Frequently asked questions.

Cantai is a singing synthesizer that plugs into your notation software. It reads your score — notes, lyrics, dynamics, tempo, and expression markings — and generates an expressive sung performance, from individual solo voices to full choir arrangements. You write your music as usual and Cantai sings it back.

Cantai is built from real professional vocalists who consented to participate, are paid for their work, and receive ongoing royalties.

Three, all live today:

• Dorico — live. See the Dorico guide.
• Sibelius — live. See the Sibelius guide.
• MuseScore Studio — live, distributed through MuseHub. See the MuseScore Studio guide.

Yes. In Dorico and Sibelius, the free trial is the full Cantai plugin — download it into your notation software and it renders up to 30 seconds of audio before purchase. Activating your license removes the 30-second limit. No plan required to try it.

Create a free account at cantai.app, then go to the Downloads page and get the installer for your OS. After installing, activate your license using the token in your account Profile.

Solo voices: sopranos, altos, tenors and baritones, each a real singer, several with style variants (Lyric, Dramatic, Dolce and more). Every solo voice can also sing with Classical phrasing. Ottetto: eight singers recorded as an ensemble, alone or in seven groupings. Choirs: Choral Female and Choir Male, which render a full section (3–10 voices per part). Press next to any singer in the Cantai window to hear them before you choose; you can also hear them all on the Cantai for Notation page.

We're constantly adding new voices — check the Changelog to see the latest additions.

Seven: American English, British English, Spanish, Latin, Italian, European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. British English, Italian and both Portuguese are marked Experimental while native singers keep refining them. Japanese is coming soon. You choose the language in the Cantai window, under the singer's name; it isn't detected from your lyrics, and it applies to every part in the score.

The selected language applies to all Cantai voices in your project at once. For now you can't have one voice singing in English and another in a different language simultaneously.

Yes. Cantai sings words, so notes without lyrics won't produce a voice. Assign lyrics to the notes you want sung (Shift+L in Dorico; Cmd/Ctrl+L in Sibelius and MuseScore Studio).

Each Cantai instance is monophonic — it sings one line at a time. For multiple voices, use one Cantai instance per vocal line. In Dorico you can also route multiple independent voices on a single staff to separate instances using Independent Voice Playback (Play mode → Track Inspector → Enable Independent Voice Playback).

Yes. Commercial use is permitted, including recordings that are sold or distributed, as long as you own the rights to the music or it is in the public domain. And your music is never used to train our voice models.

No. Cantai only sends the minimum encrypted notation data required to generate audio. Your music is never used for training and is not sold or shared beyond what is needed to operate the service.

• Lifetime license: $299 (one-time) for Dorico + Sibelius; $299.99 for MuseScore Studio on MuseHub.
• Yearly subscription: $99/year for Dorico + Sibelius. Black Friday: your first year is $79 instead of $99, until November 30.
• Monthly subscription: $9.99/month.

See cantai.app/plans for all options.

A lifetime license covers Cantai for as long as it is supported, with all its updates, new voices, and new languages. New versions are included at no extra cost: if you bought it for Cantai 3.x, Cantai 4.0 is yours too. Your license never expires and is never converted to a subscription.

A single Dorico + Sibelius license — lifetime or subscription — covers both apps. MuseScore Studio is sold separately through MuseHub at musehub.com/muse-sounds/cantai.

Yes. If you hold a Dorico + Sibelius license (or the lifetime license), Sibelius is included automatically — no extra purchase needed. It activates on its own.

Yes, for Dorico and Sibelius. Students can get Cantai free; educators at a reduced rate. Cantai for MuseScore Studio isn't part of the educational program — it's sold separately through MuseHub. Apply at cantai.app/plans, or from your Profile → "Apply for a student or teacher educational account," and wait for approval if eligible. If your institutional email isn't accepted or the option doesn't appear on your account, contact support and we'll help sort it out.

Yes. Commercial use is permitted, and your music is never used to train our voice models.

macOS: Apple Silicon (M1 or later) with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, or an Intel Mac with macOS 13.4 Ventura or later. Intel Macs use their own installer, available on the downloads page, and render on the CPU — expect slower renders than on Apple Silicon; we recommend at least 4 CPU cores.
Windows: Windows 10 (version 20H2 / October 2020 update) or later, x86-64 processor. Windows on ARM (Snapdragon) is not supported.

RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended for large scores. Disk: ~4 GB available. Internet: required for license validation, even when rendering locally.

• Dorico: 6.2.20 or later.
• Sibelius: 2026.6 or later. If Cantai doesn't appear, make sure you're on the latest Sibelius update.
• MuseScore Studio: 4.6.5 or later, with MuseHub open and running.

Rendering itself runs locally on supported machines, but an internet connection is always required to validate your license. When a machine can't render locally and falls back to online rendering, the connection is also used for the rendering itself.

Intel Macs: yes. Since version 3.1.0, Intel-based Macs (macOS 13.4 Ventura or later) render locally with a dedicated installer — download the macOS (Intel) installer from the downloads page. Rendering runs on the CPU, so it is slower than on Apple Silicon.

Windows ARM devices (e.g. Snapdragon PCs) are not supported for local rendering. MuseScore Studio users on those systems can still use Cantai via online (cloud) rendering, which is subject to the 180-minute weekly quota.

With local rendering, the Cantai Engine runs directly on your computer — rendering is unlimited with no weekly quota. An internet connection is still required for license validation. With online rendering, audio is generated on Cantai's servers and is subject to a 180-minute-per-week limit.

Dorico, Sibelius, and Cantai for DAWs always render locally, on compatible devices. MuseScore Studio renders locally too when your computer supports it, and only falls back to online rendering when the machine isn't compatible with local rendering (e.g. a Windows ARM device).

Choral Female and Choir Male render a full section. When one of them is chosen, a Section size slider appears at the bottom of the Cantai window: 3 to 10 voices per part. Ottetto ensembles (Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Basses, Women's Voices, Men's Voices, Full Ensemble) have their own fixed singers.

No. Cantai renders in the background while you keep composing. You can close the pop-up window and keep working — whenever you change something that affects a vocal part (notes, lyrics, dynamics, tempo, expression), Cantai automatically re-renders just the affected segments.

• Dorico, Sibelius, and Cantai for DAWs: unlimited local renders — always on compatible devices. There is no online fallback for these.
• MuseScore Studio: the same unlimited local rendering on compatible devices. On incompatible devices you can use online rendering instead, with 180 minutes per week, resetting every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Only newly generated audio counts against the quota — replaying already-rendered passages is free.

Yes. In Dorico and Sibelius: File → Export → Audio — choose WAV for highest quality or MP3 for smaller files. Export uses the same engine as real-time playback, so the quality matches what you hear.

No. Write your score the way you would for human performers — dynamic markings (p, mp, mf, f, ff…), hairpins (crescendo/decrescendo), and tempo markings (Allegro, ritardando…) are all interpreted automatically.

Copy your activation token (the Account Token on your Profile at cantai.app), paste it into the Cantai window when it asks, and click Activate.

• Dorico: load one Cantai instance per vocal stave in Play mode, then open the Cantai window with Show Instrument and choose the part, the voice and the language. (Full guide.)
• Sibelius: activate Cantai in Play → Setup → Playback Devices, assign an instance to each vocal staff in the Mixer, then pick the voice in the staff's sound dropdown (every singer by name on Sibelius 2026.9 or later) or in the Cantai window. (Full guide.)
• MuseScore Studio: open the Mixer (F10) and choose the Cantai instrument on the staff.

In Sibelius, make sure you actually pick a voice — if an instance is left on its default with no voice selected, it may not render. Switching to another voice fixes it.

Select the first note in your vocal part and open lyric entry — Shift+L in Dorico, Cmd/Ctrl+L in Sibelius and MuseScore Studio. Press Space to advance after a complete word, or - (hyphen) to advance after each syllable of a multi-syllable word. Hyphenating syllables (e.g. hal- le- lu- jah) helps Cantai map phonemes correctly.

Reinstall and accept the default install location (AppData\Local\Cantai). Cantai's engine on Windows expects that path; installing to a custom folder (e.g. Program Files) prevents it from starting.

Via MuseHub at musehub.com/muse-sounds/cantai. Both the monthly subscription and the lifetime plan are available there.

MuseScore Studio 4.6.5 or later is required. MuseHub must also be open and running in the background while using Cantai.

Open the Mixer (F10) in MuseScore Studio and choose a Cantai voice from the Sound menu of your vocal part. For the full walkthrough, see the MuseScore Studio guide.

The quota only applies when MuseScore Studio renders online — that is, on computers that aren't compatible with local rendering (e.g. Windows ARM devices). On compatible machines MuseScore Studio renders locally with no quota.

When it does apply, the quota counts new audio generated — playing back already-rendered passages does not consume quota. It resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. To use it efficiently, switch to manual rendering mode in Preferences → Audio & MIDI and render only the sections you need.

Check three things: (1) lyrics are present on the notes, (2) your weekly quota has not been exceeded, and (3) MuseHub is running in the background. To reset the connection, close both MuseScore Studio and MuseHub completely, then reopen MuseHub first, followed by MuseScore Studio. Repeat up to 3 times if needed.

Problems with Cantai inside MuseScore Studio are ours, the same as in Dorico and Sibelius: ask us through the Help chat on any page or the contact page. Purchases, subscriptions, your Muse account login and the MuseHub app itself are handled by Muse, because they sell and bill the MuseScore Studio plans: reach them at support.musehub.com.

Yes. For a complete, illustrated step-by-step walkthrough — installation, activation, loading Cantai in Play mode, assigning voices, and exporting audio — see the Dorico Quick Start Guide. The answers below cover the most common questions.

Add lyrics to your vocal staves (Shift+L). In Play mode, open the VST and MIDI tab and load one Cantai instance per vocal stave, then assign each in the Track Inspector. Open the Cantai window with the Show Instrument button, choose the part, the voice and the language, and press Play. See the full Dorico guide.

Use File → Export → Audio in Dorico. Supported formats are WAV and MP3.

Cantai is monophonic — it renders one voice per staff and does not support chords or divisi within a single staff (use one instance per line, or Independent Voice Playback). Musical repeats and playback loops are not currently supported; write out repeated sections explicitly.

Verify that the Cantai Engine is installed (download from your account at cantai.app), that you are running Dorico 6.2.20 or later, and that your license is active. Restart Dorico after installing the engine.

Open the Cantai window first: it says why a part isn't singing and what to do. Then try Settings › Cache › Clear caches… and Reset instance settings… (at the bottom of Settings), and restart Dorico. Confirm the Cantai engine is installed at its default path. If it persists, contact support with your log files — this is a case we actively investigate.

This most often appears in projects created in an older Dorico version and re-saved in a newer one. In Play mode → VST and MIDI, remove the existing Cantai instance(s), add them back fresh, and reassign them to your vocal tracks. This resets the routing without losing your score.

Yes. For a complete, illustrated step-by-step walkthrough — installation, activation, Playback Devices, assigning voices in the Mixer, and exporting audio — see the Sibelius Quick Start Guide. The answers below cover the most common questions.

Yes. The Dorico + Sibelius plan (monthly or lifetime) covers both apps with a single license — no additional purchase is needed.

Add lyrics (Cmd/Ctrl+L). Activate Cantai in Play → Setup → Playback Devices, adding one instance per vocal staff. In the Mixer (M), assign each staff to a Cantai instance, then pick the voice in the staff's sound dropdown: Sibelius 2026.9 or later lists every singer by name, earlier versions list the voice types and you choose the singer in the Cantai window. See the full Sibelius guide.

Cantai for Sibelius uses the same local rendering engine as Dorico — an Apple Silicon Mac (macOS 14+), an Intel Mac (macOS 13.4+), or an x86-64 Windows PC, plus Sibelius 2026.6 or later.

Open that staff's Cantai window: it says why the part isn't singing and what to do. If the voice still doesn't load, choose it again, in the Sibelius Mixer or in the Cantai window. If Cantai says it can't find the part (after you renamed or removed a staff), open Settings, choose Reset instance settings…, then choose the part again.

Rename the part so the name has no slash — Alto-Tenor or Alto Tenor both work, and renaming doesn't affect the voice you've assigned. Part names containing a slash aren't currently reaching Cantai, so the part is skipped. We're working on the definitive fix.

1. Open the Cantai window: if it shows a notice, it says what's wrong and what to do.
2. Settings › Cache › Clear caches… in the Cantai window (the gear, top right).
3. Reset instance settings…, at the bottom of Settings.
4. Restart your notation app.
5. Make sure you're on a supported version of both Cantai and your notation app.

If the issue continues, send us your logs (see below).

The 30-second limit is the free-trial cap. If you've purchased, this means your license isn't fully activated — re-paste your token from your Profile. If it still caps at 30 seconds after activating, contact support.

This is usually a clock-sync issue. Set your computer's date and time to sync automatically:

• Windows: Settings → Time & language → Date & time → turn on "Set time automatically," then "Sync now."
• Mac: System Settings → General → Date & Time → "Set time and date automatically."

Then try again. If it persists after syncing, contact support — a small number of tokens need to be reissued on our side, which we'll handle for you.

If this started after a recent update, let us know your Cantai engine version — we're aware of a pitch/phrasing issue affecting some builds and are fixing it. Trying Settings › Cache › Clear caches…, or switching to a different voice, can help in the meantime.

Pronunciation improves with each update. A reliable workaround is to re-spell the word phonetically in the lyrics (for example, "heaven" → "hev'n"). If you're using uncommon diacritics and a staff renders silent, replace them with base Latin letters (e.g. ê → e). Send us the words that trip up — we track these for improvements.

If the fixes above don't resolve the issue, a full clean reinstall removes every Cantai file so you can start fresh. Close Sibelius/Dorico/MuseScore Studio first, and make sure the Cantai engine process is no longer running before you delete anything.

macOS — confirm the cantai.bin process is not running in Activity Monitor, then delete:

• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Cantai.vst3
• /Users/<your user>/.cache/Cantai
• /Users/<your user>/Library/Application Support/Cantai
• /Users/Shared/Cantai

Then reinstall Cantai.

Windows — confirm the Cantai.exe process is not running in Task Manager, then delete:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3\Cantai.vst3
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Cantai Local Render
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Cantai
• %USERPROFILE%\.cache\Cantai
• %APPDATA%\Cantai
• %USERPROFILE%\.cantai

Then reinstall Cantai.

Please include your logs when you contact support about a technical issue. In the Cantai window, open Settings › Support and choose Write to support…: your logs go with your message. Or choose Export logs…, which saves a single timestamped .zip, and drag that file into the Help chat window.

Please also include your OS version, your Mac chip or Windows processor, your notation app version, and your Cantai engine/plugin version.

Yes — we're always looking for singers to join the voice bank. Singers go through a professional audition and selection process, a recording session, and earn an ongoing revenue share whenever their voice is used by composers. Read the full details and apply on the Auditions page.

Yes. Browse Cantai apparel and merchandise on the Merch page.

We publish every release, new voice, and fix in the Changelog. Check there to see the most recent updates for each platform.

Cantai shares its singing engine with Cantai for DAWs, and each Cantai release takes the engine’s number. When the engine updates only for Cantai for DAWs, Cantai skips that number: 4.0.2 came after 4.0.0 because engine 4.0.1 went only to the Cantai for DAWs beta.

A skipped number loses nothing: every fix in it is in the next Cantai release. Settings shows two numbers: Cantai is the version you installed, and Engine can be newer when Cantai for DAWs updated it. Installing either product never replaces a newer engine or your activation.

Cantai only sends the minimum encrypted notation data required to generate audio, and never uses your music to train our voice models. For the full details on what we collect, how it's stored, and your rights, see our Privacy Policy.

Use the in-site Help chat widget on cantai.app, or the contact page. That includes Cantai in MuseScore Studio. For MuseHub purchases, subscriptions and your Muse account, reach Muse's support at support.musehub.com.

Yes — join the official Cantai Discord at discord.gg/BpXkzBb4MN, and follow us on Instagram at @cantai.app.

Cantai is made by Turing Opera Workshop. You can also follow founder Richard deCosta at richarddecosta.com, on SoundCloud, and on Patreon.