# Multitrack (stem) recording — plan / scope contract

**Status:** Stage 1 in progress (2026-06-13). This doc is the scope contract; update it as stages land.

## Goal & differentiation

Record each call participant to their **own synced WAV track** (stems) — podcast/streamer-grade source for post-production — natively, offline, with no server or bot. This is possible because PeerSpeak is **full-mesh P2P**: every client already decodes each peer into its own buffer and sums them locally (the playout mixer in `src/core/mod.rs`). Server-mixed tools (Discord/Zoom) only get one pre-blended stream, so they can't do this without a bot (Craig) or paid tier. Holding the unmixed stems on every machine is the moat.

## Locked design decisions (user, 2026-06-13)

1. **Raw stems** — record each peer's decoded audio **before** local volume/mute/limiter, so the stems are pristine source (your local listening tweaks don't bake in).
2. **Output = stems + a mixed track** ("Both"): per-peer stems + your mic stem + a convenience mixed WAV, all in one session folder.
3. **Silence-pad late joiners from session start** — a peer who joins mid-recording gets leading silence so every track lines up at sample 0 (drop them all on a timeline → synced).

## Architecture / tap point

The mixer loop (`src/core/mod.rs` ~L761–788) already pops a decoded `frame` per peer with `peer_id` in scope, then discards the association into `peer_frames` for summing. We tap the **raw** frame there (before `apply_volume`/mute/limiter) for stems. Mic arrives separately via the capture task (`push_mic`, ~L663). Alignment uses the existing per-mixer-cycle clock: **every cycle, write exactly `FRAME_SAMPLES` (960) to every track** — real audio for peers who produced a frame this cycle, silence for those idle — so all tracks stay sample-aligned by construction (same principle as today's mic FIFO in `recorder.rs`).

## Stages

### Stage 1 — Pure `MultitrackRecorder` core (no wiring) — *in progress*
`src/audio/multitrack.rs`. Owns a per-peer `HashMap<EndpointId, Track>` + a mic track + an optional mix track (Both mode), each a reused `recorder::WavWriter`, plus a `cycles` counter (the master clock). API:
- `add_peer(id, name)` — create the track, pre-pad with `cycles * FRAME_SAMPLES` silence (late-join alignment); idempotent.
- `write_peer(id, &[i16])` / `write_mic(&[i16])` / `write_mix(&[i16])` — append one cycle's frame (fit to `FRAME_SAMPLES`: zero-pad if short), mark the track written-this-cycle.
- `end_cycle()` — pad every track NOT written this cycle with `FRAME_SAMPLES` silence, reset flags, `cycles += 1`. Guarantees equal lengths.
- `finalize(self)` — finalize all writers.
Pure/testable: tests assert "after N cycles every track is exactly N×FRAME_SAMPLES" and "a peer added at cycle k carries k×FRAME_SAMPLES leading silence." Plus a filesystem-safe track-naming helper (`me.wav`, `<slug>-<shortid>.wav`, `mix.wav`) reusing `sanitize::sanitize_name`.

### Stage 2 — Wire into the mixer + mic tasks
Retain `peer_id` alongside each decoded frame in the mixer; tap the raw frame for stems; per cycle call `write_peer` for present peers, `write_mix` with the finished mix, `write_mic` from the mic FIFO, then `end_cycle`. `add_peer` on join (`RoomEvent::PeerJoined`/`PeerUpdated` carries the name), keep the track on leave (it just goes silent). Keep the existing single-file mixed `Recorder` path for `Mixed` mode. Gate by `is_recording` like today.

### Stage 3 — Config + UI
`AppConfig.recording_mode: Mixed | Multitrack | Both` (serde-default `Mixed`, back-compat). New **"Recording"** category in Settings (fits the category-header layout) with the mode picker + an output-dir note. Output to a per-session dir `~/peerspeak-recordings/<timestamp>/` (Multitrack/Both); `Mixed` keeps today's single-file behaviour.

### Stage 4 — Field-test (dopedart)
Solo first (mic + silence stems, inspect WAVs), then 2-machine desktop↔dopedart: each voice isolated on its own track, tracks sample-aligned + in sync, late-joiner leading-silence correct, peer-leave handled.

## Notes / out of scope
- **Disk:** mono 48kHz/16-bit ≈ 5.5 MB/min/track. A 5-person 1-hr call ≈ ~1.6 GB. Acceptable; a FLAC option is a future wishlist item.
- Stems are mono (matches the whole pipeline). Spatial/stereo is a separate wishlist item (W1).
- No editing/mixing UI — files only; users post-produce in their DAW/editor.