Offline app

After the first visit the whole studio is stored in the browser, so it opens and plays without a connection: every instrument, every effect, the editors and your files. In Chrome, Edge and Brave you can install it as an app with its own window in the Dock or Start menu, and a double-click on a .drtape file opens it there. Audio is processed on this computer, online or not.

When to use it

Install it if you use the app more than occasionally, want it in the Dock, or work on trains and planes. In a plain tab the offline part still works; installing adds the window, the file association and a save permission that lasts across sessions instead of once per session.

Controls

Installing

Use the browser’s install option, the icon in the address bar or the entry in the browser menu. The installed window opens without browser chrome, and launching it again focuses the running window.

Working offline

The app shell is kept per build, so the page and its engine always match. Projects and their media are files on your disk or in the browser’s storage, and sampled instruments you have downloaded from the Sound library stay available offline. New library instruments need a connection to download; the app says whether a failed download is you being offline or the library being unreachable.

Store preset demos & impulses offline

Preset demos and the convolver’s impulse responses are fetched as you use them. Help › Store preset demos & impulses offline fetches all of them at once, about 100 MB, with progress shown at the top of the window. Once stored they survive app updates.

Updates

When a new version is published it is downloaded in the background and a notice says “new version ready” with a Reload button. Nothing changes until you press it, so an update never interrupts a session. Save first if you have unsaved work; recovery also keeps a snapshot through the reload.

Tips

• Safari and Firefox get the offline shell too but have no in-place file saving, so Save downloads a copy there; Safari also clears the app’s storage after seven days without use unless it is kept on the Dock.
• If Save asks for a new file every time in Brave, enable its file-system access flag; the About panel in Help explains.
• Content from other hosts, such as the sample host, is never cached by the app itself; downloaded instruments live in the browser’s own storage instead.