Miles quickstart

What Miles is, what it needs, and the way from the Hub to its first answer: install, open, sign in, ask.

What Miles is

Miles is an AI assistant for your DAW, in beta. It hears what your session plays, can look at your DAW window when you let it, reads your set through a small bridge, and talks it through in plain words. Ableton Live is the DAW it supports today; more DAWs are coming.

Miles comes with All-Access: it answers for a Nolvra account with an active All-Access membership, and a trial counts.

Miles's two eyes, the face it wears at the top of its panel and in your menu bar.

What Miles does

Talks: you ask about your track in your own words and Miles answers in plain words, in the language you wrote in.
Listens: with the ear on, Miles analyses what your DAW is playing. The audio is analysed on your computer and never leaves it.
Looks: with the eye on, Miles takes one still picture of your DAW window when a question needs it. Only that window, never the rest of your screen, never video.
Reads the set: in Ableton Live, the NolvraMILES bridge tells Miles your tracks, their devices and the notes of the clip you are looking at, so it can talk about chords and key.
Measures a bounce: drop a WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A or FLAC file of up to 15 minutes onto the panel and Miles reads it on your computer before it answers.

What Miles does not do

It never changes your set. The bridge into Live is read only: Miles cannot move, add or delete a note, a device or a parameter. Your hands make every change.
It does not delete anything from chat.
It does not invent values. Plugin settings reach it as positions without units, so it says "pull the decay back a little" rather than making up seconds or decibels.
It does not use your microphone.
It does not recommend Nolvra products in its answers.

Requirements

MacmacOS 26.5 or later
Mac architectureApple Silicon
WindowsWindows 11 21H2 or later, 64-bit x64 PC
DAWCurrently supported: Ableton Live. More DAWs coming.
Ableton LiveLive 11 or Live 12
InternetNeeded for every answer
AccountNolvra account with active All-Access

Install and open

Install it from the Hub

Open the Nolvra Hub, open the MILES tab in the top menu and press Install. Installing needs an active All-Access membership. Without All-Access, the MILES tab still opens but the page is locked; Subscribe to install. On a Mac the app lands in your Applications folder as Nolvra MILES. On Windows it installs for your user only, without an administrator password, and puts the Ableton Live bridge in place for you.

Find it

Miles has no Dock icon and no big window. On a Mac it lives in the menu bar as two small eyes. On Windows it lives in the system tray.

Open the panel

Click the eyes, or press Option+Space on a Mac or Alt+Space on Windows, from any app. If another app already holds that shortcut, Miles takes a free one, and Settings shows the one in use. On a Mac, right-click the eyes for the menu: Settings, New Chat, Sign Out and Quit Miles live there.

The Miles panel on first open: the status line reads Ableton Live connected, the two eyes sit at the top, the panel asks What are you working on?, and the Ask Miles field waits at the bottom with the ear, eye and capture buttons on its left and the send button on its right.

Sign in

Send yourself a code

Enter the email of your Nolvra account and press Send login code. There is no password: a six-digit code comes to your email, from Nolvra Miles. It can take up to a minute to arrive.

Enter the code

Type the six digits into the code field and press Sign in. The code works once and expires after 10 minutes. If it has expired, press Send a new code. If you typed the wrong address, press Use a different email.

Stay signed in

Your session is kept for about 30 days and the Hub does not have to stay open for Miles to work. When a session ends, Miles asks you to sign in again and your conversation is where you left it.

The Miles sign-in window: the heading Miles, the line saying a six-digit code comes to your email with no password, the email field and the Send login code button.

The code step: the line says the code went to your address and can take up to a minute, the six-digit code field sits under the email, and the Back and Sign in buttons share the bottom row.

Ask your first question

Connect your DAW

Before the first question, connect Miles to Ableton Live so it can follow your set. That takes one click and one setting in Live, and the guide on connecting Miles to your DAW walks through it.

Ask

Type into the Ask Miles field and press send. Ask the way you would ask a friend at the desk: what is wrong with the kick, why the chorus feels small, what to try next.

Let it listen and look, or not

Miles asks before it listens or looks, with Listen or Look and Not now. Not now is remembered: Miles will not ask again, and you can still switch the ear or the eye on yourself whenever you like.

On Windows

The Windows installer finishes with the one step that is left: if Ableton Live is open, close it and open it again, then pick NolvraMILES under Settings, Link/MIDI, Control Surface. Miles then opens by itself in the tray.

The last page of the Windows installer, Completing the Nolvra MILES Setup Wizard: Miles is installed and in the tray, and the line tells you to reopen Ableton Live and pick NolvraMILES under Settings, Link/MIDI, Control Surface.

Still stuck?

Nothing here matching? Write to a person.

support@nolvra.com