Documentation

Getting Started

DAW Project Manager is a free, open-source desktop and mobile app for organising your music production projects. It scans your drives for DAW project files, extracts metadata automatically, and gives you a single view across your entire library.

Installation

macOS

1. Download the DMG from the Releases page on GitHub.
2. Open the DMG and drag DAW Project Manager.app into your Applications folder.
3. First launch: macOS may show a Gatekeeper warning because the app is not distributed through the Mac App Store. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
4. The app opens and the onboarding wizard appears.

Windows

1. Download from the Microsoft Store — search for "DAW Project Manager" or use the direct link on the website.
2. Click Install. The app is signed and installs without warnings.
3. Launch from the Start menu. The onboarding wizard appears on first run.

Linux

1. Download the AppImage from the Releases page on GitHub.
2. Make it executable — chmod +x DAW_Project_Manager_Linux_*.AppImage — then double-click or run it directly. No installer, no root access needed.
3. A .flatpak bundle is also attached to every release for sideloading (Flathub submission pending); see the flatpak/ folder in the repo for how to build or install it.
4. The app opens and the onboarding wizard appears.

Android

1. Search DAW Project Manager on the Google Play Store.
2. Install and open. Grant storage permissions when prompted so the app can scan your device folders.
3. On Android, playlists and deadline notifications are also available.

First Launch

The first time you open the app, an onboarding wizard walks you through initial setup. It won't appear again once completed. The steps are:

1. Welcome — a quick overview of what the app does.
2. Language — pick from the app's 9 supported languages.
3. Theme — choose Classic Dark or Neon Dark.
4. Tabs — choose which navigation tabs are visible (Projects is always on).
5. Folders Desktop — add your first scan root(s), or choose to restore from a Google Drive backup instead if you're setting up on a new machine.
6. Updates — configure automatic update checks.
7. Suggestions — opt in or out of sharing anonymous feedback/suggestions.
8. Session Mode — see below.
9. Phases — a first look at the default production phases, which you can customize later.
10. Startup Desktop — optionally launch the app automatically when you log in.
11. Done — you land on the Dashboard.

Every step you set here can be changed later — none of it is permanent. Add more scan folders any time from Settings.

Session Mode

Session Mode is an opt-in guardrail around your work timer. When it's on, starting, switching, or ending a work session on a project requires an explicit confirmation, and the app shows elapsed time for the current session. It's aimed at producers who want to be deliberate about context-switching between projects rather than losing track of where their time went. Toggle it any time from Settings — it isn't limited to the onboarding wizard.

Adding Folders

Scan roots are the top-level folders the app watches for DAW project files. You can add as many as you want — local drives, external hard drives, network volumes, cloud-synced folders.

1. Open Settings from the navigation bar.
2. Under Scan Roots, click Add Folder.
3. Browse to the parent folder that contains your DAW projects (e.g. ~/Music/Projects) and confirm.
4. The app immediately starts a scan of the new root.

Scan Mode: Flat vs. Smart Folder

Each scan root has its own scan mode, set from Settings: Flat treats every project file the scanner finds as its own project, however deep it's nested. Smart Folder is for a root organised as one subfolder per song (each containing that song's project file plus its samples, renders, and stems) — the app treats each subfolder as a single project unit instead of scanning arbitrarily deep, which keeps close-together files from a shared sample pool from being misread as separate projects.

Scanning

The app uses a two-phase scan to keep things fast even on large libraries.

Phase 1 — Fast Detection

Immediately on launch (or when you add a new folder), the app walks your scan roots and finds any file whose extension matches a supported DAW. For each project it records:

• File path and name
• File size
• Last-modified and created timestamps
• DAW type (from extension)

This phase is nearly instant — even 10,000 projects scan in a couple of seconds.

Phase 2 — Deep Metadata Extraction

On demand (or automatically when you open a project), the app reads the project file's binary content to extract:

• BPM
• Musical key
• DAW version that saved the file

Deep scanning happens in the background and doesn't block the UI.

Rescanning

Press Cmd+R (Mac) or Ctrl+R (Windows) to trigger a rescan of all roots. New files are added, moved/deleted files are removed. On macOS the app also watches the filesystem in real time — files you add while the app is open appear automatically.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your library's command centre. Every project across all your scan roots appears here in a sortable, searchable table.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Projects  Releases  Task Queue  Statistics  Settings               [ Jess ] │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  🔍 Search projects…   Phase ▾  DAW ▾  Deadline ▾  Hide finished  ⟳ Rescan  │
├──┬──────────────────────────┬──────────┬─────────────┬──────┬──────┬───────┤
│ ☐│ Name ↑                   │ DAW      │ Phase       │ BPM  │ Key  │ Todos │
├──┼──────────────────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────┼──────┼───────┤
│ ☐│ Midnight Groove          │ Ableton  │ Mixing      │  128 │ Am   │   3 ✓ │
│ ☐│ Solar Drift              │ FL Studi │ Mastering   │  140 │ F#m  │   1 ✓ │
│ ☑│ Cold Signal              │ Ableton  │ Arranging   │   96 │ Cm   │   5 ✓ │
│ ☐│ Neon Rain                │ Logic P  │ Idea         │   -- │ --   │   0 ✓ │
│ ☐│ Pulse Wave 002           │ Bitwig   │ Finished    │  124 │ Gm   │   0 ✓ │
└──┴──────────────────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┴──────┴──────┴───────┘
  127 projects  •  3 selected  •  Cmd+R to rescan

Overview

The Dashboard is the default view when you open the app. It shows all detected projects in a table powered by TrinaGrid, which supports thousands of rows without slowing down. Column headers are clickable to sort by any field. Your column order, visibility, and sort preference persist across sessions.

Search & Filters

The search bar at the top of the Dashboard uses fuzzy matching — you don't have to type the exact project name. Type a few scattered characters and the app finds the closest matches. Press Cmd+F from anywhere to focus the search bar instantly.

Four filter controls sit alongside the search bar:

• Phase — Show only projects in a specific production phase (Idea, Arranging, Mixing, Mastering, Finished).
• DAW — Show only projects from a specific DAW application.
• Deadline — Filter by upcoming deadline (e.g. due this week, overdue).
• Hide Finished — Toggle to hide projects marked as Finished, keeping the view focused on active work.

Filters stack — you can combine Phase + DAW + search at the same time. All filters update the table instantly.

Table Columns

Every column is sortable. Click a header once to sort ascending, again to sort descending. You can show, hide, and reorder columns from View → Customize Tabs.

Row Actions

Select a row by clicking it, then use these actions (available via keyboard or the row context area):

• View Details (Enter or D) — Open the full Project Detail page for editing metadata, todos, and preview songs.
• Open in DAW (O) — Launch the project file directly in its associated DAW application. Desktop only.
• Open Folder (F) — Reveal the project's parent folder in Finder/Explorer. Desktop only.
• Play Preview (P) — Play or pause the project's preview song directly in the app.
• Change Phase — Click the Phase cell to open an inline dropdown and change the production phase without leaving the table.

Navigate between rows with ↑ and ↓. Press Cmd+T to focus the table from anywhere in the app.

Bulk Actions

The leftmost column is a checkbox column. Select multiple rows and a bulk-action toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen, letting you change the production phase for all selected projects at once. Useful when you want to mark a batch of tracks as "Finished" or move a group to "Mixing".

Project Details

Double-click a project row (or press Enter) to open the Project Detail page. This is where you manage everything about a single project.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ← Back   Midnight Groove                        [Open in DAW]  [Open Folder] │
├──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Display Name  Midnight Groove        │ Phase        ⬤ Mixing             │
│ BPM           128                    │ Deadline     2026-06-15           │
│ Key           Am                     │ Notes        needs sidechain fix… │
│ DAW           Ableton Live 11.3     │                                      │
├──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TODOS                                         [+ Add todo] [Import template] │
│  ☑ Fix kick drum bus                                                        │
│  ☐ Sidechain the bassline to the kick                                       │
│  ☐ Send stems to mastering engineer                                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ PREVIEW SONG    midnight_groove_mix2.wav                                  │
│  ▶ 0:47 ───────────────────────────●────────────── 3:24                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ FILE INFO   /Music/Projects/House/Midnight Groove.als   12.4 MB   2026-04-11 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Metadata

The top section of the Project Detail page shows all metadata fields. Fields with a pencil icon are editable — tap or click to edit inline. Changes save automatically.

Production Phases

Every project has a phase that represents where it sits in your creative workflow. Out of the box, the progression is:

You can change a project's phase in three places:

• The Phase dropdown in the Project Detail page
• The inline dropdown in the Dashboard table (click the Phase cell)
• Bulk change — select multiple projects and use the bulk action toolbar

Every phase change is recorded in the project's Timeline with a timestamp, so you can see how long a project spent in each stage.

Customizing Phases

The default five phases are just a starting point. Open Settings → Phases to:

• Rename, add, or delete phases to match your own workflow.
• Reorder them by dragging — the order shown here is entirely up to you.
• Assign a color to each phase from a palette, used throughout the Dashboard and charts.
• Mark one or more phases as "finished" states — these are what Hide Finished filters out on the Dashboard.

Deleting a phase that's still in use warns you how many projects reference it before you confirm. A Reset to Defaults button restores the original five phases at any time.

Todos

Each project has its own to-do list — perfect for tracking mixing notes, stems to send, references to check, or any checklist you need to complete before moving on.

• Add a todo: Click + Add Todo and type the item text. Press Enter to save.
• Check off: Click the checkbox next to any item. Completed todos are struck through.
• Edit / Delete: Hover over a todo to reveal edit and delete buttons.
• Import from template: Click Import Template to apply a pre-built todo list. Create templates in Settings for repeatable workflows (e.g. "Mixing checklist", "Release checklist").

Preview Songs

Each project can have a preview song — an audio file (WAV, MP3, or AIFF) representing the latest mixdown you want to reference. The preview player appears in the Project Detail page and lets you listen without switching apps.

Setting a Preview Song (Desktop)

1. In Project Detail, find the Preview Song section and click Pick File.
2. Browse to your mixdown file and confirm. The player appears immediately.

Auto-Detection

If your DAW exports to a subfolder named something like Mixdown, Bounces, or Exports, the app scans for the newest .wav, .mp3, or .aiff in that folder and automatically sets it as the preview. The scan skips the file if it is already up to date (checked by modification timestamp), avoiding unnecessary re-downloads. The folder names it checks are configurable — both globally and per DAW — under Settings → Mixdown Folders.

Preview Player Controls

• Space — Play / Pause (when player is focused)
• ← / → — Seek backward / forward 5 seconds
• Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→ — Seek backward / forward 30 seconds
• Click the seek bar to jump to any position

Timeline

Every project has a Timeline tab in Project Detail that shows a chronological log of phase changes. Each entry includes:

• The phase the project moved into
• The date and time the change was made

The timeline lets you see how long a track spent in each stage — useful for understanding your own workflow patterns over time.

Releases

Releases let you group one or more projects into a named catalogue entry — an EP, an album, a single, or any collection that makes sense to you. Each release can have artwork, a description, a release date, and attached files.

Creating Releases

1. Navigate to the Releases tab in the navigation bar.
2. Click New Release.
3. Enter a title (required), optional description, and optional release date.
4. Add artwork — tap the artwork placeholder and pick an image file from disk.
5. Under Projects, click Add Projects and select one or more projects from your library to associate with this release.
6. Save. The release appears in the Releases table.

Release fields at a glance:

• Title — Name of the release (e.g. "Meridian EP").
• Description — Free text: credits, liner notes, distribution notes.
• Artwork — A cover image stored locally (and synced to Drive if you use backup).
• Release Date — The planned or actual release date.
• Projects — The project(s) that make up this release.

Release Files

Beyond project links, you can attach arbitrary files to a release — stems, final master WAVs, distribution ZIPs, artwork source files, notes PDFs.

• In the Release Detail page, scroll to Files and click Add File.
• Browse and select any file from your file system.
• Files are listed with their name and size. Tap a file to preview (if supported) or reveal in Finder/Explorer.
• The Download All as ZIP button packages every attached file into a single archive — handy for sending to a distributor or backing up an entire release package.

Task Queue

The Task Queue is a unified view of every open to-do item across all your projects. Instead of opening each project to check what's pending, you can see — and act on — everything from one screen.

How It Works

• Projects are grouped by pending todo count, highest first — the busiest projects float to the top.
• Within each group, individual todos are listed with a checkbox.
• Check off a todo directly from the Task Queue. The change syncs back to the project immediately.
• A search bar lets you filter todos by keyword across all projects.
• Projects with no open todos are hidden (only active work is shown).

Adding Todos from the Task Queue

You can also open a project's todo list directly from the Task Queue by tapping its name — this takes you to the Project Detail page with the todos section pre-expanded. Add or edit todos there and navigate back with Cmd+← (macOS) or Alt+← (Windows/Linux).

Music Player

Beyond the single-track preview player inside each project, the app has a dedicated Music Player for browsing and listening across your whole library at once. The experience differs by platform.

Desktop

The desktop Music Player is a three-pane view: your track list, the selected project's details, and a drag-and-drop queue. It supports shuffle and repeat, and includes a Camelot-wheel key-compatible auto-queue — build a queue of tracks that are harmonically compatible with the one currently playing, using the key metadata already extracted from your projects. You can add a todo at the exact playback timestamp without leaving the player.

Mobile

On Android and iOS, the Music Player is a swipeable "Now Playing" screen covering every project in your library that has a preview song. It includes a mono-mix toggle (useful for checking mixes in mono), the same add-todo-at-timestamp shortcut, and quick access to sharing and ZIP export for the current track.

Playlists Mobile

Playlists are an Android and iOS feature that lets you create ordered sequences of preview songs from your library. Perfect for reviewing your work while travelling, commuting, or away from your studio machine.

Creating a Playlist

1. Open the Playlists tab on the mobile app.
2. Tap New Playlist and give it a name (e.g. "Summer 2026 Review").
3. Tap Add Songs and select preview songs from your project library.
4. Drag to reorder. Tap the play button to start playback from any position in the list.

Playback

The playlist player plays songs in sequence and loops when it reaches the end. Use the standard transport controls to skip forward, go back, or scrub within a track. All preview songs must be available locally on the device — sync them from Google Drive first if needed.

Templates

There are two kinds of templates, covering two different needs: starting a new project, and checking off recurring work.

Project Templates

Open Settings → Project Templates to register any existing project folder as a template — its BPM, key, DAW type, and starter files are captured. You can also point the app at a "template roots" parent folder and it will scan for candidate template folders automatically. Templates can be searched and filtered by DAW or key.

To use one, click Use on a template — this opens the Create Project dialog pre-filled from the template, so your new project starts with the right metadata and starter files instead of a blank slate.

Todo Templates

Covered under Todos and Settings — reusable checklists (e.g. "Mixing Checklist", "Pre-Release Checklist") you can import into any project's todo list.

Statistics

The Statistics tab gives you a visual summary of your entire library — useful for understanding your creative output over time and spotting bottlenecks in your workflow.

Available Charts and Metrics

• Production Phase Distribution — A breakdown of how many projects are in each phase. If you see a pile-up in Mixing, you know where your workflow is stalling.
• DAW Breakdown — Which DAWs you use most across your library.
• Projects Over Time — An activity chart showing when projects were created or last modified. See your most and least productive periods.
• Totals — Quick counts: total projects, total releases, total open todos, total completed todos.

All charts update automatically as your library changes. Statistics are scoped to the current profile, so switching profiles shows you that profile's data.

Profiles

Profiles let you run completely separate library environments inside the same installation. Each profile has its own scan roots, projects, releases, todos, playlists, and settings. Switching profiles is instant.

Use Cases

• Multiple artist aliases — Keep your personal projects separate from your alias or side project.
• Client work isolation — One profile per client, or one for client work and one for original material.
• Studio sharing — Multiple producers sharing one machine, each with their own profile.
• Context switching — A "focus" profile with only active in-progress projects, and a full library profile.

Managing Profiles

1. Click your profile avatar or name in the top-right corner of the app to open the Profile Manager.
2. The Profile Manager lists all existing profiles. Click a profile to switch to it immediately.
3. Click New Profile, enter a name, and optionally set a profile photo.
4. To rename or delete a profile, long-press (mobile) or right-click (desktop) it in the list.

Google Drive Sync

Google Drive Backup lets you back up your entire project database — metadata, preview songs, release artwork, and profile photos — to your Google Drive. You can then restore it on another machine or the same machine after a reinstall.

Setup

1. Open Settings → Google Drive Backup.
2. Click Sign in with Google. A browser window opens to complete OAuth authentication.
3. Grant the app access to your Google Drive files (it creates a dedicated app folder — it cannot access the rest of your Drive).
4. Once authenticated, your account name appears in Settings. You are ready to upload or download.

Upload (Backup)

Uploading creates a snapshot of your current profile and stores it in your Google Drive.

1. In Settings, tap Upload Backup.
2. A progress dialog appears, showing the current stage: collecting data → uploading project database → uploading preview songs → uploading artwork → done.
3. Each file is compared by a content hash before uploading. Files that haven't changed are skipped, so subsequent backups are fast.
4. When complete, the dialog shows a timestamp of the backup.

What Gets Uploaded

• Full project metadata (all fields, todos, phases, timeline)
• Releases (metadata and attached artwork)
• Preview song audio files
• Profile photos

Auto-Backup

Instead of uploading manually, set an interval from the same settings page: every 30 minutes, hourly, every 6 hours, or daily. The page shows when the next backup is due. Auto-backup keeps running even when the app is minimized to the tray, so it doesn't require the main window to stay open.

Download (Restore)

Downloading replaces the current profile's database with the contents of the Drive backup.

1. Sign in to the same Google account on the new (or reinstalled) device.
2. In Settings, tap Download Backup.
3. A progress dialog shows the restore stages: fetching metadata → writing database → downloading preview songs → downloading artwork.
4. Once complete, your projects appear in the Dashboard. Because scan roots are local paths, you may need to re-add your scan folders if the file system paths differ on the new machine.

Sharing

Share a preview song straight to the OS share sheet — Messages, WhatsApp, Slack, email, whatever's installed — from the Project Detail page or the Music Player.

Some apps reject raw .wav, .aiff, or .flac attachments. When you share one of these formats, the app automatically transcodes it first:

• macOS — converts to AAC (.m4a) using the built-in afconvert tool.
• Windows — converts to MP3 using a bundled copy of ffmpeg, so nothing extra needs to be installed.

A progress dialog shows while conversion runs. If conversion fails for any reason, the app falls back to sharing the original file. There's also a separate Share as ZIP action that packages the original file without any conversion.

Background & Tray Mode Desktop

On Windows and macOS, closing the app window doesn't have to quit it. With close to tray enabled, closing the window hides it instead — the app keeps running in the background, so scheduled auto-backups and active work sessions keep going.

• On Windows, a system tray icon appears.
• On macOS, a menu-bar icon appears.

Right-click (or click, on macOS) the icon to open a menu with:

• The time of your last Google Drive backup
• Backup Now — trigger an upload immediately
• Pause / resume the active work session
• Show Window — bring the app back to the foreground
• Quit — actually exit the app

The first time the window is hidden, a one-time notification explains that the app is still running in the background so it doesn't come as a surprise.

Settings

Settings are accessible from the navigation bar. All settings are stored per-profile unless noted.

Scan Roots

Add, remove, and manage the folders the app scans for DAW project files. Click Add Folder to browse to a directory. Click the trash icon next to a root to stop scanning that location (existing projects from that root remain in the database until you run a rescan).

Ignored Paths

Add specific subfolders to exclude from scanning. Useful for template folders, sample libraries, or any directory that contains DAW-adjacent files you do not want tracked as projects.

DAW Launch Commands Linux

Linux has no reliable file-type association for most DAWs, so Open in DAW needs to be told exactly which program to run for each one you use. The first time it can't figure that out on its own, or any time from Settings, configure the binary to launch once per DAW — the app uses it for every project of that type from then on.

Mixdown Folders

Controls which folder the app looks in for a project's exported/bounced audio when auto-detecting a preview song. Expand a DAW to see the folder names it already checks by default (e.g. Mixdown, Bounces, Exports), and add your own on top — both globally and per DAW, if a particular one uses a different export folder name in your setup.

Language

DAW Project Manager is fully localised in 9 languages. Change the language at any time — no restart required.

• English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese

Theme

Choose between two dark themes:

• Classic Dark — Neutral dark grey palette (default).
• Neon Dark — Higher-contrast with bolder accent colours.

Customize Tabs

Choose which tabs appear in the main navigation bar. The Projects tab is always visible. All other tabs (Releases, Task Queue, Playlists, Statistics) can be toggled on or off. Drag tabs to reorder them.

TODO Templates

Create reusable to-do lists that can be imported into any project. Example templates: "Mixing Checklist", "Pre-Release Checklist", "Collab Workflow". Each template is a list of text items. Apply a template in Project Detail by clicking Import Template.

Project Templates

Register existing projects as reusable starting points for new ones. See Templates for details.

Phases

Rename, add, remove, reorder, and color your production phases. See Production Phases for details.

Notification Preferences (Android)

On Android, the app can send local notifications for approaching deadlines. Configure how many days in advance you want to be reminded. Requires notification permission to be granted.

Work Session Reminders

Requires Session Mode to be turned on. While it's on and a work session is active, the app can send a periodic reminder so you don't lose track of time — choose an interval of 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes, or set a custom value. A Test Notification button lets you confirm your OS notification permissions are working before you rely on it.

About

Shows the installed app version, plus:

• License — view the app's open-source license in-app.
• Report an Issue — opens a structured GitHub issue template pre-filled for bug reports.
• Check for Updates — manually checks for a newer release. On the Linux AppImage build specifically, this can download and apply the update in place; other platforms link out to the download.
• Share Diagnostic Log — opens the folder containing the app's diagnostic log file, for attaching to a bug report.

Clear Library

Removes all projects from the current profile's database. Scan roots and settings are preserved. Running a rescan after clearing will re-populate projects from disk.

Delete All Data

Wipes everything — all profiles, all projects, all releases, all settings. Two confirmation dialogs are shown before any data is deleted. This action cannot be undone.

Keyboard Shortcuts

DAW Project Manager is designed for keyboard-first use. On macOS, shortcuts use Cmd. On Windows, use Ctrl in place of Cmd. On macOS, press Cmd+Shift+/ inside the app to open the in-app keyboard shortcut cheatsheet; on Windows/Linux, click the keyboard icon in the toolbar, or open it from Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts.

Global Shortcuts

Projects Table (when table is focused)

Releases Table (when table is focused)

Preview Player (when player is open)

Supported DAWs

DAW Project Manager detects project files by extension. The following 14 DAWs get full treatment — deep metadata extraction is available for six of them (see Metadata Extraction below); the rest are detected and scanned the same way, just with BPM/key entered manually.

Additional DAWs

These are detected and scanned exactly like the DAWs above — they just don't have automatic metadata extraction yet, same as Logic Pro or Pro Tools.

Logic Pro Note (macOS)

Logic Pro project packages end in .logicx and are actually directories (bundles) on macOS — same for Universal Audio LUNA (.luna) and GarageBand (.band). The app detects all three correctly and treats each bundle as a single project entry.

BPM and Key Override

If deep scan cannot extract BPM or key from a particular file, or if the extracted value is wrong, you can always override it manually in the Project Detail page. Manual values are stored in the app database and take precedence over future deep scans.

Metadata Extraction

Deep Scan can read some fields straight from a project file — the rest have to be entered by hand, or picked up from an optional bpm.txt/key.txt file dropped next to the project on the next scan. The same reference table is available in the app itself, under Settings → Metadata Extraction.

All other supported DAWs — including the 14 additional DAWs above — are detected and scanned but rely on manual entry today.