The audio input

The web app has no audio input: it doesn’t record audio, and has no tuner. A MIDI instrument still plays and records there (Playing and recording MIDI).

The Audio tab

The input’s settings are in the Audio tab of the Audio & MIDI pane. Under Input:

• On: the input may open at all. Off, nothing opens it: no recording, no tuner, no levels. It’s on at first.
• Device: System Default, or any input device the system lists.
• ● Armed: the input is ready to record (the same as Record Audio InputRecord Audio Input (not on Web)). Armed, the input runs all the time, so nothing is lost while a device starts.
• Channel: All Channels, Mixed, one channel (Channel 1, Channel 2…), or a stereo pair (Stereo 1+2…). A stereo pair records takes in stereo. On a multi-channel interface, pick the channel your guitar or microphone is plugged into.
• Latency: a delay added to what the device reports (+0 to +100 ms), so a take lines up with what you heard while you played it.
• Calibrate: measures that latency for you (below).

The card shows the device’s rate and channels and what it’s doing: “listening”, “opens when something listens”, “the microphone isn’t allowed”, “no input device”, or “it wouldn’t start”. Under it, a level bar for each channel, the one listened to lit; a bar turning red is close to clipping, so turn the gain down on your interface.

Output below is where every song plays: it says how much delay the output adds, which Stab allows for so that what you hear and what’s drawn agree. On the Mac it also chooses the output device. Songs play through the system’s output; choose it in the system’s sound settings.

Allowing the microphone

The input opens only when something listens: recording, the tuner, practising by microphone, calibrating. The first time, the system asks whether Stab may use the microphone. If the microphone isn’t allowed, the Audio tab and the tuner say so; allow it in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphoneallow it in Windows’ Settings › Privacy & security › Microphone.

Calibrating the latency

Calibrate plays the song’s click alone through the speakers and listens for it through the input. It needs the clicks to reach the microphone, so turn the speakers up and don’t use headphones. It listens for eight clicks (“Listening for the clicks: 3 of 8”), then sets the latency from them. If it hears nothing for 20 seconds, it stops and says so; Calibrate again stops it at any time.

Recording the input

Arm the input or an audio track, and Record takes the input. Where it goes:

• An armed audio track, or the audio track you’re working in: the take goes there.
• Otherwise, a new audio track (“Audio 1”, “Audio 2”…), made with the first take.

Record also takes the input on its own when it’s on and no MIDI instrument is armed, so with nothing plugged in, Record records the microphone. While recording is on, the chip at the lower right of the Editor pane says what Record takes, such as “Audio: MacBook Pro Microphone → Audio 1”, with the input’s level.

What happens when you record, and the takes, are in Audio tracks.