Recording your performance

Axion's recorder writes 32-bit float stereo WAV at the audio engine's native sample rate (target 48 kHz). It's a Pro feature. Four capture modes, two write paths, and a set of single-key hotkeys for live triggering.

Hit the Record chip in the utility bar to open the mode picker, or use one of the four recording hotkeys (W / R / D / Q, see Hotkeys) to start instantly. Hit the record chip a second time — or any recording hotkey — to stop.

Capture modes

The mode picker (and the hotkey table) cover four tap points:

The reasoning per mode:

• Wet is the take you hear, minus loopers. Standard pattern for tracking guitar tone you've dialled in.
• Dry is the unprocessed signal — useful when you want to re-amp through a different rig later or feed a NAM trainer.
• Wet + looper captures everything coming out of the speakers, including any loop tracks playing back. Useful for jamming over your own backing or for one-shot loop ideas. The looper output sums in alongside the wet rig without feeding back into the loop tap itself.
• Both is the safety-net option for tracking sessions where you don't yet know which version you'll commit — captures both in lockstep so you have the choice later.

What's captured + what's not (applies to every mode that includes the wet tap):

• ✓ Every pedal in the chain.
• ✓ Amp + cab.
• ✓ Master Dry-blend knob output (the parallel DI blend, when raised).
• ✓ Bypassed pedals (their dry passthrough, naturally).
• ✗ Metronome clicks — never bleed into the recording even with the metronome running.
• ✗ Tuner detection — silent anyway.

The two write paths

Chromium browsers (Chrome / Edge / Opera) support the File System Access API, which lets Axion stream samples directly to disk as they arrive:

1. Hit Record (via the on-screen button). A native file-picker opens — choose where the WAV will live.
2. Axion writes a placeholder WAV header (well-formed, zero data).
3. Samples stream to the file as they're produced.
4. Hit Stop. Axion seeks to the start, rewrites the header with the real sample count, closes the file.

The file is always parseable as a valid WAV from the moment recording starts — if the browser tab crashes mid-record, you keep what was written up to the crash.

Firefox / Safari don't expose showSaveFilePicker. Axion falls back to in-memory chunks:

1. Hit Record. Samples accumulate in memory.
2. Hit Stop. Axion concatenates chunks, builds the header, triggers a browser download.

The fallback is fine for short takes — a five-minute take at 48 kHz × 32-bit float × stereo is ~115 MB, well within RAM budgets. Long sessions (an hour-plus) on RAM-constrained machines may run out before you stop. There's no hard cap; we just don't reserve memory ahead.

The hotkey path — instant start, no picker

The four recording hotkeys (W / R / D / Q) deliberately skip the file picker even on browsers that support it. They take the in-memory + auto-download path on every browser. This is the right behaviour for live use — a modal picker would break a song.

The trade-off: the take has to finish before the file lands in your downloads folder (browsers keep the audio in memory until stop). Very long hotkey takes (think hour-plus) can run into the browser's tab RAM ceiling. For long unattended captures use the on-screen Record button instead — that path stays on the streaming-to-disk flow where supported.

A single recording hotkey works as both a start and a stop:

• Idle → pressing any of W / R / D / Q starts a take in that mode.
• Recording → pressing any of W / R / D / Q stops it. (Mode is locked once a take is in flight, so a mid-flight mode swap isn't possible — any key just acts as stop.)

File naming

Auto-named with a UTC timestamp: axion-recording-2026-05-23_14-37-22.wav. The Chromium streaming path uses this as the picker's suggested name (you can rename in the dialog before saving). The hotkey path and the Firefox / Safari fallback both use it as-is.

Mode-specific suffixes:

The -MIX suffix specifically exists so a take you make in wet+looper mode doesn't visually collide with a separate plain-wet take in your downloads folder.

Format details

32-bit float was chosen because there's no headroom worry. Above-0 dBFS material survives clipping at the file boundary because the format supports values outside ±1.0. Reaper, Audacity, Logic, Pro Tools, Bitwig, Cubase — every modern DAW reads this format natively.

The sample rate matches the live engine — Axion never resamples for recording. If you need a different rate in your DAW, do the resample there with whatever quality setting suits the material.

Practical workflow

A pattern that holds up:

1. Set levels first. Watch the input meter while you play. Avoid the red — even though 32-bit float doesn't clip in the file, your interface's converter still has a hard limit before it.
2. Use a roomy buffer. The recorder writes from the same worklet that produces the live output. A larger buffer (192 / 256 samples) gives you headroom against transient CPU spikes that would otherwise drop samples in both the live monitor and the file.
3. Pick the right path for the take. Long take? Use the on-screen button on Chromium — streaming-to-disk, no RAM ceiling, well-formed file on crash. Live performance? Use a hotkey — instant start, auto-download, no modal in the way. Short sketches? Either path is fine.
4. Bounce to project rate in your DAW. Don't change Axion's sample rate to match an unusual project rate — change it once in the DAW where the resampler is better.

When recordings come out silent

Three usual culprits:

• Master at zero. The recorder taps the rig output; if master is silent, so is the file.
• All pedals bypassed and amp output muted. Less common, easy to spot in the file by visual waveform.
• Browser tab discarded mid-take on Safari. Safari aggressively suspends tabs it deems idle. Keep the tab focused during long sessions, or use Chrome.
• Dry-only mode but the rig hasn't received signal. The DI tap is pre-pedalboard but post-input-gain — make sure the input level meter is moving when you play.