Download Acetate.

Changelog

1. v1.3.7 2026-09-09
   Fixed

   • Masters no longer come out subtly dim in the highs - the Pultec, Finish warmth, and Haas stages were each shaving a little off the top end, and it added up.
   • Pultec low end no longer carries a hidden extra boost on top of what the knob shows.
   • Haas widening now defaults to a gentler setting that doesn't smear hats and reverb.
   • Very long mixes no longer get a hollow, phasey high end when Finish warmth is on.
2. v1.3.6 2026-09-09
   Fixed

   • Turning Pultec on from its chain pill now actually enables it in the master - the switch could look on while the engine skipped it entirely.
   • The Finish width slider now matches what you hear - dragging it no longer pins the master to maximum width.
   • Limiter ceiling and loudness target pills no longer offer an on/off switch that did nothing - both stages always protect the master, and their popovers show just the value control.
   • If the audio engine hangs while starting up, the app now says so instead of leaving you on an endless loading screen.
3. v1.3.5 2026-09-08
   Added

   • The free-masters badge can now be clicked to activate a license directly, without hunting through Settings.
4. v1.3.4 2026-09-02
   Fixed

   • Long mixes now export in streaming blocks instead of loading everything at once - multi-hour sets use far less memory while encoding (MP3, WAV, AIFF).
   • Encoders are always released cleanly, even when an export fails midway - a failed export can no longer jam later exports.
   • WAV and AIFF exports respect your chosen bit depth end to end.
5. v1.3.3 2026-09-02
   Added

   • Publish to SoundCloud: a two-step wizard from the Done screen. Sign in with your SoundCloud account, pick a format, fill in title, genre, tags, and description, and publish directly. Works for fresh renders and for re-exports from your history.
   • Dashboard: waveform logo, expand/collapse groups, row actions on keyboard focus, overflow menu, week stats, and duration formatting.
   • Review draft: start segment is now first-class with a level slider and lock. Preview spinner and stale-render badge.
   • Old render files are cleaned up automatically after each new render.
   Changed

   • Every export is now checked against the audio it came from, so what lands on disk is always the master you heard in the app - including masters made by older versions.
   • WAV-to-AIFF export now converts properly instead of producing an unplayable file.
   • FLAC and MP3 sources can export directly to WAV or AIFF.
   • Publishing always encodes from your finished master - never from a degraded intermediate.
   • An export left over from a previous master is no longer offered for re-export or publish.
   • Long renders use less memory while encoding.
   Fixed

   • Masters made by older versions of Acetate now export correctly.
   • AIFF export from a WAV source no longer produces a corrupt file.
   • FLAC-to-WAV export at 16-bit or 32-bit respects your chosen bit depth.
   • "Change format" while publishing re-encodes from the original master, not a lossy copy.
   • Publish temp files are cleaned up on close and after a successful upload.
6. v1.3.2 2026-09-01
   Changed

   • Digital release mode thresholds are wider, the tonal balance cap is softer, and the defect-only verdict gate is stricter - fewer false alarms on already-loud masters.
7. v1.3.1 2026-08-30
   Added

   • Cancel button on the Mastering screen - you can now stop a long render.
   • "+ New file" button on the Result screen to jump straight to the drop zone.
   • Gentle destination is now a visible card in the onboarding tour (was a hidden skip link).
   • OGG file support in the file picker.
   Changed

   • Dashboard row actions (Re-master, Show in Finder) now appear on keyboard focus, not just mouse hover.
   • SegmentedControl uses proper radio group ARIA semantics.
   • Settings panel uses `role="dialog"` instead of `role="button"`.
   • Toast notifications are announced to screen readers.
   • Button border radius is consistent across all screens.
   Fixed

   • Mastering screen no longer traps you in a long render with no way to stop.
   • Dismissing the long-mix license prompt no longer discards your analysis.
   • Filename display handles Windows backslash paths correctly.
   • Audio extension list is centralized - adding a format no longer means editing four files.
8. v1.3.0 2026-08-29
   Added

   • Streaming mastering for long files (DJ mixes, extended sets, live recordings).
   • Per-block progress during render ("Rendering full mix - 42%").
   • MP3 and FLAC export for long renders.
   • Finish stage: a polished final pass with gentle limiting, tailored to the track.
   • Low-end warmth: analog-style boost that activates when the track needs it.
   • Stereo width enhancement for narrow stereo mixes.
   • Chain pill popovers for the new stages - compact toggle + sliders inline in the processing chain.
   • Done screen findings now explain the new processing stages.
   • Interactive mastering demo on the site - see the chain in action before downloading.
   Changed

   • Streaming renders now use a temporary file that is cleaned up automatically.
   • Show in Finder appears only after the user has exported to a chosen location.
   • Export button shows a spinner and disables itself while encoding MP3/FLAC.
   • "Use Recommended Draft" button is visually prominent as the primary action.
   • Waveform now renders at native display density for sharp, smooth envelope display.
   • Section highlight animates smoothly when switching between segments.
   • Segment strip clicks now select and highlight the corresponding waveform section.
   • Ramp duration at transitions is now editable via popover from the status bar pill.
   Fixed

   • Long renders no longer crash when the saved-history storage fills up.
   • Temp preview files from crashed sessions are cleaned up on app launch; current session files are removed on shutdown.
   • Section overlay now appears when clicking segments after accepting all recommendations.
   • "surrounding set" wording corrected to "surrounding mix" in level change suggestions.
   Site

   • Interactive mastering demo on acetate.lol.
9. v1.2.4 2026-08-17
   Added

   • Export settings: MP3 and FLAC alongside WAV/AIFF. Dither applies automatically at 16-bit, and loudness normalize can be turned off.
   • Settings panel rebuilt with tabs, expanded audio options, and check-for-updates inside the app.
   • Progress stages name the actual move, not just the stage - "cutting rumble", not "stage 1".
   Changed

   • The free trial is now 1 export (was 3). Previewing the master in the app, before and after, stays unlimited.
   • The Windows build is labeled experimental on the download page: unsigned and tested on fewer machines than macOS.
   • The third settings tab is now called Help.
   Fixed

   • Windows: the audio engine no longer pops a separate console window.
   • The dither hint now reflects the selected format and bit depth, and the Normalize hint correctly says off skips only the loudness push.
   • Turning normalize off no longer shows a "normalizing" progress stage, and analysis previews honor the setting too.
10. v1.2.3 2026-08-15
    Added

    • Get one email per release - what changed, why it matters. Opt in on the download page after your download starts, or from the analyzer when you get a report by email.
    Fixed

    • Crash reports now send reliably from inside the app.
11. v1.2.2 2026-08-06
    Changed

    • The repair entry point is now named Repair, with the tooltip "Repair clicks and pops". Click repair works on any source with impulsive damage, not only vinyl transfers.
    • The drop-zone hint and action button use the new name too.
12. v1.2.1 2026-08-06
    Changed

    • Spectral balance now uses a weighted measurement that matches how the ear hears it. Ordinary masters no longer read as 95% sub and 0% everything else.
    • The findings list ranks only the bands that are off, with every band's value kept visible.
    Fixed

    • Spectral balance measurement had precision issues that put error into the exact bands it reports on. Now uses full-precision calculations.
13. v1.2.0 2026-08-03
    Changed

    • The download page no longer lists previous versions. Only the current release is offered.
14. v1.1.1 2026-08-01
    Fixed

    • Preview snippet: the PREVIEW lane drew the source waveform, so before and after looked identical. The mastered snippet is now drawn across the selected window.
    • Preview snippet: moving the handles clears the old snippet's waveform instead of leaving it inside the new window.
    • Preview snippet: the limiter ceiling now matches what the full master uses, so the preview no longer renders at a different ceiling than the export.
15. v1.1.0 2026-08-01
    Added

    • PREVIEW button on the review screen opens a snippet player. Drag a 10-30s window on the waveform and hear that section mastered with the current chain, without processing the whole file.
    • Snippet renders re-run automatically when you move the window, and the SOURCE/PREVIEW toggle A/Bs the section.
    • Drag inside the selection to slide the window through the track; drag the edges to change its length.
    Changed

    • Clear on the review screen returns to the dashboard, matching what its tooltip always promised.
16. v1.0.9 2026-07-29
    Added

    • The Saturation chain pill now shows a Type dropdown so you can override the analyzer's pick before mastering.
    Fixed

    • Check Findings on the result screen no longer stops playback. The A/B player keeps running while you read.
    • Long saturation-type labels in the dropdown no longer swallow the chevron.
17. v1.0.8 2026-07-29
    Added

    • A/B player now plays FLAC and MP3 files directly, not just WAV/AIFF.
    • Audio Output dialog: pick your output device, sample size, and buffer size for the A/B player.
    • macOS menu bar: Audio Output submenu lists devices for quick switching.
    Fixed

    • A/B player switches between original and mastered instantly now, no gap or click.
    • Fixed a crash when the app checked available audio devices - some Macs would hard-crash on launch or when opening the Audio Output dialog.
    • A/B player loads tracks about 6x faster and no longer freezes mid-playback.
    • Dragging in a file that's still downloading from iCloud no longer shows a false "audio engine isn't responding" error - it now says so plainly and asks you to wait for the download to finish.
18. v1.0.7 2026-07-28
    Added

    • Report card on the result screen: "What we found" and "What we did" in plain words, specific to each track - measured problems first, then what each stage did about them. After the free exports run out, "What we did" stays behind the license.
    • Waveform in the A/B player: original ghosted behind the mastered track, click or drag to seek, playhead and time display. Transport gains before/after toggle, -10s/+10s skip, and loop.
    • Stats (before/after LUFS, true peak) live inside the player; findings sit behind a Check Findings toggle.
    • Info button on exported masters in the Dashboard - reopens the full result screen from disk. If the files moved, findings still show.
    • Dashboard history shows the destination preset (Club, Streaming...) per master instead of a style tag.
    • macOS menu: About Acetate panel and Deauthorize This Device.
    • Update prompt is now a small pill with Update / Later and a restart button that waits for the current master to finish - no more instant relaunch mid-job.
    • Slow first launch now says so: "Preparing audio engine - first launch only, much faster next time."
    Fixed

    • The app no longer hard-crashes on older macOS versions.
    • Backing out to the Dashboard during analysis or mastering now cancels the job instead of leaving it running.
    • Stuck mastering jobs are detected and cancelled again.
    • Dim text across the app brightened to meet contrast guidelines.
    • Analyzer (analyzer.acetate.lol): one borderline check no longer rejects the whole track - verdicts are tiered, clipped sources are detected, the headline reports how many checks passed, and the zone bar no longer renders out of bounds.
    Site

    • how-it-works page on acetate.lol: what the app measures, how it picks a chain, what each stage does.
19. v1.0.6 2026-07-23
    Changed

    • Settings has a Give feedback button, and sections are reordered - destination and export format first, license and feedback after.
    • The feedback form reads the same whether it appears before your first export or from Settings, and no longer assumes a beta build.
    Removed

    • The engine version/status row in Settings - a broken engine already shows its own error screen.
    Site

    • The acetate.lol FAQ answers three common questions: why master at all, Acetate vs a professional engineer, and where the tool is headed.
20. v1.0.5 2026-07-23
    Changed

    • The free-masters badge no longer appears once a license is active - license state lives in Settings.
    • The review screen's control bar (target, cancel, master) is pinned to the bottom of the window.
    Fixed

    • Settings now shows the real version number (it used to lag behind or read 0.0.0 on some installs).
21. v1.0.4 2026-07-22
    Changed

    • Acetate no longer brightens deliberately dark mixes. Tonal lifts are now restoration moves for vinyl rips - on a clean digital mix, dark is treated as intent, not a defect.
    • Wide stereo mixes no longer read as dark. The analyzer now accounts for stereo content instead of downmixing, which used to trigger boosts the track didn't need.
    • How loud you bounced your mix no longer affects genre detection.
    Fixed

    • Masters now honor the true-peak ceiling exactly - the limiter is the final stage, so the delivered file can't overshoot the stated ceiling.
    • Saturation no longer changes loudness when you switch curve types.
    • The soft-clip stage keeps its level instead of dropping the track several dB.
    • Genre-aware density settings now actually apply (they were silently off).
    • Picking a loudness destination is respected - Acetate won't override it.
    • Low-sample-rate sources no longer produce corrupt audio from EQ.
    • The limiter now works more gently on loud masters for fewer artifacts.
    • Very quiet sources are no longer crushed to the loudness target - they land under target instead of being pushed through the limiter.
    • Harshness is now treated where it actually is. The de-esser follows the detected resonance instead of working at a fixed frequency, and it engages properly on quiet tracks as well as loud ones.
    • Sibilance and cymbal harshness in the upper range are now detected - the scan previously missed some.
    • The A/B reference file is no longer clipped, so you're comparing against a clean copy of your mix rather than a distorted one.
    • 16-bit exports from reference matching are now dithered.
22. v1.0.3 2026-07-19
    Added

    • First-run onboarding: pick Club, Streaming, Critical listening, or Gentle, and Acetate sets its default loudness target and chain to match where the track is going - so your first master isn't tuned for the wrong place.
    • Target-aware engine: saturation, density, and the true-peak ceiling now scale to your loudness target. Streaming masters stop coming out too loud or crunchy.
    Changed

    • Export controls sit in one labeled row - format and target as pills - in a wider, cleaner settings panel.
    Fixed

    • Settings credit stays pinned as the panel footer instead of floating.
    • Stage headings no longer overlap the title, and the result screen fits the window with no leftover scroll gap.
23. v1.0.2 2026-07-18
    Changed

    • The settings panel is wider and the export controls sit in one labeled row.
24. v1.0.1 2026-07-17
    Fixed

    • Stable builds no longer show a "Beta" label in the badge.
25. v1.0.0 2026-07-17
    Added

    • First stable release. Drop a WAV, AIFF, FLAC, or MP3 and get a full read - LUFS, true peak, crest, and a spectral picture - then the exact processing chain Acetate proposes, with every move shown and a per-move safety note. Three free masters per install.