Everything below reflects what the current app does, no more and no less. Analysis is free and unlimited. Nothing runs on its own, nothing is uploaded, and your original files are never opened for writing.
This guide covers Audio Anal 1.3 for macOS.
From download to healed crate in five steps
Install and open
Drag Audio Anal into Applications and open it. It is signed and notarised by Apple, so it opens like any other app. You need a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. macOS may ask permission the first time you read a folder or external drive; click Allow.
Load your library
Hit ⟳ Sync rekordbox to pull your collection and playlists. It is read-only and never writes back. No Rekordbox? Use Import folder or just drop files or folders anywhere on the window. Everything works without Rekordbox except playlists, ratings and play counts.
Check the view
Pick a view in the sidebar (or set the filters), then hit ✦ Check this view. Every unchecked track in that view queues up and runs in the background, a few at a time. Badges update live, and the ✕ on the progress pill cancels the rest whenever you like.
Read the verdicts
Clean, Drift or Lossyon every row. Open a track’s Quality tab for the full story: the spectrogram and the exact verdict label (LOSSLESS, FAKE LOSSLESS, VINYL RIP? and friends).
Heal the drifters
On a track flagged DRIFTS, hit ✚ Fix the drift. Audio Anal beat-tracks it and warps it onto the grid, pitch untouched, and writes a new file with tags and artwork carried across. The original is never touched. Healing needs a licence; analysis stays free.
Listen as you go
Double-click any row to play it. Space play/pause, ↑/↓ move, Enter play, ⌘F search. Click the coloured waveform to seek.
Views, filters and missing files
The sidebar slices your collection; the Drift, Quality and Keydropdowns and the search box narrow whatever view you’re in. ✦ Check this view always targets exactly what you’re looking at.
All tracksEverything in the library.
Recently addedTracks added in the last 30 days, newest first.
Needs a lookTracks that failed either check: drifting tempo or failed quality.
Missing filesFiles Audio Anal can't find on disk right now.
Drifting tempoTracks whose tempo measurably wanders.
DuplicatesSame artist and title, two or more copies on disk. Pick a ★ Keep and Trash the rest (macOS Trash, always recoverable).
PlaylistsYour real Rekordbox playlists, read-only.
A track showing an orange ⏏ missingtag lives on a drive that’s gone away. Audio Anal re-checks missing files against mounted drives once per launch. If you plug the drive in afterwards, relaunch the app (or click the track) to bring it back.
Two checks, one queue
Every track gets two independent measurements. The quality check covers codec truth, sample rate and bit depth, the FFT brick-wall hunt for fake lossless and the vinyl-rip fingerprint, and renders a spectrogram you can read with your own eyes. The drift check measures tempo across the whole track and scores both the wobble and the slow wander, the creeping tempo a live drummer leaves in a record. Sustained wander past 2 BPM (or heavy wobble past 4) is DRIFTS; a little movement is watch; under that is tight.
Batch checks run a few tracks at a time in the background, so your Mac stays usable mid-prep. Cancelling empties the queue instantly; tracks already mid-check finish their pass first.
LOSSLESSGenuinely lossless. Full spectrum, no lies.
FAKE LOSSLESSLossless container, lossy source: the brick-wall cutoff gives it away.
LOSSYAn honest lossy codec: MP3, AAC, OGG and co.
LOW QUALITYBelow CD spec in sample rate or bit depth.
VINYL RIP?Raised noise floor plus subsonic rumble: the fingerprint of a needle, not a master.
CHECKSomething worth a look, such as an odd codec or DC offset. Trust your ears.
One blind spot worth knowing. A green Cleanbadge can mean “passed quality” orjust “tempo checked out, quality never tested”. Open the Quality tab for the real verdict, and read the label, not just the colour.
Fix the drift, non-destructively
✚ Fix the drift appears once a track is flagged DRIFTS. It decodes the audio, tracks every beat, builds a time map and warps the performance onto the grid with pitch-preserving processing, and you watch each stage happen. The healed copy lands as name [healed 124].ext. WAV stays WAV, AIFF stays AIFF, everything else becomes FLAC, and tags and artwork are carried across.
By default healed files save into an AudioAnal Healed folder beside the original; Settings can point everything at one folder instead. Your original is never opened for writing, so “undo” is simply deleting the healed copy.
Healing locks to your library’s stored BPM when there is one (normally from Rekordbox). Untagged, folder-imported tracks heal too: Audio Anal falls back to the tempo its own drift check measured. It only declines when a track has no steady beat to lock to at all.
Change the container, honestly
Convert format transcodes to FLAC, ALAC, WAV (24-bit) or AIFF (24-bit), free for everyone. Output lands in an AudioAnal Converted folder beside the original. And as the app itself tells you: converting a lossy file never restores quality, it only changes the container.
Free to analyse. Licensed to heal.
Free, forever
Unlimited analysis, quality and drift, plus playback, library views, duplicates and format conversion. No account, no clock.
A licence unlocks healing
Open Settings, then Licence, enter the email you bought with and your key (AA-XXXXX-…) and hit Activate licence. Fix the drift goes live straight away.
Activation needs a connection once. After that the licence works offline; the app quietly re-checks about once a week when it is online, and being offline never revokes anything. Each licence covers two Macs: Deactivate on this Mac in Settings frees a slot so you can move it.
The gear menu
Healed filesSave beside the original (default) or into one folder of your choosing.
AnalysisNothing runs on its own; verdicts live in Audio Anal's own database, never written into your files.
LicenceActivate, view or deactivate; see the licence section above.
UpdatesChecked daily, sending only the app version. A banner appears when a new build is up, and Download opens it in your browser. Lifetime updates are included with every licence.
AboutAudio Anal bundles FFmpeg and Rubber Band as stand-alone tools under their own licences (see LICENSES.txt). Analysis runs entirely on this Mac; your music never leaves it.
When something looks stuck
Sync failedClose Rekordbox first (its database locks while it is open), then sync again.
Won't heal“Couldn't find a steady tempo” means the track has no consistent beat to lock to: ambient, rubato or live material. Everything with a pulse heals.
Drive plugged in, still missingThe once-per-launch rescan already ran. Relaunch the app, or click the track to re-check it on its own.
Preparing preview…Formats outside MP3/M4A/WAV/AIFF/FLAC get a quick AAC preview render on first play. If a file won't decode at all, it's likely corrupt; analyse it and see.
Licence already on two MacsDeactivate it on the Mac you no longer use (Settings, Licence), or email hello@audioanal.com and we'll reset it.
Can't open the appCheck it's an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later. If macOS still blocks it, open System Settings, Privacy & Security, click Open Anyway, and tell us at hello@audioanal.com.
Batch feels slowChecks run a few at a time so the Mac stays responsive. Leave it running; badges update as each track lands.