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Timbre v1 is here — voice notes, live collaboration, and share links anyone can open.

Timbre

Voice-first notes

v1.0 — first release

The note that talks back.

The recording is the note — any length, any language. Sketch around it, or write around it.

See it in action

Google sign-in · 5 minutes of recording per account · free · read a shared note with no account at all

Stack

Built with open tools.

Production-grade, open-source — no proprietary black boxes.

Next.jsTypeScriptFirebaseMongoDBVercelExcalidrawTiptapSocket.ioNext.jsTypeScriptFirebaseMongoDBVercelExcalidrawTiptapSocket.io

Two modes

Two ways to think. Pick one per note.

Sketching and writing are different acts. Forcing both into a single metaphor serves neither, so we didn't.

Canvas

An infinite, freeform space. Draw the diagram while you talk through it, and pin each recording to the exact spot on the board it explains.

Document

A block editor in the Obsidian mould. Recordings sit inline as blocks, in the flow of the writing — not bolted onto a sidebar.

Live

Think out loud, together.

Share a note with a link and edit it side by side — cursors, presence and changes appear within about a second. Everyone can record their own voice note onto the same board; each pin remembers who left it.

  • Live cursors and presence avatars for everyone in the room.
  • Two access levels per link — can edit or can view. A view link opens for anyone, signed in or not.
  • Voice notes sync live too — recorded pins show up for everyone at once.

What you get

Everything a voice note should be.

Seven things that make Timbre different from a recording app.

  • Voice is the note

    Hit record and talk — the audio is stored as the content itself. No transcription required to keep it.

  • Place it precisely

    Pin a recording to the exact spot on a canvas, or drop it inline in a document. It lives where it belongs.

  • Any language

    The audio is the note — language-agnostic by design. Talk in whatever tongue the thought arrives in.

  • Live cursors

    Share a link and edit side by side. Presence and changes appear within a second; everyone's cursor is visible.

  • Read without an account

    A view-only link opens for anyone — no sign-up, no sign-in, no wall. People you invite by email get edit access instead.

  • One portable file

    Export as a .vnote — a single zip carrying drawing, text, and real audio. Import it back; everything plays.

  • Dark, all the way down

    One switch themes the whole thing — site, dashboard, document and canvas together. No editor keeps its own opinion.

.vnote

One file. Audio included.

A cloud link is not a copy. Export a note and you get a single .vnote file carrying the drawing, the text, and the real audio inside it — the same trick .docx and .epubuse. There's no OS handler for it, which is the point: it only opens back up here, where the recordings play.

hydrology-lecture.vnote
├──manifest.jsonthe note itself
└──audio/
├──vn_1.webm2:14
└──vn_2.webm4:02

// manifest.json — the note, described

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "type": "vnote-bundle",
  "noteType": "canvas",
  "meta":   { "title": "Hydrology lecture" },
  "canvas": { "elements": [ … ], "appState": { … } },
  "voiceNotes": [
    {
      "audioFile":   "audio/vn_1.webm",
      "durationSec": 134,
      "position":    { "x": 420, "y": 180 }
    }
  ]
}
Export

Stream the note and every recording straight into a zip — nothing buffered, nothing left in the cloud.

round-trip
Import

Got a .vnote someone sent you? Open it here — the audio re-uploads, the pins and blocks come back, and it becomes a note of your own.

Where it stands

This is v1.0. Here's exactly what that means.

A first release that tells you where it ends is worth more than one that lets you find out. Everything on the left works today. Everything on the right is deliberately not in this version yet.

In v1.0, today
  • Two note types — an infinite canvas and a block document
  • Voice recording as the content itself, any length, any language
  • Live collaboration: presence, cursors, and conflict-free document merges
  • On-demand transcription of any recording
  • Share links a reader can open without an account
  • One-file .vnote export and import, audio included
  • Light and dark, everywhere including the editors
Not in v1 — next up

  • Images

    Pasting and uploading pictures is switched off in v1 rather than half-working — canvas image binaries aren't persisted yet, so a note would look right until you reopened it.

  • Offline everywhere

    Documents already survive a dropped connection and re-sync. The canvas and a full installable shell don't yet.

  • Merge-free canvas edits

    Documents use a CRDT. The canvas is still last-write-wins — Excalidraw has no official CRDT binding to build on.

  • Automatic transcription

    Today you ask for a transcript per recording. Next: transcribe on save, with speaker labels and searchable text.

  • A real role matrix

    Access is owner, invited editor, or link. Per-person viewers and commenters come after v1.

  • Search across notes

    Find a note by what was said in it, not just what was typed on it.

Start talking your notes.

Google sign-in. 5 minutes of recording. No credit card.

Free to use · private audio · one-file export