How do I install Soundbox?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Soundbox need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Soundbox use?

Soundbox runs locally over stdio.

Soundbox MCP server

Q: When was Soundbox last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-10. Free, open-source, local alternative to ElevenLabs and Suno. AI sound effects, music with lyrics, text-to-speech and voice cloning on your own GPU (Stable Audio, ACE-Step and more). No account, no credits, offline. Windows/macOS app, HTTP API and a 21-tool MCP server for Claude Code and Cursor.

Power your agent

Add this server

Install from the publisher. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

No packaged release in the registry yet. Follow the repository README.

RepositoryPublisher installStep-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

Launch

Server facts

Local

Transport: stdio
License: NOASSERTION
Last checked: 2026-11-10

Overview

About Soundbox

Free, open-source, local alternative to ElevenLabs and Suno. AI sound effects, music with lyrics, text-to-speech and voice cloning on your own GPU (Stable Audio, ACE-Step and more). No account, no credits, offline. Windows/macOS app, HTTP API and a 21-tool MCP server for Claude Code and Cursor.

Tools

No tool list yet. Remote servers get one after the first health check.

FAQ

Soundbox

The free, open-source, local alternative to ElevenLabs and Suno.

Sound effects, music, songs with lyrics, speech and voice cloning from open-weight models on your own GPU. Arrange it on a timeline, or let Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP agent do it. No account, no credits, works offline. MIT.

Download · Hear it · For agents · Models · Docs · Website

Watch: 30-second tour · Under the hood · Agents and MCP

Describe it, hear it, arrange it

Make	Arrange	Connect
Sound effects and ambience from a description	A multi-track timeline with effects, MIDI and mixdown	An MCP server with 24 tools for Claude Code and Cursor
Instrumentals, or songs from a lyric sheet	Cast saved voices onto the lines of a script	A local HTTP API on port 17494
Speech, voice cloning and voice conversion	Extend, cover, repaint, split into stems	Three agent skills, including a full sound pass

Four models are verified end to end and on by default; 61 more can be switched on from the Models page. Each model's licence is shown before you download it. Everything stays in one SQLite file and a folder of WAVs under ~/.soundbox. Profiles give you several libraries in one install, one per game or client, switched from the header without a restart; the models are shared.



Music. A style prompt or a lyric sheet in, a shelf of takes out.	Sound effects. Every take kept with its prompt, model and seed.

Voice Lab. Clone a voice, then cast it onto script lines.	Models. Licence and VRAM shown before you download.

Download

Platform	Installer
Windows 10 and 11 (x64)	`Soundbox_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe`
macOS, Apple silicon	`Soundbox_x.y.z_aarch64.dmg`
macOS, Intel	`Soundbox_x.y.z_x64.dmg`

The installer carries its own runtime. The builds are not signed yet, so the first launch asks you to confirm (where). Open SFX, describe the material, the action and the space, and generate: the first model downloads when you pick it, with its licence shown first.

Hardware	What to expect
NVIDIA GPU (Windows, Linux)	CUDA. A few GB of VRAM covers the verified models; MiniMax Music 3 wants about 10 GB.
AMD or Intel GPU	Runs on the CPU unless you set `SOUNDBOX_AUDIOCPP_BACKEND=vulkan` (how). Vulkan is not yet confirmed on the verified models; reports welcome.
Apple silicon	Metal. Installers exist; none of the verified models has been confirmed on a Mac yet.
No dedicated GPU	Works, slowly. A clip that takes seconds on a GPU takes minutes on the CPU.

Linux, Docker and running from source are under Run from source.

Install with a prompt

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor or Codex:

Install Soundbox on this machine and confirm it works, following
https://github.com/HamSanders/soundbox/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-AGENT.md

The guide tells the agent to check the GPU and VRAM first, to show you each model's size and licence before downloading it, never to accept a non-commercial licence for you, and to finish by generating one sound and telling you where the WAV is.

Hear it

Each clip was generated by Soundbox from the prompt shown. The samples site has around 600 more.

	Prompt	Model
Glass	large window pane breaking, cracking then collapsing inward with long shards falling and shattering on a wooden floor	Stable Audio 3.0 SFX	▶ Listen
Ambience	heavy thunderstorm, driving rain with rolling thunder and wind gusting through trees, outdoor, seamless loop	Stable Audio 3.0 SFX	▶ Listen
Game	plasma bolt firing, thick electric discharge with a downward pitch sweep and a crackling tail	Stable Audio 3.0 SFX	▶ Listen
Instrumental	1980s synthwave arcade title theme, wide analog saw lead, gated reverb drum machine, pulsing sidechained bass, 110 BPM	Stable Audio 3.0 Small Music	▶ Listen
Song	triumphant power pop victory anthem, bright electric guitars, punchy live drums, gang vocal chorus, with a four-line lyric sheet	ACE-Step 1.5	▶ Listen

For agents

Start Soundbox, then add it to your client.

claude mcp add --transport http soundbox http://127.0.0.1:17494/mcp

Cursor and other MCP clients take { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:17494/mcp" }. Then ask: "add a door slam and a coin pickup to this game", "voice these three lines as two characters", "write a 20-second loading-screen loop". The agent gets 24 tools for sounds, speech and multi-track stories, and three skills: soundbox-sfx, soundbox-sound-pass and soundbox-voice-story. Every tool, the stdio bridge and the skills are in docs/MCP.md.

Models

Every model runs through audio.cpp, a native runtime, so there is no Python to set up. Verified end to end and on by default:

Model	Good for	Licence	Commercial use
Stable Audio 3.0 SFX	Sound effects, foley, ambience	Stability AI Community	⚠️ Under $1M revenue
Stable Audio 3.0 Small Music	Instrumental music, loops	Stability AI Community	⚠️ Under $1M revenue
ACE-Step 1.5 Turbo	Songs with lyrics; extend, cover, repaint	MIT	✅ Yes
MiniMax Music 3	Songs with lyrics, about 10 GB VRAM	MiniMax-Music3 Community	⚠️ Conditional

Kind	Count	Includes
Text-to-speech	45	Chatterbox, Fish Audio S2 Pro, IndexTTS 2, VibeVoice, Higgs Audio v3, Qwen3-TTS, CosyVoice 3, Kokoro and more; several clone from a reference clip
Music	6	ACE-Step 1.5 Base and XL, Stable Audio 3.0 Medium, HeartMuLa, MiniMax H3
Sound effects	2	MiDashengLM-Gen, ControlFoley
Stem separation	4	HTDemucs (4- and 6-stem), BS-RoFormer, Mel-Band RoFormer
Voice conversion	4	RVC, Seed-VC, MioCodec, MeanVC2

VibeVoice 1.5B, MiDashengLM-Gen, HTDemucs 6-stem and Chatterbox Turbo have also been run end to end; the rest are marked unverified until someone reports. The 19 added in October 2026 need audio.cpp 0.9.2 or newer (soundbox model install audiocpp fetches the latest).

Any model whose licence could not be established is treated as non-commercial. This is a summary, not legal advice: read each licence before you ship what a model made.

Compared with a hosted service

	Hosted (ElevenLabs, Suno and similar)	Soundbox
Runs on	Their GPUs	Your machine
Cost	Subscription or credits	Your electricity
Account	Required	None
Models	Closed, tuned, consistent	Open weights; quality varies by model
Output rights	Their terms of service	The licence of the model that made it, shown up front
Offline	No	Yes, once the weights are downloaded
Agents	HTTP API	HTTP API and an MCP server
Source	Closed	MIT

Run from source

Requires Node 22.12 or later. No Python, no CUDA toolkit.

git clone https://github.com/HamSanders/soundbox
cd soundbox
npm install
npm run dev

This starts the server on port 17494 and the UI on http://localhost:5174. npm run dev:mock runs the UI with no GPU or server (see CONTRIBUTING.md).

Docker. The server and web UI run headless in one container with the audio.cpp runtime inside. CPU by default; add the CUDA override for a GPU. Both pull the prebuilt image from GHCR (:latest, :cuda, or a version such as :v0.4.0 and :v0.4.0-cuda).

docker compose up -d
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.cuda.yml up -d

To build from the checkout instead, add -f docker-compose.build.yml (and -f docker-compose.build-cuda.yml for CUDA) and --build; see docs/INSTALL.md.

There is no authentication, so keep the port on localhost or behind a reverse proxy that has some, and set SOUNDBOX_ALLOWED_HOSTS to the name you reach it by. Details are in docs/INSTALL.md.

HTTP API. Everything the app does is available on port 17494:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:17494/api/generate \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"model":"audiocpp-stable-audio-3-sfx","prompt":"heavy wooden door slamming in a stone corridor","duration_s":3}'

Long jobs return an id with a server-sent event stream. Every route is in docs/API.md.

Docs

If you want to	Read
Get it running, or fix a first run	Install · Desktop
Write prompts these models answer	Generating
Arrange, mix and export	Studio · Library
Drive it from an agent or a script	MCP · HTTP API
Add or verify a model	audio.cpp · Contributing
Understand how the pieces fit	Architecture

FAQ

Can I sell what I make? It depends on the model. Stable Audio is free under $1M revenue, ACE-Step 1.5 is MIT, and models with an unestablished licence are marked non-commercial. Each model's terms are on its card in the app.

Do I need a GPU? No, but CPU generation is slow. The hardware table above says what to expect.

Does it work on a Mac? There are installers for Apple silicon and Intel, and audio.cpp runs on Metal. None of the verified models has been confirmed on a Mac yet, so reports are welcome.

How do I remove it? Delete the app and ~/.soundbox. There is no account to close and nothing was uploaded.

Licence

Soundbox is MIT. The model weights are not: each carries its own licence, and what you can do with generated audio is governed by the licence of the model that made it. Clone only voices you have permission to use. Soundbox downloads weights at your direction and does not redistribute them. Example media under site/public/ was generated with third-party models; its provenance is in ASSETS.md.

Soundbox

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

About Soundbox

Tools

Questions

How do I install Soundbox?

Does Soundbox need an API key?

What transport does Soundbox use?

When was Soundbox last checked?

Documentation

Soundbox

Describe it, hear it, arrange it

Download

Install with a prompt

Hear it

For agents

Models

Compared with a hosted service

Run from source

Docs

FAQ

Licence