an Audio track. Arm it with the red record button in the track header, then pick your input (mic/line) from the menu at the bottom-right of its Record panel.
Open the transport's Record menu (the arrow next to the record button) and set a count-in of 1–2 bars. To hear yourself, turn on monitoring (the speaker button) in the track's Record panel. Grant microphone permission if prompted.
Press Shift+R to arm recording, then Space to roll. Perform after the count-in; press Space again to stop. Repeat for more takes.
Pick the best take in the Takes strip and hit Use. Then trim the clip by dragging its edges in Arrange, and drag the small squares at its top corners for fade-ins/outs.
Open the track's FX chain (Shift+2) and add OnoComp to even out the level, then OnoVerb for space (or send it to a reverb bus).
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save.

Mix and export your track

A balanced mix with EQ/compression and a shared reverb send, exported as an audio file. (Level: intermediate, about 18 min)

Press Shift+5 to open the Mixer. Set rough levels with the faders so nothing clips the Master meter.
Select a track and press Shift+2 for its FX chain. Click Add Effect on an empty slot, then pick OnoEQ (EQ) to carve space and OnoComp (Dynamics) to control dynamics. The browser is grouped by category with a description on every effect.
Now the shared reverb: the dashed ADD BUS button sits at the far right of the mixer, past the last channel (use the › arrow if it's off screen). Click it, hover the new bus's name and click the pencil to call it Reverb, then select it and add OnoVerb. On each track you want in the room, click ROUTE (↗) → Add Send → Reverb, and drag the send level down to feed in just a little.
Click MASTER to open its FX chain and add OnoLimiter (Dynamics) as a safety ceiling so the final file doesn't clip.
Loop a section while you tweak (drag across bars in the strip above the tracks), and use Bypass FX in the chain header to compare before/after.
Open the project-name menu (top-left) and choose Export Audio. On the Mixdown tab pick a format and quality, set the range to Full Song, and hit Export Mixdown. (Need stems for a collaborator? Use the Tracks tab instead.)
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save the editable project too.

Co-write a section with Ono

A new chord progression and drum pattern generated with AI and applied to your project. (Level: beginner, about 10 min)

Press Shift+6 to open Ono, the in-Studio AI.
Ask for something concrete, e.g. 'give me a moody 4-chord progression in A minor at 90 BPM' or 'make a boom-bap drum pattern'.
When Ono proposes a DAW action (set BPM/key, add a track, place a clip), review the preview and click the checkmark to apply it, or X to reject. (Generating draws from your credit pool.)
Open the resulting clip in the Piano Roll or Sequencer and tweak it to taste — Ono gives you a starting point, not a finished part.
Attach context (a sound, preset, or clip) to your next prompt so Ono tailors ideas to what you've got.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save.

Tips

Autosave never overwrites the project you saved — hit Ctrl+S when you like where it is, and explore freely between saves. The chevron next to undo/redo opens History to jump back to any step or snapshot.
Right-click an effect's power button to automate it on/off — the switch is click-free and tempo-locked effects stay on the grid.
Learn six keys and you fly: Space play, . stop (twice = panic), Shift+R record, ` loop, Shift+5 mixer, Cmd/Ctrl+S save. The number panels (Shift+1–9) toggle every workspace panel.
Drag a `.mid` or `.wav` file straight onto the arrangement and Studio makes the right track type for you — no need to add the track first.
Use one reverb on a bus and feed it with track sends instead of putting a OnoVerb on every channel — it sounds more cohesive and uses far less CPU.
Set a count-in before recording (the transport's Record menu) so you have a bar or two to get ready, and click Play once first so the browser audio engine is awake.
Set a Pattern Scale in the Piano Roll (click the key badge in the bottom bar, pick a root + scale, press Apply) — it keeps your notes in key so melodies sound right without theory. It's per-pattern, and separate from the transport's Key; don't forget the Apply step or the change is discarded.
Ono proposes changes, you approve them — so it's safe to ask it to 'add a bassline track' or 'set the key to F minor'; nothing happens until you click the checkmark (and generating uses credits).
Save (Cmd/Ctrl+S) keeps your editable project; Export makes an audio/MIDI file. They're different — do both when you finish a session.
Every keyboard shortcut is rebindable in Settings → Shortcuts, with conflict detection — remap anything that fights your muscle memory.

Canvas (design & animation)

What it is

Design it like Photoshop, animate it to your music, export the loop — all in the browser.

Canvas is a layer editor, a 3D workspace and a keyframe timeline in one tab, all wired to your music. Design a cover, post or flyer, make it move to the beat, and export a PNG, a social pack or a looping video.

Areas and panels

Left rail (tools) (left): Select/Move (V), Hand (H), Text (T), Insert, Pen, Crop, Retouch, Spray and fill. ⌘/Ctrl-click deep-selects through groups.
New-project screen (on open): A searchable grid of sizes (Social · Print · Video & Screen · Standard). Your pick sets the canvas size and starter content.
Canvas (center): Your artboard. Pink smart guides snap things into line; Shift locks aspect, Alt scales from the centre.
Right panels (right): Layers, Color, Brushes, 3D, AI, Designs, Frames, Stickers, Overlays, Generators, Audio and Animate.
Inspector (right): Properties for the selected layer: type, color, opacity, blend, Layer styles, and its Animation.
Audio + Generators panels (right): Pick a project track and drop audio-reactive generators that pulse to it. Export bakes the reaction and muxes the song.
Animation Center (Design ⇄ Timeline) (bottom): Flip to Timeline for per-layer clips, keyframes, motion paths and beat-snap.
Export panel (Export): Image or Video. SAVE PNG/JPG/WebP/SVG, PACK every social size, COVER, POST, COPY; video as MP4 or WebM.

Key concepts

Layer: Every object (text, shape, image, 3D, generator, video, adjustment) is a stacked layer you can select, reorder, group, restyle, and animate.
Generator: An animated layer (starfield, fluid, neon, audio spectrum…) — 240+ of them, 100+ react to a bound song. Drop it, bind your track, and it pulses to the music in preview and export.
Vibe vs per-layer motion: A 'vibe' animates the whole scene with one click; per-layer motion (in the inspector's Animation section or the timeline) overrides individual layers — set the title to float, the bg to parallax, a shape to still.
Animation Center: Flip Design ⇄ Timeline to keyframe transforms (x/y/scale/rotation/opacity) AND properties (font size, stroke width, colour…), curve motion paths, and snap edits to the beat.
Master FX: Effects (gain, low/high-pass, reverb, saturate) and fade in/out applied to the project audio track — heard in preview AND baked into the exported file.
Page transitions: A multi-page doc plays as a sequence: design each page like its own artboard, then crossfade / slide / morph between them — the audio plays straight through on its own clock.
Save vs Export: Save (Cmd/Ctrl+S) keeps the editable project in the cloud; Export produces the final PNG/JPEG, social pack, or video loop.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account, and what's free?

What is Canvas and what can I make with it?

Canvas is a browser-based image editor (think Photoshop in your browser) for making album covers, social posts, flyers, banners, and other graphics. It has vector and raster tools, AI image generation, effects, 3D shapes, animated loops, and multi-page export. To start fast, open the Designs panel on the right and pick a category like Cover, Post, Story, Flyer, or Banner.

What's the size picker I see when I open Canvas?

That's the new-project screen, and it's the real first step. It's one searchable grid of size presets in four groups — Social, Print, Video & Screen and Standard — covering the common jobs (Album cover 1500×1500, Social post 1080×1350, Story / Reel 1080×1920, Banner 1920×1080, Flyer, a blank canvas) plus platform-specific sizes and print sizes. Type in the search box to jump to one. Your pick sets the canvas dimensions *and* which starter content pre-populates, so choose the shape you're actually publishing to.

What's the difference between the Designs panel and 'templates'?

The Designs panel holds starter layouts — cover, post, story, flyer and banner arrangements you apply to your current canvas as a set of editable layers. That's what you want when you're starting a still design. It used to be called Templates, so older tutorials may say that. In Onomo, 'Templates' now means the animated template scenes catalog you'll find in Motion — a different thing entirely. If a guide tells you to open Templates in Canvas, it means Designs.

How do I move and resize things on the canvas?

Press V (or click the Move button in the left rail), then click and drag a layer. Press V again to cycle the Move tool's modes — Move (default), Skew, Distort and Perspective; Orbit (for 3D) is in the Move button's dropdown. To pan around the canvas instead of moving a layer, press H for the Hand tool, or just hold Space for a temporary pan.

How do I add and style text?

Press T or click the Text dropdown in the left rail, then pick Text (a single point line) or Text box (a paragraph block). Click on the canvas and type. With the text layer selected, the Inspector on the right shows Font, Size, Weight, Alignment, Leading, Tracking, Color, and Stroke. You can also flow text along a curve using a Bezier path with an offset.

How do I generate an image with AI?

Open the AI panel in the right column and choose Generate or Edit. Generate has three kinds: Scene (a full image), Overlay (a Screen-blend texture over your canvas), and Sticker (an isolated subject with the background cut out); Edit is img2img that can replace your selected layer. Type a prompt, set style, quality, and count, then hit Generate. Each result gives you Add layer / Fill canvas / Replace actions. Note: AI generation uses credits and the panel shows the cost per batch.

How do I make a cover from one of my songs?

Open the Audio panel on the right and switch to its Import tab — it's the third tab, after Audio Visuals and Master FX, so you may need to scroll the tab strip across. Search your library, preview a track with the play button on its card, then select it. In the drawer that opens, tap Build cover for a one-tap combo (cover art + title + waveform), or import each piece on its own — Cover, Title, Waveform, AI cover (seeds the AI panel with a prompt) and Lyrics.

How do I save my project?

Click the Save button (floppy disk icon) in the header, or press Cmd/Ctrl+S. It saves to the cloud and shows a save status. Saving is separate from exporting an image file — use Save to keep your editable project, and Export to produce a PNG/JPEG.

How do I export my design?

Click Export. The panel opens on Image (there's a Video mode next to it) with five tabs: SAVE · PACK · COVER · POST · COPY. SAVE renders the current page to a file — pick a format (PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG — yes, real vector export) and a size multiplier (1×, 2×, 3×, 4× or Custom), and the panel shows the exact output pixels before you commit. Then Download, or SAVE TO LIBRARY to put it in your Drive. COPY puts a PNG straight on your clipboard to paste into another app, and CONTINUE saves the project so you can open it in Motion.

Can I export every social size at once?

Yes — the PACK tab renders every social size at once and zips them together. Tick the ones you want from Spotify 3000², Instagram post, Instagram story, TikTok, YouTube thumbnail, Twitter header and US Letter poster; the button counts your selection (e.g. *Export 7 sizes*). Underneath, SMART VARIANTS does something different and worth knowing about: it reflows one design into 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 and 16:9 while keeping the subject in frame — hit Make variants instead of re-cropping by hand.

How do I retouch or fix a photo (remove blemishes, clone, smudge)?

Click the Retouch menu in the left rail. It offers Spot heal (auto-blend, on by default), Heal brush (blends a source intelligently), Clone stamp (Alt+click to set a source, then paint to copy pixels), Smudge (drag pixels along your stroke), Liquify (distort pixels), plus the tone brushes Dodge, Burn and Sponge, and Blur / Sharpen.

How do I make a selection to edit just part of an image?

Click the Selection menu in the left rail and pick Marquee (rectangle or ellipse), Lasso (point-click or free-form), or Magic wand (click a color to grab similar pixels by tolerance). You can combine selections with Replace, Add, Subtract, or Intersect. Selections stay active until you deselect with Esc, Shift+D, or by clicking outside (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+D brings the last selection back).

How do I change a layer's opacity, blend mode, or add a shadow?

Select the layer, and the Inspector on the right shows an Opacity slider and a Blend mode dropdown (Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, and more). For effects, click the Layer styles button in the Inspector to edit drop shadow, outer glow, inner glow, and stroke, each with offset/blur/color/opacity controls.

How do I apply color adjustments like Curves, Levels, or Saturation?

Open the Effects menu in the top bar — it's the single home for every non-destructive pixel transform, with Adjustments (Curves, Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue) and Filters as two sections of the same menu. Picking one drops a fresh effect layer on top of the stack that affects everything below it. Re-scope it to a single layer or group in the Inspector, reorder or hide or delete it to undo, and tweak its parameters forever. (There's no Adjustments button in the left rail — it moved into this menu so there's one path.)

How do I make a looping video (like a Spotify Canvas)?

Open the Animate panel and pick a vibe (Still, Breathing, Ken Burns, Energetic, Dramatic, Depth 3D…) to animate the whole scene in one click, or set per-layer motion so each layer moves its own way. Want precision? Flip to Timeline mode (Design ⇄ Timeline) and keyframe it. Set playback to Loop, preview (buffer mode plays back perfectly smooth), then Export an MP4/WebM. It's free and renders right in your browser.

How do I work with multiple pages in one document?

Use the page bar at the bottom: click + to add a page, double-click to rename, right-click for settings. Each page is its own artboard (and can be its own canvas size). With more than one page, the Export dialog gains a Pages tab (per-page PNG), and you can turn the doc into an animated sequence — the pages play one after another with morphing transitions (crossfade / slide / fade-through) between them.

How do I add a QR code or link to my design?

In the Stickers tab, choose QR / Link. Pick Link or Text, enter what the code should hold, and add it to the canvas. Canvas detects the service to pick a brand color automatically.

How do I make my design react to my actual song?

Open the Audio panel and pick a track (it can also pull in the cover art + title). Then open Generators and drop an audio-reactive generator (e.g. Audio Spectrum, Audio Bloom, Audio Tunnel) — it binds to your song and pulses to the music. There are 240+ generators, 100+ of them audio-reactive. Preview plays the track with live audio so the visual reacts in real time; on Export, the reaction is baked deterministically (it matches the preview exactly) and the song is muxed into the video.

Can I apply audio effects or fade the music in/out?

Yes. In the Audio panel, open the Master FX tab. Add effects to the project audio track — Gain, Low-pass, High-pass, Reverb, Saturate — and a Fade in / Fade out transition. What you hear in preview is exactly what exports: the FX shape both the live preview and the muxed audio track in the final file.

How do I set one layer to move (or NOT move) without opening the timeline?

Select the layer — the Inspector has an Animation section. Pick Vibe default (follow the scene), Off — hold still (this layer never moves), or any movement preset, with Strength and Speed sliders. For full keyframe choreography, hit the Timeline link in that section to jump to the Animation Center focused on this layer.

What can I keyframe in the timeline?

Flip Design ⇄ Timeline. Each layer gets a clip; expand its Keys and scrub + drag a value to drop keyframes. You can keyframe the 5 transform channels (x, y, scale, rotation, opacity) AND 'any-property' channels like font size, stroke width, fill/stroke colour, corner radius, and shadow blur. You can also curve a layer's motion path, and turn on Snap → Beat so keyframes lock to the kicks and snares of your track.

Can I make 3D text or spin a 3D logo into a video?

Yes. The 3D panel gives you extruded 3D text and 3D objects (primitives + composite models) with real materials, environment-map reflections, and a light rig. For motion, open Turntable, pick a spin preset, and Add spin to project — Canvas renders it to a transparent (alpha) video and drops it back as a real video layer you can stroke, blend, keyframe, and composite over your other (still-animating) layers.

Why does Onomo ask when I was born?

What is a teen account?

What does the E badge mean?

Why was my image rejected?

How do I report something?

Why does Follow say "Requested"?

Why can't I message someone?

How do I replay a tour?

Step-by-step guides

Build a square album cover from your song

A finished 1:1 album cover that pulls in your track's art, title, and waveform, exported as a PNG. (Level: beginner, about 10 min)

Canvas already opens at Album cover · 1:1 (1500×1500), so the size is set. Open the Audio panel in the right column and switch to its Import tab (third along — scroll the tab strip if it's cut off).
Search your library, tap the play button on a song card to preview it, then select the track you want. In the drawer that opens, tap Build cover to drop in the cover art, title text and waveform in one move. (Importing the Title also renames your document to the song name.)
Press T and use the Text dropdown to add a Text layer for your artist name. Click on the canvas, type, then use the Inspector's Font, Size, Weight, and Color controls to style it.
Select the title text layer and click Layer styles in the Inspector to add a drop shadow so the type pops off the artwork.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save the project, then click Export. On the SAVE tab pick PNG at 1× and hit Download — or SAVE TO LIBRARY to drop it straight into your Drive. If you want the whole social set, switch to PACK and export every size at once.

Generate an AI scene and turn it into a social post

An AI-generated background with a headline, exported as an Instagram/Story/TikTok pack. (Level: beginner, about 12 min)

Open the Designs panel and pick a Post layout to set up the right canvas size, then apply one you like.
Open the AI panel, choose Generate → Scene, type a prompt (e.g. 'moody neon city skyline at night'), set quality and count, and hit Generate.
On a result you like, click Fill canvas to set it as the background layer.
Press T, add a Text box for your headline, and style it in the Inspector (Alignment, Tracking, Color). Adjust its Opacity and Blend mode in the Inspector if you want it to sit into the image.
Add a finishing texture: open the Overlays panel and apply a grain or dust overlay.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save, then click Export and use the Pack tab to download a zip with PNG + Instagram/Story/TikTok crops.

Make a Spotify-style looping cover

A short looping MP4/WebM made from a still cover, exported from the Animate panel for free. (Level: intermediate, about 15 min)

Start from a finished still image — either build one with the Audio or Designs panel, or generate a single Scene in the AI panel and click Fill canvas.
Press T to add a small title or logo as its own layer so it can move independently from the background.
Open the Animate panel in the right column and stay on its Presets tab (it's free and renders in your browser).
On Whole scene, pick a vibe such as Ken Burns for a pan-and-zoom. Switch to Selected layer to give one layer its own motion (Float, Slide, Zoom in, Orbit…). Press Play at the bottom-right of the canvas to preview the loop.
When it looks right, click Export, switch to Video, and hit Export loop: it records one seamless cycle as WebM. Need MP4? Pick MP4 (H.264) under Export settings first.
Press Cmd/Ctrl+S to also save the editable project.

Cut a logo sticker out with AI and place it on a poster

A multi-element flyer with an AI-cut subject, a shape banner, and a QR code, exported as a PNG. (Level: intermediate, about 18 min)

Open Designs, choose a Flyer layout, and apply it.
Open the AI panel, choose Generate → Sticker, prompt for your subject (e.g. 'glossy 3D headphones'), and Generate. Sticker isolates the subject and removes the background. Add it as a layer.
Click Insert in the left rail and pick a basic rectangle from the picker to make a banner strip behind your headline. Adjust its color and Blend mode in the Inspector.
Press T, add a Text headline over the banner, then select both the text and shape and use the floating Alignment toolbar above the canvas to center them.
Open the Stickers tab, choose QR / Link, pick Link, paste your link, and add the QR code to the corner.
Select your subject, shape, and text layers and right-click to Group them so they stay organized, then press Cmd/Ctrl+S to save.
Click Export, use the Save tab, choose PNG, and download.

Tips

Hold Space for a quick temporary pan without leaving your current tool, instead of switching to the Hand tool (H) and back.
Press V repeatedly to cycle Move tool modes — Move, Skew, Distort, Perspective — so you can transform without hunting through a menu (Orbit, for 3D, is in the Move button's dropdown).
Pink smart guides snap layers to other objects and edges and are on by default — use them to line things up, and toggle rulers/grid/guides off when you want a clean view.
The fill bucket remembers your last-used fill mode, and its button relabels to match — Solid fill, Solid gradient, Pattern fill, Image fill — so you can see what it'll do before you click.
Shift+D duplicates the selected layer (while a marquee selection is active it deselects instead), and Cmd/Ctrl+Z / Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z undo/redo — each edit is its own history entry per tab.
For retouching, start with Spot heal (it's on by default in the Retouch menu) for quick blemish fixes, then switch to Clone (Alt+click a source) for precise copy work.
The Spray tool (A) has 13 particle shapes and color modes (solid, palette, gradient, rainbow) plus rotation control — great for sparkles, hearts, and texture bursts.
Color adjustments (Curves, Levels, Saturation, Hue) live in the top-bar Effects menu alongside the filters, not in the left rail — every pick lands as a re-editable effect layer, so grading is never destructive.
⌘/Ctrl-click on the canvas does a deep-select — it grabs the exact layer directly under the cursor, busting through groups and overlays. Click the same spot again to step to the next layer underneath.
Drop an audio-reactive generator and bind your song, then in the timeline flip Snap → Beat — your keyframes and clip edges lock onto the kicks and snares, so a scale-pop lands right on the beat.
Every layer has an Animation section in its Inspector — set something you never want to move to Off — hold still, or give one layer its own movement, without ever opening the timeline.
Buffer preview is your friend: hit Play once and Canvas pre-renders the loop to RAM, so playback is perfectly smooth even on heavy multi-generator scenes — and the export matches it frame-for-frame.

Motion (video editing)

What it is

A music-video editor where your visuals react to the music.

Motion is a video editor built for music: bind any animated value to the bass, mids, treble or melody so visuals move with the track, no keyframing needed. Make music videos, lyric videos, Spotify Canvases and social clips, then render an MP4.

Areas and panels

Canvas (preview) (center): Your composition, GPU-rendered. A banner warns if it falls back to 2D.
Timeline (bottom): Tracks of clips with a razor (C), a snap picker, and a beat grid once a song is loaded.
Left rail panels (Shift+1–7): Project, My Media, Stock B-roll, Templates, Frames, AI Generations, Storyboard. Your canvas format sits at the top of Project.
Storyboard panel (Shift+7): Frames handed off from the Journal, with shot notes you tick off as you build each one.
Audio panel (right rail): A per-track mixer, ducking music under voice, and beat markers on the ruler.
Time & Beat (right rail): 22 beat-synced time moves for a clip: stutters, retriggers, speed ramps, freeze, reverse, echoes.
Inspector (right): Per-clip properties and keyframes. The ⚡ next to a value binds it to the music.
Text & Lyrics / Transitions / Filters (panels): Text templates and lyric mode, transition presets with a Tune drawer, cinematic filters.
The rest of the right rail (right rail): Effects, Actions, Generators, Overlays, Masks, and Ono to direct the video. Each applies to the selected clip.
Stickers (right rail): 1,100+ drop-in elements: lower-thirds, tickers, CTAs, badges, social, music and more.
Export panel (Export): Pick an aspect and a quality preset, then Render MP4. Re-download or save to your library after.

Key concepts

React source: What a binding listens to: Hits · Bass / Mid / Treble, Level, Bass / Mid / Treble energy, or Pitch — optionally pinned to one audio track (a vocal stem, say, instead of the whole song).
Bind (⚡): Link an animated param (scale/opacity/effect) to the music so it moves with it — the signature Motion move.
Keyframe: A value at a point in time; set two and Motion interpolates between them. Keyframe times are clip-local.
Archetype: A new-project template that presets canvas size, duration, and tracks (Music video, Lyric video, Spotify Canvas, …).
Aspect / quality: Export shape (9:16, 16:9, Canvas…) and bitrate preset (Reels…Master). 'Canvas' auto-caps at 8s per Spotify's spec.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account, and what's free?

How do I start a new Motion project?

When you first open Motion, a What are you making? picker appears over the canvas with template archetypes (Music video, Beat seller, Lyric video, Spotify Canvas, plus TikTok, Reels, YouTube, Explainer and 35+ more). Pick one and it presets your canvas size, duration, and tracks. Skip just closes the picker and leaves you on the default canvas (vertical 1080×1920, 30s) — change anything later from the format card at the top of the Project panel (Shift+1).

Where do I change my canvas size or duration after starting?

Press Shift+1 for the Project panel — it's the structural view of what's in your project right now (scenes and tracks). The format card at the top holds your canvas dimensions, duration, dimension templates, and saved presets, and opens a Format pop-out for the full set. There used to be a separate Workspace panel on the rail; it folded into this card, which is why the rail now starts at Project.

What is the Storyboard panel for?

Shift+7 opens Storyboard — the hand-off surface from the Journal. Plan a video as a storyboard doc in the Journal (a run of frames with shot descriptions), and it arrives here as read-only production reference you check off in Motion as you build each shot. It's deliberately not an editor: you keep authoring the storyboard in the Journal and use this panel as the shot list while you cut.

How do I load a song?

Two ways in. Starting a new project? The "What are you making?" picker has a From a Studio song row at the top — pick one of your Studio tracks and the project is built around it. Already working? Open the Audio panel (right rail), go to its Import tab and use Add audio to browse for a file, or just drop an audio file anywhere on the canvas. Note that the in-project importer takes files, not songs from your library — pull a Studio track in at project-creation time. The song lands as a clip on an audio track (the timeline draws its waveform), and its tempo and info live on that clip's Source card in the Inspector. Have real stems? Import each file and it gets its own track.

How do I make my video react to the music?

This is Motion's signature feature. Select a clip, open the Inspector → Props tab, and click the ⚡ next to any animatable field (x, y, scale, rotation, skew, opacity, or an effect param). Pick a source — Hits · Bass (kicks, toms, downbeats — the default), Hits · Mid (snares, claps), Hits · Treble (hats, shakers), Level (overall loudness), Bass / Mid / Treble energy, or Pitch (the melody) — choose how it reacts (Continuous, On hits or Pitch), and set Gain and Offset. To react to just one part, pin the binding to an audio track — e.g. a vocal stem you imported as its own file — instead of the whole song. The ⚡ only lights up once there's audio in the project — until then it reads *Drop a song to enable audio bindings*, which is the usual reason people think the feature is missing.

How do I cut a clip into pieces?

Press C (or pick the Razor/Scissors tool from the timeline toolbar) and click the clip at the point you want to cut. To split everything selected at the playhead instead, press Shift+K or use the split button in the timeline toolbar's edit-ops group. Press V to return to the Select tool.

How do I add text or build a lyric video?

Press T (or use the timeline toolbar) to drop a text clip at the playhead, then open the Text & Lyrics panel. It has tabs for Templates, Styles, Type (content, font, size, weight, letter-spacing, color), and Animate (reveal animations: fade/swipe/pop/glitch/scramble/bounce, by char/word/line). The Templates tab is filtered by category — Titles, Lower Thirds, Lyrics, Credits, Call to Action and Tags — and each card shows the reveal it uses (fade-up, blur-in, scale-pop, typewriter, slide, bounce), so pick the look and the animation in one click. For a lyric video, set the text clip to lyrics mode so a Lyrics tab appears — paste your lyrics and drag-set the timing per line against the beat rail.

How do I add transitions between clips?

Select a clip and open the Transitions panel. Pick which edge it applies to — In, Out, Both, or Seam (the join between two touching clips) — set a duration, then choose from 66 presets filtered by category chip: Smooth (6), Punch (9), Cinematic (9), 3D (5), Shape (5), Retro (8) and Shader (24). Every card tells you what it does and how long it runs — e.g. *Whip right · motion-blur fast pan · 0.4s*, *Glitch cut · RGB scramble · 0.25s slam*, *Zoom punch · cross-zoom 2.0×*. The Tune drawer below lets you dial direction, softness, blur, and colour.

How do I export my video?

Click Export in the header (or open the Export panel). Pick an Aspect — Match project (the default), 9:16 Reels/TikTok/Shorts, 1:1 square post, 4:5 IG portrait, 16:9 YouTube landscape, or Canvas (Spotify Canvas, 8s max) — and a Quality preset (Reels 8 Mbps, Story 10 Mbps, TikTok 12 Mbps, YouTube 16 Mbps, or Master 50 Mbps), then hit Render MP4. It encodes hardware-accelerated H.264 and auto-downloads the .mp4 when done. The render is frame-accurate via WebCodecs.

Can I re-download a render without rendering again, or save it to my library?

Yes. After a render finishes, the Export panel shows a Last render box with the filename and file size. Click Download again to grab the same file (the link stays live until the panel unmounts), or click Save to library to push the MP4 into your Onomo Drive under the Motion folder.

What's the Spotify Canvas aspect, and why does it cap at 8 seconds?

Choosing Canvas in the Export panel renders a vertical 9:16 clip and automatically caps the duration at 8 seconds (the Spotify Canvas spec), shown as "capped at 8s (Canvas spec)" in the Output summary. After rendering, if the file is over 8MB the panel flags it with a warning so you can re-render at a lower quality preset to fit.

Are my changes saved automatically?

Motion writes a local draft about 1.5 seconds after each change, but saving to the cloud is explicit. When you have unsaved changes the header Save button lights up — click it or press Cmd/Ctrl+S to write to the cloud. The header shows a spinner while saving and a green check when everything's saved.

How do I undo a mistake?

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Z to undo and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo. The Undo/Redo buttons also live in the header and in the timeline toolbar, and they show how many steps are stacked. History is kept across your edits, so you can step back several actions.

My clips won't line up neatly — how do I snap them?

Use the Snap picker in the timeline toolbar to choose a grid: off, frame, second, beat, half-beat, or bar. Clips then move and trim onto that grid, and magnet-snap also pulls clip edges to neighbor edges and the playhead. To snap to beats, add a song first (its tempo is on the clip's Source card in the Inspector), then turn on Beat grid on the ruler in the Audio panel's Tracks tab so you can see the beats.

Why did my 3D transition or particle effect turn into a plain fade?

Motion's compositor is GPU-first (WebGL2). If your browser falls back to Canvas2D, the advanced GPU-only features degrade gracefully: 3D transitions like cube-rotate and card-flip become a fade, 3D rotations (rotationX/Y) and particles drop out, and masks are ignored. Use a browser/device with WebGL2 support to get the full feature set during preview and export.

How do I keyframe movement like a fade-in or a zoom?

Select a clip and open the Inspector → Props tab. Move the playhead to where you want the keyframe, then click the ◇ next to the field you want to animate — x, y, scale, rotation, skewX, skewY and opacity each have their own. Set another keyframe further along and Motion interpolates between them, and the ‹ › arrows jump between keyframes. Choose easing (linear, ease-in, ease-out, ease-in-out, or hold). The Animate tab lists everything animated on the clip — it's empty until you set your first key, and it's where you go to see what's moving. For something quicker, Actions has one-click animations. Keyframe times are clip-local, so moving the whole clip carries them with it.

How do I make a clip stutter, freeze, or retrigger on the beat?

Select a clip and open Time & Beat in the right rail. It holds 22 beat-synced time moves in four groups. Repeat: Stutter (1 bar), Stutter (½ beat), Micro-loop. Remap: Strobe retrigger (restarts on every low hit — usually the kick), Backbeat retrigger (restarts on every mid hit — snare or clap), Speed ramp in/out, Freeze frame, Reverse, Boomerang, Rewind & replay, Choppy time, Slow-mo, Stop motion. Echo: Ghost trail, RGB echo, Beat echo, Long exposure. Shuffle: Grain shuffle, Beat shuffle, Glitch storm, Sputter. The retriggers and beat-locked moves follow your song, so load a track first. You need a clip targeted — with nothing selected the panel says "Edit — no clip targeted".

How do I stop the music drowning out a voiceover?

Open the Audio panel and turn on Duck music under voice. Tag your clips as Voice or Music in the Inspector and Motion ducks the music automatically whenever the voice clip plays — no keyframing. The same panel has a small mixer with a bus, per-clip Gain and Pan, and beat markers you can drop on every beat or every bar.

What do the Shift+number keys do?

Shift+1 through Shift+7 toggle the left-rail panels in order: Project, My Media, Stock B-roll, Templates, Frames, AI Generations, and Storyboard. It's the fastest way to open or close a content library without reaching for the mouse. Note there's no separate Workspace panel any more — your canvas format (dimensions, duration, saved presets) is a card at the top of the Project panel.

Why does Onomo ask when I was born?

What is a teen account?

What does the E badge mean?

Why was my image rejected?

How do I report something?

Why does Follow say "Requested"?

Why can't I message someone?

How do I replay a tour?

Step-by-step guides

8-second Spotify Canvas loop

A vertical 9:16 looping clip exported as an MP4 that fits the Spotify Canvas spec. (Level: beginner, about 12 min)

On the What are you making? picker, choose the Spotify Canvas archetype (1080×1920, 8s), give the project a name and click Create. Your canvas and duration are now preset.
Open the My Media panel (Shift+2), Upload a short video or image (a few seconds of your cover art moving works well), and drag it onto the timeline, or drag a file straight onto the canvas.
Open the Audio panel in the right rail, go to its Import tab and use Add audio to bring in your track (or drop the file on the canvas).
Select your visual clip, open the Inspector, and click the ⚡ next to Scale: it binds to Hits · Bass straight away. Nudge Gain up in the popover so the image pulses on the kick, then click Done.
Short clip? On the Inspector's Speed tab set When source ends to Loop, then on Props set the clip's LEN to 8 so it tiles cleanly across the full 8 seconds.
Click Export in the header, pick aspect Canvas (auto-caps at 8s), pick the Reels quality preset to keep the file small, and click Render MP4.
When the Last render box appears, click Save to library to store the MP4, or Download again to re-grab the file.

Beat-synced lyric snippet

A 15-second vertical lyric clip where each line reveals in time with the song, exported as MP4. (Level: intermediate, about 20 min)

Start from the Lyric video archetype on the new-project picker (1080×1920), name it and click Create. It comes with Bg art, Lyrics and Song lanes.
Add your song from the Audio panel's Import tab (select the clip to see its tempo on the Inspector's Source card), then check Beat grid on the ruler is On under Audio → Tracks so beats show on the timeline.
Set the timeline Snap picker to beat so text clips land on the grid.
Open the Text & Lyrics panel and, on Templates → Lyrics, pick a styled lyric template: it lands on the Lyrics lane as a lyric clip. (A plain text clip from T can be switched with Make this a lyric clip on the Inspector's Lyrics tab.) Long lines? Drop the Size on Style so they fit the 9:16 frame.
On the Lyrics tab, click Paste lyrics, paste your lines and hit Add + auto-time. Then use Tap-to-time: the song plays and you press Space on the beat each line should land on. Fine-tune any IN/OUT time by typing it, and stretch the clip's LEN to cover the last line.
On the Animate tab, choose a reveal (e.g. Scale pop or Wipe) and under Tune set the unit to Word so words appear one at a time.
Click an empty part of the timeline and set the project Length to your snippet (e.g. 16 s) in the Inspector. Then in Export, pick 9:16 and the TikTok quality preset, click Render MP4, and Save to library when it completes.

Two-clip B-roll cut with a transition and color grade

A 16:9 video that cuts between two clips with a cross-zoom transition and a cinematic color grade, exported as MP4. (Level: intermediate, about 18 min)

Choose the YouTube HD (1920×1080) archetype (scroll the picker), or Blank wide if you just want a 16:9 canvas. Name it and click Create.
Get two video clips onto the same video track, back to back: drag your own from My Media (Shift+2), or search Stock B-roll, click a result to preview it, choose Place at (Project start for the first, Playhead for the next) and hit Add to project.
If a clip is too long, press C (Razor) and click to trim it, then drag the second clip to butt up against the first (use the Snap picker for clean alignment).
Select the first clip, open the Transitions panel, choose the Out edge, filter to Punch, and click Zoom punch (a 2× cross-zoom). Open the Tune drawer to set the duration (~0.5s), zoom amount and easing.
Open the Filters panel, pick a Cinematic preset, and dial the Intensity slider (select the other clip and apply the same look so the cut matches). Hold \ (backslash) to compare against the ungraded look.
Open the Audio panel's Import tab and Add audio for the soundtrack.
Click empty timeline past your clips and set the project Length in the Inspector to the length of your cut. Then click Export, render to 16:9 at the YouTube quality preset, and Download the MP4.

Animated lower-third over a clip

A clip with an animated lower-third widget that reveals your name/handle, exported as MP4. (Level: beginner, about 15 min)

Pick any archetype that matches your output (e.g. Instagram Reel for 9:16).
From My Media (Shift+2), drag a background video or image onto the timeline.
Open the Stickers panel (Elements tab) and filter to the Broadcast category — that's where the lower-thirds live: *Name Lower-Third*, *Badge Lower-Third*, *Underline Lower-Third*, *Interview Name-Card* and friends. Click one and it drops as a fully editable scene block at the playhead.
With the lower-third selected, pick a layer in the Inspector's Layers list (e.g. Name, then Role) and type your own text in its box: your name, your real @handle. Change its Color there too; the built-in animation keeps playing.
Move the playhead and use the timeline to retime when the lower-third enters and exits.
Open the Audio panel's Import tab and Add audio if you want music under it.
Click empty timeline, open Project from the Inspector banner and set the Length to your Reel. Then click Export, choose your aspect and the Reels or TikTok quality preset, click Render MP4, then Save to library.

Tips

The kick-to-scale bind is the fastest way to look pro: select a clip, hit the ⚡ BindChip on scale in the Inspector, keep the source on Hits · Bass, and your visual punches on every kick with zero keyframes.
Set the Snap picker to 'beat' and turn on the beat grid in the Audio panel's Tracks tab before you cut — your razor splits and clip edges will land exactly on the downbeats.
Use the Transitions panel's 'both' side toggle to write the same in/out transition to a hero clip in a single click instead of setting each edge separately.
Cmd/Ctrl+C / X / V copies a whole clip including its keyframes and effects as JSON, so you can clone a fully-animated element across the timeline.
Keyframe times are clip-local — move a clip anywhere on the timeline and its fade-ins and zooms travel with it, no remapping required.
Save to library (in the Export panel's Last render box) drops your MP4 straight into Onomo Drive's Motion folder, so you don't have to re-upload it elsewhere in the app.
Drop Templates and Stickers widgets freely — they land as editable scene blocks at the playhead and never reset your project, unlike the new-project archetypes which reset canvas/tracks/duration.
Use a WebGL2-capable browser to keep 3D transitions, particles, and masks intact — on the Canvas2D fallback those features degrade (3D → fade, masks ignored, particles blank).

Journal (writing & planning)

What it is

Your artist notebook — every lyric, note, concept, plan, memo and storyboard in one tree.

The Journal is where songs start and get organized. Lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, memos and storyboards live in Docs; Brainstorm is an infinite board and Roster your calendar. Assist (⌘J) works on whatever doc is open.

Areas and panels

Docs (D) (D): The document tree (folders are projects). Filter by kind; the open doc decides which editor and tools you get.
Brainstorm (B) (B): An infinite canvas of cards (text, lyric, image, audio, palette), ink, frames and connecting lines.
Roster (G) (G): Your project wall and calendar: drop dates, day notes, and goals across projects.
Assist (⌘J) (Cmd/Ctrl+J): The AI. Say what you want and it happens to the open doc: lyrics, concepts, release plans. 1 credit per action.
Find anything (Cmd/Ctrl+K) (Cmd/Ctrl+K): Search lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, memos, storyboards and daily notes at once.
Player bar + metronome (bottom): Load a beat, set BPM, tap tempo, or run a metronome. It keeps playing as you switch surfaces.
Karaoke rail (bottom): As a beat plays, your timed lyric lines light up in stage-sized type.
Settings (rail): Defaults (week start, scopes, lyric auto-version) and Data export/import, from the profile button.

Key concepts

Everything is a doc: Lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, voice memos and storyboards are document KINDS inside the Docs tree — not separate places you navigate to.
Three surfaces: Docs (the page), Brainstorm (the board), Roster (the calendar). Those are the only rail destinations: D, B, G.
Assist (⌘J): One AI for every doc. It reads what you have open and applies its result straight to the page — no drafts drawer. 1 credit per AI action.
Round-trip: Lyrics + notes are shared with Studio, so what you write in either place follows the project.
Concept → Plan: Write a concept (or have Assist fill it), then 'Plan this release' turns it into a release plan with a drop date and steps.
Saved: A Lyrics doc's history + library. Snapshot manually with '+ Save song', or let auto-save keep the last 10, then restore any earlier take by timestamp.
Local + cloud: Saves to your browser automatically (memo audio in IndexedDB); the header Save pushes to the cloud. JSON export omits audio.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account, and what's free?

What is the Journal and how is it laid out?

The Journal is your artist notebook for lyrics, notes, concepts, release plans, voice memos, and storyboards across projects. The model is simple: everything wordy is a document, and every document lives in one tree inside Docs. The left rail has just three destinations — Docs (the page), Brainstorm (the board), and Roster (the calendar) — plus Find anything. A sticky player bar at the bottom lets you load a beat and write to it, and Assist (⌘J) is the one AI that works on whichever document you have open.

How do I move around the Journal quickly?

Press a single key from anywhere in the Journal (as long as you're not typing in a text field): D = Docs, B = Brainstorm, G = Roster. N captures a note — inside Docs it makes a new one, from anywhere else it drops you into Docs where the note lives. Cmd/Ctrl+K toggles global search, and inside Docs Cmd/Ctrl+J opens Assist (that one works even while you're typing). There are only three destinations because lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, memos and storyboards aren't places — they're documents inside the Docs tree.

How do I write lyrics and break them into verses and choruses?

In Docs (D), make a new Lyrics doc from the + New button, or open an existing one from the tree. The lyric editor is a serif notepad with color-coded section cards. Click the + to add a section (it picks a default from the section templates, like verse/chorus), then type inline. Drag a card's grip icon to reorder, or use the right-rail Sections panel, which lists every section with color tags and move buttons. The right-rail Style panel lets you change font, background, line-height, and page width.

How do I record a voice memo and turn it into lyrics?

In Docs, click the mic beside New note (Record a voice memo) to record right there, and stop when you're done. The take lands in the tree as a Voice memo doc you can play back. To record straight onto a lyric section or a note, use the mic in that section's header (or on the note): the take files itself onto it. A memo has no transcript to start with; the right-rail AI panel works from the take — Title this memo and Extract lyrics (pulls the bars out of a ramble), plus Group takes and Reflect across all your memos. AI actions use credits. Copy the lines you keep into a section of your Lyrics doc.

What's the difference between a Note doc and Brainstorm?

A Note is a document — a quick text snippet you can tag, scope (Session/Project/Other projects/Loose), search, and open from the Docs tree. Brainstorm (B) is a different shape of thinking: an infinite zoomable canvas where you spawn cards (text, lyric, note, image, audio, palette), drag and resize them, draw freehand ink, frame groups, and connect cards with lines. Use notes for capture, Brainstorm for visual idea-mapping.

What is Assist, and what does it cost?

Assist is the Journal's single AI surface — press Cmd/Ctrl+J (or click the floating sparkle) anywhere in Docs. Instead of a dozen scattered AI buttons, you say what you want and it happens to the document you're looking at: draft or rewrite lyric sections toward a direction, fill a concept's sections from a brief, draft a release plan from a description, or expand a note in place. With nothing open, describe what you want and Assist creates the doc for you. Results apply directly to the page — there's no drafts drawer. Each AI action costs 1 credit from your shared pool.

Can I write to a beat while I'm in the Journal?

Yes — that's what the sticky player bar at the bottom is for. Load a beat from one of your projects or your files, and it keeps playing as you move between Docs, Brainstorm, and Roster. Set the BPM (or tap it in) and use the metronome button for a standalone click that works even with no audio loaded — the writer's pulse before any beat exists. Once your lyric sections carry timing, the karaoke rail above the player bar lights up the active line in big type as the beat plays.

What's a Storyboard doc, and how does it get to Motion?

A Storyboard is a doc kind for planning a music video or visual: a run of frames with shot descriptions you build (or generate with Assist) in Docs. It's the hand-off surface to Motion — open Motion's Storyboard panel (Shift+7 in the left rail) and your storyboard comes across as read-only production reference frames you can check off as you shoot or build them. It's a reference, not an editor — you keep authoring in the Journal and use it as the shot list while you cut.

How do I add cards to the Brainstorm canvas?

In Brainstorm mode, double-click an empty spot on the canvas to open the radial menu and pick a card kind (text/lyric/note/image/audio/palette). You can also drag image files straight onto the canvas to create image cards (a color palette is auto-extracted). Lyric and note cards point back to your existing sections and notes. Zoom with Ctrl+wheel and pan with space+drag.

How do I generate a song, cover, or release concept?

In Docs, click the Concepts filter (the lightbulb under the search box). Launch cards start a concept already laid out for its lane: Song concept, Project concept, Music video, Cover art, Photoshoot, or Describe it. Write the sections yourself, or, signed in, press Cmd/Ctrl+J for Assist to fill them from a short brief (1 credit). Assist needs a connection; there's no offline template. Concepts save into the tree like any other doc, so the Concepts chip or global search finds them later.

How do I turn a concept into a release plan?

Open the concept and click Plan this release: a release plan opens with the concept as its brief and a starter list of steps. (You can also start one from the menu beside New note → Plan.) A plan holds a title, a drops date that counts down, the brief, Steps (a checklist, each step with its own due date), People and Notes. Plans made from a Song or Project concept date their release steps back from the drop; add your own with Add a step. Dated steps show up on that day in the Roster's checklist.

Where do I see all my projects, drop dates, and what's coming up?

Press G or click Roster in the left rail. The project at the top is the one you have open, or else the one you worked on most recently, with its cover art and a countdown to its drop; hover the cover to play a preview. Vibe badges show each project's state (hot, flowing, fresh, stale, done). The month calendar marks drop days. Pick a day and the right rail follows it: a day note shared across all projects, and a Checklist of every plan step due that day. The Goals block tracks cross-project goals: New goal, set target, then Link plans, and its progress rolls up from those plans' steps.

How does global search work?

Press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows) or click Find anything in the left rail. Your query matches across lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, memos, storyboards, and daily notes, with kind-filter chips to narrow results. Use Arrow Up/Down to move through hits, Enter to jump to the highlighted one, and Escape to close. Every hit lands in one of the three surfaces: a document opens inside Docs, a brainstorm card opens the board, and a daily note or goal opens Roster.

How do I save and restore old versions of my lyrics?

With a Lyrics doc open in Docs, open the right-rail Saved panel (history + library) and click + Save song to snapshot the current lyrics. Auto-saves keep your last 10; manual saves stick around forever — the panel says so at the bottom. Use the History tab to find an earlier take by its timestamp and restore it, and the Library tab for songs you've saved out.

Will my changes show up in Studio?

Yes for lyrics and notes. The Journal shares the DAW's lyric/note state, so what you write in the Journal round-trips to Studio's Notepad. Note that the Brainstorm canvas's pan/zoom and current selection are live-only and not saved, and release plans are now global with a project link for provenance rather than locked to one project bucket.

How do I back up my whole Journal, and what about my voice memo audio?

Go to Settings → Journal → Data. Export downloads a timestamped `onomo-journal-….json` snapshot of your entire journal — lyrics, notes, concepts, plans, memo metadata + transcripts, daily notes, and prefs — but not voice-memo audio, which lives separately in your browser's storage. To keep the recordings too, use Export with audio, which bundles them into a ZIP. Import replaces your current journal from an export — it's destructive, confirms first, and reloads the page.

How do I work on more than one project at once, and how is everything saved?

Use the header tab strip — click + to open a new project tab or click an existing tab to switch; the URL reflects the active project (?project=id). The Journal saves automatically to this browser, with memo audio kept in the browser's storage. To back it up to your account, use the header Save button — it pushes the journal project and memo audio to the cloud, and they load back when you open the project.

Why does Onomo ask when I was born?

What is a teen account?

What does the E badge mean?

Why was my image rejected?

How do I report something?

Why does Follow say "Requested"?

Why can't I message someone?

How do I replay a tour?

Step-by-step guides

Capture a hook by voice and turn it into a chorus

A finished lyric section (your chorus) seeded from a voice memo, plus a saved JSON backup of your journal. (Level: beginner, about 12 min)

Press D (or click Docs in the left rail) to open the document tree.
Click the mic beside New note (Record a voice memo) and sing or speak your hook idea, then stop the recording.
The take lands in the tree as a Voice memo doc. Open it and play it back.
Signed in, run Extract lyrics in the right-rail AI panel to pull the lines out of the take (uses credits).
Open your Lyrics doc from the tree, Add a section, paste in the lines you want to keep, and name the section Chorus.
Open the right-rail Saved panel and click + Save song to snapshot the lyrics.
Go to Settings → Journal → Data → Export to download the onomo-journal JSON snapshot as your backup.

Build a single cover concept and hand it to a release plan

A saved cover concept linked to a real release plan with a drop date and a few todos, backed up to JSON. (Level: intermediate, about 18 min)

Press D for Docs and click the Concepts filter (the lightbulb under the search box). Each launch card starts a concept already laid out for its lane.
Click Cover art, name it, and write out its sections (Direction, Image, Palette, References). Signed in, press Cmd/Ctrl+J for Assist to fill them from a short brief instead (1 credit).
Click ← Concepts at the top of the page: your concept is saved in the collection. Click it to reopen it.
Click Plan this release. A release plan opens with your concept as its brief and a starter list of steps.
Set the drops date at the top of the plan and it counts down the days. A plan made from a Song concept also dates its release steps back from the drop.
Click Add a step, type your own task and give it a due date.
Open Settings → Journal → Data → Export to download the journal JSON snapshot with your concept and plan.

Map a song's mood on the Brainstorm canvas

A visual idea board with text, lyric, and image cards connected and framed, backed up to JSON. (Level: intermediate, about 20 min)

Press B (or click Brainstorm in the left rail) to open the infinite canvas.
Add a text card for your song title/theme: on an empty board click Add a text card in the start panel; after that, double-click any empty spot for the card menu (Text, Note, Lyric, Image, Palette).
Double-click again and pick Lyric to add a lyric section card. With it selected, open the Inspector (right rail) to name the section and write the lines. It's saved to your lyrics too.
Drag an image file from your computer onto the canvas to create an image card — a color palette is auto-extracted from it.
Drag cards to arrange them and drag from a corner to resize. Select a card and open the Inspector (right rail) to edit its text, style and color.
Use the left tool strip to pick the Frame tool and draw a region box around related cards to group them; moving the frame moves its contents.
Connect two cards: select one and drag the link handle in its toolbar onto the other card (or use the Link cards tool on the left strip).
Open the right-rail Elements panel, click the filter (funnel) button, and toggle card kinds on/off to declutter the view.
Open Settings → Journal → Data → Export to download the journal JSON snapshot of your board.

Plan your week across projects from the Roster

A dated daily note, the day's checklist from your plans, and a release goal linked to a plan, plus a JSON backup. (Level: beginner, about 10 min)

Press G (or click Roster in the left rail). The project you're working on sits at the top, with a countdown to its drop date.
Scroll to the calendar, use the arrows to change month, and click a day. The right rail follows the day you pick.
In the rail, type a note for that day. Daily notes are shared across all projects, so the same note shows on that date wherever you open it.
Under it, the day's Checklist lists every plan step due that day, from all your plans. Tick them off as you go; give any plan step a due date and it shows up here.
In Goals, click New goal and name it. Click set target to pick a date, then Link plans to attach your release plan. Its steps roll up into the goal's progress.
Open Settings → Journal → Data → Export to download the journal JSON snapshot with your daily note and goal.

Tips

Three keys get you everywhere: D Docs, B Brainstorm, G Roster. N captures a note, Cmd/Ctrl+K finds anything, and Cmd/Ctrl+J opens Assist — the navigation keys don't fire while you're typing, so you can write freely.
Assist (⌘J) is the only AI button you need to remember. It reads whichever doc you have open and applies its result straight to the page — draft lyrics, fill a concept, draft a plan, expand a note. 1 credit per action.
Everything wordy is a doc in one tree, so stop hunting for the right zone: use the kind chips under the Docs search box (Lyrics · Notes · Concepts · Plans · Voice memos · Storyboards) to narrow the tree in one click.
Load a beat in the bottom player bar and it follows you across Docs, Brainstorm, and Roster — or hit the metronome for a standalone click with no audio loaded, so you can write to a pulse before the beat exists.
Record a take onto a lyric section without leaving your lyrics: click the mic in the section's header (or on a note) and the memo files itself onto that section or note.
Lyrics auto-snapshot on a timer (on by default — change it under Lyric Versions in Settings → Journal), so you can open the right-rail Saved panel and restore any earlier take by its timestamp.
On the Brainstorm canvas, draw a Frame around related cards (Frame tool in the left tool strip): the frame sits behind the cards and moves its contents as a group, so you can shuffle whole sections of your board at once.
Drag image files straight onto the Brainstorm canvas to create image cards with an auto-extracted color palette — a fast way to build a mood/palette reference for a release.
Use the right-rail Filters panel in Brainstorm to hide card kinds (text/lyric/note/image/audio/palette/shape/frame) you're not working on, and the Tags panel in Notes to filter by scope (Session/Project/Other projects/Loose) and run an AI Summarize on just the filtered set.
Anything you write in the Journal's lyrics and notes round-trips to Studio's Notepad since they share the same state — capture ideas wherever you are and they follow the project.
Use the header tab strip (+ to open a tab) to keep several projects open at once, and the header Save button to push the project plus memo audio to the cloud — local autosave only covers this browser, and the plain JSON export leaves memo audio behind (use Export with audio for that).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Play / Pause (Studio · Transport): Space
Stop (double = panic) (Studio · Transport): . — Press twice quickly to kill all audio
Arm Recording (Studio · Transport): Shift + R
Loop Toggle (Studio · Transport): `
Skip Back (Studio · Transport): HOME
Skip Forward (Studio · Transport): END
Toggle Song / Solo Mode (Studio · Transport): /
Keep Take (Studio · Transport): Shift + Enter — Save the take just recorded and stay armed for the next one
Redo Take (Studio · Transport): Shift + Backspace — Discard the last take, return to its start, stay armed
New Adlib Lane (Studio · Transport): Shift + N — New audio track cloning input, monitoring and FX — armed for layering
Undo (Studio · Navigation): Ctrl + Z
Redo (Studio · Navigation): Ctrl + Shift + Z
Toggle Bottom Panel (Arrange · Navigation): Shift + A
Toggle Mixer / Arrange (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 5
Toggle AI Tools (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 6
Toggle Lyrics Panel (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 7
Toggle Workspace (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 8
Toggle Market (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 9
Toggle Sound Browser (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 4
Toggle Instrument Panel (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 1
Toggle Track FX (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 2
Toggle Help (Studio · Navigation): Shift + 3
Copy (Studio · Editing): Ctrl + C
Cut (Studio · Editing): Ctrl + X
Paste (Studio · Editing): Ctrl + V
Select All (Studio · Editing): Ctrl + A
Delete (Studio · Editing): Delete
Deselect (Studio · Editing): Escape
Legato (extend notes) (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + L
Toggle Select All (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + S — Selects/deselects all notes + slides
Finer Snap (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + 1 — Decrease grid size for more precision
Coarser Snap (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + 2 — Increase grid size for less precision
Add Layer (Stack) (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + Y
Unstack (Piano Roll · Piano Roll): Shift + U
Select Tool (Arrange · Arrange): V
Draw / Pencil Tool (Arrange · Arrange): C
Mute Tool (Arrange · Arrange): M
Split Tool (Arrange · Arrange): B
Erase Tool (Arrange · Arrange): N
Stretch Tool (Arrange · Arrange): Shift + T
Toggle Select All Clips (Arrange · Arrange): Shift + S — Selects/deselects every clip (same key as the piano roll)
Delete Selected Steps (Sequencer · Sequencer): Delete
Duplicate Selection (Sequencer · Sequencer): Shift + D — Duplicates selected notes or time region
Move Left (Sequencer · Sequencer): Shift + ←
Move Right (Sequencer · Sequencer): Shift + →
Move Up (prev channel) (Sequencer · Sequencer): Shift + ↑
Move Down (next channel) (Sequencer · Sequencer): Shift + ↓
Select / Move (Canvas · Tools): V — Press again to cycle Move → Skew → Distort → Perspective
Hand (pan) — toggle (Canvas · Tools): H — Or hold Space to pan without switching tools
Text (Canvas · Tools): T
Rectangle (Canvas · Tools): R
Ellipse (Canvas · Tools): O
Line (Canvas · Tools): L
Pencil (Canvas · Tools): P
Spray (Canvas · Tools): A
Paint brush (Canvas · Tools): B
Eraser (Canvas · Tools): E
Smudge (Canvas · Tools): S
Crop — toggle (Canvas · Tools): C
Brush size down / up (Canvas · Tools): [ / ] — While a brush is armed. Hold Shift for bigger steps
Save (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + S
Undo (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + Z
Redo (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + Shift + Z — Ctrl+Y also works
Copy / Cut / Paste (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + C / X / V
Select all layers (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + A
Duplicate layer (Canvas · Editing): Shift + D — With a marquee selection active, Shift+D deselects instead
Reselect last selection (Canvas · Editing): Ctrl + Shift + D
Delete layer (Canvas · Editing): Delete — With a marquee selection active, erases the pixels inside it
Nudge (Canvas · Editing): Arrow keys — Hold Shift for 10px steps
Deselect (Canvas · Editing): Escape
Group (Canvas · Layers): Shift + G
Ungroup (Canvas · Layers): Ctrl + Shift + G
Bring forward (Canvas · Layers): Ctrl + ] — Add Shift to bring to front
Send backward (Canvas · Layers): Ctrl + [ — Add Shift to send to back
Toggle transform box (Canvas · Layers): Shift + T
Zoom to fit (Canvas · View): Shift + 0
Actual size (100%) (Canvas · View): Shift + 1
Zoom in / out (Canvas · View): + / −
Play / Pause (Motion · Playback): Space
Shuttle reverse / stop / forward (Motion · Playback): J / K / L — Press J or L again to speed up
Playhead back / forward 1 second (Motion · Playback): ← / →
Playhead back / forward 1 frame (Motion · Playback): , / .
Set loop in / out at playhead (Motion · Playback): I / O
Add marker (Motion · Playback): M
Previous / next marker (Motion · Playback): [ / ]
Select tool (Motion · Timeline): V
Razor tool (Motion · Timeline): C
Add a text clip at the playhead (Motion · Timeline): T
Split selected clips at playhead (Motion · Timeline): Shift + K
Trim clip start / end to playhead (Motion · Timeline): Q / W
Duplicate selected clips (Motion · Timeline): Shift + D
Nudge selected clips 1 frame (Motion · Timeline): Alt + , / .
Toggle magnetic snap (Motion · Timeline): S
Delete selection (Motion · Timeline): Delete
Save to the cloud (Motion · Editing): Ctrl + S
Undo (Motion · Editing): Ctrl + Z
Redo (Motion · Editing): Ctrl + Shift + Z
Copy / Cut / Paste clips (Motion · Editing): Ctrl + C / X / V — Paste lands at the playhead
Select all clips (Motion · Editing): Ctrl + A
Left-rail panels (Motion · Panels): Shift + 1 – 7 — Project · My Media · Stock B-roll · Templates · Frames · AI Generations · Storyboard
Docs (Journal · Navigation): D — Single keys work whenever you are not typing
Brainstorm (Journal · Navigation): B
Roster (Journal · Navigation): G
New note (Journal · Navigation): N
Find anything (Journal · Navigation): Ctrl + K
Assist (AI) on the open doc (Journal · Navigation): Ctrl + J — In Docs

Changelog

v0.9.0 — Public beta: Onomo opens to everyone

Sign-ups are open. Studio, Canvas, Motion and Journal need a free account; Foundry and the Toolkit work without one.. Guided tours: a welcome tour the first time you sign in, and a short tour the first time you open Studio, Canvas, Motion, Journal, Foundry or the Toolkit. Replay any of them from Help, the (i) button or the + menu.. Everyone is asked their birth month and year. Accounts for 13 to 17-year-olds start private with follow requests, stay out of search, and can only be messaged or invited by people they follow.. Explicit tag: mark a post, a song or your whole profile Explicit and it carries an E. Explicit work is hidden from teen accounts and asks signed-out visitors to sign in. Nudity and sexual imagery aren’t allowed for anyone.. Uploaded images (avatars, banners, post images, covers and DM images) are checked automatically, and anything doubtful waits for a person to review it.. Three plans: Free, Plus ($6 a month or $58 a year) and Pro ($10 a month or $96 a year). Every instrument, effect and export format is on all three; Plus adds room for a whole catalog with no AI bundled in, and Pro adds Ono. The Pricing page has the details.. One AI credit pool across every app. Text requests work on any plan; AI images, video, upscaling and stem splitting are part of Pro.. Studio ships with 50 synths, 28 drum engines and 42 effects plus Track EQ, and counting.. Help Center refreshed for launch: every guide, FAQ and shortcut list checked against the current build.. Visitors in Europe get a cookie choice. Until they accept, analytics run without cookies and error replays stay off.. Pages translated by your browser (for example with Chrome’s Translate) no longer break when you move between pages.

v0.8.0 — Launch prep: Foundry rebuilt, phones, and a full audit

Foundry rebuilt around the Deck: one transport and one mixer for every tab, auto-balance so drums stop burying the mix, a song key lock, and parts that play on real Studio synths.. New Song tab in Foundry: save sections as you jam, arrange them into a song, write a matching chorus or bridge, and open the whole thing in Studio.. Piano roll: generate a part locked to your key and chords, no AI needed.. Plus ($58) and Pro ($96, with bonus credits) can be billed yearly, and a monthly plan can switch to yearly from the Pricing page.. Invite friends: a friend who joins gets bonus credits, and you get 1,000 when they go Pro (500 when they go Plus).. Report, hide, mute and block across the community and messages.. Phones: the site, Backstage, Stage, Foundry, the Toolkit and your account all work on a phone. Studio stays desktop for now.. Studio edits respond while the song plays, and exports honor mute and solo.. Top-up credits now last 12 months from your latest top-up, and every new top-up renews the whole balance.

v0.7.1 — Studio: safer saving, history, FX power automation, key detection

Autosave keeps a separate working copy — Save (Ctrl+S) is the only thing that changes the saved project. Leaving asks whether to save; reopening offers a newer autosave.. History (chevron next to undo/redo): jump to any undo step by what changed, or to a local snapshot — taken on every Save, every 10 minutes of unsaved work, or on demand.. Automate any effect on/off: right-click its power button. A 5 ms crossfade instead of a chain rewire — no clicks, tails ring out, Matryx and other tempo effects stay locked to the grid.. Key → Detect from notes: ranks the most likely keys from the MIDI in your arrangement. Applying a key never moves notes unless you choose to, and it tells you how many would move first.. Loop modes: Whole song follows the arrangement automatically; dragging a region switches to Custom. Play starts from the playhead when it sits inside the loop.. Open in Canvas: a new tab with an album-cover project linked to the song — every save becomes the song's cover. Open in Motion now opens a new tab too.. Left-clicking a lit Solo unsolos (it used to mute underneath). Track ••• menu is movable. Project menu has a plain Save. Linked clips dragged to another track stay linked. Projects show real durations.

v0.7.0 — The sound pass

Every synth checked so live playback and export match, and synths that had knobs you couldn’t automate now can be.. Foundry’s Loop tab became the Forge: a strip of results to scan with the arrow keys, one Bench to edit the active one, and pins that keep the good ones through a reload.. Canvas and Motion timelines tightened up: shared snapping, a slimmer toolbar, and jump-to-keyframe.

v0.6.0 — Canvas becomes a design + animation studio

Animation Center — flip Design ⇄ Timeline for a real keyframe timeline: per-layer clips, one-click scene vibes, transform + property keyframes (font size, stroke width, colour…), curved motion paths, and a smooth RAM-buffered preview. Audio-reactive visuals — 240+ animated generators (100+ react to your music): bind a track and they pulse to it, with the reaction baked deterministically and the song muxed into the exported video. Audio FX & Transitions — shape the project track with gain, low/high-pass, reverb and saturate plus fade in/out; what you hear in preview is what exports. Multi-page sequences — design each page like its own artboard, then play them as one video with morphing transitions (crossfade / slide / fade-through), audio running straight through on its own clock. 3D turntable → video — spin a 3D logo or extruded text and render it to a transparent (alpha) video layer you can stroke, blend, keyframe, and composite over your live-animating scene. Per-layer Animation in the Inspector — set any layer to still or a movement preset without opening the timeline; ⌘/Ctrl-click deep-select to grab the exact layer under the cursor through groups and overlays. Resize parity — Shift now locks aspect ratio on a corner drag (Alt scales from centre), and the marquee tool’s add/subtract modes stick and no longer warp the selection box

v0.5.0 — The first complete build

Studio — a real browser DAW: synth engines, drum engines and effects, a step sequencer, piano roll, mixer with bus routing, automation, tempo automation, audio recording and a sampler. Canvas — a layer-based design editor for cover art and visuals: layers, blend modes and masks, 3D title text, AI image generation, and one-click social-size exports. Motion — a music-video editor with an audio brain: music-reactive visual FX, lyric videos, a GPU engine with 3D transforms and keyframes, and frame-accurate MP4 export. Journal — the pre-production notebook: a lyric editor with a built-in rhyme finder, self-transcribing voice memos, an infinite brainstorm canvas, and release planning. Ono — an AI assistant that writes editable parts into your project (not finished bounces), plus AI image and video generation across the surfaces. Foundry — three rule-based generators (kits, loops, MIDI) with zero copyright risk. Toolkit — 30 quick tools and 6 power tools (slowed + reverb, stem splitter, audio-to-MIDI, converter, tuner, metronome, and more), most running entirely in your browser. Real-time collaboration in Studio, and cloud sync

v0.4.0 — Studio stops being alone

Motion and Journal arrive: a music-video editor that listens to the track, and a notebook for lyrics, ideas and release plans.. Canvas arrives as its own editor for cover art and visuals.. Backstage, the home screen for everything you’re working on, and Drive, one library for every file you make.

v0.3.0 — Foundry and the Toolkit

Foundry: generate drum kits, loops and MIDI from a genre and a few knobs. Rule-based, so there’s nothing to clear.. The Toolkit: quick tools like a converter, tuner and metronome that run in your browser.

v0.2.0 — Studio grows up

Live collaboration: make music in the same session with someone else, in real time.. A deeper piano roll with scales and chord progression templates, and synths with real depth, like multi-operator FM and physically modelled strings.. Folders and a proper project library, with every sound you load saved to the cloud.

v0.1.0 — Onomo gets its name

Studio in a browser tab: synths, drums, effects and a step sequencer, saved to your account.. Accounts, profiles, messages, and Explore for finding other people’s work.

v0.0.1 — Day one

The first synth engine, sequencer and playback engine, all running in the browser with nothing to install.

Help Center

Learn & Master

17 guides · 117 answers · 106 shortcuts

Open Studio

More of Onomo

onomo Help v0.1

Studio · Getting Started

Learn the basics and get up to speed quickly

Onomo's full music studio — make a whole track in your browser.

The lay of the land

Transport bar

top

Top strip: play/stop, record, loop, tempo (BPM), time signature, key/scale, metronome, undo/redo, and Save.

Arrange view

center

The timeline where your tracks live and clips are placed, moved, and arranged into a song.

Mixer

Shift+5

Channel strips with volume, pan, sends, and an effects chain per track, plus a Master.

Bottom editor

Shift+1

Edits the selected track: Piano Roll (instruments), Sequencer (drums), Sampler (pads), or Audio.

Sound Browser

Shift+4

Library, My Library, Presets, Project, and Exports — search, favorite, and drag onto a track.

Ono (AI)

Shift+6

Chat that can suggest ideas and, with your OK, take actions like set tempo, add a track, or place a clip.

Lyrics

Shift+7

Write lyrics in color-coded sections with a rhyme finder; round-trips with the Journal app.

Track FX

Shift+2

The effects chain for the selected track — add EQ, compression, reverb, delay, and more.

Concepts to know

Track: A lane for one instrument, drum sequencer, sampler, or audio recording. Add as many as you need.
Clip: A block of notes/pattern/audio placed on a track's timeline. You move, resize, split, and duplicate clips.
Pattern: The musical content inside a clip — notes in the Piano Roll, steps in the Sequencer.
Bus & send: A shared channel (e.g. one reverb) that many tracks feed into via their 'send' knobs — efficient and cohesive.
Save vs Export: Save keeps your editable project; Export renders an audio or MIDI file. Do both when you finish.
Credits: Ono and the other AI features draw from one monthly credit pool shared across every app, with a monthly allowance on each plan. Everything that isn't AI (instruments, effects, recording, mixing, export) is on the free plan.

Pro tips

Autosave never overwrites the project you saved — hit Ctrl+S when you like where it is, and explore freely between saves. The chevron next to undo/redo opens History to jump back to any step or snapshot.
Right-click an effect's power button to automate it on/off — the switch is click-free and tempo-locked effects stay on the grid.
Learn six keys and you fly: Space play, . stop (twice = panic), Shift+R record, ` loop, Shift+5 mixer, Cmd/Ctrl+S save. The number panels (Shift+1–9) toggle every workspace panel.

What it runs best on

This app leans on: Processor speed

Live audio is computed in real time on your processor, so per-core speed matters most. More tracks, synths and effects mean more work every few milliseconds. Freeze heavy tracks to lighten playback.

Minimum

Opens and works. Keep projects small; bigger sessions may crackle or drop preview quality.

Processor:: 4 cores, about 3 GHz (2019 or newer)
Memory:: 8 GB RAM
Graphics:: Integrated, with WebGL 2
Browser:: Latest Chrome or Edge

Best experience

Heavy sessions, 3D scenes, 4K video and fast exports with room to spare.

Processor:: Apple M-series Pro/Max, or a recent 8+ core desktop chip
Memory:: 32 GB RAM or more
Graphics:: Dedicated GPU, or Apple Silicon

On a laptop, plug in. Many Windows laptops slow the processor down on battery, which can make audio stutter. Choose a Balanced or Best performance power mode.
Keep hardware acceleration on in your browser settings.
Close other heavy tabs and apps while you work on big projects.

Onomo is a web suite, but the work runs on your own device, so faster hardware performs better. Below the minimum, things may still open, but playback and previews can degrade to the point of not being practical. We are always working on performance and on running well on more devices.