Tonefold

Tonefold is an open-source AI music composer that generates chords, melody, bass and drums for macOS and Windows.

Tonefold is a free, open-source AI music composer for macOS and Windows that turns text descriptions into editable music. Users describe a song to Claude, and the app writes chords, melody, bass, and drums into a piano roll with eleven distinct layer types. A built-in General MIDI synth plays the song immediately, and users can edit notes, adjust velocities, and export MIDI, stereo WAV mixes, or individual per-layer stems. The app runs locally on the user's machine for generation, playback, and export, relying on the user's own Claude login or a local Ollama model for chat generation. It includes Producer mode for step-by-step plan approvals and works as a standalone desktop app or via optional CLAP and VST3 plugins inside DAWs like FL Studio.

Tonefold at a glance

Best for: Writer
Runs on: macOS, Windows, CLI
Pricing: Free, open-source under GPL-3.0; uses your own Claude plan or free local Ollama model
Released: October 2026
Category: AI audio tool
Website: tonefold.vkfolio.com

Key features

Generate chords, melody, bass and drums from text
Edit every note in a piano roll with velocity lanes
Export MIDI, stereo WAV mixes and per-layer stems
Use Producer mode to review and approve composition plans
Run offline for generation, playback and export
Connect to Claude Code or local Ollama models
Use optional CLAP and VST3 plugins for DAW integration

Use it for

Compose multi-layer songs from text descriptions
Edit AI-generated melodies and drum patterns note by note
Export MIDI and audio stems for music production
Generate music locally without sending files to the cloud

Alternatives to Tonefold

SongUp AI — Connects song generators and audio tools to AI agents with one URL and no sign-in.
MuseGen — It generates complete radio-ready songs with vocals and editable stems in seconds.
GetBeatsFlow — Generates complete song arrangements and separates 4 clean multitrack stems.
Duetto — Improvises and responds in real time to the user's chords, pulse, and phrasing.
2G — Generates audio from text prompts and models early-2000s mobile phone speakers.
Voicebox — Perform voice cloning and generation entirely on local hardware.
Audimind — It combines script editing, AI narration, smart alignment, and multi-track audio mixing in one workspace.
Speechify — Converts any text to speech and creates podcasts from documents instantly.
VoxCPM — Provides tokenizer-free multilingual speech with controllable voice creativity.
FlexChords — Achieves 92 percent chord accuracy on unseen songs.
Daydream Labs — Create whole tracks in the browser with live session players.
NovelHive AI — Role-aware narration with 86 voices and pay-per-book pricing.

All Tonefold alternatives