MCP Music Studio

Two-mode creative music studio for AI: scored composition (ABC notation with sheet music) and live performance (Strudel live coding with TidalCycles). Interactive UI renders inline in Claude Desktop, claude.ai, and other MCP clients.

Quick Start — No Install Required

Paste this URL into any MCP client that supports remote servers:

https://mcp-music-studio.linxule.workers.dev/mcp

Claude Desktop / claude.ai:
Settings → Connectors → Add Connector → paste the URL above → done.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http music-studio https://mcp-music-studio.linxule.workers.dev/mcp

That's it — ask Claude to play a song or create a beat.

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What You Get

Scored Composition (ABC Notation)

Write sheet music → see it rendered → hear it played with multi-instrument audio.

• 8 style presets — rock, jazz, bossa, waltz, march, reggae, folk, classical — one parameter adds drums + bass + chord accompaniment
• 30 instruments — piano, strings, brass, woodwinds, synths — selectable by name
• Visual sheet music — notes highlight as they play
• Streaming render — sheet music appears as the AI types
• WAV download — export audio as WAV files directly from the UI
• get-music-guide — 7 reference topics (instruments, drums, ABC syntax, arrangements, genres, styles, MIDI directives)

Live Performance (Strudel)

Write code → hear it play → edit in a live REPL.

• TidalCycles mini-notation in JavaScript
• 72 drum machine banks + 128 GM instruments + built-in synths
• Full effects chain — filters, reverb, delay, FM synthesis
• Editable REPL — users can tweak the code and hear changes instantly
• Record & download — capture live audio and export as WAV
• get-strudel-guide — 7 reference topics (mini-notation, sounds, effects, patterns, genres, tips, advanced)

Shared

• search-music-docs — semantic search over strudel.cc and ABCJS documentation

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Local Install (Optional)

The remote URL above works without any local setup. If you prefer running locally (offline use, lower latency), install via npm:

CLI One-Liners

# Claude Code
claude mcp add music-studio -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# Codex CLI
codex mcp add -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# Gemini CLI
gemini mcp add -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# OpenCode
opencode mcp add music-studio -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

JSON Config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)

Claude Desktop — edit config file

OS	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Trae / PearAI

Add to .vscode/mcp.json — note: uses "servers" not "mcpServers":

{
  "servers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Windows

On Windows, npx is a .cmd file and requires a shell wrapper:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Render modes (for non-ext-apps clients)

Clients that support ext-apps render the interactive UI inline automatically (auto mode). For clients that don't (Cherry Studio, CLI environments), use --render-mode:

Mode	Behavior
auto (default)	Inline UI for Claude Desktop, VS Code
browser	Saves HTML and opens in system browser
html	Returns HTML as embedded resource

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio", "--render-mode", "browser"]
    }
  }
}

---

Tools

Tool	Description
play-sheet-music	ABC notation → visual sheet music + multi-instrument audio
play-live-pattern	Strudel code → live-coded patterns with synthesis + effects
get-music-guide	ABC reference (7 topics: instruments, drums, syntax, genres...)
get-strudel-guide	Strudel reference (7 topics: sounds, effects, patterns, genres...)
search-music-docs	Semantic search over strudel.cc and ABCJS docs

Prompts

Slash-command / menu entry points, in clients that surface MCP prompts:

Prompt	What it does
compose-beat	Generate + play a Strudel pattern in a genre (args: genre, mood?)
harmonize-melody	Add chords/accompaniment to an ABC melody and play it (args: melody, style?)
arrange-tune	Turn a melody/idea into a multi-voice arrangement (args: tune, instrumentation?)

Development

bun install
bun run dev      # watch + serve (hot reload)
bun run build    # production build
bun run test     # run tests

Attribution

Forked from the Sheet Music Server example from MCP ext-apps by Anthropic, licensed under MIT.

License

MIT