LitLink Changelog

2.9.2 — September 22, 2026

• Recording watchdog and visible failures A recording that dies while the timer keeps running is the worst thing an audio app can do, so it can no longer happen: write failures and stalled recordings stop the session with a clear message, and the files recorded up to that point are always finalized and saved. Diagnostic reports gained a Recording section (configuration, active recorders, a persistent failure history, disk headroom, recent files) and diagnostic exports now include recent sleep and wake events. No changes to audio, features, or the driver.

2.9.1 — September 21, 2026

• Stereo mic recording & pan (Pro) When your Channels setting picks a stereo source, the recorded mic file is now a true stereo WAV matching what your apps hear; mono mics keep recording mono automatically. Additional inputs gained a full-width pan control, with per-mic recording files staying mono so pan decisions remain undoable in the edit.
• Fluid EQ and limiter controls Dragging EQ curves, limiter ceilings, and watching the spectrum analyzer is now perfectly smooth, with audio tracking your gesture live. Every EQ window gained a Flatten button that resets the curve to neutral in one click, the 1% / 5% / 10% slider-step setting now covers all main-window volume faders, and limiters keep limiting while you drag their ceiling. No driver update.

2.9.0 — September 20, 2026

• Multi-mic recording (Pro) Using an audio interface? Add each connected mic as its own input, with its own name, gain, meter, mute, and parametric EQ, mixed into your outgoing mic feed. With the Separate Tracks format, one Record click produces a mixed Master, your mic, apps, and one clean mono file per additional input, all perfectly sample-aligned.
• Combine multiple devices (Pro) Two USB mics, or a mic plus an interface: combine them into one drift-compensated input and every mic behaves like a channel of a single interface — channel pickers even show which device each channel belongs to. Plus: echo-free call setup (mix-minus) documented in the guide with an in-app guardrail, a Podcasting section in the Setup Guide, smarter performance diagnostics with hourly self-monitoring, and UI polish. No driver update.

2.8.5 — September 13, 2026

• Dramatically lower background CPU usage LitLink now uses close to zero CPU while idle. A once-per-second background status check was triggering interface updates even when nothing had changed and no window was open, which could add up over long sessions — and occasionally much more when other apps started and stopped audio in the background. If you ever noticed LitLink using more CPU than expected, this update is for you. No changes to audio behavior, features, or the driver.

2.8.4 — September 13, 2026

• Smarter performance diagnostics LitLink keeps a lightweight record of its own CPU activity and notes anything unusual as it happens. If you ever see LitLink working harder than expected, a single diagnostic report (Settings → Generate Diagnostic Report) now shows what happened and when — even hours later. No changes to audio, features, or the driver.

2.8.3 — September 11, 2026

• Sliders that feel like faders On boost-capable sliders, 100% now sits at three quarters of the track like a real mixing fader, with a subtle unity tick and a gentle snap to exactly 100%; boost lives past the tick. Slider steps gained per-surface control (menu bar and main window) with defaults that keep existing behavior. Also fixed: the "Allow volume boost above 100%" setting now applies reliably from launch, and the About window and page were refreshed. No driver update in this release.

2.8.2 — September 11, 2026

• Reliable sliders for browsers Fixed a case where an app's volume slider could silently stop responding after the app had been quiet for a while, with audio playing at full volume until a relaunch. Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave, Edge) and Electron apps (Discord, Slack, Spotify) were most likely to hit this because of how they manage their audio processes. LitLink now picks up those internal changes immediately. Diagnostic reports also gained a per-app tap health section for faster support. No driver update in this release.

2.8.1 — September 10, 2026

• Stability and clarity Fixed a crash that could occur when quitting an app that was pinned and under Per-App Volume control. A pinned app's row now dims and shows "not running" while the app is closed ("waiting for audio" means open but silent). List controls are inactive while their feature is off, and hidden apps stay hidden on every surface including the menu bar. All of 2.8.0's features included.

2.8.0 — September 10, 2026

• Output EQ — shape everything you hear (Pro) A parametric EQ on the final output signal — your speakers and headphones — next to the master fader in Per-App Volume. Tame boomy laptop speakers, brighten dull headphones, cut a harsh resonance, with a draggable curve and an optional live spectrum analyzer. It shapes only what you hear: recordings and streams stay governed by the per-app and track EQs, so your listening curve never colors what you send.
• Volume boost up to 400% (Pro) Per-app sliders now travel to 400% and the master fader to 200% — and boost stays clip-safe: a limiter engages automatically whenever you push past 100%, so quiet apps get loud without crackling. App and master boost multiply, so the best practice is boosting the one quiet app rather than the whole mix. Prefer a hard ceiling? A new Settings toggle caps every slider in the app at 100%.
• Input Device Lock (free) macOS silently switches your default microphone whenever AirPods and similar devices connect. Lock your chosen mic and LitLink reverts any switch away from it automatically — and when the locked mic is unplugged, macOS falls back normally until it returns. Bonus: locking the input to your built-in microphone keeps AirPods in their high-quality listening codec instead of dropping to call quality.
• Your app lists, ready in advance A new "Add App…" button pins any installed app to Per-App Volume and Per-App Routing before it ever plays a sound — ideal for apps with short event sounds. Apps already in the list get a pin icon on their row: one click keeps them listed for good. Pinned apps stay listed permanently — across quits and reboots — until you unpin them, while your settings for every app (volume, mute, routing) always persist and re-apply the moment it plays again, pinned or not. Updating from an earlier version? Everything carries over unchanged — volumes, mutes, EQs, and routing keep working exactly as before, and pinning is simply a new tool from here on.
• Polish and reliability A new Settings option controls whether the main window opens on manual launch. The spectrum analyzer in EQ windows is now opt-in via the waveform button (lighter on CPU by default). EQ and limiter changes now always reach multi-process apps like browsers instantly. This release updates the audio driver, so the installer will ask for your password once.

2.7.4 — September 9, 2026

• Remove apps from your lists Right-click any app in Per-App Routing or Per-App Volume and choose "Remove from list" — it disappears from every list entirely, no leftover entry anywhere. Restore everything anytime via Settings, General. The lighter eye-button hide with its visible Hidden Apps section stays too.
• Menu bar improvements Double-click the menu bar icon to open the main window directly. New slider steps option (1% / 5% / 10%) makes landing exact values on the small popover sliders easy. And the "Menu bar size" option now scales the entire popover uniformly — every label, checkbox and control — with scrolling instead of running off smaller screens at large sizes.
• Quieter starts When LitLink launches automatically at login it now starts silently in the menu bar — no main window at every boot. Launching it yourself still opens the window as usual. No driver update in this release.

2.7.3 — September 8, 2026

• Menu bar apps in per-app routing Apps that live in the menu bar without a Dock icon were previously not listed, even while actively playing sounds. They now appear like any other app as soon as they play audio, so you can adjust their volume, mute them, or route them anywhere. Tip for apps with short event sounds: play the sound once and the app stays in the list, so you can set its volume in peace. No driver update in this release.

2.7.2 — September 3, 2026

• Even better performance Building on 2.7.1's efficiency work, CPU use with the LitLink window open drops substantially — especially during active playback with meters running. The interface stays fluid no matter how much audio is flowing.
• Smoother DAW workflows While DAW Multi-Track Output is enabled, all eight LitLink Tracks stay steadily available to your DAW, so recording sessions remain stable across routing changes with no mid-session DAW restarts. The Setup Guide gained a step-by-step recipe for recording web audio and mic commentary on separate tracks (with an Audacity walkthrough) plus sample-rate and setup-order guidance.
• Better support diagnostics Diagnostics exports now include additional version information for faster answers on installation-related reports. This update includes a driver update — the installer asks for your password as usual and audio blips briefly during install.

2.7.1 — August 31, 2026

• Dramatically lower memory use The app-icon rendering pipeline was rebuilt around compact cached thumbnails. Typical sessions now use up to 90% less memory, with peaks reduced even further — LitLink is a background utility, and now it truly behaves like one.
• Roughly half the CPU The audio engine and UI now skip every piece of work that produces nothing you can hear or see: the realtime path is fully allocation-free, silent apps no longer cost render time, spectrum analysis runs only while an EQ window is open, and meters redraw only when they visibly change.
• Smoother everywhere Volume-slider drags persist once after you let go instead of continuously mid-drag, and device scanning reacts to actual hardware changes instead of running on a constant schedule.
• Helpful new heads-ups Recording an empty track now warns you up front when nothing is feeding it, and if System Audio Passthrough is off after an update, LitLink says so and offers to turn it back on with one click. No driver update in this release — the installer runs straight through.

2.7.0 — August 31, 2026

• Volume Boost to 200% (Pro) Every per-app volume slider now travels to 200% — in the Per-App Volume mixer, Per-App Routing, and the menu bar. Clip-safe by construction: a limiter engages automatically while boosting, so it gets loud, never crackly. 100% and below behaves exactly as before.
• Named Tracks (Pro) Rename LitLink's tracks in Settings — "LitLink Track 3" can become "Podcast Guests", and that's the name OBS, Discord, your DAW and macOS Sound settings display. Names survive relaunches and reboots, and a renamed track appears in pickers, with your name, the moment something uses it.
• Output switcher in the menu bar The LitLink icon now has an Output row: pick which device your Mac plays through and adjust its volume without opening System Settings. Works hand-in-hand with System Audio Passthrough — switching devices retargets your capture setup automatically.
• Also Diagnostics now include the license tier (one word, never your key) for faster support. This update includes a driver update — the installer asks for your password as usual and audio blips briefly during install.

2.6.0 — August 30, 2026

• Output Channel Pairs (Pro) Route an app to a multichannel interface (Apollo, SSL, Scarlett…) and pick exactly which stereo pair it lands on — labeled with the interface's own channel names, like "9–10 · HP L / HP R". Land an app on your headphone pair for an instant cue mix (music in your ears, studio monitors clean, no console-software setup), or feed any line pair going to a hardware mixer. Pairs persist with the route and fall back safely if the interface changes its channel count.
• Mic Sends (Pro) Send your mic into any LitLink Track at its own level, on top of the default bridge (always full volume). Different apps hear your mic at different volumes — your call app gets 100% while your recorder on Track 2 gets the 60% you set. Sends flow through the track's master EQ, limiter and plugins, and are included in that track's recordings.
• Better routing diagnostics The diagnostics export now reports active channel pairs and the mic-send matrix, so support zips answer routing questions at a glance.

2.5.0 — August 30, 2026

• Per-App Output Devices (Pro) Every app in Per-App Routing can now be sent to a physical output device — speakers, AirPods, a USB interface, HDMI, anything macOS lists. The app moves to that device (no double audio), the route survives relaunches and re-plugs, and if the device disconnects the app falls back to its normal output and hops back automatically when it returns. One picker covers LitLink Tracks and output devices; per-app volume and mute keep working. Requires macOS 14.2+.
• Instant launch The window now appears immediately on start; audio engines spin up right behind it. No more loading wheel.
• Lower CPU when idle Level meters pause their work while the LitLink window and menu-bar popover are closed — a real saving for menu-bar-only setups.
• Always-readable switches Toggles keep their gold ON color even when LitLink is not the focused window — no more guessing on a second display.
• Cleaner routing rows + diagnostics One-line app rows with compact Hotkeys/Plugins icons, clearer spacing, and a diagnostics export that now includes CPU usage and a per-app routing health report.

2.4.2 — August 28, 2026

• Sample-rate mismatch: detected, explained, one-click fixed If your input device and LitLink run at different sample rates, the Mic card now shows a clear hint with a one-click Match to 48 kHz. And if your interface refuses a rate change (some set their rate only in their own software, like SSL 360° or UAD Console), LitLink no longer fails silently with a dead meter — it tells you exactly which two rates disagree and how to fix it.
• Consistent rate across all LitLink devices Changing the sample rate in Settings now applies to every LitLink device — the bridge, the mic bus, and all 8 tracks — so multi-track and split-recording setups can never end up internally mismatched.
• Better diagnostics The diagnostics export now pinpoints rate-related capture failures explicitly, so a support zip identifies a mismatch at a glance.

2.4.1 — August 27, 2026

• Pick any input channel on a multichannel interface If your mic or instrument sits on a channel other than 1–2 on your interface (Apollo, SSL, Scarlett, any multi-input device), LitLink can now capture it. On a device with more than two inputs, the CHANNELS control gains a Custom option with Left / Right channel pickers, set both to the same channel for a centred mono source, or two channels for a stereo pair.
• "Find my channel" Not sure which channel your source is on? Click Find channeland a live level meter appears for every input channel, with the interface's own channel labels. Play your instrument, watch the channel that lights up, click it, done.
• "Open LitLink" always reopens the window With Hide in Dock on, if you'd closed the main window, "Open LitLink" in the menu bar couldn't bring it back. It now reliably reopens the window whether it was hidden or closed.
• Better diagnostics & interface reliability Export Diagnostics now records your permission and login-item state (the most common reasons capture silently fails) and your interface's per-channel labels. And interfaces that intermittently refuse to report their channel count on macOS 26 no longer cause the channel control to flicker.

2.4.0 — August 27, 2026

• Route recovery The deciding issue for an audio router is what happens when things go wrong. LitLink now re-verifies every route after your Mac wakes from sleep, when a device disappears, and even when macOS's audio server restarts — and rebuilds anything broken automatically. The sidebar shows a live health line per route (green = verified working).
• "Reset Routing" button A one-click escape hatch in the sidebar: tears every LitLink route down and rebuilds it fresh from the devices that exist right now — and tells you exactly what it found, including any stale device it removed. Never a black-box "done".
• Voice Effects on your mic (Pro) A full channel strip on your outgoing voice: insert any macOS Audio Unit effect (noise gate, compressor, de-esser — Apple's or third-party), shape it with the visual parametric EQ, and catch peaks with the limiter. Every app that hears your mic — Discord, Zoom, OBS, recordings, your own monitor — hears the processed voice. Runs at your mic's native quality on any device, Bluetooth included.
• Recording bit depth: 16 / 24 / 32-bit float New in Settings → Audio Format. 16-bit (CD quality) stays the default; 24-bit is the pro capture standard; 32-bit float records LitLink's internal pipeline bit-perfectly and can't clip — pull a too-loud take down in post with nothing lost. Editor exports preserve your file's depth, so a trim never silently transcodes.
• Residue audit in diagnostics Export Diagnostics now includes an aggregate-device audit that classifies every audio device LitLink creates and proves nothing is left behind on your system — verifiable against macOS's own audio configuration.

2.3.0 — August 25, 2026

• AirPods & Bluetooth headsets work as a microphone They used to appear in the input list but capture nothing (flat meter) — LitLink was forcing the mic to 48 kHz, which a Bluetooth "phone call" mic refuses, so macOS inserted a converter that produced silence. LitLink now captures at the device's own rate. The same fix also rescues any wired mic locked at a rate it can't be switched from.
• "New input available" hint Connect a new input (AirPods, a USB mic) and a subtle one-tap hint appears next to the INPUT DEVICE picker so you can switch to it. It never interrupts, never switches on its own, shows once per device, and fades away — in keeping with LitLink remembering your chosen device rather than jumping around.

Note: AirPods mic is inherently low-quality (16–24 kHz "phone call" audio), and macOS lowers the AirPods' own playback quality while their mic is in use — both are Bluetooth limitations, not LitLink. Great for Discord/Zoom calls; use a wired mic for recording vocals.

2.2.9 — August 23, 2026

• Mic or instrument on an interface is centred A source on input 1 (or 2) used to reach apps and the Mix Mode monitor on the left channel only. LitLink now detects a mono source and puts it in the middle; a true stereo source on inputs 1–2 stays stereo. New Channels control in Mic / Input: Auto · Input 1 · Input 2 · Stereo 1–2.
• Dual-Mono recording works Voice left, apps right — in LitLink's recorder and in any app reading LitLink Audio Bridge (QuickTime, OBS, a DAW). The mic's path inside the driver was out of sync with the main bridge.
• Devices are remembered Your input device and Mix Mode output survive restarts. If your interface isn't ready yet at login, LitLink waits and picks it up automatically instead of falling back to the built-in mic.
• Mic Volume boost applies The 100–200% range had been a silent no-op since 1.0.
• Clickable Mixed matrix On the Recording page, pick a row to switch the Mic / System Audio sources.
• Better diagnostics Export Diagnostics shows which physical inputs carry signal and what LitLink did with them.
• Mic engine retries once on a transient start failure at launch instead of switching itself off.
• Driver update The installer updates the audio driver; includes a stability fix for the Dual-Mono path.

2.2.8 — August 23, 2026

Help & Setup Guide overhaul. Full-text search across every tab (⌘F) with grouped results that jump to the highlighted section; a redesigned Overview with feature cards (Free / Pro) and a "What do I need for…" decision table; new License & Pro and Troubleshooting tabs; scenario-based Discord and QuickTime setup (voice only, sharing app audio, instruments, recording a call); buttons that open the relevant macOS privacy settings directly.

2.2.7 — August 22, 2026

Multichannel audio interfaces work.Interfaces with many inputs (Apollo, Pro Tools aggregates and similar) now reach the bridge reliably — inputs 1–2 are forwarded instead of starving on the full channel count. Interfaces whose drivers answer some system queries with an error now appear in the input picker. Diagnostics show the mic engine's internals.

2.2.6 — August 21, 2026

Mic-route self-test with automatic repairwhen the bridge stops receiving the mic, and a diagnostics route probe that ends in a plain-language verdict (healthy / flat / inconclusive) — so a "my mic isn't arriving" report can be read in one glance.

2.2.5 — August 18, 2026

Stability sweep.Three main-thread freezes during audio teardown fixed; headphone and Bluetooth switches handled without pitch shift; the Mix Mode monitor follows plug-ins correctly and pinned devices never jump on their own; Mic Passthrough state persists across launches; no more self-capture loop in the system-audio catch-all; "Mic / Input Passthrough" naming and Setup Guide cleanup for instrument and interface users.

2.2.3 – 2.2.4 — August 10, 2026

• FaceTime and phone call volume A "FaceTime Calls" entry appears in Per-App Volume during calls so you can turn the other person up — to 200% if needed. Calls are never captured by the recorder.
• Hide Dock Icon option Run LitLink as a menu-bar-only app (Settings → General).
• Right-aligned settings switches; Settings moved above the Setup Guide in the sidebar.

2.2.0 – 2.2.2 — August 5–10, 2026

• Export Diagnostics One click on the Support page creates a zip with LitLink's logs, device list, driver status and crash reports. Nothing is uploaded; your license is never included. Optional deep mode adds the audio server's logs.
• Repair Driver If the driver is installed but not loaded, the sidebar offers a one-click repair (reinstall, fix folder permissions, restart the audio server).
• Bluetooth resilience Volume keys on AirPods no longer glitch or cut Per-App Volume; a watchdog restores audio within seconds if playback ever stalls. Switching outputs no longer leaves audio pitch-shifted.
• Diagnostics detect relocated or symlinked audio folders — a rare setup that silently blocks every third-party audio driver.

2.1.0 – 2.1.1 — August 3–4, 2026

• Two crash fixes Quitting another app that was playing audio (Telegram, WhatsApp…) could crash LitLink; both the routing list and the volume engine are now safe.
• System Audio pairing With a user-created Aggregate Device as system output, LitLink now pairs with your real hardware; fallback prefers speakers, USB and Bluetooth over a monitor's HDMI audio.

2.0.4 – 2.0.9 — June–July 2026

• Per-app volume hotkeys (Pro) Bind Volume Up / Down / Mute to any app so a hardware knob (Stream Deck +, Loupedeck…) can ride it. The binding follows the app between Per-App Volume and Per-App Routing.
• Menu bar size + hide apps Scale the menu-bar popover for 4K displays; hide apps you don't manage (collapsible "Hidden apps").
• System Sounds control Alerts, screenshot shutter, volume feedback — one slider for all of macOS's interface sounds, in Per-App Volume and the menu bar.
• Installer checks the macOS version up front (macOS 14+), instead of installing into a dead end.
• Pitch ("chipmunk") issue in Per-App Volume on mismatched sample rates fixed.

2.0.0 – 2.0.3 — May 22–27, 2026

• AU plugin hosting (Pro) Insert any macOS Audio Unit effect — Apple's built-ins plus third-party reverbs, compressors, EQs — into an app's processing chain. Stack, reorder, bypass; chains save per app; a watchdog bypasses a plugin that stops rendering.
• One-click Uninstall / Reset Remove LitLink completely (app, driver, data) from Settings with one admin prompt; keep your Pro license for a reinstall if you like. Reset gives a clean-slate restart.
• More reliable System Audio Passthrough after device switches and relaunch; auto-repair when Mic Passthrough is on.
• Security hardening: driver input-size guards, confirmation before a deep link replaces an existing Pro license, pinned dependencies.

1.9.0 – 1.9.1 — May 21–22, 2026

• Menu Bar Contents settings — show only the sections you use.
• One-click Pro activation from the purchase confirmation page ("Open in LitLink").
• Crash fixes for multi-process apps (Premiere, Photoshop, Chrome) quitting while LitLink runs.

1.8.0 – 1.8.3 — May 15–21, 2026

• DAW Multi-Track Output (Pro) A one-click aggregate device bundles LitLink Tracks 1–8 into one 16-channel target, so Logic, Bitwig, Ableton, Reaper or OBS route each track separately; Mix Mode can monitor what the DAW plays into them.
• MP3 export in the editor (128–320 kbps) and a default export format setting.
• Safari per-app routing fixed Taps now cover the whole browser process family, so every tab is captured (also helps Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Firefox).
• System Audio Passthrough hardened against output switches; recording sample-rate pitch bug fixed; editor loop mode hardened.

1.7.0 — May 14, 2026

Mix Mode (Pro). A personal monitor mixer: per-app volume where what you hear actually changes, a monitor device picker, and the same balanced mix captured by OBS / Zoom / Logic automatically. Global shortcuts for Mic Passthrough, System Audio Passthrough and Mix Mode; per-app shortcuts follow the app; a tap-health watchdog self-heals a known macOS process-tap issue; monitor output recovers when devices disconnect.

1.6.0 — May 14, 2026

Redesigned interface + Multi-Track Editor.New sidebar layout with a page per feature; stacked Multi-Track Editor (Pro) for session recordings with per-track trim, gain, solo/mute; single-track editor for everyone; in-app Support & Feedback form; cleaner window chrome on macOS 26.

1.5.0 — May 12, 2026

Separate Tracks recording. Record mic and apps as separate, sample-aligned files in one click (Master + Mic + Apps); a dedicated Recording section with three formats — Mixed (free), Dual-Mono (Pro), Separate Tracks (Pro) — that auto-enables the right sources; save-and-rename prompts; level meters moved into the cards where they belong.

1.4.0 – 1.4.1 — May 7, 2026

LitLink can record. A Record button in the Mic Passthrough and System Audio cards captures whatever flows through the bridge to ~/Music/LitLink Recordings (free). Pro adds Master Record (everything in one file), per-track recording for apps routed to Tracks 1–8, and Record All Active. Dark theme enforced app-wide. 1.4.1 fixed free-tier recordings coming out empty.

1.3.0 — May 6, 2026

Multi-Destination Routing (Pro).Route individual apps to up to 8 isolated tracks — Spotify to Logic, Discord to OBS, a browser to Audacity. Per-track master EQ + limiter, Live Monitor to preview the EQ'd audio in headphones, Mic Volume range extended to 0–200%, routing state restored across launches.

1.2.0 – 1.2.2 — May 5–6, 2026

Dual-Mono / Split L/R recording (Pro)— mic on the left channel, apps on the right, for independent editing. Per-App Routing restored on macOS 26 (Tahoe), where it had been silently producing no audio. Internal bridge devices hidden from Sound preferences. 1.2.1 fixed an "Audio Bridge device not found" regression on Tahoe; 1.2.2 polished the Settings window.

1.1.0 – 1.1.4 — April 27–30, 2026

Mic Passthrough auto-restarts on sample-rate changes (no more silent toggle); the update banner links to litpads.app instead of GitHub; trial users can enter a license or promo code without waiting for the trial to end; sample-rate fixes on macOS 26.4.

1.0.0 – 1.0.9 — April 15–26, 2026

Initial release — system audio passthrough, mic passthrough with volume control, per-app routing (Pro), parametric EQ (Pro), global hotkeys (Pro). The first patch train made it work out of the box everywhere: auto-follow of the system output device with hot-plug re-pairing, invisible toggles on Sequoia fixed, Mic Passthrough working on first try on macOS 15/26 (automatic login-item registration), hot-plugged microphones appearing in the picker, per-app routing toggles persisting across launches.

Older installers

Every version, with its installer and full notes, is archived on LitLink releases on GitHub. For setup help see the in-app Setup Guide or the LitLink page.