Preparing tracks with ChatGPT

How it works#Link to “How it works”

1. For example, you ask: “Prepare ‘Glasshouse’ for my club gig.”
2. The assistant calls prepare_track_for_djing. The report is a checklist: metadata, analysis and loudness, beatgrid quality, sections, cue suggestions, mix-in and mix-out ranges and energy, each with the next step. style (club, open-format or radio) determines which phrase lengths are searched for. The tool only reads.
3. If measurements (loudness, beatgrid check) are still running, the report names their job ID; the assistant checks with get_analysis_job.
4. propose_track_preparation turns this into a single suggestion: the suggested cues (existing ones stay) and the measured grid correction (never for a protected grid). If there is nothing to suggest yet, it responds with nothing_to_propose and the reason.
5. Sonodex shows the suggestion with “Cue points: … → …” and the beatgrid before and after. “Apply changes” saves cues and beatgrid as one undo step; audio files stay unchanged.

Enlarge, enlarge view

Analysis and loudness#Link to “Analysis and loudness”

analyze_track_audio returns the stored analysis with its origin (measured, model, manual) and confidence: BPM, key in musical notation and as Camelot, energy (a heuristic formula), true peak, clipping, DC offset and silence from the incoming check, beats from the stored grid, sections from the structure model or your correction, the energy curve and a waveform summary.

Sonodex measures loudness (integrated LUFS, loudness range and true peak according to EBU R128) from the audio file in the background when needed and remembers the result. At most 20 such measurements run at the same time per assistant, each for at most 10 minutes. Sonodex reports missing values as missing instead of estimating them. You still start the actual analysis (BPM, key, beatgrid) in Sonodex, not via the assistant.

Cue points#Link to “Cue points”

• get_track_cue_points reads hot cues A–P, memory cues and loops with time, bar and beat, label, colour and origin.
• add_cue_point, update_cue_point and delete_cue_point propose individual changes, at a time or a bar of the beatgrid.
• generate_cue_point_suggestions suggests cues for up to 20 tracks, each with a reason. The “structure” template sets hot cues on the intro, build-up, drop, breakdown and outro and moves them to the next bar; “default”, “cue-profile” (your cue profile) and plugin templates use the app’s cue generation.
• apply_cue_suggestions turns the suggestions (all or individual ones) into a suggestion for you to confirm. Existing cues are kept; if the cues have changed in the meantime, Sonodex declines.

Beatgrid#Link to “Beatgrid”

• get_track_beatgrid shows tempo, first beat and downbeat, tempo sections, whether the grid is protected (“Protect grid”) and where it comes from.
• analyze_beatgrid measures in the background how well the grid fits the music: offset, drift, half or double tempo and hints about bar 1.
• update_track_beatgrid proposes a correction: tempo, first beat, shifting the downbeat by up to three beats, beat count or a straight grid without tempo sections. Protected grids are declined.

Cue positions stay where they are when the grid changes; only the bar and beat counts follow the new grid. More on the grid in the app: Edit beatgrid.

Plan transitions#Link to “Plan transitions”

analyze_transition_detail plans the change from one track to the next: mix-out ranges of the playing track (outro, late breakdowns) and mix-in ranges of the next one (intro, early breakdowns or build-ups) with bars and 8-, 16- or 32-bar phrases, the recommended overlap, the tempo adjustment needed and a transition type (long blend, bass swap, echo out, hard cut) with reasons and alternatives. Sonodex cannot detect whether vocals overlap, and says so.

Examples#Link to “Examples”

• “Prepare ‘Glasshouse’ for my club gig and set the cues if everything fits.”
• “How loud is ‘Coastline’ in LUFS, and is the beatgrid right?”
• “Set hot cues at the section starts in all tracks of the playlist ‘Saturday’.”
• “How do I mix from ‘Velvet Room’ into ‘Coastline’, and from which bar?”