Preserve
Keep meaningful states of a project without relying on fragile manual copies, giving that informal giving that informal system a consistent structure system a consistent structure.
Version control for creative audio projects
ArtRiver
ArtRiver is a version control system for audio. It helps artists preserve, branch, restore, compare, and collaborate on the full history of a creative audio work.
Current status
Minimum Viable Prototype
The current ArtRiver prototype is a command line tool for local-first audio project history. It can initialize project sessions, stage files, record signed patches, create runoffs, restore previous states, and compare audio or DAW project changes.
What problem does ArtRiver solve?
Music projects naturally branch over their lifetime: a producer tries an
alternate chorus, a mix engineer preserves an artist-facing revision, a sound
designer stumbles into a texture worth recovering later. Most of the time this
history is stored as duplicated folders, bounced stems, screenshots, and
filenames like song_final_7_real_final.wav.
ArtRiver is a tool for building a consistent process and structure around this informal system, allowing artists to:
Branch
Try alternate arrangements, mixes, sounds, and edits without destroying the main direction.
Restore
Recover abandoned ideas, lost takes, old settings, and previous project states.
Compare
Compare audio and project changes by more than filenames and folder dates.
Core idea
ArtRiver is not only about preserving the final file. It is about preserving the path that made the final file possible.
The long-term goal is playable history: a way for artists to move through a song's history and hear, see, study, and reuse the creative decisions that shaped it.
Internal language
An ArtRiver is a project repository. A TimeShore is the history log. A Glacier is a future shared remote. An Iceberg is a disaster recovery archive. A runoff is a branch.
Where to start
- Prototype: See what the current CLI can already do. Open prototype page
- Demo: Walk through a mock audio project and see the CLI flow. Open demo page
- TimeShore: View the visual history interface. Open visualizer
- Research: Read the architecture, protocol, and audio-versioning notes. Open research page
ArtRiver is under development.
Looking for feedback
ArtRiver is currently seeking feedback from musicians, producers, engineers, sound designers, software builders, archivists, and people interested in the future of creative infrastructure.