01
Transmission at risk
Mbira Dzavadzimu sits on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list. Digital tools can help younger learners meet the instrument — if the model respects the tradition, not a Western approximation of it.
Cognitive Futures · Southern Africa · Active development
Instruments that
remember where they come from.
A sovereign digital instrument library and music education studio — 16 playable instruments, a shared sequencer, and composition export that carries cultural attribution with the music itself.
Built in the browser. Core synthesis and licensing are working today. We are still refining authentic instrument timbre — that work continues openly.
16 instruments
Nyamaropa mbira
VAMC export
One-time licences
Why this exists
Music education technology that does not forget Africa.
Most digital instruments on a phone are Western by default. African traditions are reduced to novelty apps or left offline in the hands of fewer and fewer living teachers. Music Studio is built to close that gap without pretending the work is finished.
02
EdTech that under-serves music
Resource-constrained systems rarely prioritise instruments and theory. A browser studio that works offline for the core experience lowers the barrier.
03
Attribution with the file
VAMC exports carry instrument model, scale, pattern and a sovereignty block naming cultural origin — not only a silent audio clip.
04
One-time, not subscription
Licences match mobile-money realities: pay once per tier. No card-on-file subscription assumed as the only path.
05
Built in the region
Designed and engineered from Southern Africa, for learners and educators who should not need a foreign platform to meet their own instruments.
06
Honest about the road
Synthesis and licensing work today. Authentic timbre refinement and live AI tutoring are still in active development. We say so on the page.
The principle
Not a sample pack.
A modelled instrument.
A modelled instrument.
01
Physical modelling
Karplus-Strong for plucked and mallet voices; filtered noise for percussion; ADSR harmonic layering for melodic Western instruments — synthesis, not static samples.
02
Nyamaropa, not chromatic default
Mbira scale rebuilt toward an 8-tone Nyamaropa-mode approximation, with multi-tine voices and a buzz layer for bottle-cap character.
03
Sound still under craft
We are still developing more accurate instrument sounds. What you hear today is real synthesis in progress — not a finished concert hall.
The library
Sixteen instruments. Nine African. Seven Western.
One shared 16-step sequencer across the whole set — tempo, volume, pattern randomisation, live playback.
Zimbabwe
Mbira Dzavadzimu
Nyamaropa-mode model · multi-tine + buzz
Pan-African
Kalimba
Thumb piano · gentle entry point
Southern Africa
Marimba
Mallet voice · bright decay
West Africa
Balafon
Wooden resonance model
West Africa
Djembe
Hand-drum noise synthesis
West Africa
Kora
21-string harp-lute character
Zimbabwe
Hosho
Gourd shaker texture
Southern Africa
Ngoma
Drum family voice
West Africa
Shekere
Beaded gourd rhythm
Western
Piano · Flute · Recorder
ADSR melodic set
Western
Drum Kit · Tambourine
Kit and colour percussion
Suite
+ further Western voices
Shared sequencer for all sixteen
VAMC
Export the pattern — and the origin.
Vianté Adaptive Music Codec is a portable JSON grammar: instrument model, scale, pattern, and a sovereignty block naming the tradition’s cultural origin. Not only a .webm recording.
VAMC
Grammar, not only audio
Compositions remain editable and attributable when the file travels.
.webm
Audio when you need it
Browser MediaRecorder export for sharing a listen — Builder tier.
Local
Library on the device
Saved work stays in browser storage on the machine that made it.
Honest status
What is live — and what is still being crafted.
No feature is claimed unless it has been built and verified in the current build. Sound authenticity remains an active engineering focus.
Built and verified
- 16 playable instruments with Web Audio synthesis
- Corrected Mbira Nyamaropa-mode model + multi-tine / buzz layer
- 16-step sequencer across all instruments
- VAMC JSON export with sovereignty block
- .webm recording path (tier-gated)
- Client-side licence tiers + key validation
- AI Tutor UI with offline theory corpus fallback
- Dark/light themes, Halo navigation, instrument SVG set
Still developing
- More accurate, tradition-faithful instrument timbres
- Live CHIKARA Sovereign API for full AI Tutor modes
- Server-issued licence keys (current check is client-side)
- Cross-device sync and community sharing
- User testing with target learners (not yet run)
- Institutional pilots and formal partnerships
Prototype, not product theatre. Music Studio is further than a mockup — real synthesis, real licensing — and still pre-launch, pre-revenue, and pre-user outside development and testing. That is stated here the same way it is stated in the investor briefing.
Licensing
One-time tiers. No subscription trap.
Each tier is a single payment that unlocks more of what is already built. Keys are issued by the team while self-serve checkout is not yet live.
Free
$0Forever
Start playing and exporting grammar files without a key.
- 9 instruments (Western set + Kalimba, Djembe, Hosho, Shekere)
- Sequencer
- VAMC export
Starter
$19One-time
Full instrument library and a personal saved library on device.
- All 16 instruments
- Personal saved library
- Everything in Free
Builder
$39One-time
Teaching modes and audio capture when you need a listen file.
- AI Tutor (all 4 modes)
- Audio recording export
- Everything in Starter
Institutional
CustomSchools / NGOs
Multi-seat classroom keys and bulk licensing by arrangement.
- Multi-seat keys
- Bulk licensing
- Everything in Builder
Licence validation runs in the browser today — real against casual sharing, not unbreakable DRM. Server-issued keys remain the right path for hardened commercial scale.
Boundaries
What this is — and is not
- A browser studio for play, composition and learning context — not a claim that every instrument already sounds concert-finished
- Cultural attribution in VAMC is a product commitment; it is not a substitute for living teachers and community authority
- No formal government partnership or endorsement is claimed
- No real external users or revenue as of the current build
- AI Tutor full live backend is not yet available; offline corpus is the honest fallback
CHIKARA Music Studio
Open the studio.
Help us hear it more truly.
Play what is built. Tell us where the sound still falls short. Keys and institutional conversations go through the team — a real person, not a chatbot.