Marcel Benders
DE
← Tonwerk-AI

Guide ·

Setting up Tonwerk-AI on a Mac

From a fresh Mac with Apple Silicon to the first song, reachable from the iPhone through Tailscale.

What you need

  • a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later, at least 16 GB of memory (24 GB and more is comfortable)
  • about 20 GB of free space
  • for access on the road: Tailscale on the Mac and the iPhone

1. Set up with a script

On a Mac with nothing but macOS installed, one script sets everything up:

xcode-select --install
git clone https://github.com/Marcel-B/Tonwerk-AI.git ~/repos/Tonwerk-AI
~/repos/Tonwerk-AI/deploy/setup-mac.sh

It checks the Mac and installs what is missing: Homebrew, uv, ffmpeg, Node.js and the .NET 10 SDK. Then it fetches a tested version of YuE2, downloads the models (about 7 GB), publishes Tonwerk-AI as a service and starts the model once as a test. The script can run as often as you like; it skips whatever is already there.

More features come with options, for example --voices for other voices, --images for painted covers, --ace for ACE-Step as a second song model or --all for everything.

2. Reach it from the iPhone

The server only listens on the Mac itself. Tailscale makes it reachable, only for your own devices and with HTTPS:

tailscale serve --bg --https=8443 5090

Then open https://<mac-name>.<tailnet>.ts.net:8443/ on the iPhone and add the page via Share → Add to Home Screen. Do not put it on the open internet with tailscale funnel, since the interface has no login of its own.

3. The first song

On the Create page you enter a style (the building blocks help) and lyrics. If you have none, LM Studio drafts some from a few keywords. Generate puts the job into the queue, and you watch its progress live. Finished songs are in the library, where you can rate them, open them as a Logic project or share them.

4. Updates

At the end, setup-mac.sh switches on automatic updates. Every five minutes a service looks for new versions and installs them as soon as Tonwerk-AI is not computing anything:

~/repos/Tonwerk-AI/deploy/update.sh status

Apps instead of the browser

There are native apps for Mac, iPhone and iPad that control the same server. Download the Mac app as a DMG; how to connect it is explained (in German) on tonwerk.studio/ai.