The folder every producer has
A few hundred files with names like vox_loop_final_2.wav. None of them labelled. Each one useful only if you know two things about it.
The key tells you whether a sample will sit under your chords or fight them. The tempo tells you whether it needs stretching, and by how much. Between them they decide, in about a second, whether a file is worth opening at all.
DropWave answers both from one drop — and adds the three things you would otherwise open something else for: the Camelot position for harmonic mixing, and the true peak and loudness you check before anything leaves your machine.
What you get
| Reading | |
|---|---|
| Key | Tonic and mode, with the measured tuning offset in cents |
| Camelot | The code, plus the wheel drawn with the compatible keys lit |
| Tempo | BPM to two decimal places |
| Length | Duration |
| True peak | dBTP, to ITU-R BS.1770-4, flagged when it clips |
| Loudness | Integrated LUFS, to ITU-R BS.1770-4 |
Three things it does that matter
It knows your sample is detuned
Sample packs sit off concert pitch far more often than people expect, and anything pitch-shifted is off the grid by definition. DropWave measures the tuning rather than assuming it, so detuned material resolves to the right key instead of the one next to it — and it tells you the deviation in cents. More →
It says when a call was close
Key and tempo both carry a confidence band, and when two answers were close together the second one is named. "A minor, possibly C major" is something you can settle by ear in ten seconds. A single confident answer is something you find out about two hours later.
It runs inside your DAW
The same analysis, as a plugin on any channel in your session. Insert it on a vocal, press Analyze, read the key — without bouncing a stem to find out.
Real units only
True peak in dBTP and loudness in LUFS, both to ITU-R BS.1770-4 — the standard streaming platforms normalise against. Not an "energy" score on an invented scale. A number that looks authoritative and means nothing is worse than no number at all.
What it runs on
- macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later — Universal — Apple silicon and Intel
- 4.3 MB, about 40 ms per file, nothing to install alongside it
- Never connects to the internet. No account, no telemetry, no licence check.
Opens WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A/AAC, FLAC, CAF and the audio track of video files — and the extension is not what decides. Full list →
Who it is for
- Producers auditing a sample library, working out what is in a few hundred unlabelled loops.
- Beatmakers matching a sample to a session before committing to it.
- DJs preparing a set, reading Camelot positions and what mixes against them.
- Mixing and mastering engineers checking headroom and loudness against a delivery target.
- Anyone handed an unlabelled file — a bounce, a stem, a voice memo, a clip off a video.