Posted By Paul Kafasis on April 5th, 2024

Big news: Audio Hijack has now been updated to provide our new installer-free setup on MacOS 14.4 and up. Just as we showed off last month with our recent Piezo update, you can now get started using Audio Hijack nearly instantly. There’s no need to restart your Mac, use Recovery mode, or even enter a password.

Just how fast is the new setup? See for yourself:

In just seconds, you too can be recording audio on your Mac with Audio Hijack. It’s now incredibly easy to get started.

Additional Details

This update overhauls Audio Hijack’s audio capture backend, which was quite an undertaking. As a user, however, you shouldn’t see any differences when it comes to functionality. Audio Hijack is as powerful as ever, able to capture any audio on your Mac so you can create audio recordings, apply advanced audio effects, or even transcribe live audio to text.

Because the new backend requires MacOS 14.4, we’ve split Audio Hijack into two variants.¹ But you don’t have to worry about a thing. The app automatically ensures you’re running the right variant for your version of MacOS, to make sure it just works.

Get the Latest Audio Hijack Now

If you’re already using Audio Hijack, just choose Check for Updates from the Audio Hijack menu to get the latest version for your system.

If you’re new to Audio Hijack, or haven’t used it recently, it’s simply never been easier to it try out. The Audio Hijack product page provides all the details, and enables you to download the free trial. As the video above shows, it’s a snap to get started recording any audio on your Mac.

Still More to Come

With this update, we’ve now brought installer-free setup to Piezo, Airfoil, and Audio Hijack. These apps now have our easiest first-run process ever. There’s still more to come, as we’re continuing to work on streamlining things for Loopback and SoundSource as well. Stay tuned for further updates!

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Footnotes:

1. For MacOS 14.4 and higher, Audio Hijack 4.4.0 is the current version. On MacOS 11 through 14.3.1, Audio Hijack 4.3.3 is used. These two variants of the app function identically. ↩︎

Posted By Chris Barajas on March 13th, 2024

Our charmingly simple audio recording tool Piezo has just received an update that’s both small and monumental. There are a handful of bug fixes, but existing users may not notice much different in the update. Under the hood, however, there are massive changes. Now, anyone getting started with Piezo can do so without needing to install additional components, nor even enter an admin password. That’s a big deal!

Get Started in Seconds

As previewed in our recent status report, we’re working hard to simplify the first-run experience for all of our apps. That easier setup process has now launched with Piezo, making it possible to get started nearly instantly.

This video shows that you can now start recording audio in less than 30 seconds:

As you can see, you no longer need to restart your Mac to get started recording audio with Piezo. And since no password is required either, it’s now possible for Standard user accounts to use Piezo on their Mac without requiring assistance from an Administrator.

A Seamless Experience for All Users

Piezo’s audio capture technology has been overhauled to make this seamless setup possible. When it comes to recording, however, this new technology works as it always has. Piezo still makes it a snap to record audio from any app on your Mac.

Piezo’s new installer-free experience is available on MacOS 14.4 and higher, so we’ve split the app into two variants: Piezo 1.9.0 runs on MacOS 14.4 and higher, while Piezo 1.8.2 is available for MacOS 11 through 14.3.1.¹ To keep things simple for all users, Piezo always ensures that you’re running the right variant of the app for your system. There’s just one download from our website, and when you launch Piezo, everything is handled for you automatically.

Try the Latest Piezo Now

If you’re already a Piezo user, just choose Check for Updates… from the Piezo menu to get the latest version for your system.²

If you’re new to Piezo, or haven’t used the app in a while, it’s never been easier to get started. Visit Piezo’s product page to learn more about it, and download the free trial to test it out. You’re going to love it.

More to Come

This update to Piezo is just the beginning. We’re hard at work on updates which will provide this same easy setup to Airfoil, Audio Hijack, Loopback, and SoundSource. Stay tuned for more updates!³

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Footnotes:

1. Piezo is still supported on MacOS 11 and later, through these two actively updated variants. Further, we always provide Legacy downloads of all our products for even older releases of MacOS that are no longer supported. If you bought a product from us, you’ll always be able to get it from us. ↩︎

2. Our in-app software update system is smart enough to detect whether you’ve got Apple’s latest updates to MacOS 14 (Sonoma). If you’re not prompted for Piezo 1.9, you may need to update your Mac by checking for updates in System Settings. ↩︎

3. To preview the latest and greatest changes before their official release, check out our test release system. ↩︎

Posted By Paul Kafasis on March 1st, 2024

Last year, we hit another employee milestone here at Rogue Amoeba and today, we’re finally getting around to properly celebrating it. This time, we’re honoring Nathan Tiddy for five years (and more!) with the company.

A Look at Some of Nathan’s Work

Nathan’s done a lot of work in his time at Rogue Amoeba. Here are just some of the major projects he’s brought to life.

SoundSource 4 and SoundSource 5

Prior to joining on here, Nathan had developed an audio adjuster called “menuBUS”. That work made him a great fit to helm the overhaul to SoundSource we had in the works. With Nathan’s help, our small little audio utility graduated into a robust sound control application. We shipped SoundSource 4 less than a year after Nathan was hired. With it, Mac users gained powerful new control over all their audio, including per-application adjustments and the ability to adjust any audio with effects. Nathan fought hard for those audio adjustments to include Audio Unit effects, and countless users are glad he did.

SoundSource 4 was such a hit that it brought a deluge of feedback full of feature requests and suggestions. We generally space out our major product versions, but neither the people nor Nathan could be denied. Just 17 months after SoundSource 4 had shipped, we were ready to release SoundSource 5. This version improved audio effects substantially, and made SoundSource easier to use by automatically tracking what apps were producing audio. It also formed the foundation for several years’ worth of further updates and improvements, and Nathan’s led the way on all of those.

SoundSource has a large and growing user base, and it’s thanks to Nathan’s hard work.

Farrago 2

While SoundSource is the product over which Nathan has had the most influence, his work on Farrago has been key as well. His first shipping code after joining us in 2018 was found in our soundboard app, where he was responsible for the app’s MIDI support.

A few years later, Nathan took over lead development of the app as we worked to level up to version 2. That update shipped last year, and it included more external controls, including Stream Deck and OSC, as well as Shortcuts support, and much more. Nathan built on top of the app’s solid version 1 (created by veteran dev Grant Farr), and took the app to new heights.

Audio Hijack’s “Transcribe” Block

Nathan has also done a fair amount of R&D for us here at Rogue Amoeba, but that work hasn’t always seen the light of day. Late last year, however, we were thrilled to be able to wrap some of his work into a shippable package: Audio Hijack’s Whisper-powered “Transcribe” block. That block is still in public beta, but it’s already helping countless users transcribe audio to text, and we’ve got plans for further improvements in the future as well.

Thank You, Nathan

Nathan has led the way on major enhancements across multiple products. If you’re a Rogue Amoeba customer, it’s a good bet you’re benefitting from some of his work. What you don’t know is what a pleasure Nathan is to work with, nor how quickly he can crank out new code, or prototype ideas we’re considering. He’s a great asset to the company, and we’re thrilled to have him.

I look forward to many more great years ahead, as we continue working together to develop the Mac’s very best audio tools. Thank you, Nathan! We’re honored to have you on our team.

Posted By Paul Kafasis on January 9th, 2024

A new year is upon us, and that means it’s time for another annual status report. Let’s have a look back at Rogue Amoeba’s 2023 and preview some things to look forward to in the coming year.

Last year was very busy for us, but an unusually high percentage of our work took place behind the scenes. Much more will be revealed in the coming months, but there was still plenty to see in 2023.

49 Updates Shipped

Averaging nearly one release per week is no easy task, but the 49 updates shipped last year actually represented our lowest total since 2019. When COVID struck in 2020, the global shift to working from home caused a rapid increase in our user base. The resulting flood of feedback and new use cases led to an unprecedented 80 updates that year. Since that stressful high-water mark, we’ve made a concerted effort to be more deliberate with our update schedule. We bundle bug fixes and feature updates into a smaller number of robustly-tested releases. Things now flow more smoothly internally, and we disrupt our users less frequently as well.

We continued to provide outstanding value to our customers, with all but one of those 49 updates being provided free for existing users. In the fall, we had support for MacOS 14 (Sonoma) well before its release. We also added dozens of new features throughout the year, polished myriad interfaces and interactions, and exterminated plenty of bugs.

Three Big New Audio Hijack Releases

Audio Hijack started off 2023 by winning its third Upgradie for “Best Mac App”, which meant it also received a Lifetime Achievement award. Things got even better from there.

Audio Hijack 4.1 arrived shortly after, with a whopping 53 enhancements. Included among these was a more powerful System Audio block, as well as the ability to greatly decrease the screen space the app uses.

In May, Audio Hijack 4.2 brought three powerful new blocks. Parametric EQ adjusts audio with surgical precision, using multiple bands with customizable filter types, frequency, Q, and gain. Speech Denoise harnesses machine learning (ML) to let your audio shine. And with the FIR Filter, you can give your audio a signature sound.

Perhaps the most unexpected update, however, came in Audio Hijack 4.3. The new Transcribe block uses the power of OpenAI’s “Whisper” to provide transcriptions for any audio on your Mac. Audio Hijack can now serve as your own personal stenographer, and people are using it in all sorts of amazing ways.

See the Audio Hijack page to get the latest, and to learn more.

SoundSource 5.6

In recent years, SoundSource has become a favorite tool for all sorts of Mac users. Our product lineup aims to help a wide range of users, but many of our tools are particularly helpful for prosumers like podcasters and folks making lots of audio calls on their Macs. SoundSource, on the other hand, is something no Mac should be without.

With SoundSource 5.6, we added support for Apple’s Sound Isolation effect, which works to isolate voice from background audio. Using SoundSource, you can now apply Sound Isolation to any app on your Mac. The update also improved the Headphone EQ effect, with updated support for AutoEq profiles.

With its fast access to devices, per-app controls, and so much more, SoundSource can help any user who listens to audio on their Mac. That’s almost certainly you, so visit the SoundSource page to check it out.

Farrago 2

Farrago 2 represented our lone paid upgrade in 2023. It brought more than 75 new features and improvements, including a built-in audio editor, integrated search of the Freesound.org sound database, support for Stream Deck and OSC controllers, audio previewing, and more. Farrago was already the Mac’s best soundboard app, and version 2 is better than ever.

Every aspect of the app was reviewed, with improvements made across the board. Neale once again blogged about the process of designing the new version, with “The Design of Farrago 2”. I especially love the way the before and after comparison images so quickly show off months of progress.

Odds & Ends

Of course, we did more than just release product updates. In early March, we unveiled one of my favorite projects in recent memory: the Rogue Amoeba Historic Screenshot Archive. It’s a whole lot of fun, and worth checking out. In a similar vein, Rogue Amoeba’s 21st anniversary in September was the occasion for Neale to create a lovely icon flowchart. Give it a look to see how our app icons have progressed over time.

Other notable 2023 blog posts included “The RIAA v. Steve Jobs” and “A Word of Caution on MacOS Updates”. The former is a rather horrifying tale of the near-death of Audio Hijack, and perhaps Rogue Amoeba, way back in the mid-aughts. Meanwhile, the latter is the first blog post from our newest support tech Aaron, and it provides a thoughtful look at what it means to run beta versions of Apple’s OSes.

Aaron’s actually been with us since 2021, but we did increase our headcount last year. In fact, 2023 saw Rogue Amoeba grow to the largest its ever been, with 12 full-time employees. We’ve got a fantastic team dedicated to the Mac apps you love, and I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside them.

As previously mentioned, much of the work we did last year hasn’t been made visible quite yet. In 2024, we expect to unveil much of the fruits of those labors. I’ll discuss two major efforts we’re focused on.

A Dramatically Simplified Launch Experience

We’re incredibly excited about updates coming in the next few months, which will improve the first launch experience for all of our audio capture apps: Airfoil, Audio Hijack, Loopback, Piezo, and SoundSource.

As a result of changes Apple made back in MacOS 11, our apps have been stuck with a setup process that’s much more complicated than we’d like. Currently, an annoying restart is required to get going on Intel-based Macs. Setup is even more burdensome on Apple’s newest M Chip-based Macs, with multiple restarts required, as well a change to the Mac’s “Security Policy”. This has been a notable pain point, which comes before a user even has a chance to try the app. It’s been very frustrating for us to not be able to do better for our customers, and there’s no doubt that this has deterred people from using our products.

We’re now very close to removing those obstacles completely. We’ll soon be shipping updates that simplify things immensely. In fact, Airfoil, Audio Hijack and Piezo will feature an installer-free setup that won’t even need your administrator password. Meanwhile, Loopback and SoundSource will use a new audio capture plugin called ARK that won’t require a single system restart. It’s going to be an incredible improvement to our user experience.

These changes may go unnoticed until you’re setting up your next Mac, but they’re going to allow new users to blast off in seconds. We’re beyond thrilled to streamline our setup process, and to help many more people harness the power of our tools.

Big Updates To Our Most Popular Apps

In 2023, we also began a trio of initiatives to update our most popular apps: Audio Hijack, Loopback, and SoundSource. Each product is led by a different member of our talented team, and the work they’re doing is coming along well. If you’re already using one or more of these apps, you’re going to love the additions coming this year.

If you haven’t checked out Audio Hijack, Loopback, or SoundSource before, however, there’s no need to wait. They’re already fantastic and ready to assist you today.

In addition to these major undertakings, our entire product line will of course continue to be updated. There are certain to be maintenance releases, and likely a few other surprises as well.

Ways to Keep in Touch

You won’t want to miss out, so here are a few ways you can keep up with the latest news from Rogue Amoeba.

Follow Us on Social Media

On our social media accounts, we post about updates big and small, along with the occasional bit of amusing randomness. Following the decay of Twitter in 2023, you can now find us on more social media platforms than ever, including:

 

Read the Release Notes

Built-in version checking will alert you to our latest updates, with detailed release notes telling you what’s new. Those release notes are also provided on our site. Click your favorite app to see them:

 

Read This Blog

Our blog is the place to read about major updates in depth. You can subscribe to our handy feed in any RSS reader.

Join Our Mailing List

Last but not least, we recommend all users join our very low-traffic mailing list. We send just two to four emails each year, with information on very biggest news, along with exclusive deals.

Until Next Time

We’ve got lots to do, so it’s time to get to it. Have a happy new year, and then stay tuned for much more from your favorite Mac audio software company.

Posted By Paul Kafasis on January 5th, 2024

Earlier this week, we were once again thrilled to have Audio Hijack honored by the Upgrade podcast. You might recall that our flagship audio recorder had a coveted Lifetime Achievement award bestowed upon it at the end of 2022. As a result, Audio Hijack is no longer in the running for future Upgradie awards.

However, two weeks after announcing the 2023 Upgradies, Jason and Myke added a new section to the Upgradies award cabinet. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Upgradies, the duo looked over all the winners from the past decade. They then enshrined one winner per category in the Upgradies Hall of Fame.

Much to our delight, Audio Hijack was elected to the Hall in the “Best Mac App” category. Here’s a bit of what Jason had to say¹:

You talk to people who are on Windows and know about Mac stuff…like Audio Hijack, Like, wha…It’s so good, like it’s so smart, that interface that they built. Because for people who don’t remember, the old Audio Hijack interface was terrible, but the new Audio Hijack interface with the little blocks that are all connected and that you can record from different things and process them and send them different places. For podcasters, it’s invaluable.

Now that’s a great way to kick off the new year – thank you, Jason and Myke! Give the whole show a listen to hear all about the best of the best apps and more from the past ten years. And if you haven’t seen Audio Hijack recently, why not download it and give it a whirl? It’s now more award-winning than ever!

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Footnotes:

1. This transcription was generated using Audio Hijack’s new Transcribe block, then lightly edited. Neat! ↩︎