---
license: mit
library_name: transformers
pipeline_tag: text-to-audio
base_model:
  - ACE-Step/acestep-5Hz-lm-0.6B
  - ACE-Step/Ace-Step1.5
tags:
  - ace-step
  - music
  - cara
  - attribution
  - peft
  - research
---

# CARA-native ACE-Step

This peer-review release contains the two checkpoint-owned ACE-Step interfaces
used after Phase 1:

- Phase 2: a CARA-expanded and fine-tuned 0.6B 5 Hz planner LM.
- Exploratory Phase 3: the joint turbo-DiT LoRA adapter plus hierarchical
  98-pool/9-family CARA attribution head.

The Phase 3 adapter does not duplicate the multi-gigabyte base DiT. It reloads
against the named public ACE-Step base model, keeping the derivative release
small and making the base/adapter boundary explicit.

## Contents

- `phase2/lm/`: `save_pretrained` LM and tokenizer files plus the SFT report.
- `phase3/adapter/`: PEFT LoRA adapter for the turbo-DiT.
- `phase3/cara_attribution_head.pt`: checkpoint-owned pool/family head.
- `phase3/phase3_checkpoint_manifest.json`: base/adapter/head contract.
- `registry/`: the exact CARA registry required by both interfaces.
- `evidence/`: authoritative Phase 2 and exploratory Phase 3 reports.
- `source/`: an exact source snapshot used to load and evaluate the checkpoints.
- `cara_model_manifest.json`: byte sizes and SHA-256 values for release files.

Use the immutable `phase2-v1` tag, or its resolved Hub commit hash.

## Reload Phase 2

```bash
hf download sammoran-phd/cara-native-acestep \
  --revision phase2-v1 \
  --local-dir cara-native-acestep-release

mkdir cara-native-acestep-source
tar -xzf cara-native-acestep-release/source/cara-native-acestep-source.tar.gz \
  -C cara-native-acestep-source
cd cara-native-acestep-source

python - <<'PY'
from pathlib import Path
from scripts.benchmark_cara_native_acestep import initialize_lm

handler = initialize_lm(
    Path("../cara-native-acestep-release/phase2/lm").resolve()
)
print(type(handler).__name__)
PY
```

For Phase 3, load the public ACE-Step turbo-DiT through the included fork, then
pass `phase3/` as `--phase3_checkpoint_dir`; the evaluator loads the PEFT adapter
and `cara_attribution_head.pt` together. The complete locked commands are in
the `cara-native-musicmodels` Phase 2/3 job specifications.

## Evaluation boundary

The Phase 2 0.6B planner interface remained below its predeclared
representation/discriminability ceiling. On the 780-waveform balanced
fixed-audio core it scored 1.92% exact top-1, 3.46% top-3, 13.46% family
accuracy, and 100% registry-valid output. Those are real results, but they are
below-ceiling ablation evidence rather than a passed scientific gate.

On the matched exploratory Phase 3 436-waveform comparison, the joint
DiT-LoRA-plus-head checkpoint scored 4.13% exact top-1, 10.78% top-3, 30.50%
pool-derived family accuracy, and 32.11% direct family accuracy. The broad-family
gain is intervention-specific; exact pool attribution did not improve.

## Intended use and limitations

This release is intended for research reproduction and controlled interface
auditing. It is not a provenance, source-identification, royalty allocation, or
safety system. Results come from one source corpus and one training run per
checkpoint. Phase 3 is explicitly exploratory.

## License

The ACE-Step code and named public base checkpoints are MIT licensed. Retain the
included license and upstream attribution when redistributing this release.