The Worldwide Music Coding Session - BeatDJ Multiplayer

It's a program made for microtonal improvised music and live performance. It's incredibly innovative in the world of DAWs in my own opinion and it's a super interesting project.

In this article, we're focusing on the efforts of the community in the world of multiplayer in BeatDJ. 

How Multiplayer Works

In BeatDJ, any user using the program can create a multiplayer room via running the command room c and then selecting if it is going to be a private room or not and giving it a name/description.

Then they can do option A) participants of the multiplayer session can go to soniare.net/multiplayer where they can select the room they want to join from the webpage.

After that point, you get assigned a pre-picked name where you can then type commands that'll come through onto the user's BeatDJ client. Along with this, they'll get these little photos of the session that they can see, although you're not actually going to get live audio or video from here.

And then option B) in your BeatDJ client you run the command room j <roomcode> which then lets you input the commands into your BeatDJ client directly instead, although you don't get the occasional picture of the session. 

It's also good to note that Croft has stated that he thinks using the website to join the multiplayer sessions is better as it's easier and has a guide on the site to help newcomers as well, also that it's just as good as multiplayer in the app.

Once you join the room you then need to get the host to stream their live audio/video via Screen Share. Officially, BeatDJ's community do this via Discord since the Multiplayer is hosted and organized into their Discord server. Although they also suggest Zoom, but really you can use any platform that supports screen sharing reliably.

Then that's it! You're officially BeatDJ'in with others! You officially done a Beat as a cool programming DJ with some new pals.

Who Does Multiplayer Involve?

Now you may wonder, who is the average multiplayer participant? Well to that answer, anyone! Anyone is encouraged to try out BeatDJ and get right cracking in to the action with the experienced community and admins.

This is including people worldwide that have joined BeatDJ Multiplayer, people from Russia, the States, the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), Australia and more have joined in the multiplayer sessions!

Really, you don't need to know everything or be amazing with the software. I was and still very much am in the beginner/intermediate stage of my knowledge in the software but people have joined BeatDJ recently and immediately went into Multiplayer got tips and managed to crack on and do their own thing and experiment with their peers. It's a true representation of an amazing community.

Soniare Collective

The Soniare Collective is the official multiplayer collective from the company. They have multiplayer sessions every Wednesday at 11PM GMT and every Saturday at 8PM GMT hosted via the official Soniare/BeatDJ Discord Server.

Typically, each session will last a couple of hours with around three songs made. These all get put into a spreadsheet that has tracks with the admin's ratings and a sort of genre description so when they organize compilations they know what to pick.

And, that's what we're gonna talk about now!

Soniare Collective officially releases compilations on Bandcamp and streaming services, although Croft has went against submitting them to streaming giant Spotify due to their recent policies that aren't artist friendly, a stance that many bands and artists have been reasonably taking recently.

The first compilation release would go out on August 1st, 2025. The compilation would be called "Afterlight Atlas" and feature mainly and the concept of it was mainly meant to revolve around the idea of as they put it "mental, astral, or cosmic location[s]" with the song being the accompanying soundtrack. The genre is trance/breakcore/electronica.

It's a very interesting album that would introduce you to the world of these tracks.

Along with the normal release of the compilation, there's also a DJ Mix version of the album officially available from Soniare:

They'd end up releasing "Groove Admins" as well on October 1st in the same year. The idea of this album seems to be computers and that kind of Hollywood move computer stereotype which is really fun. This album has more of the groovy dance type tracks which makes a really danceable album which is perfect with the title.

Then finally, the latest release "Wonky Woods" that came out October 31st, which is more wonky, oddtempo, experimental music which really does get you questioning about the tracks but they're certainly amazing!

The Soniare Collective is also certainly organized as they again, have a spreadsheet with the songs they've made, the style/genre, rating from admins and the artists involved!

Along with this, in their Discord they've shared plans for albums going up to February 2026! Which along the way would be meditation music down to techno! 

My Experience Personally With Multiplayer

My first experiences with BeatDJ in general was a random program I had found via the Gribbleschnift Discord server, that day I checked it out and eventually created my own little Twitch stream and made what is now "Deep Slate, Error State" which is still not officially released but you can find it at some places. My friend the perambulator would then show me they had an official Discord server.

I was really stubborn and wouldn't join out of fear of ruining their session/songs even after reassurance. Safe to say, I regretted not joining sooner.

I had an absolute blast learning more about the program, getting to make songs in a unique way and especially with people! It was a surreal experience that somehow connected us out of many different countries which is just how magical the internet can be.

My honest saying is, it's amazing! It helps people learn the software, it helps people find new friends and it helps people work together and make music together which is truly magical.

Nes and Soniare have made something truly amazing here and it shows every time they update it or talk about it.

Thank You!

Thanks for reading this post!

Thought I'd write about a community I was in and got suggested by Nes them self, to make one on the multiplayer of BeatDJ!

I had a lot of fun writing this and getting to talk about this as it's something I am passionate about.

Thank you to Nes! Also can't not thank Magna!

Thanks to all the rest of the BeatDJ community and future team, if you're interested in checking out BeatDJ, you can download it here.