Collaboration

Song sessions

See and hear your co-writers live while you write a song together, share your DAW or computer audio, and record the session to the song.

A session is a live video call inside a song. Everyone in it sees and hears each other while the lyrics stay on the page, so you can talk a line through, play a part, or listen to a demo together without a separate call app.

Sessions are for the people writing the song. Only the song's writers can join its session, and each song has one session at a time.

Coming soon

Starting a session#

There are two ways in.

From Home#

Click the green Session circle in Home's quick start. It opens the session page, which has three parts:

• The camera and mic check. A preview of your camera, a level meter for your microphone, and menus to choose which Microphone and Camera to use. The two round buttons on the preview turn your mic and camera on or off before you go in.
• The song. By default a session starts a New song. Type a title, or leave it and the song is called "Session" with today's date. Choose an existing song instead lets you search your library and pick one. If a co-writer is already in a session on one of your songs, that song is picked for you and marked Live now.
• Invite collaborators. Optional. See Inviting people.

Click Start session when you are ready. The page takes you into the song with the session running. If a co-writer is already in it, the button reads Join session.

A session needs a shared song. Starting one on a new song, or on a song that is just yours so far, shares it at that moment. The song then grows a Collaborators section and writer tabs, the same as any shared song.

Inside a song#

On a shared song, Session is a section of the left panel, between Collaborators and Chat. It also has an icon in the column of icons on the left edge of the window.

Click Start a session in that section. A smaller check opens with just your camera and mic, and Start session.

The check has a box underneath: Skip this check next time (join with these settings). Tick it and later sessions in this browser start straight away, with the same mic and camera choices. To check them again, click Check camera and mic first under the start button.

A solo song has no Session section. Start the session from Home and choose the song there, or invite someone first.

Inviting people#

On the session page from Home, Invite collaborators gives you two ways to bring people in:

• Email. People you have written songs with before are listed with their email and how many songs you share. Tick the ones you want. When you click Start session, they get an email saying you are starting a session, with a link to join.
• Code. New collaborator makes an invite code to send to anyone, however you like. Each code works once, so make one per person with Another new collaborator. Whoever uses a code joins the song as a co-writer.

While you are alone in a session, a Waiting for co-writers strip shows who you invited, and Copy invite link copies a link to send.

Inside a song, invite people the usual way, from the Collaborators section. See Inviting a co-writer.

Joining a session#

When a co-writer starts a session, you find out in three places.

• The bell. The song's other writers get a started a session notification. Clicking it opens the camera and mic check for that song, then takes you in. Co-writers are told at most once every half hour per song.
• The song. If you open a song while co-writers are in its session, a green banner over the lyrics says who, for example Sam is in a session on this song. Click Join. The × hides the banner for this visit. The Session section and its icon on the left also show a green Live dot.
• Home. The Session circle shows that a co-writer is live on one of your recent shared songs.

The song's chat marks the moment each person joins or leaves, as a small line such as Sam joined the session with the time.

If you were invited by email from a session page, accepting the invitation on the web takes you to that song's session check.

The session view#

In the left panel#

While you are in a session, the Session section shows everyone's video, the Audio inputs list, and a row of round buttons. A coloured ring around a video means that person is talking.

Drag the bar under the video to make it taller or shorter. Double-click the bar to put it back.

The expanded view#

The expand button on the Session header, or the Session icon on the left edge, opens the session at full size. Videos are as large as the space allows.

• Click a video to make it large, with the others small underneath. Tile view, the grid button in its corner, goes back.
• The chat button in the Session header shows the song's chat as a column beside the video. It starts hidden, and the app remembers your choice. A red dot on it means unread messages. Drag the line between the video and the chat to resize them, and double-click it to reset.

Sharing your screen#

Click the screen button and your browser asks what to share: a window, a tab, or the whole screen. Everyone sees it as its own tile, next to your camera. When a co-writer starts sharing, their screen comes up large in the expanded view. Click the button again to stop.

Screen sharing works on a computer. Phones and tablets cannot share a screen from the browser.

Pop out#

In Chrome and Edge on a computer, the pop-out button moves the session into a small window that stays on top of other apps. That keeps your co-writers in view while you work in a DAW. The panel says Session is in its own window. Click Bring back to return it. In other browsers the button is not there.

On a phone#

On a phone, your co-writers' video sits in a bar along the bottom of the song, above the toolbar, with buttons to mute, turn your camera off, add audio, record and leave. Tap a video to open the full session view. The arrow at the end hides the bar to a small Session · Show pill. In the full view the chat sits below the video instead of beside it.

Audio inputs#

Audio inputs lists every sound source in the session, each with a live meter. Your own come first, then your co-writers'. Click the heading to fold it away.

Your microphone#

The first row is your mic, with the device's name. The small arrow beside it switches to another microphone.

Your mic has echo cancellation and noise reduction, which suits talking.

Music mode#

The headphones button turns on music mode, for singing or playing an instrument into your mic. It turns off echo cancellation and noise reduction so the sound comes through as it is. The app asks you to put on headphones first, because without them your speakers feed straight back into your mic. Click the button again to turn music mode off.

Adding audio#

Add audio input, under your rows, or the sliders button, opens a menu of other things you can share. Anything shared this way goes out clearly, without the voice processing your mic gets.

• Your DAW. Live audio from your DAW through the Lyric Genie Session plugin. See Share your DAW live.
• Computer audio (a tab or your screen). Your browser asks what to share. In Chrome and Edge, turn on Share audio in that window, or no sound comes through. Safari cannot share computer audio this way. Use an audio device instead.
• Audio devices. An audio interface, or a virtual device such as BlackHole or Loopback that your DAW plays into. A device sends its first two channels, so choose which inputs feed them in the device's own mixer. Your current microphone is left off this list, so you are never heard twice.

You can share up to three audio inputs at once, as well as your mic. Remove one to add another.

Levels#

Each row has a meter, a volume slider and a mute button. What they do depends on whose row it is.

Point at a slider to see its percentage. Your own extra inputs also have an × to stop sharing them.

The meter is green, turns yellow in the last 3 dB, and shows red when a peak reaches the top. If your source keeps hitting red, turn its slider down.

Recording a session#

Click the record button to record the session. It records what you hear: your mic, your co-writers' mics, and every shared source, mixed together.

While it records, the button turns red and shows the time. Click it to stop. The recording saves to the song's Recordings as Session recording followed by the time it started, and Saved · Show takes you to it. Your co-writers get the usual notification that a recording was added.

Everyone in the session is told when recording starts and stops, whoever starts it. They hear a chime, see a short notice, and a red banner stays at the top of the session saying who is recording, for example Sam is recording this session. On a phone the bar shows a red Rec pill. Joining a session that is already being recorded tells you so.

A session recording can be up to 60 minutes long. The button turns amber in the last five minutes, and the recording stops and saves itself at the limit. Leaving the session while recording also saves what you have.

Connection quality#

If your connection is weak, the session says Your connection is weak. Audio comes first; video may stutter. A co-writer with a weak connection shows a Weak label on their video.

If it stays weak for a few seconds, the app pauses the video coming in to you so the audio stays smooth. Co-writers show their picture instead of a frozen frame. Turn video back on brings it back. Video also comes back by itself once your connection has been good for a while.

If the connection drops, the session shows Reconnecting… and carries on when it can.

Leaving and ending#

Click Leave to leave. Leaving the song, or closing the tab, also takes you out of the session. A session ends when the last person leaves. Nothing about the song changes, and your co-writers can start a new one at any time.

So a session left open by mistake does not run on for hours, the app ends it for you:

• Alone. If you are the only one in the session for 10 minutes, you leave it, with a note saying why.
• Quiet. After about an hour and a half with nobody talking, nothing shared, and no typing or clicking, the app asks Still in the session? and counts down a minute. Click Stay to keep going, or Leave now.
• Very long. After about four hours the same question appears, however busy the session is.

Talking, playing, or sharing audio counts as staying, so a session with music playing from your DAW is not cut off while you work in another app.