SoundSource features support for Audio Unit effects, enabling you to adjust audio in countless ways to get the exact sound you want, from any application, or from your entire system.

SoundSource offers access to over a dozen Audio Units provided by Apple as part of MacOS. It also works with third-party Audio Units you've installed yourself.

SoundSource will find Audio Units in two locations:

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

When a compatible Audio Unit is installed in either of these locations, SoundSource will include it in the menu shown when clicking Add Effect for either the System Output device, or a per-application adjustment.

Saving Audio Unit Presets

At the bottom of each Audio Unit, you'll see a section called Presets. After configuring an Audio Unit, you can save your custom settings for later use. For full details, see the Effects Overview page's Presets section.

SoundSource saves standard Audio Unit presets. That means that in addition to being used throughout SoundSource, saved Audio Unit presets can be read by other applications which support Audio Units. Likewise, SoundSource will read presets created by any other applications.

Audio Unit Search

SoundSource sorts Audio Units by their developer, using sub-menus to make it easier to locate the desired effect. If you have a large number of Audio Units, however, the Audio Unit Search should prove helpful.

The search field is available within the Add Effect menu. Type a few characters of the name of your desired effect into this search field, and it should appear in the list for easy selection.

Generic Interfaces for Audio Unit Effects

Many Audio Unit effects have custom interfaces, which can occasionally cause issues or crashes. SoundSource can optionally use these effects with a generic interface instead, providing access to all controls. This can be helpful in avoiding issues, as well as making effects simpler to work with for VoiceOver users.

To toggle between the generic and custom interfaces, control-click on an effect and select Use Generic Audio Unit Interface or Use Custom Audio Unit Interface. To load the generic interface by default, hold the Shift key when adding the effect.

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