Release Notes

New

• Major performance improvements throughout the app
• Files open quicker
  • Waveforms render much faster and the UI remains responsive while loading
• CPU usage is drastically reduced
  • Playback with 1 track has been reduced from 40% → 2.5% (comparable to QuickTime player)
  • Playback with 20 tracks has been reduced from 103% → 8% (less than QuickTime Player at 32%)
  • Idle CPU consumption is now 0%
  • (All measurements taken with an M1 MacBook Pro)
• UI responsiveness is vastly improved
  • Zooming, scrolling, and playhead-following is fluid, even with dozens of files open
  • Dragging to rearrange tracks animates smoothly
  • Playhead glides continuously instead of ticking along

Improved

• Loops are now gapless, wrapping seamlessly to the beginning of the next loop
• Quickly adjust a track's offset without selecting the input field using new keyboard shortcuts
• Improved waveform interactivity
  • The playhead can be dragged in the waveform area (previously dragging was limited to the grabber in the ruler area)
  • Clicking on a waveform switches playback to that track (previously you had to click in the info column)
• Quick Open from Finder now supports folder selections
• Added haptic feedback to the zoom slider
• Inertial scroll during playback behaves naturally: it settles to a stop before jumping to the playhead, rather than fighting with playhead-follow and causing jerkiness
• Refined the app's visual design, icons, and hit targets throughout

Fixed

• Mouse cursor reliably changes state when hovering over overlapping UI elements to show which interaction has priority
• Tooltips are only shown when text has been truncated
• Shrunk the hit target of the "Click Here to Compare" button to prevent accidental clicks when there are no tracks loaded
• Blind Listening Mode is disabled when no tracks are loaded

Fixed

• Creating a loop no longer moves the playhead if it's already within the loop range

New

• Resizable track info column. Grab the divider and drag it left/right

Improved

• Changing the loop range during playback no longer causes audio to stutter

New

• Import streaming audio from Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube

Improved

• Significantly improved drag and drop
  • Improved visual design and UX of track reordering
  • Improved visual indicator for external file drops onto Takes window
  • Support standard Mac conventions: drag track out of the window to copy its file to the Finder or another app, drop on window toolbar or menubar to cancel drag
• Switch tracks with the up/down arrow keys in addition to other keyboard shortcuts
• Added a link to the Takes website in the Help menu

Fixed

• Many UI copy tweaks

New

• Auto-Align tracks: a single button lines your tracks up automatically by listening to the audio itself
  • Auto-Align can also handle tracks recorded at slightly different speeds, offering a deeper tempo analysis when the quick pass can't find a match
  • If tracks have tempo drift, you can auto-align anytime at the current playhead
  • Added setting to auto-align by default when opening files

Improved

• Takes remembers its window position between launches
• Folders can be dropped on the app window
• Clearer error messages when files can't be loaded
• Small wording polish on the empty state

Fixed

• App window can be moved by dragging anywhere in the control area

Improved

• Double-click the "ms" label in the offset text field to reset it to zero

Fixed

• Playback now continues when the system audio device changes, such as when putting in AirPods
• The mouse cursor now resets correctly after interacting with a text field

New

• Blind listening mode: hide track details and shuffle playback order to compare takes without seeing which is which

New

• Major redesign with a brand new look and feel, every pixel reworked
  • New appearance settings: choose light or dark theme, and pick your preferred time readout display style
  • Redesigned track rows with clearer info at a glance
  • Redesigned timeline ruler and playhead, with an interactive grabber you can drag to scrub
  • Polished buttons and controls with satisfying pressed states and better dark mode contrast
• Control playback with your keyboard's media keys

Improved

• A cleaner empty state — just drop your files onto the target to get started
• Shift-click the Switch Track button to switch to previous
• New menu commands for timeline zoom and track removal

Fixed

• Fixed timeline overscroll getting stuck if an input field is active
• Various layout, contrast, and window-sizing refinements

New

• Loop audio by dragging or shift+clicking to select a range
  • Resize selection by dragging the selection handles
• Repeat modes: Off, Repeat One, and Switch & Repeat (to compare tracks back-to-back by toggling to the next on each loop)

Fixed

• Starting playback at the end of a track now restarts playback from the beginning

New

• Timeline zooming
  • Pinch to zoom or use the zoom control
  • Waveform area uses native scroll inertia and bounce behavior
  • View smoothly slides to keep playhead in view while zoomed in

Improved

• Improved timeline ruler tick marks and labeling, including dynamic scale when zoomed
• Added link to release notes in Help menu

Fixed

• The playhead position is preserved when opening a new track while paused
• Adjusted default window position

New

• Waveform display: each track now renders real waveforms instead of a placeholder mockup
  • Rendering doesn't block the UI

New

• Renamed to Takes
• New UI
• New icon
• Compare up to 32 tracks
• Drag to reorder tracks
• Signed & notarized by Apple for public distribution, no longer requires bypassing Gatekeeper or building yourself
• Auto-updating via Sparkle

Improved

• Customized menubar with commands and a full set of keyboard shortcuts like a proper Mac app
• Hidden keyboard shortcuts: use number keys 1–8 to quickly switch to correspondingly numbered track. Hitting 9 switches to the last track.
• Quick Open files from Finder or Apple Music selection
• Improved offset input field behavior
  • Arrow keys nudge value up/down
  • Shift+arrow keys nudge by larger amount
  • Esc key reverts to previous value
  • Left/right arrow keys navigate cursor instead of controlling playback
• Added settings for offset nudging intervals & auto-update behavior
• Improved drag and drop support
  • Drop files and folders on app icon to open
  • Simplified window drop target behavior for quicker interaction (removed ability to drop on individual rows to replace)
• Improved window behavior
  • Smart resizing when adding and removing tracks
  • More compact
  • Single window only

Improved

• This is v1.0.0 compiled, signed and notarized initial release for public distribution. Bumped version in order to release properly.
• No other changes between v1.0.0 and this. (v1.0.1 tag was a project documentation update.)

New

• Initial release of TrackSwitch: load two audio tracks and toggle playback between them
• A couple niceties to make loading tracks quicker than navigating the Open dialog box
  • Drop files onto Track A/B wells to open
  • Support for loading 2 of the currently selected tracks in Apple Music
• Adjust gain
• Adjust offset