Reference

Everything Acetate's in-app Help screen says, on one page. Bookmark this if you want to read before downloading.

00 · Installing on macOS

The v1 beta isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet. macOS will refuse to open it the first time, with a "Acetate is damaged and can't be opened" message. To clear it:

Drag Acetate.app into your Applications folder.
Open Terminal and run:
```
xattr -cr /Applications/Acetate.app
```
This strips macOS's quarantine attribute from the app bundle. You only need to do it once per install.
Double-click the app normally. You're in.

Code signing + notarization is in progress — once the Developer ID enrollment lands, this step goes away and the app just opens.

01 · Quickstart

Drop a track. WAV, AIFF, FLAC, or MP3. Acetate reads the format and warns if anything looks off.
Let it analyze. About 5 seconds per minute of audio. You'll see LUFS, true peak, dynamic range, and a detected genre with a proposed chain.
Adjust if you want. Pick a target LUFS, override the genre, or toggle the "air bell" for dark masters. Or just accept the defaults.
Master. Stages run in-process — low-cut → tilt EQ → de-ess → parallel comp → soft clip → limiter. Each step shows in the chain log when it applies.
A/B and export. Audition before vs. after sample-aligned. Export 16/24-bit WAV or AIFF when it sounds right.

02 · Genre presets

techno: Driving low-mid weight, restrained highs, -8 LUFS target.
deep_house / minimal: Warmer low shelf, gentler limiter, lower LUFS — preserves swing.
microhouse / mille_plateaux: Light touch on dynamics, focus on transient clarity, optional air bell.
idm: Wider dynamic budget, more transient preservation, lower limiter ceiling.
(unknown): Falls back to a safe transparent chain — good for material the classifier hasn't seen.

03 · Terms

LUFS: Perceived loudness. -14 is streaming-quiet; -8 is club-loud.
True peak: Inter-sample peak — what an over-sampled DAC actually sees.
DR: Dynamic range. Higher = more breathing room.
Air bell: A narrow boost around 16.5 kHz that opens up dark masters without harshness.

04 · Trouble?

Master sounds dim or muffled → try the default chain instead of an explicit genre, or enable the air bell.
Track is over 30 minutes and Acetate crashed → split into halves and master each. We're working on streaming for v1.x.
Export button has a lock icon → you haven't activated a license yet. Sign in to unlock.

05 · Support

Email hello@acetate.lol — include the track filename, your build number, and what went wrong. Logs help.