PortalSurfer

Wavecrate

If you love hardware, jamming with sounds, and exploration, but struggle to capture those moments for use in digital production, Wavecrate is designed for you.

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macOS and Windows.

Wavecrate browsing a local sample source with waveform preview, ratings, collections, metadata filters, and sample rows visible.

Long jams hide the best parts. A two-hour recording might only have ten seconds you actually want.

Libraries bloat quietly. Duplicates, near-matches, and forgotten files make every search slower.

Evolving taste. A sound that worked last month may not survive today.

Jam extraction

Move from raw recording to reusable sample without leaving the waveform.

Long recordings hide useful moments between dead stretches, half-ideas, and setup noise. Wavecrate turns the search into an active pass: audition, mark the region, extract the WAV, and move on before the session loses momentum.

Add a jam, hardware take, field recording, or resampling pass.
Audition and loop regions directly on the waveform.
Mark the useful moment and tighten the boundaries.
Extract the useful moment as a WAV.
Rate, tag, rename, or drag the result into a DAW or folder.

DAW companion

Audition against the track, then paste the moment straight in.

Keep your track playing in the DAW and audition in Wavecrate alongside it. When a sample starts to fit, nudge it tighter and pull the sound straight into your DAW.

Random audition

Jump through samples or regions while the track keeps playing in the background.

Tighten the moment

Move the play marker or selection until the sound lands with the groove.

Copy or drag

Turn the selected range into an ordinary WAV and drop it into the DAW.

Keep moving

Return to auditioning without reorganizing folders in the middle of a session.

Constant curation

Cutting creates material. Curation keeps it usable.

After the clips exist, Wavecrate helps you keep working through them. Rate sounds as your taste evolves, use listen-history signals to spot neglected files, and review similar or duplicate samples before the library bloats again.

Rate over time

Vote sounds up or down as you audition, then let repeated sessions show what still holds up.

Find stale files

Use last-played and playback-age filters to separate recently reviewed sounds from forgotten ones.

Compare related sounds

Similarity analysis helps you find alternatives without remembering which folder they came from.

Prune duplicates

Duplicate review gives cleanup passes a focused workflow instead of manual folder hunting.

Positioning

Wavecrate sits between recording and production.

Not a DAW

Your DAW is for arranging tracks. Wavecrate stays beside it, turning raw audio into sample files you can actually reuse.

Not a cloud library

Your audio stays local. Wavecrate works with ordinary folders and files instead of locking samples into an account.

Not just a sample manager

Wavecrate is a sample workstation for the whole loop: finding sounds fast, pulling out the parts that matter, shaping them into usable clips, and keeping the library honest as your taste evolves.

What it does

Core workflows

Add local sources

Index sample folders while keeping your real file structure visible.

Audition quickly

Move through sounds with keyboard navigation and waveform preview.

Cut usable moments

Mark a range, tighten it, and extract the part worth keeping.

Pull into the DAW

Copy or drag sounds into your session when they start to fit.

Narrow the library

Filter by folders, search, tags, ratings, collections, and playback age.

Edit deliberately

Trim, crop, fade, normalize, rename, or delete when cleanup is part of the pass.

Chat

Wavecrate room

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Alpha builds

Donate to support development.

Wavecrate can modify, rename, and delete files when you use destructive actions. Keep backups while using alpha builds.

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Hotkeys

Keyboard shortcuts

Wavecrate is built for long auditioning passes: play, skip, mark, extract, rate, and undo without leaving the keyboard.

Press Command-/ in Wavecrate to open the context-aware shortcut help overlay.

Review loop

Space: Play the selected sample.
Up / Down: Move through the browser.
E: Extract the play selection.

Curation

[ / ]: Lower or raise the rating.
Command-Z: Undo.

Show full shortcut list

Samples

Space: Play the selected sample. When sticky random is on, play a random sample section.
Shift-Space: Play from the current play start.
Option-Space: Play a random sample section.
X: Mark the sample and advance.
Command-A: Select all listed samples.
Command-C: Copy the play selection or selected file.
N: Normalize selected samples, or create a subfolder when no sample is selected.
F2 / Command-R: Rename the selected item.
Delete / Backspace: Delete the selected item.

Waveform

E: Extract the play selection.
Command-E: Extract and trim the selection.
C: Crop the selection.
D: Trim the selection.
L: Toggle loop playback.

Navigation

Up / Down: Move the browser selection.
Shift-Up / Shift-Down: Extend the sample selection.
Command-Up / Command-Down: Move focus without changing marks.
Left / Right: Collapse or expand the selected folder.

Ratings & Collections

[: Lower the selected rating.
]: Raise the selected rating.
1-6: Toggle the selected sample in a collection.

Metadata

`: Focus the tag input.
Up / Down: Move the tag-completion selection.
Esc: Cancel tag entry.
Delete / Backspace: Delete the selected tag.

Transactions

Command-Z: Undo.
Command-Shift-Z: Redo.
Command-Y: Redo.
Shift-U: Toggle the transaction list.

Help & Modals

Command-/: Toggle shortcut help.
Esc: Close shortcut help, menus, edit prompts, dropdowns, and job or transaction panels before falling back to stop playback.