Flux

Flux is a compact Windows audio studio with a 16-track editor/recorder, a Media Player and a separate file converter. Near-black surfaces, blue/purple accents, editable keybinds and tempo-grid editing.

Install

Close the running audio application, then:

npm install -g @pro-gram/flux@latest
flux --setup
flux

If npm skips setup or the Desktop shortcut is missing, run flux --setup. This completes the desktop installation and creates the Flux Desktop and Start menu shortcuts. When npm allows the setup script, these steps happen automatically. An allowScripts notice can also appear after a successful installation. The first flux launch completes setup if it is needed.

To allow Flux's setup script for one installation:

npm install -g @pro-gram/flux@latest --allow-scripts=@pro-gram/flux

If PowerShell blocks the npm.ps1 or flux.ps1 launcher, use npm.cmd and flux.cmd for the same commands.

Windows 10/11 x64 is supported. macOS is planned. Basic tools work locally without an account.

The setup executable is Flux-Setup.exe, and the installed application is Flux.exe in the per-user Programs/Flux folder. Existing Flux shortcuts are updated when migrating from older builds.

The npm and standalone installers include FFmpeg and the R16 panel assets, with payload integrity checks. Vendor audio drivers are linked from their official support pages. The Windows executable is unsigned.

Verify the installer — Flux 1.10.1

The installer shipped in this package as payload/Flux-Setup.exe is byte-for-byte identical to the standalone Flux-1.10.1-Setup.exe. Its SHA-256 is:

5131bf6957706e599bccd57e88348d5f48e834e0008e80b01ed873cda1e9653f

Check the packaged installer after a global installation:

Get-FileHash (Join-Path (npm root -g) '@pro-gram\flux\payload\Flux-Setup.exe') -Algorithm SHA256

Or check the standalone download:

Get-FileHash .\Flux-1.10.1-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the reported hash with the value above or the included CHECKSUMS.txt. The launcher also verifies this installer hash before running setup.

Editor and recording

Editor opens by default. File contains New, Open session, Save, Save as and Add audio. Home and View open Converter, Media Player and the R16 workspace.

The compact header puts navigation beside the logo. Record, Mixer, Undo and Redo stay in the primary row. The right-side hamburger menu holds Recording setup, Library, Books, Looper, Retake, range controls, export settings, Delete range, edit targets and pointer tools. Grid and zoom share one toolbar, and playback/output selection share the bottom strip.

The editor supports 16 tracks, multiple audio regions, selected/all-track edits, a live mixer, split, cut/copy/paste, undo/redo, saved .dbedit sessions and PCM/float mix export. Original audio stays unchanged.

Select audio, press Ctrl+C, press Backspace to delete that section, place the playhead and press Ctrl+V. Deleting preserves the timeline gap and the internal audio clipboard. Delete is also available as an editable alternate; Ctrl+X still cuts. Paste starts exactly at the playhead. The Cut/Copy/Paste toolbar buttons are removed.

V selects the pointer tool; S splits at the playhead. Click a region to select it; Shift-click adds/removes clips. Ctrl+drag creates a time range. Normal click-drag selects whole track rows and their clips; drag vertically to select several tracks. Clicking empty space clears an old range. Selected clips use a brighter purple fill and border. Drag the upper ruler for the playhead; Ctrl+drag the lower-ruler selection handles to adjust a range. Hamburger menu > Range controls exposes numeric selection controls.

Select a clip first, then drag its header to move it; selected groups retain their time/track offsets. Drag a selected clip's left/right edges to trim within the source audio. Ctrl+drag in the waveform body selects time. Y switches to slip editing, which shifts source contents inside a trimmed clip; F switches to the fade tool. Selected clips also show fade handles.

Ctrl+D duplicates selected clips or time. Use Repeat… in the right-click menu to repeat the selection with a chosen number of additional copies. M mutes/unmutes selected clips or isolates and mutes a time range. X crossfades two staggered, overlapping clips on the same track. Right-click audio for these tools, clipboard actions and Clear fades. The scissors/split toolbar buttons are removed.

Moves, trims, slip, clip mute and fades are non-destructive and undoable. Fades affect playback and exported mixes; splitting/copying inside a fade preserves the original envelope. Escape cancels a clip drag. The editor's select/slip/fade modes and all default commands have editable keybindings.

Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right moves the playhead to the nearest bar line strictly left/right using the project tempo and time signature. From an exact bar line, it moves to the previous/next bar. Hold either shortcut to keep stepping through successive bars. During playback, repeated jumps use the last jumped-to bar so backward navigation keeps progressing. Playback continues when jumping within the audio; a paused jump stays silent. Enter rewinds to the beginning and keeps playback running when the timeline is playing. Space then pauses normally. When paused or stopped, Enter rewinds silently. Home stops and rewinds. These bindings appear in Settings > Keybinds. Text fields retain their normal editing keys.

Library: saved project audio

Open Library from the hamburger menu or View > Library. It holds audio added to this project: imports, recordings, unused files and earlier takes. Removing or undoing a timeline clip keeps its audio available here. Each entry shows its source track, duration and mono/stereo format. Preview auditions it through the selected track’s mixer and Monitor level without moving the project playhead. Add to track inserts it at the playhead on the selected track. Drag an entry onto any timeline track to place it at the pointer. A translucent preview shows its destination; grid and clip-edge snapping apply, with Alt for free placement. Drop on a track header to insert at the current playhead. Drops support undo/redo and keep the original Library entry. The timeline scrolls near the edges while dragging.

Save writes the Library into the .dbedit session and, by default, copies all its audio into a <ProjectName>.audio folder beside it, including unused files and previous takes. References are relative, so move the session and its companion folder together. Copies are checked by content hash; original audio stays unchanged. Uncheck Keep audio with project on Save to store links instead. Failed or cancelled saves preserve the prior project and original files.

Library holds your project audio. Books holds the small built-in instrument collection.

Looper and Books

Ctrl+L opens Looper. Ctrl+B opens the Books sidebar, a small library of six original synthesized one-shots: Pulse Kick, Snap Snare, Tick Hat, Air Clap, Round Tom and Glass Bell. Preview a sound, select a track and click Use to assign it as that track's instrument. New sessions start with the six sounds on tracks 1–6. Instrument assignments leave existing audio clips unchanged.

Click squares in Looper to toggle hits; right-click clears them. There are four steps per project beat, with 1, 2 or 4 bars using the project BPM and time signature. Play loop auditions the pattern continuously with a moving step indicator. Step and instrument edits take effect while playing, and sound tails continue across loop boundaries. Mixer track/master settings and the separate Monitor volume apply to previews.

Add at playhead inserts 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 copies as normal editable audio hits on their instrument tracks. They then play and export through the standard timeline. Patterns and instrument assignments save with the session and support undo/redo. Original factory WAVs are generated locally and preserved.

Space stops an active loop, including while viewing the Mixer; within Looper it starts looping. With the grid focused, arrows move the step cursor and Enter toggles the selected step. Normal timeline Enter-to-start remains available outside the grid. Both panels also appear in View. Ctrl+L now belongs to Looper; Repeat remains in the editing menu with an unassigned default keybind.

Mixer

Open Mixer from the editor toolbar or View > Mixer. Each of the 16 tracks has a −60 to +24 dB fader, numeric gain entry, pan/stereo balance, mute and solo. A pinned master strip provides −60 to +12 dB gain, mute and stereo output metering. Changes take effect while playback continues, support undo/redo, save with the session and apply to exported mixes. Original audio stays unchanged.

File peak shows the loaded source level independently of mixer gain. Choose Before fader to inspect incoming track levels, including muted tracks, or After fader to see the adjusted signal. Stereo peak readouts turn red at 0 dBFS and stay latched until cleared. Monitor controls listening volume only; it changes neither exports nor mixer readings.

During recording, the registered strips show the selected raw input channels, or the combined signal on the destination strip in mono-mix mode. Set capture gain on the input device. The mixer changes playback/export levels after recording; use hardware direct monitoring during capture.

Scroll across the tracks while the master remains visible. Resize the panel, choose Side/Bottom, or collapse it to recover timeline space.

Editor zoom

The visible - / + buttons and slider zoom the timeline from a full-project overview to individual samples. Ctrl+mouse wheel zooms around the time under the pointer; Shift+wheel scrolls sideways. Fit shows the full project, and Selection fills the pane with the selected time range.

Ctrl+Plus / Ctrl+Minus zoom (including Ctrl+= and numeric-keypad keys), Ctrl+0 fits the project and Ctrl+Shift+0 fits the selection. These shortcuts are editable in Settings > Keybinds. At close zoom, waveform detail is read from decoded audio in the background, preserving positive/negative peaks and float headroom. The ruler displays fractional seconds when a close-up contains no labeled beat. Zoom changes the view without changing audio, the playhead or undo history.

Hamburger menu > Recording setup contains microphone/input channels, sample rate and PCM/float format. Mono mix (all inputs) averages up to eight inputs into one mono WAV on the armed track, allowing a multi-input drum kit to record as a single take. Averaging leaves headroom; use the track mixer to adjust playback level. The first-pair mono mix, separate mono files, stereo and individual mono inputs remain available.

Press the R button on a timeline track to arm it as the recording start track. Only one R button is active; clicking it again disarms recording. Selecting clips or other tracks for editing leaves the recording destination in place.

Choose Single Track Recording or Multi-Track Recording in Recording setup. Single Track saves the chosen mono mix, stereo pair or individual input as one WAV on the armed track. Multi-Track offers a number of recording tracks, limited to the device’s available inputs (up to eight). Each input is saved separately: input 1 goes to the armed track, input 2 to the next track, and so on. For example, arm track 4 and choose 3 tracks to record inputs 1–3 onto tracks 4–6. The allocated rows are marked in red and setup shows the exact routing. An allocation beyond track 16 must be corrected before recording.

Record, Ctrl+Space or the R key freezes that routing and shows a one-bar countdown at the project tempo and time signature. The countdown displays the destination tracks and selected input. Press Record again, Stop, or Escape to cancel it before capture starts.

After the final beat, capture starts through the selected input. A red playhead, growing recording highlights and elapsed timer follow the audio actually received. Stop & save preserves the original take and inserts it at the registered starting point; the playhead stays at the end of the take. Bar lines display 1, 2, 3; detailed beat labels remain available when zoomed in. Use hardware direct monitoring. Software overdub latency alignment is not included.

Ctrl+R starts Retake last recording at the original take position, with the same device, input mode, track count, sample rate and bit depth, followed by a fresh countdown. Ctrl+Z cancels a retake during countdown/capture or restores the previous take after saving. An undo requested while saving completes as soon as the save finishes. Earlier and replacement WAVs remain in Library; Retake does not delete them. The hamburger menu also provides Retake.

Recording controls, converter output settings and Media Player gain have draggable dividers, Collapse/Show and Side/Bottom positioning.

Tempo grid and snapping

Use the BPM/division controls in Editor or Settings > Timeline / grid. Settings has explicit Save and prompts before leaving with unsaved changes.

• Tempo: 20–400 quarter-note BPM, with fractional values.
• Time signatures: 1–32 beats per bar; beat units from 1/1 through 1/32.
• Grid divisions: 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128 and 1/256.
• Straight and triplet subdivisions; bars/beats or seconds ruler.
• Snap to grid and snap to clip edges can be switched independently.
• Hold Alt to bypass both for free placement/cuts at the editor's working sample rate.

The grid restarts at bar boundaries in odd meters. Nearby clip edges take priority when enabled. Fine grid lines simplify when zoomed out; snapping retains the chosen resolution. Zoom in to see every subdivision. Finer-than-grid edits remain possible with snapping off or Alt held.

Tempo changes the grid, without stretching existing audio. Tempo, meter, division and ruler are saved in each project and support undo. Settings also supplies defaults for new sessions. Older projects open with a 120 BPM, 4/4 grid. Custom keybinds are preserved when upgrading defaults.

Audio devices

Settings > Audio selects speakers/headphones and recording input. Playback output is shared between Editor and Media Player. Windows default displays the current Windows output and resolves it again when playback starts. Named entries select active Windows endpoints; installed ASIO drivers are listed separately. Device changes refresh the selector automatically. Retired compatibility selections migrate to the corresponding real endpoint.

Windows playback uses one shared WASAPI renderer with device activation, initialization, buffering and release on its own audio thread. Audio is resampled/adapted to the endpoint's exact mix format, without an extra Windows automatic converter or WinMM playback fallback. Initialization and runtime errors retain the actual failing stage in diagnostics.

Ordinary Windows/Realtek/USB microphones capture 16-bit PCM. Saving that input in a float or 24-bit container adds no input precision or native float headroom. H5studio ASIO preserves native 32-bit float when the Zoom driver supplies it. Install Drivers links to official H5studio/R16 support. R16 ASIO recording remains available.

Test speakers plays a short quiet tone. Save diagnostics exports device formats and recent output errors without recording. Playback buffer is adjustable from 40 to 250 ms; actual latency depends on hardware and drivers.

Media Player and Converter

Media Player decodes PCM/float WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and audio from video without Windows Media Player codecs. Gain / Save provides +/-36 dB adjustment, safe level, protection and compact Save copy for PCM or float WAV. Gain affects playback and saved copies; listening volume affects playback only. Copies receive new names instead of overwriting originals or exports.

The bundled FFmpeg build contains 227 audio decoders, including integer PCM and IEEE float. Both installation paths include the decoder executable. No Windows Media Player codec pack is required. Protected, damaged or unsupported files can still be rejected; supported decoders are listed in the release's audio-decoder inventory.

Open View > Converter, drop audio/video, choose the target type and convert. WAV PCM, WAV float, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and AAC/M4A are supported, including MP3 -> AIFF and AIFF -> WAV. Preserve source rate or choose 44.1/48/96 kHz; MP3 uses at most 48 kHz. Converter contains no gain amplifier or navigation tab.

The Zoom R16 conversion preset writes classic 44.1 kHz 16/24-bit PCM WAV with short compatible filenames. R16 Control also retains the hardware panel, mixer/EQ, MIDI control, MIDI recording/playback and native project-copy tools. Verify edited R16 projects on the hardware. Zoom's internal effect DSP is not emulated.

Default shortcuts

| Action | Shortcut | |---|---| | Play/pause; stop active recording | Space | | Stop | Shift+Space | | Record | Ctrl+Space or R | | Retake last recording | Ctrl+R | | Split / selection cursor | S / V | | Slip / fade tool | Y / F | | Duplicate | Ctrl+D | | Looper / Books | Ctrl+L / Ctrl+B | | Clip mute / crossfade | M / X | | Copy / paste / cut | Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V / Ctrl+X | | Delete selected section | Backspace or Delete | | Undo / redo | Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | | Save / save as | Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Shift+S | | Open / new session | Ctrl+O / Ctrl+N | | Import / export | Ctrl+I / Ctrl+E | | Replay from start / rewind | Enter | | Stop and go to start / end | Home / End | | Previous / next bar | Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right | | Zoom in / out | Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- | | Fit project / selection | Ctrl+0 / Ctrl+Shift+0 | | Home / Editor / Converter / Player | Ctrl+1 / Ctrl+2 / Ctrl+3 / Ctrl+4 | | Settings | Ctrl+, |

Keybind Edit immediately focuses/selects the capture field. Save commits changes; leaving unsaved prompts Yes/No. Duplicate shortcuts prevent saving. The defaults preserve normal text-field editing. Space plays/pauses after using closed recording or mixer selectors. Opening Looper leaves timeline Space available outside the Looper panel. Ctrl+Space remains recording.

Notes

The editor's working timeline is 44.1 kHz float. Mix exports support 16/24-bit PCM or 32-bit float WAV, with a 4 GB limit. Source-rate conversion reads the original file. By default, project audio is copied into the .audio folder beside the saved session. Keep both together when moving a project; linked-audio mode requires sources to remain at their saved paths.

Flux artwork appears in the app, executable and versioned shortcut icons. Website: https://fluxtempo.ca

Physical H5studio/R16 capture and audible playback on the affected Realtek PC require connected-device acceptance. Automated tests cover generated samples, native project fixtures, grid math, editing workflows, settings and local silent output probes.

Source, build instructions and dependency licence notices are included. Premium authentication/billing is not implemented.

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Ideas Imprint Incorporated

Flux is licensed under the MIT License; see LICENSE. Third-party components retain their own copyright and license notices.