Render a cochlea RON score (the declarative tick/track/note/automation IR) to a deterministic WAV mix. Use this to turn a composed score into audible PCM before probing or inspecting it. Set verify=true to also run the score's embedded verify: assertions and get the pass/fail report back in the same call.

Extract the full feature report (integrated LUFS/true peak/LRA, onsets, YIN pitch track, chroma/key, tempo with a clear_rhythm flag, stereo image, structural sections, silence, clipping — schema v2) from any WAV or FLAC file, no score needed. Use this to 'listen' to audio through numbers: check loudness targets, confirm onset timing or tempo, or read back pitch/key/stereo width.

Render a mel spectrogram PNG (or a tiled contact sheet covering the whole file) from a WAV or FLAC file, for visual inspection of harmonic content, sweeps, or silence. Use this when a numeric probe report isn't enough and you want to look at the audio.

Statically validate a RON score against the instrument/preset catalog — catches unknown instruments or inserts, empty tracks, and other semantic problems without rendering any audio. Use this before render_score to fail fast on authoring mistakes.

The token-cheap way to listen to a WAV or FLAC file: a ~40-line deterministic text digest (duration, loudness, onsets, pitch, key, and a windowed timeline table) instead of a full JSON report or raw PCM. Reach for this first when you just need a sense of what's in a file, and only fall back to probe_audio when you need exact numbers to assert against.

Compare two audio files (WAV or FLAC) in feature space (loudness, onsets, pitch, key, per-segment RMS) rather than byte-for-byte, and report a verdict: byte-identical, tier-2 equivalent (within this workspace's cross-platform tolerances), or different (naming which dimensions diverge). Use this to check whether a re-render, edit, or platform change actually altered the audio in a way that matters — a different verdict is a normal, successful answer, not a tool failure.