Free public beta · Windows
Lightning is a loop/phrase rapid idea recorder for guitarists. Quickly capture ideas, stack up to twelve layers, sequence them out in MPC-style patterns, then send the whole thing to Ableton Live for finishing up.
Lightning helps you record ideas, fast. It opens ready to record, quickly layer riff ideas in loop layers.
Open the app to your first loop recording
To a drum loop, bass and two guitar layers
To a full Ableton Live session with each pattern as a scene
Why Lightning
Pick a tempo and a length (4, 8 or 16 bars) and go! A deliberately simple workflow, so you can focus on laying down idea layers quickly.
A pattern is a snapshot of tracks that are playing. Verse: drums, bass, rhythm guitar. Chorus: add the lead and the octave part. Bridge: strip it back to clean guitar. Make a pattern for each, flip between them live, and they always change on the loop boundary.
All twelve tracks fit on one screen in two columns, so you always see the whole idea. Each one has volume, two sends and inserts in the MIXER.
While the loop plays, press another track's number. It arms and starts recording at the top of the next loop. Keep playing and keep stacking. There are no overdub modes or performance tricks: each layer is simply recorded to its own track, ready to mute, redo or export.
Got a drum loop you love, or a bounce from last week? Drop the WAV onto a track. Lightning stretches it to fit your loop length with the pitch kept intact, so it locks to your tempo straight away.
Use keyboard shortcut that you can remap for rapid operations. The number row is your track grid: one press arms an empty track or mutes and unmutes a full one. Space plays, Alt+number queues a pattern. Run a whole session without touching the mouse.
When the idea is ready to finish, Lightning writes a real Ableton Live Set: each pattern becomes a scene, with your track names and tempo. The audio is copied alongside, so the set opens and plays straight away.
Try it now
Press Space to play, 1–6 to mute and unmute tracks, and click a pattern to change the mix.
In the demo, patterns switch on the next bar; in Lightning you choose the end of the loop, the next bar, or right now.
The workflow
Set a tempo, press a number, hit Space. Count-in, record, loop.
Press the next number while it plays. Stack bass, leads and harmonies.
Mute and unmute to find your verse, chorus and bridge. Save each as a pattern.
Arrange the patterns into a song, then export it to Ableton Live.
And also
Every track has an S button. Solo the bass to check a part, or solo a take to hear exactly what you played.
All your ideas in one grid, with search, thumbnails and status (In progress, Completed, Archived). Nothing gets lost.
Save your go-to drum loop, track names and mixer setup as a template and start every idea from there.
Supports ASIO drivers, so what you play is what you hear, with input monitoring built in.
Add upto two send effects per track, and two inserts on the Input bus for Amp simulators and more!
No obscure meta data or excess audio files. Loops are stored cleanly as wav files in the project folder and can be accessed directly anytime.
FAQ
Neither, on purpose. Loopers are built for live performance and DAWs for finishing songs. Lightning is a rapid-idea recorder: it captures what you play as loopable phrases, lets you stack and try out parts, and hands the result to Ableton Live when you're ready to produce it.
Yes. Lightning is free for the whole public beta. Sign up with your email and you'll get the download link straight away, plus news when new builds come out.
A Windows 10 or 11 PC and an audio interface for your guitar. An ASIO driver is recommended for the lowest latency. A macOS version is planned.
No. Lightning works on its own for capturing and arranging ideas. Ableton Live is only needed if you want to take a project further with the export. The export writes a Live 12 set.
It's designed around how guitarists write, but anything that goes into an audio input works: bass, keys, vocals, a mic'd ukulele. You can also drag in WAV loops.
Each mixer channel has insert slots for VST3 effects, so you can put your amp sim in front of the recording.
Each project is a plain folder of WAV files and a project file in Documents/Lightning/Projects. They're your files, and you can copy, back up or share them.