tui-studio

A modular TUI-based multitrack recording environment for Linux, inspired by the studios of my youth — a mixer, a couple of ADATs or DA-88s and a way to plug in FX. Built on Pipewire for audio transport.

Project structure

Crate	Description
studio-core	Shared types, metering utilities, IPC protocol messages
recorder	Multitrack recorder TUI binary (the application)
control	Remote control panel (separate binary, connects over TCP)
patchbay	Virtual patchbay TUI (separate binary, connects over TCP)

Dependencies

• Pipewire — audio capture
• ratatui + crossterm — terminal UI
• hound — 24-bit WAV writing
• serde + toml — project file serialization
• serde + serde_json — IPC protocol

Getting started

Start the recorder:

cargo run --release -p recorder

Start with a project and remote control:

# Terminal 1 — recorder (set control_port in config.toml first)
cargo run --release -p recorder -- -p myproject

# Terminal 2 — control panel
cargo run --release -p control

Recorder CLI flags

Flag	Default	Description
-r	48000	Sample rate (Hz)
-b	24	Bit depth
-p	untitled	Project name
-o	./recordings	Output directory
--bpm	120	Project BPM

Track count comes from the project file (start with 0, add tracks with +).

Config file

Settings like count-in bars and control panel port are read from ~/.config/tui-studio/config.toml:

count_in_bars = 1
control_port = 18726

If the file doesn't exist, defaults are used. Create it to customize.

Setting	Default	Description
count_in_bars	1	Count-in bars before recording (0 = disabled)
control_port	0	Enable IPC control panel on this port (0 = disabled)

Control panel CLI flags

Flag	Default	Description
--connect	127.0.0.1:18726	Recorder address

Patchbay

A visual routing matrix that shows all available Pipewire audio sources and recorder track inputs, with the ability to make and break connections.

# Terminal 1 — recorder (set control_port in config.toml first)
cargo run --release -p recorder -- -p myproject

# Terminal 2 — patchbay
cargo run --release -p patchbay

Patchbay CLI flags

Flag	Default	Description
--connect	127.0.0.1:18726	Recorder address

Keybindings (recorder)

Key	Action
Space	Toggle recording
h / l	Select previous / next track
g / G	Jump to first / last track
Enter	Arm / disarm selected track
a / d	Arm all / disarm all
i	Open input source selection popup
r	Rename selected track
?	Toggle help popup
+ / -	Add / remove track
q / Esc	Quit

Keybindings (control panel)

Key	Action
Space	Toggle recording
h / j / Left / Up	Select previous track (wraps)
l / k / Right / Down	Select next track (wraps)
g / G	First / last track
Enter	Arm / disarm selected track
a / d	Arm all / disarm all
i	Open source selection popup
r	Rename selected track
?	Toggle help popup
+ / -	Add / remove track
q / Esc	Quit

Keybindings (patchbay)

Key	Action
j / k / Down / Up	Select prev / next source
h / l / Left / Right	Select prev / next track
g / G	First / last source
Enter	Connect / disconnect selected source to selected track
d	Disconnect selected track
?	Toggle help popup
q / Esc	Quit

IPC protocol

The recorder and control panel communicate over TCP using length-prefixed JSON messages. Each message is a 4-byte little-endian length followed by that many bytes of JSON.

Messages are defined in studio-core::ipc:

Direction	Message	Fields
Control → Recorder	ControlCommand	RecordToggle, ArmToggle(idx), ArmAll, DisarmAll, AddTrack, RemoveTrack, SelectTrackSource {track, source}, RenameTrack {track, name}, or Shutdown
Recorder → Control	RecorderStatus	recording: bool, elapsed_secs: f64, tracks: [{name, armed, meter_peak, input}], sources: [{node_id, port_id, name, node_name}]

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.