Miles Expert mode
In Expert mode Miles writes chords, bass, melody, an arp or drums into your DAW as MIDI, four takes at a time, over your song's chords and key. Step by step - turning it on, what it writes, the takes, Remove, the genre and key questions, how long a part is and where it goes.
Miles writes it with you
Miles reads your song and writes the part you ask for. In Expert mode it writes chords, bass, melody, an arp or drums into your DAW as MIDI, over your song's own chords and key. Every part comes as four takes, from sparse to busy, and every write comes back out with one Remove.
Expert mode comes with All-Access. It is on Mac and Windows, in Ableton Live and FL Studio.
Step 1: turn Expert on
Press E
The E at the right end of the Ask Miles field is the Expert switch. Click it and the E lights up, the panel edge turns red and the top of the panel reads Expert mode, followed by the name of your DAW. Click it again to turn Expert off.
Or just ask
You do not have to press E first. Ask Miles to write something with Expert off and it turns Expert on by itself; its answer starts with Expert mode on.
Stop if you change your mind
While Miles works, the E becomes Stop, and Esc does the same.
Step 2: ask for a part
Drums
Write me drums for my project, or a trap beat. Drums come as four takes that run from sparse to busy.
Bass
Add a bassline that fits the song. The bass follows your chords and starts each bar on the chord's root.
Chords
Add chords under the vocal, or write R&B chords on an e-piano under my vocal. Miles writes over your song's own chords and key; with no chords yet, it builds a progression in your key and tells you. A piano part is played with two hands and the sustain pedal.
Melody
Add a melody that fits the song. The melody follows your chords; over a vocal it is a slow, long-note line that sits under it. Miles writes melody in Ableton Live.
Arp
Write an arp. Ask for an arp and you get an arp, in Ableton Live.
Step 3: pick a take
Ableton Live, Arrangement
Miles writes into a new track named after the part, such as Miles Drums. Take 1 plays on the track; takes 1 to 4 sit on the track's take lanes, so you can audition the others and keep the one that fits. Miles reads the track back from Live before it says the part is in.
Ableton Live, Session
When you work in Session view, take 1 also goes into the Arrangement, and takes 1 to 4 are in the new track's clip slots.
Drums on your own kit
Drums go on a copy of your own drum kit track, so your sounds and effects come along and your track is untouched. If your drum racks hold one sound each, the beat uses Live's kit and Miles says why. Say use Live's kit to skip your own.
FL Studio
Drums go straight into four new patterns, one per take. They need a channel named Kick, Snare or Hat in your Channel Rack; without one Miles writes nothing and says I couldn't find a kick, snare or hat channel in your Channel rack, so I wrote nothing. Name one Kick, Snare or Hat and ask again. Bass and chords come as one MIDI file per take. Under Miles's answer sits a Drag into FL Studio box with Take 1 to Take 4: drag a take onto a channel's name in the Channel Rack. Save your project first. With unsaved changes the takes do not drag, and the box says Save first, then drag.
Step 4: take it back with Remove
Under every write sits a Remove button. One press takes that whole write out again: the new track, the copy of your kit or the new patterns. In Live, Cmd+Z twice does the same, as Miles's answer tells you. Your own tracks, patterns and devices stay as they were, so there is nothing of yours to put back.
The genre question
Name the genre, I'm working on a house song, and Miles writes in it. If you do not, Miles reads the genre from your project and says how it read it, for example Your 9th chords, the e-piano and the vocal at 140 read as R&B, so half-time. When the signs point two or three ways it asks, for example At 123 BPM, should I write this as pop, house or neo-soul? On an empty project it asks What kind of beat: trap, house, boom bap or pop? Miles writes in 26 genres.
The key, and the Scale question
- Miles works out the key from what is in your song: Live's Scale setting, the notes in your own MIDI clips, what the ear hears while the song plays, and a key written in a sample's name.
- Live's Scale left at its default, C major, counts for nothing; a Scale you set counts as one vote.
- When your notes clearly point somewhere else, the notes win and Miles says so once, for example Live's scale says C major but your chords read A minor, so A minor.
- A key in a sample's name is said the same way: Your sample "..." is tagged D major, so D major.
- When the evidence is thin, Miles asks one short question before writing, for example I'm hearing G as home. Minor or major? Answer in words and it writes in that key.
- FL Studio has no Scale setting, so there Miles uses your project's notes and the ear.
Eight bars, unless you say otherwise
A take is eight bars. Bass and chords are as long as the drums, eight bars, unless you say a length in your request, such as 4 bars or 16 bars. A shorter part that fits into eight bars evenly is repeated to fill them.
Where the part goes
In Ableton Live's Arrangement, Miles writes into your loop when the loop is on: the loop is the one place you chose on purpose. With the loop off it writes at the start of your song, the bar where the earliest clip on your own tracks begins, or bar 1 in an empty set. It does not follow the playhead.
Artist styles
Name an artist and Miles writes in their style. It says so once: Writing in their style, not copying their songs.
Your language
Miles answers in the language you write in. Ask in Turkish or Spanish and the whole reply, the questions included, comes back in that language.
More guides
Setting up FL Studio for Miles on Mac, and on Windows with loopMIDI, cover what FL Studio needs before Miles can write into it. Connecting Miles to your DAW covers the Ableton Live bridge.
Nolvra Miles is an AI assistant for Ableton Live and FL Studio. It reads your song and writes the part you ask for.
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