The four minutes you get back
Every other way of finding out what key a channel is in goes like this. Solo it. Bounce it. Find the file. Open something else. Read a number. Come back. Remember what you were doing.
DropWave Analyzer answers the same question in place, while the track is playing. Insert it, hit play, press Analyze.
It is best exactly where the old way was worst — on the things no single file exists for:
- A vocal you were sent with no session. Key in seconds, so you can write under it.
- A bus of layered synths where the sound only exists as a sum.
- A loop you have already processed past the point of recognising.
- Someone else's reference track, playing on a channel next to yours.
How it works
Insert it on any channel. Play the transport — it listens to what goes past. Press Analyze, and it reports:
- the key, with the Camelot wheel drawn and the compatible keys lit;
- the Camelot position;
- the tempo, where there is a reliable pulse to find.
It passes your audio through untouched. Leave it inserted and forget about it.
Nothing to install
The plugin ships inside the app. Launch DropWave once and it is installed — no second installer, no plugin folder, nothing to drag anywhere.
Look for DropWave Analyzer under Effects in your host. Logic Pro and GarageBand see it immediately; FL Studio sees it once Audio Units are enabled in its plugin manager.
On vocals, expect a key and no tempo
Sung material has soft transients and often no beat present at all, so there is genuinely no tempo to find. The plugin declining to print a BPM there is it working correctly — it would rather show you nothing than a number it cannot stand behind.
The key reading on a vocal is solid. That is the one you came for.
What it never does
It does not touch your audio, it does not write to your files, and it never connects to the internet. Whatever is on that channel stays on your machine. More on privacy →
Getting it
The plugin is in beta — the word is in its name so you cannot miss it on an insert — and it ships with the app. DropWave is in closed beta, and the Discord is the only way in.
Related
What DropWave measures · Key finder · Camelot wheel · Plugin documentation