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 makes no sound of its own, so you choose the sounds. This chapter covers installing it, adding it to a track, routing MIDI with the Output Role, saving your work, and the trial and license.
What you'll learn
- What the plugin is, and why it produces no audio on its own
- 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 and melody to your instruments
- How songs save inside your DAW project, and how to open cloud songs
- How the 14-day trial and the one-time license work
- How signing in works, and what stays available offline
- Which DAWs the plugin runs in
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 produces no audio of its own. Instead it sends MIDI notes to the instrument on the track, and that instrument makes the sound. 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.
This is the same theory-based, no-AI approach as the rest of Song Cage. 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
| Platform | Requirement | Formats |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, universal (Apple Silicon M1+ and Intel) | Audio Unit (AU), VST3 |
| Windows | Windows 10 or later, 64-bit | VST3 |
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
- Download the macOS installer from the plugin page.
- 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.
- 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
- Download the Windows installer from the plugin page.
- Run the installer and follow the prompts. The VST3 lands in the system VST3 folder.
- 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.
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.
A single instance sends either chords or melody, not both at once. To drive two different instruments, for example a pad for the chords and a lead synth for the melody, use two instances of the plugin: set one to Chords and the other to Melody, each on its own track, each feeding the instrument you want. 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.
20.7 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, you also have your cloud library available. An in-plugin library lets you open any of your existing Song Cage songs directly on the track, so you can pull a sketch you started on your phone or the desktop app into a session. Signing in is covered in 20.9.
20.8 The trial and the license
The plugin starts with a 14-day free trial: the full editor, no sign-in required. Install it, add it to a track, and write. After the 14 days, the plugin locks until you do one of two things:
- Sign in with a Pro or Band subscription, which unlocks the plugin at no extra cost. If you already subscribe (see Account & Subscription), signing in is all it takes.
- Buy the one-time license, $79. This is the single Song Cage Desktop + Plugin purchase. It unlocks both the plugin and the desktop app, on macOS and Windows, offline, for life, with free updates across the v1.x line.
There is no separate plugin price, and there's no double-buying: the one purchase covers both products, and a Pro or Band subscription covers both as well.
One thing the one-time license does not include is cloud sync. The $79 purchase unlocks the software itself; syncing your songs across the plugin, desktop, web, and mobile is a subscription feature, as described in the Collaboration and Account & Subscription chapters. You can write and save songs inside DAW projects forever on the one-time license; reaching your shared cloud library across devices is what a subscription adds.
20.9 Signing in
You only need to sign in for three things: to unlock the plugin through a subscription, to buy the license, or to open your cloud songs. Plain writing during the trial needs no account at all.
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.
20.10 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.
20.11 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.
That closes the manual. You now have Song Cage everywhere you write: in the browser, on your phone, as a native desktop app, and on a track inside your DAW. The canvas is the same in all of them, and so is the idea behind it: capture the song you hear, and let the tools stay out of the way. Go write something.