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jam · export · DAW import notes

Into your DAWone rule, then the steps per DAW.

How a jam export gets into your DAW. For Reaper and Ableton Live, jam writes a project file; for the other DAWs the steps follow the vendor documentation, with the source linked. How to make the export itself is in the FAQ.

What is in the export folder?

  • Audio: di.wav, drums.wav, wet.wav, backing.wav (whichever you ticked). Each is 24-bit mono WAV. All of them start on the same bar line and are cut from one plan, so they line up sample for sample.
  • export.mid — Standard MIDI File type 1, 960 ticks per quarter. It holds one tempo, the time signature, your markers, the chord symbols (as marker events, when the export has a quantise step; the default is 1/8) and the notes. Notes use one MIDI channel per string, channel 1 = lowest string, pitch-bend range ±2 semitones; a note without a string goes to channel 16. Tick 0 is sample 0 of the WAVs.
  • model.json — the numbers: sampleRate, the tempo in tempoMap.events[0].bpm, the time signature in beatsPerBar / beatUnit, the exported bars, your markers and where the selection sits in the file (file.selectionStartInFile / selectionEndInFile, in samples).
  • project.rpp — a Reaper project that points at the WAVs (written when at least one audio file is ticked).
  • export.als — an Ableton Live Set, only when you tick Ableton Live Set in the export dialog.

The tempo counts quarter notes, also in 6/8: 120 BPM in 6/8 is 1.5 seconds per bar. jam exports one constant tempo per take.

Played without a click? Then there is no grid to export: the tempo in the files is a default of 120 BPM, and model.json lists it as guessed. The tracks still line up with each other; only the DAW's bar grid means nothing.

The rule that works in every DAW

Drop everything at bar 1, set the tempo from model.json.

  1. Make a new project with the sample rate, tempo and time signature from model.json.
  2. Switch off time-stretch or warp for the audio files. They are already at the project tempo.
  3. Put every WAV and export.mid at bar 1, beat 1.

This needs nothing from the DAW, no timestamp reading and no MIDI tempo import, because every file starts on the same bar line. Bar 1 of your project is then the first bar of the export: the pre-roll bar, if you kept the default handles.

The WAVs carry a Broadcast Wave timestamp of 0 (the start of the file), not the position in the take. Importing “at original position” therefore adds nothing to step 3.

Reaper

  1. Open project.rpp from the export folder.

The file contains one track per ticked WAV at position 0, the tempo and time signature, your markers and chord symbols, regions for pre-roll, selection and post-roll, and a note track with the per-string MIDI channels. If it does not open as described, use the rule.

Ableton Live

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

Without the Live Set, by hand:

  1. Type tempo and time signature from model.json into the control bar. Ableton says Live offers to take the tempo map when you drop a MIDI file on a MIDI track, with the condition that a note spans the tempo changes [A1].
  2. In Arrangement View, drag the WAVs to 1.1.1 and export.mid onto a MIDI track at 1.1.1 [A3].
  3. Switch Warp off on each audio clip: the clip then plays at its original tempo, whatever the Set tempo [A2]. Auto-Warp Long Samples is on by default and can be switched off in the settings [A2].

Logic Pro

  1. File › Open and choose export.mid. Apple says Logic makes a new project and takes the tempo changes and the names and positions of markers from the file [L1]. The page does not mention the time signature.
  2. Set the tempo mode to Keep Project Tempo; in the other modes Logic can adapt the project tempo to imported audio [L2].
  3. Drag the WAVs to bar 1.

Cubase / Nuendo

  1. File › Import › MIDI File, choose export.mid and answer Yes to a new project [C2]. With Import Markers on in the MIDI file import options, the markers come across [C1].
  2. With the destination Instrument Tracks, Cubase makes one instrument track per MIDI channel [C1] — for jam, one per string.
  3. Drag the WAVs to bar 1.

Studio One

  1. Set tempo and time signature from model.json, or drag export.mid from the browser (Files tab) onto the tempo track: that takes the tempo map without importing tracks [S1].
  2. Drag the WAVs and export.mid to bar 1.

Pro Tools

  1. File › Import › MIDI and choose export.mid. Avid says the option to import the tempo map overwrites the session's tempo and meter map with the one from the file [P1].
  2. Import the WAVs and spot them to bar 1 (1|1|000).

Bitwig Studio

  1. Drag export.mid from the browser into the arrangement. Bitwig's release notes for 5.0 say the MIDI import sets the project tempo also when the file has a single tempo event, which is what jam writes [B1]. Otherwise set the tempo from model.json.
  2. Drag the WAVs to bar 1.

FL Studio

  1. Set tempo and time signature from model.json by hand; the manual page does not say whether the tempo comes in from a MIDI file.
  2. File › Import › MIDI file and choose export.mid. In the dialog, switch Realign events off: it removes the empty space at the start of the file [F1] and would move the notes against the audio. Import time signatures on; Create one channel per track gives one instrument channel per MIDI channel [F1].
  3. Put the WAVs in the playlist at bar 1.

What does not come across?

The regions for pre-roll, selection and post-roll exist only in project.rpp; a MIDI file cannot carry them. For every other DAW the selection boundaries are in model.json.

Where a DAW section above says nothing about markers or the Broadcast Wave timestamp, we found nothing in the vendor documentation. That does not mean it fails; it means nobody has checked.

Tried one of these DAWs? Tell us what came across: report it.

Sources

Vendor pages, read on 24 September 2026.