Use Maru with a DAW

To use Maru in a digital audio workstation (DAW), install a compatible plugin or import musical content. Choose a plugin when you want to play or adjust the instrument in your session. Choose audio when you want the recorded sound, or MIDI when you want your own instrument to play the notes.

Choose a compatible download

Check the product's available release, operating system and plugin format against your DAW's requirements. Download availability is specific to the product and release; a browser demo alone is not a native plugin.

Follow the supplied installation instructions, then use the DAW's normal plugin scan or rescan workflow. Instruments need a MIDI or instrument track; audio effects need a track with audio input.

Bring sounds into a session

Import audio onto an audio track. Import MIDI onto an instrument track and choose the instrument that should play it. For example, Bounce Room offers MIDI grooves you can voice with your own drum instrument and matching WAV loops you can place directly in a session.

For a bank created in Studio, Maru Sampler is the player. Load the bank inside the native Sampler plug-in when you have access to its release; the bank itself is a content file rather than an item in your DAW's plugin list. The Sampler guide explains the app and plug-in availability.

Export your work explains which kind of file to look for. Using plugins covers playing a tool and choosing presets.

If it does not appear or play

Check the format, installation location and DAW scan report. For silence, confirm the track input, monitoring and output routing. If it still fails, contact support with the product version, operating system, DAW version and scan error. Say whether the plugin is missing, will not open or opens silently; those symptoms need different checks.

Developers building their own plugin can continue with Native plugins and Testing your VST.

Account access and local tools

A purchased release may use Maru activation. Optional connected generation has its own account requirements and host availability.

The developing local plugin bridge has a different purpose: connecting a local native host to other Maru tools. It does not make arbitrary installed plugins run directly in the browser. Desktop tools and helpers explains the available components.

If you make a DAW or audio application, use the software-maker guide to choose between hosting releases, embedding the Engine and adding services.