Timbre
API

Voice-first notes

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

Stack

Built with open tools.

Next.js
TypeScript
Firebase
MongoDB
Vercel
Excalidraw
Tiptap
Socket.io
Next.js
TypeScript
Firebase
MongoDB
Vercel
Excalidraw
Tiptap
Socket.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.

Collaborate

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.
  • Voice notes sync live too — recorded pins show up for everyone at once.

What you get

Everything a voice note should be.

Six 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.

  • Edit or view

    Two access levels per shared link — collaborators either edit alongside you or read without touching anything.

  • One portable file

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

The .vnote format

.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.