RMS · Ryan Music Studio
A small studio
for a voice and a guitar.
Record yourself over a backing track. Every pass is kept. Choose the best part of each, then export the song.
It runs on your own Windows PC: no account, no internet, nothing to install. Your songs stay on your computer.
- Works offline
- No account
- One file, no installer
- Free & open source
Your first session
From download
to a finished song.
Six steps. Wear headphones the whole way, so the backing track stays out of your microphone.
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Download and open
Your browser may ask before keeping a new RMS.exe; choose to keep it. That one file is the whole app, so move it from Downloads to your Desktop and open it from there. RMS is new and not signed yet, so Windows may say
Windows protected your PC
. Choose More info, then Run anyway. -
Set up your sound
In Audio Setup, pick your microphone and your headphones. Sing your loudest part: the meter should reach amber, not red. If it barely moves, turn up the gain on your mic or interface. Play a test tone, then Record a short test and listen back. When it sounds right, press Sounds good — start recording.
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Start a song
Choose New Vocal Session, name the song, and type in your backing track’s tempo if you know it. Drag a WAV or MP3 backing track onto the timeline, or press Ctrl+I.
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Record
Press Record another take (R) and sing. Go again until one feels right. Each pass gets its own lane.
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Choose the best parts
Turn on Choose best parts, then drag across the best part of each take. Press Space to hear your choices together.
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Mix and export
On Mix, give your voice a starting point: Clean, Warm or Spacious. Then open Export, choose WAV or MP3, and press Export song….
What’s inside
Everything a song needs,
nothing it doesn’t.
Made for one person at home with a microphone, a guitar and a pair of headphones.
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Every take is kept
Each pass gets its own lane with a waveform. Delete one you don’t want; Ctrl+Z brings it back.
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Fix just one line
Drag on the ruler to mark a range. Punch in to re-record only that part, or loop it for a fresh take each pass.
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Voice and guitar
Add vocal and guitar tracks and pick which one records. Backing tracks get a track of their own.
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A finished vocal sound
High-pass, EQ, compressor, de-esser, gate, reverb and delay, with a limiter on the master so exports don’t clip.
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Hard to lose work
Autosave and crash recovery. A new session never writes over an existing song. Each song is its own folder, in Documents\RMS Projects unless you pick another.
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Export your way
WAV (16 or 24-bit) or MP3. The whole song or a marked range, vocals only, or everything except the vocals.
Good to know
Small answers
to common snags.
Keyboard
- Space
- Play / stop
- R
- Record another take
- L
- Loop the marked range
- S
- Split at the playhead
- Home
- Go to start
- Delete
- Delete selected
- Ctrl+I
- Import backing track
- Ctrl+S
- Save
- Ctrl+Z / Y
- Undo / redo
- Ctrl++ / −
- Zoom in / out
I can’t hear myself in the headphones.
In Audio Setup, tick Software monitoring to hear your mic through RMS. It starts off. If you then hear yourself twice, your mic or interface already sends your voice to the headphones, so untick it.
There’s a click that fights the beat.
That’s the metronome. It ticks at the song’s tempo (90 unless you typed another) whenever the song plays, and it’s never in the export. Turn it off or on with Transport › Click (not in export).
The beat feels late while I sing.
Use wired headphones; Bluetooth adds delay, and RMS warns you when an output looks wireless or slow. If it still feels late, try Lower latency (WASAPI Exclusive) in Audio Setup.
My interface or coax input has two channels.
In Audio Setup, choose Input 1, Input 2 or Both channels. USB mics and most coax/S/PDIF sources want both.
I unplugged my mic in the middle of a take.
RMS stops, keeps what it already recorded, and tells you. It never quietly switches to another microphone. Plug it back in, or pick another one.
MP3 export didn’t work.
RMS uses the MP3 encoder built into Windows. If that fails on your PC, export WAV instead; any music app can open it.
Does it work on a Mac, or with plug-ins?
RMS is for Windows only. It doesn’t do MIDI, VST plug-ins, ASIO drivers or pitch correction. It does one job: recording a song.