SoundSource Release Notes

Audio Unit plugins will no longer unexpectedly reset SoundSource’s audio processing latency (configured in the “Audio” tab of SoundSource’s Settings) to “Automatic”.

Performance after closing plugin windows has been improved.

A rare crash which could occur when metering audio while the system’s “coreaudiod” was restarted has been fixed.

The celebratory sound effect heard when unlocking SoundSource will now correctly play through the Mac’s configured “Sound Effects” device. After all, sound effects play through a separately configured output in MacOS.

SoundSource will now launch and run as expected on MacOS 14.1.

SoundSource now correctly targets audio from the “Playgrounds” app, as well as its ExecutionExtension sub-process.

A rare issue where SoundSource’s popover could get stuck between multiple monitors has been fixed.

An erroneous error message when deleting presets from built-in (non-Audio Unit) effects has been corrected.

It’s now possible to control-click in the “Name” and “Code” fields of the “License” window, making it possible to copy and paste in data.

SoundSource will now consistently detect applications run through the latest version of CrossOver.

An issue where certain games launched by Steam would have their audio processing duplicated has been corrected.

A rare crash which could occur with certain USB devices when waking the Mac from sleep has been fixed.

The menu bar muting feature while the main window is open will no longer cause expanded source sections to unexpectedly collapse.

The effects list will no longer inadvertently collapse or expand via the left/right arrow shortcuts, avoiding interface issues.

The SoundSource window now maintains the correct window level when attached to the menu bar, allowing it to correctly be obscured by VLC when set to “Float on Top”.

Clearing an effect’s name can no longer incorrectly result in the effect having no name at all.

The VoiceOver readout has been fixed for for generic Audio Unit sliders with a parameter range falling outside of 0 to 1.

Minor adjustments have been made to global shortcuts in the “Settings” window, to provide better tooltips and a correct cancel (X) button.

Audio Unit plugins built with the iPlug2 SDK, including Neural Amp Modeller, should now have correct mouse responsiveness.

A bug that hid the software update progress panel when downloading test releases on unofficially supported operating systems has been corrected.

The pinned SoundSource window will no longer incorrectly appear when entering full screen mode in another app, fixing a regression found in version 5.5.8.

A rare issue where a change to a system audio device could cause a crash has been corrected.

The volume setting will no longer be incorrectly altered after lowering the “Volume Overdrive” multipler.

SoundSource now correctly saves presets for Audio Unit plugins even when the preset folder does not yet exist.

An issue where SoundSource could crash when it was added or removed from MacOS’s “Login Items” has been fixed.

A rare crash which could occur when a single audio effect was used by multiple audio sources at once has been fixed.

A crash which could occur when entering a number while the balance slider was focused has been fixed.

SoundSource now maintains its pinned position when an another app becomes full screen.

Inconsistencies with the behavior of the volume slider control found in “Volume Overdrive” have been corrected.

A rare crash which could occur when SoundSource launched at login has been fixed.

A meter channel mapping issue which could trigger a coreaudiod crash has been resolved.

Several different crashes have been fixed.

Super Volume Keys Improvements
Performance has been improved, to avoid rare delays when volume keys are pressed very rapidly. As well, SoundSource now recognizes volume events sent by Stream Deck and other keyboard finagling software.

SoundSource now respects system menu bar icon spacing changes made by third-party apps like Bartender.

Audio Unit names are now sanitized when created or modified, to ensure they don't become hidden files on disk.

Meters will no longer report invalid levels when their target device's sample rate is changed.

SoundSource now correctly remembers devices used in Shortcuts between app restarts, and device removals.

Improvements have been made to handling plugin window resizing, and generic views for AUGraphicEQ now correctly update their controls when switching between 10 band and 30 band modes.

Due to changes made by Apple, the “System Speech” special source is no longer available on MacOS 13 (Ventura). It has been replaced by a “Siri” special source (combining the system’s com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process which provides Siri’s spoken word audio with the assistantd hidden process which provides its sound effects) as well as a “VoiceOver” special source (combining the system’s com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process which provides VoiceOver’s spoken accessibility hints and the VoiceOver process which provides its sound effects). “Text to Speech” audio can now be captured on a per-application basis, by targeting the application where the text is being spoken.

The “Get Devices” Shortcut will now correctly list all available input devices.

Piezo will no longer incorrectly appear as an input device for SoundSource. That was weird and wrong!

A bug which could cause some Audio Unit plugins to fail to load, or crash, has been squashed.

Critical Update to ACE
The Audio Capture Engine (ACE) has been updated to 11.8.2, to fix a regression introduced in 11.8.1 which could cause a problematic memory leak when using meters.

SoundSource now properly handles situations where capturing high sample rate audio streams could time out and reset, avoiding choppy or distorted audio.

SoundSource now better determines what process is playing audio, fixing a bug which would cause apps like GOG or Steam to incorrectly appear as the source of audio for games they were launching.

A bug where high sample rate audio would fail to be processed by SoundSource, or could audibly distort, has been fixed.

The main SoundSource window will no longer get stuck between displays when opened using the global hotkey.

In certain configurations with high sample rates and high buffer sizes, the “More Reliable” Latency mode could actually wind up being less reliable. This has been fixed, and “More Reliable” is now correctly more reliable in all cases.

Fix for Presets-Related Launch Issues
In rare setups with saved presets for certain Audio Units, a bug introduced in SoundSource 5.5 could prevent the app from launching. The bug has been exterminated with much vengeance.

Clicking the first band of AUNBandEQ will no longer lead to a non-responsive UI, fixing a regression introduced in SoundSource 5.5.0.

Magic Boost Fix
Changing frame sizes will no longer cause distorted audio when using the “Magic Boost” effect, fixing a regression found in SoundSource 5.3.10.

Audio Units Again Load Properly on MacOS 10.14 (Mojave)
An issue where Audio Unit effects would fail to load on MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) has been corrected, fixing a regression found in SoundSource 5.3.10.

SoundSource now better handles instances where an application's bundle identifier changes. This fixes an acute issue with “Mumble”, and will avoid future issues.

An issue where volume adjustments could be less noticeable than expected has been fixed, with the traditional exponential volume curve once again being properly applied.

After accessing SoundSource's alternate menu by control-clicking, the menu bar icon will no longer incorrectly disappear on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) and MacOS 10.14 (Mojave).

The “Latency” slider in Preferences now draws properly on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) and MacOS 10.14 (Mojave).

When using the “Quit and Relaunch for Debugging” option, SoundSource now better saves its state.

Improvements for Problematic Third-Party Audio Effects
SoundSource's plugin hosting service now relaunches more reliably in the event that a plugin crashes, and also handles frequent crashes of plugins more gracefully.

Sound effects played by MacOS's “VoiceOver” source can now be adjusted, as it is no longer on the internal Ignore list.

Several improvements have been made to the generic interfaces for Audio Units:

    • Controls which alter the interface, such as the band-count selector in “AUGraphicEQ”, now work as expected

    • Various controls are now properly aligned.

    • Scrolling on sliders now works as expected, to move the slider knob left or right.

    • Finally, option-clicking an effect no longer does a one-time generic load.

The loading timeout for Audio Unit plugins has been increased, to avoid issues with the iLok license manager being slow to load.

Rare audio clicks which could occur at the start of sound playback when running at higher sample rates have been fixed.

An issue where Firefox audio could appear twice in SoundSource, under a “plugin-container” process, has been rectified.

As a result of changes to MacOS, the Shortcuts app erroneously showed non-functional Shortcuts for SoundSource. This has been corrected, and those invalid Shortcuts will no longer appear. We hope to add proper Shortcuts support to SoundSource in the future.

The (X) control for removing effects in the main window no longer incorrectly dims when an effect is turned off.

An issue where application favorite status wasn’t remembered between launches has been corrected.

SoundSource now properly closes via its global hotkey while another application is in Full Screen mode.

VoiceOver fix: To avoid errantly disabling Voiceover audio, SoundSource now warns when VoiceOver will be muted by clicking on the menu bar meter.

VoiceOver fix: VoiceOver navigation will now reliably open app-level effect windows.

VoiceOver fix: VoiceOver navigation can now properly access the device-specific contextual menus.

The “Finder” source now shows a proper menu bar icon when meters are active.

The “loginwindow” and “PowerChime” audio sources (both part of MacOS) are now filtered out of SoundSource.

A rare issue where SoundSource's menu bar icon could fail to appear has been corrected.

SoundSource's “Unlock” sound (played when a valid license key is entered) now plays at the correct local volume.

VoiceOver fix: The Favorite toggle for applications now correctly announces the “Unfavorite” option.

SoundSource's Super Volume Keys feature now works as expected when using MacOS’s Fast User Switching feature.

Compatibility with the PSP Microcomp audio unit plugin has been improved.

A rare conflict which could cause audio distortion when using Voice Memos with SoundSource and Loopback has been corrected.

Fixes for Multi-Output and Aggregate Devices
SoundSource will once again correctly redirect audio to multi-output and aggregate devices.

It is once again possible to set a Loopback device as the system input or output with SoundSource, avoiding a rare CoreAudio crash.

Improvements have been made for better compatibility with the FabFilter effect's full-screen mode.

SoundSource will no longer fail to change devices due to rare problems caused by certain lower-quality USB devices.

Using subdevices of aggregate devices with SoundSource should now function as expected.

The attack time of the Magic Boost effect has been adjusted, to avoid unwanted audio distortion during voice chats.

Plugins which require sample time readings from the plugin host, such as Melodyne and ERA 4 De-Clipper, will now work as expected.

1/4 increments for volume control (Shift+Opt+Volume Up/Volume Down) now work correctly when “Use F1,F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” option is enabled in System Preferences.

A never-seen-in-the-wild crash related to channel mapping has been fixed, before it could be seen in the wild.

Rare Startup Hang Fixed
A rare issue where SoundSource could hang at launch due to duplicate device entries has been fixed.

AirPlay Bug Fixes
Corrections have been made to how SoundSource handles AirPlay devices. Per-app output selectors once again correctly exclude the AirPlay output. As well, the AirPlay output will no longer incorrectly appear when Music.app is set to play audio to an AirPlay device.

SoundSource now only affects input devices when necessary, reducing latency in many scenarios.

Improvements have been made for adjusting the audio of iOS apps running on M1 Macs. These apps should no longer appear multiple times in SoundSource's Applications list.

Resetting an application's settings (by control-clicking the application, then selecting the “Reset to Default Settings” option) now correctly resets the state of “Bypass Effects” as well.

Volume Overdrive settings are now correctly saved between launches even when the effect is bypassed.

Mute buttons have been improved visually, with a new standard “pressed” state.

Custom Profiles imported into Headphone EQ now have correct Q values applied. Profiles imported with an older version of SoundSource will be automatically corrected as well.

A bug where certain applications (Catalyst apps, as well as iOS apps running on Apple Silicon Macs) could be captured and processed twice has been fixed.

Applications which have effects applied to them will no longer have a tiny bit of unprocessed signal heard during initial playback.

The Quick Tour now properly supports the new “Speak items under the pointer” setting in MacOS 11 (Big Sur).

Improvements have been made for the Installer and Quick Tour, to present better on small resolutions, using scrollbars to make all content accessible.

Input Device Monitoring Fix
SoundSource no longer incorrectly accesses the input device when it is muted. This fixes a regression found in SoundSource 5.3.0 involving menu bar meters.

Volume Properly Retained Between Launches for All Devices
SoundSource once again properly retains volume settings for all devices. This fixes a regression found in SoundSource 5.3.0, which affected devices that require a software volume control, such as those using “Super Volume Keys”.

Audio Units will now work correctly at high sample rates, resolving a crackling issue reported by some users.

All third-party Audio Units should now load as expected, fixing an issue seen with “Gain” from Kilohearts, as well as “NX Ocean Way” from Waves.

The legacy SoundSource icon, accessible from the Debugging window, is once again working as expected. This fixes a regression found in SoundSource 5.3.0.

The FX badge, indicating when audio effects are in use, will once again be accurate at all times.

Plugin interfaces have been improved to respond as expected on MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 10.14 (Mojave).

Fixes have been made for the highlight on device selectors in Dark Mode.

Sample Rate Fixes for Headphone EQ
A bug which caused the “Headphone EQ” effect to apply the wrong correction curves between sample rate changes has been fixed.

SoundSource now properly respects the “Follow System Accent Color” preference, when the selected color (in System Preferences) is Blue. All other colors worked as expected, and now Blue does as well.

A rare issue where an application could be incorrectly added to SoundSource (using its executable, rather than its proper bundle path) has been fixed.

SoundSource no longer unnecessarily adds digital muting to audio redirected to a muted device.

The memory footprint related to SoundSource's Undo history has been improved.

A crash which could occur when Control-clicking an audio effect has been fixed.

Important Crash Fix
SoundSource once again properly handles mono input devices. This fix means SoundSource no longer crashes when working with these devices, fixing a regression found in SoundSource 5.1.3.

Fix for Excessive CPU Usage
Using SoundSource on a Mac running MacOS 11 (Big Sur) with multiple displays connected will no longer result in excessive CPU usage.

Adjustments have been made to restore full inter-compatibility with Pro Tools.

Switching between Headphone EQ profiles will now immediately clear the effect of a previously previewed profile.

Further adjustments have been made to prevent SoundSource from appearing on top of windows when it shouldn't.

The blue System “accent” color is no longer improperly ignored on MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) and MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

Text to Speech Audio Is Again Supported
Audio spoken by the system is once again properly supported by SoundSource, fixing a regression in SoundSource 5.1.0.

Adjustments have been made to prevent SoundSource from appearing on top of software update alerts. As well, the Favorites application selector has been moved to a sheet, to avoid window priority issues.

The “Headphone EQ” effect now sounds better, fixing an issue where bandwidth settings were being incorrectly calculated for the correction curves.

Audio Units once again correctly provide a generic user interface when VoiceOver is active on the system.

It's again possible to add multiple Special Sources to Favorites.

An issue where SoundSource's main window could fail to open properly when clicking the menu bar icon has been resolved.

Updates to the names of Loopback virtual audio devices are now immediately reflected.

The last-open item is correctly remembered between launches in all cases now.

Unwanted Microphone Volume Adjustments Be Gone
This update fixes a bug where SoundSource would incorrectly apply a secondary volume adjustment to devices without master volume controls, causing input volume to be incorrectly lowered. This issue generally affected microphones which don't feature a master volume control, including those from Yeti.

Proper Support for Applications With Their Own Output Selectors
Applications which include their own output selectors can once again be controlled fully by SoundSource, fixing a reversion found in SoundSource 5.

Improvements for Catalyst Apps; More Improvements to Come
Audio adjustment of apps built using Apple's Mac Catalyst, such as “Podcasts”, now works better. However, some known issues with Catalyst apps not being properly impacted by SoundSource’s adjustments remain. Additional improvements are in progress.

SoundSource now presents its Application list in a scroll view, to work better on small screens when many applications are favorited. This fixes a reversion from version 4.

An issue where SoundSource could accidentally and improperly adjust per-app volumes based on output device has been corrected.

External changes to the input device should now always be picked up by SoundSource.

Updates have been made to better handle Cisco Webex. Users who have previously had multiple favorited Webex apps should now find only a single instance will be active. Other starred instances can be removed.

New, correct icons for Special Sources like Siri and VoiceOver are now used for menu bar meters.

A crash which could occur while using Super Volume Keys with certain rare audio devices has been fixed.

A crash which could occur while using Super Volume Keys with certain rare keyboards has been fixed.

A crash which could occur with the AUNBandEQ effect has been fixed.

A rare crash which could occur after an ACE update has been corrected.

Audio adjustment now works correctly when the “preferred stereo channels” of the system output are changed.

The “Mixed In Key” audio unit is now fully supported.

Support for Dock-less Audio Apps
SoundSource can again properly adjust audio from Dock-less (menu bar only) audio apps, such as Triode and Vox. This fixes a regression in version 5.

Proper Support for Special Sources
SoundSource will once again properly handle audio from the “Special Sources” found in the “Add Favorites” menu, including Siri and Text to Speech.

Full-Screen Video Issues Resolved
A conflict which could occur when playing full-screen video has been resolved.

Sound Effects Device Corrections
Several corrections have been made related to the Sound Effects device. SoundSource now properly handles Sound Effects volumes when it's applying a software volume adjustment, as well as tracking and setting the device correctly in all situations.

Assorted Crashes Fixed
Several rare crashes have been fixed, including one which could cause the application to crash on launch.

Myriad Accessibility Improvements
We've made many improvements to accessibility, based on user feedback (Thank you!). Several VoiceOver changes should make the application easier to navigate in particular, and the menu bar icon now correctly reports output volume in its tool tip and VoiceOver readout.

Typing the letter “f” now works as expected in the “Add Effects” menu's Search field, no longer conflicting with Cmd-F.

Proper Balance in All Things
A reversion in SoundSource 5.0.1 could cause re-directed application audio to improperly play from only the left channel. That issue has been corrected.

For users just moving up from version 4, SoundSource will now correctly import all Volume Overdrive settings.

Invisible Icons, Revealed
An issue where SoundSource's icons could fail to be visible in Light mode, due to issues with theming in MacOS, has been corrected.

Equalizer Presets Now Save Properly For All
Saving custom user presets for the 10-band equalizer will now work as expected on all systems.

Correctly Importing SoundSource 4 Equalizer Presets
Custom user presets for the 10-band equalizer which were previously saved in SoundSource 4 are now properly imported in to SoundSource 5.

Fixes for the “Sound Effects” Device
Several issues where SoundSource failed to properly handle the Sound Effects device have been corrected.

Correct Display of Current Sample Rate
The Output device's current sample rate once again correctly shows in SoundSource.

All Settings Correctly Save
Several issues where SoundSource failed to correctly save volume-related settings between launches have been corrected.

The new stand-alone “Balance” effect will now always properly appear in the Effects area for the default output device.

SonarWorks and other volume adjustors will once again appear as expected, fixing a reversion in 5.0.0.

SoundSource 5.0.0 incorrectly allowed apps to be removed from the Applications list via a now-deprecated method, resulting in inconsistent behavior until SoundSource was quit and relaunched. This has been corrected.

Memory Leak Fixes
A major memory leak which could occur when using some apps like Zoom has been plugged, as has a smaller leak relating to undo history.

A rare crash which could occur if all sources were removed has been fixed.

Plugin popovers will once again get the correct orientation.

Super Volume Keys once again work as expected on MacOS 10.12 (Sierra).

A rare crash relating to “Super Volume Keys” has been fixed.

A crash which which could occur when no devices where present (such as when coreaudiod was reset) has been fixed.

A regression from 4.2.5 has been corrected, so SoundSource's About box once again indicates the correct version number.

Volume Overdrive Again Works at Launch
Previously set overdriven volumes will once again work correctly at launch.

Previously, certain third-party Audio Units (including those made by “FabFilter”) incorrectly displayed a zoomed interface on Retina displays. This problem has been corrected.

An issue where the Mute shortcut could fail when switching to SoundSource has been corrected.

An problem where Super Volume Keys could be disabled by the system has been fixed.

Volume adjustment feedback should now play properly in all instances when using Super Volume Keys.

Upon dismissing SoundSource, focus now returns to the front-most window in all cases.

A visual glitch where white boxes could appear behind app icons has been fixed. It was very hard to spot even when wrong, but now it's corrected completely.

The Output Volume icon will now correctly update on all menu bars, when using mirrored menu bars on multi-display setups.

SoundSource should now correctly restore its position in the menu bar across all launches and reboots.

A rare memory leak has been plugged.

Audio Unit effects can now open file browsers without breaking window focus.

An issue where SoundSource could fail to properly save volume-related settings for default applications has been resolved.

Initial playback to a re-directed Bluetooth output could previously fail, resulting in audio temporarily playing to the wrong output device. This issue has been resolved.

Previously, the current system output could erroneously appear disconnected in rare cases. This issue has now been fixed.

The menu bar icon no longer incorrectly shows as active on secondary displays when using MacOS 10.14 and lowers.

A rare bug where the application “Remove” button could get stuck showing after the mouse had left the main window has been fixed.

The initial display of a popover that's using a generic display will no longer trigger any On/Off toggle switches to animate from off to on unnecessarily.

Additional fixes have been made for minor issues with Dark Mode, including a problem where the menu bar icon may not appear correctly.

The Preferences window will no longer incorrectly lose focus when switching themes.

Plugin windows will no longer incorrectly show above the menu bar when the system-wide “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” option is active.

Several assorted memory leaks have been plugged.

The Equalizer's preset window will now close properly on MacOS 10.12 (Sierra).

Blurriness Be Gone!
An issue which could cause the menu bar icons and meters to appear blurry has been corrected.

Multiple Fixes for VoiceOver Users
The Appearances pane of the preferences is now correctly accessible to VoiceOver, and a crash which could occur when VoiceOver read the names of custom EQ presets has been fixed.

Bluetooth devices will no longer incorrectly appear in the device selector when the Mac's Bluetooth hardware is turned off.

A loss in audio quality due to sample rate switching, which could occur with certain Bluetooth devices, has been prevented.

An incompatibility between “Super Volume Keys” and Logitech's “Options” software has been fixed.

An issue caused by devices incorrectly using the same “unique” identifier for multiple data sources has been worked around, preventing a crash.

The menu bar icon color no longer gets stuck on white when using the System's “Auto” Appearance selector.

SoundSource will no longer incorrectly be hidden if a plugin was visible when clicking away from the app.

An issue where the plugin bypass setting didn't correctly update on first launch has been fixed.

An issue where Magic Boost could cause a brief glitch in initial audio playback has been corrected.

Closing SoundSource's main app window with the escape key or command + W now returns focus to the app which previously had it.

The balance slider now correctly returns to 0 when adjusting via the arrow keys. Its read-outs when using VoiceOver have also been improved.

A VoiceOver press of the menu bar icon now works as expected.

Several other small bugs have been fixed, including a problem where the history of audio devices could be lost, an issue with the Knowledge Base article for Super Volume Keys not opening as expected, and a flicker when adjusting the menu bar icon.

A -999 error has been fixed, allowing the new Release Notes window will now appear as expected on MacOS 10.13 and lower.

A minor memory leak has been plugged, as all memory leaks should be.

The main popover will no longer incorrectly appear when uninstalling.

The headphone mix from Apogeee Maestro's software will no longer be muted undesirably.

The sample rate selector once again correctly shows rates above 192 kHz when relevant.

We've corrected an issue where the trial mode warning (but not the actual trial mode limitations) could incorrectly appear early.

Previously, audio from certain sites (including SoundCloud.com and Splice.com) might not be correctly adjusted if it was playing in a second audio-producing tab in Chrome. This now works as expected.

Some Audio Unit plugins which did not previously load their interfaces properly now will.

Compatibility improvements have been made for Apogee Duet hardware (and likely other Apogee devices).

Improvements have been made to better handle toggling VoiceOver off or on.

Rare crashes on slower machines are now avoided, thanks to arcane changes to the dispatch queue.

Other crashes related to misbehaving Audio Units have been worked around.

Several rare, but undesirable, crashes have been fixed.

An issue were SoundSource could incorrectly apply multiple volume adjustments to input devices has been corrected.

Volume adjustment blips, (optionally) heard when adjusting the default device volume via the keyboard, will now be heard fully and correctly. Previously, these blips were cut off, leading to confusion about volume levels.

A rare issue where certain apps with their own audio device selectors would see incorrect volume jumps has been fixed.

SoundSource's Sound Effects volume slider now correctly maps to the system's Sound Effects volume slider.

Several bugs have been fixed related to Audio Unit effects, including properly remembering the order of effects between launches, and always opens the right effect when selected.

Multiple issues have been corrected with displaying on setups with multiple monitors.

SoundSource now properly respects an output device's selected stereo pair, rather than incorrectly being locked to channels 1 & 2.

A visual display issue where plugins could appear to be receiving a mono stream of audio has been fixed.

Resampled audio quality has been improved.

CPU usage has been improved when the SoundSource Play-Thru window is closed.

The “Track” options for Input and Output devices in the Play-Thru window have been made more robust, to better handle instances where MacOS does not report a default device.

An issue where playing back audio from a device could accumulate additional latency over time has been fixed.

Audio playback with single-channel devices has been corrected to properly provide both channels.

We've corrected an issue where the global menu could draw incorrectly on machines with no input devices.

The layout of the Preferences window has been adjusted, to fix display issues, particularly on older OSes.

The global menu's volume level slider for the specified input device will no longer jump erratically.

The Play-Thru window's input device volume now correctly reflects the current device value at all times.

The “Start SoundSource at login” checkbox now correctly allows itself to be turned off.