Blind session: two takes each. Only the CC differs.
A solo cello, a full string section, and the famous horn solo. In each pair one take carries Palpito's phrase-aware CC curves; the other holds them flat. Vote, and the reveal opens right here, per test. No labels on the players — your ears go first.
The blind listening test
One take carries Palpito's phrase-aware CC1 and CC11 curves; the other holds them flat — the "programmed" baseline. No labels on the players. Play both, then vote for the one that sounds alive; the reveal unlocks the moment you choose.
Use headphones if you can, at a comfortable volume — too quiet or too loud hides the detail.
This preview has no audio — the renders are served by the live site, not by a static file. Open the test on palpito.audio to listen.
Play both first
? Palpito's draft
Palpito read the phrases and generated breathing CC1/CC11 curves — plus CC21 vibrato mapped to the cello's library — in seconds. Deterministic and offline: the same MIDI in always yields the same curves out.
? The programmed baseline
The same notes, the same cello, the same sampler — with CC1 and CC11 held flat. Nothing moves through the phrase. The only thing that changed between the two takes was the expression.
You voted —. That's the whole thesis: give a phrase its breath and it comes alive; leave it flat and the ear hears "machine," however good the samples are. Palpito drafts that breath — you stay the performer.
That was a cello — a Pro instrument. The free app runs the same phrase-aware engine on viola, french horn and clarinet. Download it free → · Pro — reserve at €29, −70 € / 71% off →
Same test, full string section
The first ritornello of Vivaldi's Spring — every desk playing. One take carries Palpito's drafted CC across the section; the other holds it flat. Same rules: play both, vote, the reveal opens below.
Use headphones if you can, at a comfortable volume — too quiet or too loud hides the detail.
This preview has no audio — the renders are served by the live site, not by a static file. Open the test on palpito.audio to listen.
Play both first
? Palpito's draft
? The programmed baseline
A whole section: first and second violins and cello are Pro, the viola desk is in the free app. Download it free → · Pro — reserve at €29, −70 € / 71% off →
The horn solo
The famous horn solo from Tchaikovsky's Fifth, second movement — dynamics, expression and the CC2 breath lane. One take breathes where a player would; the other holds the lanes flat. Same rules: play both, vote, the reveal opens below.
Use headphones if you can, at a comfortable volume — too quiet or too loud hides the detail.
This preview has no audio — the renders are served by the live site, not by a static file. Open the test on palpito.audio to listen.
Play both first
? Palpito's draft
? The programmed baseline
The french horn is in the free app. The CC2 breath lane you just heard is Pro. Download it free → · Pro — reserve at €29, −70 € / 71% off →
Nobody drew that curve by hand.
That take was drafted in seconds. Palpito is a companion app: it sits open next to your DAW, reads the MIDI you drop in, and writes the CC lanes back. It guides while you go — the status bar explains the anticipatory expression and suggests the exact track-delay compensation; the lanes show why the curve does what it does. You stay the performer — tune anything you disagree with.
- 1Drop your MIDI in. One instrument or a full section — Palpito reads the notes, rests and overlaps and finds the phrase boundaries.
- 2Generate. Pick library, instrument and articulation; set the intensity arc and humanize. The curves are drawn per passage, per instrument.
- 3Drag it back. The result drags straight into your DAW track as standard MIDI, CC lanes written in. Audition, tune to taste, stay the performer.
The breath engine and the horn's CC2 lane are Pro. Download it free → · Pro — reserve at €29, −70 € / 71% off →
Offline. Deterministic. Your music stays yours.
No position to take on anyone else's tools — just a clear answer on what happens to your music: it is never uploaded, never sent to a model, never used as training data.
Nothing leaves your machine
Fully offline — no upload, no account to run it, no telemetry on your MIDI. Your work stays yours, full stop.
A written engine, not a model
The curves come from rules we wrote and can explain — computed from your notes, the library and the articulation. Same MIDI, same curve, every time. Nothing to train, nothing trained on your work.
Where it won't help
A single static pad or a sparse two-note bed has almost no phrase to shape — draw those by hand. We'd rather earn the lines that matter.
A skilled composer with the time will always beat any tool. Palpito just gives the time back.
New to CC expression? Start here.
A plain-language guide to why MIDI orchestra sounds fake — and the CC1/CC11 phrasing that fixes it.
Give your lines their breath back.
One email, and you're first in line when the free download opens. Draft the performance in minutes — then stay the performer.
Double opt-in · we'll email you the moment the free download opens, then a note when a new version ships or the pre-order opens — nothing else, unsubscribe in one click.
Free · €0, forever
The full phrase-aware engine — CC1, CC11, the intensity arc, Humanize, Density — on viola, french horn and clarinet, sustain and staccato, with the Cantabile Mood and the CC21 vibrato lane.
Get the free appPro · €29 founding pre-order €99 at launch — −70 € / 71% off
Every other instrument — the cello and violins you just heard — plus legato, bow changes, the breath engine for brass and woodwinds (with a CC2 lane on brass), per-library vibrato remap and seven more Moods.
Reserve Pro at €29