Year One vs GrowYourTrack

Hear different lyrics in the corners of your room; build melodies as you walk around your couch; hear hidden parts and build your own chords just by walking through the space around you. Year One is the first spatial album, utilizing the possibilities of augmented reality technology, by D.C. group and label TCW. Upon launching the Year One app, the different sounds and instruments of the songs will populate and begin moving through the space around you. Your movement, tracked by your smartphone, will affect which sounds you hear and change how individual effects are applied to them, making for a different listening experience each time. This final release of the album contains all eight spatial arrangements from TCW, Wall of Trophies, and N.E. Hertzberg. TCW has released a how-to guide for any musician to build their own similar app independently. Alongside the guide, TCW has begun cataloging spatial composition techniques for other musicians to use and contribute to. This guide and techniques can all be found on tcwav.com. TCW released their first spatial album, Inauguration, in early 2017 using smartphone GPS positional tracking, and released a similar guide for building spatial applications. Contact the group at tcw@tcwav.com Headphones required for proper audio spatialization.

How It Works — Screen by Screen Projects Your studio home and project overview. Projects store everything tied to a song: your vibe “seed,” your progress, and where you left off. Open an existing draft to continue, or tap + to start a new one and set your vibe again. You can: Create, rename, and delete drafts Adjust genre, mood, energy, tempo, and lyric direction Jump into the rest of the workflow from a single place Best for: managing projects and making high-level decisions (not building audio/lyrics). Sample Library Browse and choose the building blocks of your instrumental. Preview tempo-matched loops, search by name/vibe/tag/instrument, and add loops to your project. You can reuse loops for hooks and callbacks — the app tracks how often you’ve used each one. You can: Preview loops Add loops to your project (including re-adding) Search and explore by tags, vibe, or instruments Tip: shorter arrangements perform best — you’ll see a warning as your loop count grows. Producer Build and refine your instrumental arrangement. This is where your track takes shape. Arrange loops by section, preview parts, play your full song, and experiment with structure. You can also capture quick ideas with voice notes and text notes while you listen. You can: Arrange and preview loops Repeat loops (up to 4×) Play your full arrangement (or a section) Record voice notes and write notes while building Note: Producer Coach may warn you as the arrangement gets long to keep playback and rendering smooth. Lyrics Write, generate, and refine lyrics — your way. Write section-by-section (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro) or view everything at once. Use writing lenses to guide structure and phrasing. You can blend up to two lenses per project and change them anytime. You can: Write lyrics manually Generate lyrics by section Improve, replace, or continue what you’ve written View full lyrics and edit anytime Track Record vocals, sync, mix, and export. Render your instrumental, record one or more vocal takes while viewing lyrics full-screen, then fine-tune timing with sync controls. When it’s ready, export and share using iOS sharing. You can: Render your instrumental Record multiple vocal takes Adjust vocal sync timing Preview playback Create and share a final mix