An unofficial Android port of SoundCraft — the real engine and egui interface, packaged as a NativeActivity APK for sideloading on arm64 devices.
| Upstream project | storytold/soundcraft — Apache-2.0 OR MIT |
| Pinned commit | acb08ff5f (upstream version 0.5.0) |
| Android package | ai.storyteller.soundcraft |
| Published APK | soundcraft-0.5.0-arm64-v8a.apk — 10.2 MB, arm64-v8a, signed |
| APK sha256 | fccb35698ea1d25f3cd2c6705f7f088f4cc70597869aab7e68fb6e78eb0ba39e |
| Upstream files changed | 1 |
| New port crate | apps/soundcraft-android/ — about 1 200 lines of Rust plus resources |
This is not a fork of SoundCraft. It holds only the Android layer, so it stays small, readable, and obviously separable from upstream:
apps/soundcraft-android/ the new shell crate — copy it into your checkout of upstream
patches/ the diff against upstream — apply it after checking out the pin
docs/PORT-NOTES.md what was changed and why, fix by fix, with how each one was checked
scripts/ cross-compile environment, build and verify scripts (from shared-android-port)
CHANGELOG.md what is in the published APK
The Android layer is not a reimplementation. It is a shell crate that fills the same Services
struct the desktop and the browser shells fill, so the real engine and the real egui UI run unchanged.
Prerequisites: Rust (rustup) with the aarch64-linux-android target, Android SDK + NDK r27, a
JDK 21, and cargo install cargo-apk.
git clone https://github.com/storytold/soundcraft.git
cd soundcraft
git fetch --depth 1 origin acb08ff5f00d654a5303194ad04dad799c68a9fb
git checkout FETCH_HEAD # the exact commit this port targets
git apply /path/to/0001-soundcraft-android-port.patch
cp -r /path/to/soundcraft-android apps/ # the shell crate from this repository
# any keystore of your own signs an installable APK; a throwaway test key is fine for sideloading
keytool -genkeypair -keystore ks.jks -alias soundcraft -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 \
-storepass android -keypass android -dname "CN=Local Test, O=Local, C=US"
export CARGO_APK_RELEASE_KEYSTORE="$PWD/ks.jks" CARGO_APK_RELEASE_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=android
cargo apk build --release -p soundcraft-androidscripts/android-env.sh is the cross-compile environment this port was built with (the NDK linker
and the C compiler the native dependencies need, and the x86_64 linker for an emulator build),
scripts/build-apk.sh wraps the build, and scripts/verify-apk.sh checks the artifact:
aapt2 dump badging, apksigner verify, and llvm-nm on the .so inside the APK.
adb install -r soundcraft-0.5.0-arm64-v8a.apkor copy the APK to the device and open it (installing from unknown sources must be allowed).
On first run, grant Settings ▸ Apps ▸ SoundCraft ▸ Special access ▸ All files access if you want
the in-app picker to reach files outside the app's own folders. Without it, Android 10+ refuses a
read_dir of shared storage by path, and the picker can only offer the app's own directory.
Everything below was reproduced on this build unless the row says otherwise. "Emulator" means an x86_64 Android 15 (API 35) Pixel Tablet AVD; the arm64 APK is built from the same sources.
| Claim | How it was checked |
|---|---|
| Installs and launches | adb install -r, then am start -n ai.storyteller.soundcraft/android.app.NativeActivity; the app's own log (/data/data/ai.storyteller.soundcraft/files/soundcraft.log) starts with SoundCraft 0.5.0 starting on Android |
| The real UI runs | a screen grab of the Edit window: menu bar, Shuffle/Spot/Slip/Grid, transport, big counter, Tempo 120 / Meter 4/4 rulers, Tracks and Groups pane, Clips pane, status line Untitled · 48000 Hz · 24-bit · 0 tracks |
| Text is legible, not egui's fallback font | the fonts.rs change loads /system/fonts; the rulers and the numeric counter render in the platform face |
| Audio works | the log reports soundcraft_playback audio device: default @ 48000 Hz, 2 ch — cpal's AAudio host opened the emulator's output device, and the transport strip shows audio on |
| The file picker works, end to end | File ▸ Save Session Copy In → Browse… → the in-app picker → Save → OK; the log shows picker chose /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/ai.storyteller.soundcraft/files/Untitled.scraft, and that exact path — not the dialog's own default — exists on disk afterwards |
| Preferences survive | ui.json (5 KB, the whole docking layout) is written into the app's private data directory while the app runs, so a swipe from Recents cannot lose it |
| Quit ends the process | the app menu ▸ Quit: the log ends with File ▸ Quit: ending the process, pidof is empty, the task is gone from dumpsys activity activities, and the app relaunches cleanly |
| Modifier keys | five unit tests in src/modifiers.rs: a click in a later frame still carries the Shift held in an earlier one, Ctrl+S reports command, a modifier going up stops being held, and a platform report overrides the tracked state |
| The artifact is what it claims | aapt2 dump badging → package ai.storyteller.soundcraft, versionName 0.5.0, minSdk 26, targetSdk 35, native-code: 'arm64-v8a'; apksigner verify --verbose → v2 and v3 true; llvm-nm --dynamic --defined-only on the .so inside the APK → android_main and ANativeActivity_onCreate; the injected android.app.lib_name is soundcraft, matching libsoundcraft.so; the theme resolves to attr/windowFullscreen |
Not verified: the modifier keys could not be exercised in the emulator (adb cannot deliver a
held modifier — input keyevent sends a down/up pair), so they are unit-tested rather than
device-tested; the arm64 APK in Releases was not re-run on a physical device while publishing this
repository.
- No plugins. CLAP, VST3 and AU are loaded from the host's own plugin folders, which do not exist on the device: a session that references them opens with them missing, as it would on a desktop without them installed.
- No system menu bar, as on Windows and Linux, so the app keeps its own egui menu bar.
- No drag and drop — files cannot be dragged in from a file manager on Android; the picker is the way in.
- The navigation bar stays. The theme hides the status bar (which otherwise covers the menu bar, where it cannot be tapped); hiding the navigation bar too needs the Java immersive-mode API.
- Anything about GPU-specific rendering, touch/IME nuance and performance is not something an emulator running SwiftShader can answer.
- DeckCraft
- effectcraft
- FilmCraft
- GridCraft
- LightCraft
- PdfCraft
- PhotoCraft
- VectorCraft
- WordCraft
- shared-android-port — the pieces every port shares
SoundCraft is © its authors at storytold/soundcraft and
is dual-licensed Apache-2.0 / MIT; both licence texts are kept here. The Android layer in this
repository is an unofficial modification by @kanaaka, carrying the same
licence. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream project. See
ATTRIBUTION.md.