FAQinstall, play, find your takes.

How do I install the Local Audio Engine?

You need Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, and a strummr account (free during the beta test, until 23 December 2026).

1. Sign up or log in, then open jam at jam.strummr.ai.
2. Press Download in the top bar, or Download the Local Audio Engine in the engine window (click the engine chip in the top bar). The same download is on the download page of your account, account.strummr.ai/download.
3. If the browser says the file isn’t commonly downloaded, choose Keep (Behalten). In Edge this sits behind the … menu.
4. Run strummr-local-audio-engine-<version>.msi. Windows will warn first; here is what to click. You do not need administrator rights; the engine installs for your Windows user only.
5. Click through Next, Install and Finish. Start the engine now is ticked on the last page.
6. Later, start it from the Start menu: strummr Local Audio Engine, or with ▶ Start the engine in the engine window.

It installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\strummr Local Audio Engine. It does not start with Windows; you start it when you want to play.

Why does Windows warn about an unknown publisher?

Because the installer of the beta test is not code-signed yet. A code-signing certificate for a company needs the company to be in the commercial register, and Bloatworks.ai UG (haftungsbeschränkt) in Gründung is still waiting for its entry. Once it is registered, signed installers follow and this warning goes away.

Until then Windows shows Windows protected your PC (Der Computer wurde durch Windows geschützt), with the publisher Unknown publisher (Unbekannter Herausgeber). If you want to go ahead:

1. Optional, but a good idea: check the download first.
2. Click More info (Weitere Informationen).
3. Click Run anyway (Trotzdem ausführen).

If there is no Run anyway and Windows says it blocked the file, that is Smart App Control, see the next question.

Smart App Control says it blocked the app.

Smart App Control is a Windows 11 protection that is only on for PCs that were set up fresh with Windows 11, not on PCs upgraded from Windows 10. When it is on, it blocks programs without a signature that Microsoft does not know yet, and it offers no button to run them anyway. Our beta installer is one of those.

To see whether it is on: Windows Security (Windows-Sicherheit) → App & browser control (App- & Browsersteuerung) → Smart App Control (Intelligente App-Steuerung).

Your honest options:

• Test on a PC where Smart App Control is off. That is the easy way.
• Wait for the signed installer. It ends this problem; nothing changes in your settings.
• Turn Smart App Control off, if your Windows build lets you turn it on again later without reinstalling. Microsoft announced that for newer builds at the end of 2025; check whether your build offers the switch.

We do not ask you to switch off a security setting. On builds without that switch, turning Smart App Control off is final: it only comes back with a reinstall of Windows.

How do I check the download is genuine?

Every release has a SHA-256 checksum. It is in jam.strummr.ai/engine/latest.json (field sha256) and in SHA256SUMS; the engine window shows its first characters next to the download button. Open PowerShell in the folder with the download and run:

Get-FileHash .\strummr-local-audio-engine-<version>.msi -Algorithm SHA256

Replace <version> with the number in the file name. The Hash it prints must be the same as sha256; upper or lower case does not matter. Or let PowerShell compare for you; it prints True when they match:

$l = Invoke-RestMethod https://jam.strummr.ai/engine/latest.json
(Get-FileHash ".\strummr-local-audio-engine-$($l.version).msi" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq $l.sha256

If it prints False or the hashes differ, do not run the file; download it again, and if it still differs, tell us.

How do I start and stop the engine?

Start: Start menu → strummr Local Audio Engine, or ▶ Start the engine in the engine window of jam. The first time, your browser may ask whether the page may reach programs on this PC: click Allow access to this PC in the engine window, then Allow in the browser prompt.

While it runs, it sits as an icon in the notification area of the taskbar (on Windows 11 perhaps behind the arrow Show hidden icons, Ausgeblendete Symbole anzeigen). Its menu: Open strummr jam · Status... · Open recordings folder · Quit.

Stop: Quit in that menu, or ■ Stop engine in the engine window.

The engine serves one browser tab at a time; if the chip says BUSY, close the other tab. It talks only to your own PC, on 127.0.0.1, ports 8003, 8005, 8006, 8007 and 8765. It adds no firewall rule and nothing on it is reachable from other computers.

Which audio interface works?

• A USB audio interface with an ASIO driver. Our reference is a Focusrite Scarlett Solo on Windows 11. Pick it on the Rig screen.
• Guitar straight in, dry. Mono, instrument input, no pedals or amp before it. The amp sound comes from the engine, on your headphones.
• Gain: set the interface gain so the loudest chord you play peaks around −12 dBFS. The Rig screen shows the DI peak next to that target, and jam warns when it clips.
• Buffer: if you hear dropouts, try 256 samples.

No microphone mode, no phone. Other ASIO interfaces are not measured yet; if yours misbehaves, tell us which one.

What is pairing, and why do I sign in?

Pairing connects the engine on this PC to your strummr account. Recording and drums work without it. Transcription (the tab) and export ask for a paired PC.

1. Sign in to strummr in the browser you use for jam.
2. With the engine running, open the engine window and click Connect this PC to your account. The page asks your account for a short-lived code and hands it to the engine; there is nothing to type.
3. The chip in the top bar stops saying NOT PAIRED.

To undo it, click Unpair this PC in the engine window, or Unpair next to the device in your account at account.strummr.ai. From the account it takes effect the next time that PC checks in, within 12 hours.

Where are my recordings?

In your Music folder: C:\Users\<you>\Music\strummr\, one folder per session, named after date and time, for example session-20260922-074131. The tray menu item Open recordings folder takes you there. Inside:

• di_001.flac — your dry guitar signal, FLAC, 24 bit.
• wet_001.ogg — the amp sound you heard, Ogg Vorbis.
• session.json — tempo grid, drums, amp preset and your markers.
• After a transcription also transcribe.json and score.json.

Your recordings stay on your PC. The transcription runs on your PC too, inside the engine; the beta uploads no audio.

How do I get a take into my DAW?

Export writes a folder with everything a DAW needs: the dry guitar, the amp sound, the drums, the notes as MIDI and the tempo. All audio files start at the same instant and have the same length, so they line up in any DAW.

1. Open the take in Review, select the bars you want (or the whole take) and press Export bars …. From Transcribe, the last step is the same export.
2. Tick the files you want. Nothing is ticked by default; model.json always comes along.
3. Pick a folder, or keep the session folder, and press Export. Open folder shows the result.

What the files are:

• di.wav — your dry guitar, 24 bit. This is the track to keep working on: put an amp plugin on it, or reamp it. It sounds quiet on its own (the recording aims at about −12 dBFS); an amp plugin has plenty of gain.
• wet.wav or wet.ogg — the amp sound as you heard it while playing. Good as a reference or a quick demo; the amp is baked in.
• drums.wav — the drum track, sample for sample on the guitar.
• export.mid — the notes, one MIDI channel per string, with tempo, time signature and your markers.
• export.gp5 and export.musicxml — the tab for Guitar Pro, MuseScore and friends.
• project.rpp — a Reaper project with all of the above in place.
• model.json — the tempo map and what was exported.

Reaper: open project.rpp. Tracks, tempo, markers and regions are written into it.

Ableton Live: tick Ableton Live Set in the export and open export.als. Tracks sit at bar 1 with Warp off, tempo and time signature are set, markers are locators. Bends and the per-string channels stay in export.mid.

Any other DAW (Logic, Cubase, Studio One, Pro Tools, Bitwig, FL Studio):

1. Make a new project and set its tempo and time signature to the values in model.json (or import export.mid first; most DAWs offer to take the tempo from it).
2. Drag di.wav, wet.wav and drums.wav onto separate tracks, each starting at bar 1.
3. Turn off warping or stretching on those clips (in Ableton Live: Warp off). The audio is already on the grid.

Mute the wet track and put an amp plugin on the dry one, or keep the wet track if you just want to hear the take. Details per DAW, and what has been checked so far, are in the DAW import notes.

How do I add my own NAM captures?

jam plays Neural Amp Modeler captures (.nam files). A large free collection is on TONE3000, a separate website that jam is not connected to.

1. On TONE3000, pick a tone and download its .nam file.
2. Open the Rig page in jam and drag the file onto Amp or Pedal under Your own amps & pedals, or click one of them to choose the file. jam copies it into the engine's models folder and loads it.
3. Or press Open models folder and copy the files in yourself: amps into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\strummr Local Audio Engine\models\user\, pedal captures into the pedals folder inside it. Files in pedals show up as pedals, everything else as amps.

Both need the engine running. Each tone on TONE3000 has its own license; check it before you share a recording or pass the file on. Keep your downloads: the models folder belongs to the engine installation.

How do I uninstall it?

1. If it is running, Quit it from the tray icon.
2. Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps (Einstellungen → Apps → Installierte Apps; on Windows 10 Apps & features) → strummr Local Audio Engine → Uninstall (Deinstallieren). The Start menu folder strummr also has Uninstall strummr Local Audio Engine.

Uninstalling never deletes your work. These stay, and you can delete them yourself:

• your recordings in C:\Users\<you>\Music\strummr\,
• settings, presets and logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\strummr\.

To unpair the PC as well, use Unpair in your account (see pairing).

What does the beta not do yet?

• Windows only. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. There is no Mac build.
• Not code-signed. Hence the Windows warning and the Smart App Control block.
• The tab is measured on little material so far: real guitar takes, but one guitar and one player. It gets some notes wrong, which is why every note can be fixed in a click.
• Built for riffs, runs, power chords and open chords, not for whole songs with every articulation or for fast solos.
• The live view is a sketch. It may show wrong notes while you play; the tab comes from the transcription afterwards.
• One browser tab at a time, and no start with Windows.

How do I report a problem?

Write to support@strummr.ai. It helps a lot if you add:

• the name of the session folder, for example session-20260922-074131,
• your Windows version (type winver into the Start menu),
• your audio interface,
• a screenshot of what you saw, ideally of the engine window,
• the log files from %LOCALAPPDATA%\strummr\engine\logs.

Please do not send recordings unless you want to; they are yours.