# Ask your Library

> Search your own sounds in plain words, and find sounds like one you already have, all on your computer.

Type what you hear in your head into the Library's search: **"dry vocal chop in D minor"**, **"punchy 808 under 2 s"**, **"pads from last month"**. Mixel pulls out the facts (key, tempo, length, type, when you added it, which folder) and matches the rest by how the sounds actually sound, not just by their file names.

Under each result, a short line says why it matched: the tags or name words that fit, the facts you asked for that it has, and how close it is to your words. There's never a score.

## Find similar

Choose **Find similar** from a sound's menu or the inspector, or press ⌘L, to list the sounds closest to it: the same key, the same tempo, close in timbre. Add a few words to steer it ("brighter, with room"). Identical copies of the same audio are shown once.

## What the words understand

| You type | It becomes |
| --- | --- |
| an instrument: kick, snare, hat, 808, bass, vocal, piano, keys, guitar, pad, synth, pluck, chord… | part of the match, and a reason when the sound is tagged with it |
| loop, one-shot, hit | a filter on the sound's measured shape |
| in D minor, Dm, F# major, in C# | a filter on the key (a bare note matches major and minor) |
| 120 bpm, 120–130 bpm, around 90 bpm | a filter on the tempo |
| under 2 s, over 10 s, 2–4 s | a filter on the length |
| today, last week, this month, last 30 days, recent | a filter on when you added it |
| in Drums, from Splice | a filter on the folder |

Everything else ("dry", "warm", "chop", "with room") is matched by meaning. Search understands English; in other languages it still uses the facts and file names.

## The sound model

Search in words and Find similar need Mixel's sound model, a one-time **416 MB** download. Mixel offers it when you first set up the Library, and you can download, pause or delete it any time in **Settings › Library**. Until it's there, everything else works: search by name, key, tempo and tags, and **Find similar** waits for it.

After the download, Mixel works through your Library in the background, a sound at a time, and a sound is searchable in words as soon as it's done. On battery, it waits for the charger. File names match straight away.

**Not on Intel Macs yet.** The model's runtime has no build for Intel Macs, so there, search by name, key and tempo works as before, and search in words and Find similar are unavailable.

## Private by design

- **It all happens on your computer.** The model runs on your computer, and your sounds, their analysis and what you type never leave it. There's no account needed and no cloud search.
- **The only download is the model itself**, from `models.0x1audio.com`, and every file is checked against a fingerprint built into Mixel before it's used. A file that doesn't match is deleted.
- **Tags are suggestions.** Any tag you change wins, and Mixel shows where each one came from.

## Tips

- **Say what you'd say to a friend.** "Dusty Rhodes chords around 90 bpm" works better than one word.
- **Facts narrow, words rank.** Start broad ("vocal chop"), then add a key or a tempo to narrow it.
- **Click a fact to remove it.** The words Mixel understood show above the results; remove or edit one and it searches again.
- **Use Find similar to keep going.** Found something close? Find similar from it, with a word to steer.
- **Folders first.** Add the folders where your sounds already live (**Add a folder** in the Library); nothing is copied or moved.