Capture Ideas with Live Rewind

Live Rewind is an always-on buffer in Play mode. From the moment you start playing, Tiny Instrument silently records a rolling window of up to 2 minutes of your input. You never need to arm a recording — just play.

Once you've played at least one note, a Rewind button appears in the Play mode toolbar.

Tap the Rewind button in the toolbar. A menu appears showing how much was captured — for example "Last 30s captured" — with three options:

• Play — hear back exactly what you just played
• Save to Compose — convert the capture to a composition
• Discard — clear the buffer and start fresh

Tip Tap Rewind early and often. The buffer overwrites itself continuously — a good idea you hesitate on can be gone by the time you decide to save it.

The capture duration controls how many seconds the Rewind menu plays back or saves. Choose from four fixed options: Last 10 seconds, Last 30 seconds, Last 1 minute, Last 2 minutes.

Set this before you start playing so the right amount is ready when inspiration strikes. A shorter window gives you just the last phrase; the full 2 minutes captures a longer improvised section.

Choose Save to Compose from the Rewind menu to turn the captured MIDI input into a composition. Tiny Instrument converts your playing into a composition track, preserving the exact timing and notes. The composition opens automatically in Compose so you can keep building on the idea.

Tip Rename the composition straight away — it's much harder to identify 'Rewind — Jun 3' three days later than 'Chorus melody idea'.

A few habits that make Live Rewind more useful:

• Set the duration before playing, not after. The menu shows the pre-set window — you can't trim after the fact.
• Loop a backing chord progression while you improvise — it gives context and makes the saved composition more musical.
• Rewind immediately after a phrase that surprised you. The best ideas often come from mistakes.