The Plugin

The Song Cage plugin is the same writing canvas this manual describes, now living inside your DAW. It is an AU and VST3 MIDI plugin: it runs the full editor on a track and sends chord and melody notes to the instruments you already use. It plays through its own sounds while you write, and steps aside for whichever part you route to your DAW. This chapter covers installing it, adding it to a track, routing MIDI with the Output Role, dragging a part onto a track as a clip, saving your work, and the trial and license.

What you'll learn

• What the plugin is, and why it sends MIDI to your instruments rather than audio to your DAW
• System requirements and where to download for macOS and Windows
• How to install on a Mac (Audio Unit and VST3)
• How to install on Windows, including the SmartScreen prompt you may see
• How to add the plugin to a track and read the host tempo
• How the Output Role routes chords, melody, or both to your instruments
• How to drag a MIDI clip straight onto a DAW track
• How songs save inside your DAW project, and how to open cloud songs and song files
• How to pull a phone capture into the session from the Ideas Inbox
• How the 14-day trial and the license work
• How signing in works, what stays available offline, and the usage statistics question
• Which DAWs the plugin runs in, and how recording uses your DAW's microphone access

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Chapter 19 put Song Cage in your dock as a native app. This chapter puts it on a track in your DAW. Everything you've learned across this manual carries over unchanged: the chord palette, voicings, word tools, melody detection, playback, and PDF and MIDI export are all here. What the plugin adds is a direct line from the canvas to your session. Write a progression in Song Cage, and the chords play through the synth, sampler, or virtual instrument already loaded in your project, in time with the DAW.

20.1 What the plugin is

The Song Cage plugin is an AU and VST3 MIDI plugin that runs the complete Song Cage editor on a track in your DAW. You write the same way you do in the browser or the desktop app: build a progression, set voicings, work the lyrics, capture a melody.

The important thing to understand up front is what the plugin sends downstream. It is a MIDI generator, not an instrument and not a sample library: it puts no audio into your DAW's signal path. What goes downstream is MIDI notes to the instrument on the track, and that instrument makes the sound your DAW records and mixes. A held C major chord in Song Cage becomes three or four MIDI note-ons routed to whatever you have loaded: a piano patch, a pad, a guitar sampler. You pick the voices; Song Cage supplies the notes and the timing.

That does not make the plugin silent. Song Cage has the same playback it has everywhere else, so you can write and audition without loading an instrument at all, and with Output Role on Off (the default) that is exactly what happens. What it does is step aside for the part you route: set the role to Chords and Song Cage stops sounding the chords itself so you never hear them twice, once through your DAW instrument and once through Song Cage, while the melody carries on playing through Song Cage. Set it to Both and your instrument has the whole song, so what's left from Song Cage is the metronome. The metronome is never routed, so it always comes from Song Cage. See §20.6 for the routing itself.

This is the same theory-based approach as the rest of Song Cage, with no generative AI. The plugin does not invent music for you or suggest pre-built progressions. It captures the song you write and plays it through your session.

20.2 System requirements and downloads

The plugin is universal on macOS: one download runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. On macOS it installs as both an Audio Unit and a VST3, so it shows up in Logic Pro and GarageBand (which use Audio Units) as well as VST3 hosts. On Windows it installs as a VST3.

Download the installer for your platform from the plugin page.

Note that the plugin's macOS floor is macOS 11, one version lower than the desktop app's macOS 12. AAX and Pro Tools are not supported in this version of the plugin.

20.3 Installing on macOS

1. Download the macOS installer from the plugin page.
2. Open the installer and follow the prompts. It places the Audio Unit and the VST3 in the standard plug-in folders so your DAWs can find them automatically.
3. Relaunch your DAW so it rescans for new plug-ins. Logic Pro and GarageBand validate Audio Units on launch, so the plugin appears once that scan completes.

If the plugin doesn't show up immediately, quitting and reopening the DAW is almost always the fix: most hosts only scan for new plug-ins at startup.

20.4 Installing on Windows

1. Download the Windows installer from the plugin page.
2. Run the installer and follow the prompts. The VST3 lands in the system VST3 folder.
3. Relaunch your DAW (or trigger a plug-in rescan) so it picks up the new VST3.

The "Windows protected your PC" prompt

On a newly released version, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen. This appears for any recently published installer until enough people have run it to build a reputation with Microsoft; it is not a verdict on the software. The installer is code-signed by Digital Candy LLC, the company behind Song Cage.

To continue: click More info, confirm the publisher reads Digital Candy LLC, then click Run anyway. The prompt fades on its own as more people install each version.

20.5 Adding the plugin to a track

Add Song Cage to a track the way you add any MIDI or instrument plug-in in your DAW. The exact menu differs by host, but the plugin slots in like a MIDI effect or instrument that feeds the track.

When it opens, you start with a blank Untitled song, the same fresh canvas you'd get from a new browser tab. From there:

• The timeline follows the host. Tempo and time signature come from your DAW project, so your song stays locked to the session. Change the project tempo and the plugin's timeline follows.
• The transport follows the DAW. Press play and stop in your DAW and the plugin plays and stops with it, in sync with the rest of your tracks.
• Stopped, it plays at the song's own tempo. While your DAW is stopped, Song Cage's own play button auditions the song at the song's tempo. The toolbar has no tempo control in the plugin, so you set it with Song tempo at the top of the Settings menu: click the number and type a new one, from 20 to 300 BPM. The song keeps that tempo when you open it in the web app or on an iPad.

There's nothing to configure to get this sync; it happens as soon as the plugin is on a track.

20.6 Sending MIDI to your instruments

Because the plugin sends MIDI rather than audio, each instance has an Output Role parameter that decides what, if anything, it sends to the DAW. The choices are:

• Off (the default): play inside Song Cage only and send nothing to the DAW. Use this while you're writing and auditioning with Song Cage's own playback.
• Chords: send the chord notes to the track's instrument, on MIDI channel 1.
• Melody: send the melody notes to the track's instrument, on MIDI channel 2.
• Both: send the whole song at once, chords still on channel 1 and melody still on channel 2. In your DAW's automation lane this one is spelled out as Chords + Melody.

Both is the one-track answer. An ordinary instrument plays every note it's given and pays no attention to the channel, so you get chords and melody through the same patch: a piano playing the song the way you'd play it at the keyboard, ready to record in one pass. A multi-timbral instrument, one that assigns a different sound per MIDI channel, will split them instead: the chords land on its channel 1 sound and the melody on its channel 2 sound, from a single plugin instance.

To drive two separate tracks (a pad on one, a lead synth on the other, each with its own fader and effects), use two instances: set one to Chords and the other to Melody, each on its own track. Load the same song into both and they play the two parts in parallel.

Output Role is a standard plug-in parameter, so it is DAW-automatable: you can record or draw automation to switch a part in and out across an arrangement, the same way you'd automate any other parameter.

One thing to know about all of this: the notes ride your DAW's transport. Song Cage sends MIDI while the DAW is rolling, so pressing play in Song Cage's own toolbar auditions the song through Song Cage's sounds and sends nothing out. Press play in your DAW and the routed part switches over to your instrument.

Space follows the same line. On a Mac, while the plugin window has the keyboard and the DAW is stopped, Space plays and pauses Song Cage from its insert marker, so you can hear a phrase without starting the DAW. Once the DAW is playing, Space goes back to the DAW.

20.7 Dragging a MIDI clip onto a track

Output Role streams notes live while the transport runs. Sometimes you want the opposite: the part as a clip you can edit, sitting on a track like anything else you recorded. The Drag MIDI handle in the toolbar does that.

Press it and drag onto any track in your DAW. Your host receives a standard MIDI file and creates a clip from it, exactly as if you had dragged one in from Finder or Explorer. From there it's an ordinary part: quantize it, transpose it, split it, feed it a different instrument.

What ends up in the clip follows Output Role, which is why the handle sits next to that selector:

• Chords: the chord notes, with the voicings you chose.
• Melody: the melody notes, with the timing they have on the timeline.
• Both: chords and melody together, in one clip.
• Off: nothing to drag. The handle stays inactive and tells you to pick a role first.

A clip lands on one track feeding one instrument, so a Both drag merges the two parts into that single part rather than splitting them. When you want them on separate tracks, drag twice: set the role to Chords, drag onto your pad track, switch to Melody, and drag onto your lead track.

Two things worth knowing:

• It's a press and drag, not a click. Pressing the handle starts the drag immediately; there's no dialog and no file to find afterwards.
• The handle tells you when there's nothing to send. If the song has no chords yet and the role is Chords, it says so rather than dropping an empty clip on your track.

The clip is a plain MIDI file, so nothing about it is Song Cage-specific once it lands. This is also the fastest route out of the plugin and into an arrangement: write the part on the track, drag it down, and carry on in the DAW.

20.8 Saving your work

The plugin saves your song inside the DAW project. When you save the project, the song's chords, lyrics, and melody are stored with the plugin's state. Reopen the project later and the song comes back exactly as you left it, on the same track. There's no separate "save" step and no extra file to keep track of: your song travels with the session.

If you're signed in, your cloud library is in the Song menu (click the song title), laid out the way the desktop app lays out your songs: New Song at the top, then a search field, then your songs in the same folders you made on the desktop or web. Click a song to open it on this track, so you can pull a sketch you started on your phone or the desktop app into a session. Folders are for browsing here; moving a song between folders happens in the desktop or web app.

Changes you make stay with the DAW project until you send them back. In the File menu, Update cloud copy writes this track's version over the song you opened, and Save as new cloud song keeps it as a separate song. Signed out, the Song menu shows a Sign in button in place of the library. Signing in is covered in 20.11.

Song files work here too, signed in or not. File > Export Song File saves this track's song as a .songcage.json file, and File > Open Song File… loads one onto the track in place of the song that's there. If the song on the track has any chords or words, Song Cage asks first, because that song is replaced unless you've saved it to your cloud library. To keep a song you opened from a file in your library as well, use Save as new cloud song. See Exporting for what the file holds.

20.9 Your captured ideas, on the track

The plugin also has the menu bar across the top of its window. Help opens the feature tour and the keyboard shortcuts panel (the ? key does too) and, signed in, Report a Bug. Sign-in and licence status are not there: in the plugin your account sits at the bottom of the File menu, since the toolbar has no account menu.

The plugin carries the same Ideas Inbox the web and desktop editors have, in the right panel's Ideas tab. A hum you recorded on the bus is one drag from the track you're building, without leaving the DAW to go and fetch it.

It behaves exactly as described in The Interface: click a card to expand it, then drag its individual pieces (the chord progression, a lyric section, a single voice memo) onto a section or into the gap between sections. A voice memo you drag in is copied onto that section's Audio track, so it's ready for Detect melody without ever touching a file browser.

Two things are specific to the plugin:

What the tab shows. Captures from the iPhone and Android apps come with the Song Cage licence and the free trial, and the plugin only runs on one or the other, so once you're signed in they appear here alongside everything you import yourself. Add to your ideas at the top of the tab brings in more without leaving the DAW: recordings and notes sent from your phone, files from this computer, or pasted words (The Ideas Inbox covers all three). Importing needs you signed in, because the plugin keeps what you import in your account.

Opening the tab is the refresh. Unlike the web, desktop and mobile apps, the plugin does not watch for new captures while it runs: it reads your ideas when you sign in. If you record something on your phone while the DAW is still open, switch away from the Ideas tab and back to it, or press the refresh button at the top of the tab, and the new capture appears.

20.10 The trial and the license

The plugin starts with a 14-day free trial of everything the licence includes, no card required. Install it, add it to a track, and sign in once to start the clock; after that the trial runs offline. The trial belongs to your account, so the desktop app and the plugin share one 14-day window and reinstalling does not restart it. There is one trial per computer too: a new account signed in on a computer that has already run the trial picks up that trial instead of starting a fresh 14 days. After the 14 days, the plugin locks until you buy the license:

• The license. This is the Song Cage licence (current price). It unlocks both the plugin and the desktop app, on macOS and Windows, offline, with free updates across the v1.x line. It also unlocks the full web app on your account; see Account & Licence.

There is no separate plugin price and no double-buying: one purchase covers both products.

Songs you write in the plugin save inside your DAW projects. To move one somewhere else, save it to your cloud library from the File menu (20.8), or export it as a song file (see Exporting).

20.11 Signing in

You sign in once to start the trial or unlock a purchased license, and again only if you want to buy the license or open your cloud songs. Writing itself never needs a connection. While you're signed out, a Sign in button sits at the right end of the toolbar and at the top of the Song menu. Once you're signed in, the bottom of the File menu shows your email and the plugin's licence state, with Get the Song Cage licence if you don't own it yet, and Sign out.

When you do sign in, it happens in your operating system's browser, not inside the plugin. The plugin opens a Song Cage page where you sign in as usual, and the browser hands the session back to the plugin. You never type your password into the plugin itself. This is the same handoff the desktop app uses, and it keeps your credentials in the browser where you already trust them.

20.12 Working offline

The plugin does not need an internet connection to write. With no network you can still:

• Build and edit songs (they save inside the DAW project)
• Use every chord, voicing, and modulation tool
• Use the word tools: rhymes, slant rhymes, synonyms, and associations, all of which ship inside the plugin
• Run melody detection
• Play back and arrange
• Export a PDF chord sheet or a MIDI file

The word data lives inside the plugin, so even a rhyme lookup needs no network call. Signing in, opening cloud songs, and buying a license are the parts that require a connection; the writing itself does not.

The first time you use the plugin, a strip at the top asks whether you'll share which features you use. It never includes your songs or audio, and nothing is sent unless you choose Share. No thanks keeps it off, and What we send opens the list in the privacy policy. To change your answer later, use Share usage stats at the bottom of Settings in the menu bar.

20.13 Which DAWs it works in

The plugin runs in any host that loads Audio Units or VST3 plug-ins. In practice that covers the DAWs most writers use:

• Logic Pro and GarageBand, via the Audio Unit (macOS)
• Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, and REAPER, via VST3 (macOS and Windows)

If your DAW hosts AU or VST3 plug-ins, Song Cage will load. Add it to a track, set the Output Role, and your DAW's instruments become the voice of the songs you write.

Recording uses your DAW's microphone access. When you record a take or sing a melody in the plugin, the microphone is opened on your DAW's behalf, so on a Mac the permission belongs to the DAW rather than to Song Cage. Bitwig Studio runs plug-ins in a separate helper app by default, and there the plugin records using Bitwig's own microphone access once Bitwig has it. If the microphone can't be opened, a short message says why instead of the take quietly not starting, for example that access was denied, that another app is using the microphone, or that the DAW isn't letting plug-ins use it.

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Chapter 19 put Song Cage in your dock, and this chapter put it on a track. One surface is left, and it's the odd one out: not the full canvas at all, but the free phone app that captures ideas on the go and feeds everything else. The next chapter covers The Mobile App.