AdaptiveSound 1.0.0-alpha

AdaptiveSound 1.0.0-alpha is the first release (R1), a music player for your own library on macOS. It is an
early build: expect rough edges, and please report what you find.

Requirements

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) on Apple Silicon.
• Optional: FFmpeg via Homebrew (brew install ffmpeg) for formats
  Apple's decoders don't cover. Without it, the app uses Apple's decoders.

Install

1. Download AdaptiveSound-1.0.0-alpha-macos-arm64.dmg, open it, and drag AdaptiveSound to Applications.
2. This alpha is not notarized by Apple yet, so macOS blocks the first launch. Open System Settings ›
   Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to AdaptiveSound. You only do this once.
   • Or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/AdaptiveSound.app

Verify the download

These files were built by GitHub Actions from this release's tag, not on a personal machine, and each one carries a
signed build-provenance attestation (Sigstore). To check one:

gh attestation verify AdaptiveSound-1.0.0-alpha-macos-arm64.dmg --repo ramith/sound-engineering

SHA256SUMS.txt lists the SHA-256 of each file.

What's in it

• Your library: add music folders and browse Songs, Albums, Artists and Genres, with album, artist and genre pages,
  filtering and sorting. Changes on disk are picked up live, and at the next launch.
• Playlists: create, rename and reorder; drag songs onto a playlist.
• Now Playing: a queue with Up Next and Recent, shuffle and repeat, gapless playback, a live spectrum analyzer,
  and loudness readouts.
• EQ: a 31-point graphic EQ that plays what it draws, with Tone controls (Bass, Body, Mids, Presence, Air), built-in
  presets and your own, a hold-to-compare, and per-output memory. It stays at the same loudness, with a safety limiter.
• Pure Mode: bit-perfect output straight to your device, the device following each track's sample rate (no EQ or
  effects). A track it can't play exactly (for example a mono track on stereo speakers) plays in Enhanced,
  and the app says so.
• Output devices: the app follows the system output until you pick a device; then it stays there, and returns to
  it when it reconnects. Unplugging pauses playback and keeps your place.
• Monitoring: per-channel before / after spectrum, up to 7.1.
• Design: a translucent glass-style look in dark and light (the app's own design, not Apple's Liquid Glass
  controls), with VoiceOver and full-keyboard support.

Known issues

The open list is in known-issues.md.
Notable for this alpha:

• Not notarized (see Install).
• Pure Mode on Bluetooth falls back to Enhanced.
• Seamless track changes: a mid-song Repeat change, and the 48 kHz path, can leave a tiny gap between tracks.
• VoiceOver keeps the app fairly busy while a song plays.
• A replaced music drive: if you move your music to a new drive with the same name, the app pauses that folder to
  protect your library. Don't remove and re-add the folder: that resets play counts, loved and ratings for songs not
  in a playlist. A fix is coming.
• Your output device choice is remembered until you quit, not across launches.
• Surround music on stereo: a 5.1 or 7.1 track played on headphones or stereo speakers plays only its front left
  and right channels, so the centre (often the vocals), LFE and surrounds are lost; a 5.1 ALAC/AAC file also plays its
  centre channel from the left speaker. A standard fold-down is planned.
• "Remove Missing…" on a playlist treats songs on an unplugged drive as missing and removes them from the
  playlist. Reconnect your music drive before using it.