Acetate · Docs

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:

  1. Drag Acetate.app into your Applications folder.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

00b · Installing on Windows

The v1 beta isn't signed with a Windows code-signing certificate yet. SmartScreen will block the installer the first time you run it, with a blue "Windows protected your PC" dialog. To clear it:

  1. Double-click Acetate-0.123.0-beta6-windows-x64.exe. SmartScreen pops up.
  2. Click the small More info link inside the dialog (it sits below the bolded message - easy to miss).
  3. Click the new Run anyway button that appears, then walk through the installer as normal.
  4. Launch Acetate from the Start menu. You're in.

You only need to clear SmartScreen once per install. A code-signed installer lands before the public release - this step goes away then.

01 · Quickstart

  1. Drop a track. WAV, AIFF, FLAC, or MP3. Acetate reads the format and warns if anything looks off.
  2. 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.
  3. Adjust if you want. Pick a target LUFS, override the genre, or toggle the "air bell" for dark masters. Or just accept the defaults.
  4. 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.
  5. A/B and export. Audition before vs. after sample-aligned. Export 16/24-bit WAV or AIFF when it sounds right.
Dashboard listing recent masters
Dashboard - recent masters
Analysis screen with stats, spectral balance, and proposed chain
Analysis - stats, spectral, proposed chain
Warning that the source mix is already clipped
Clipped-source warning, before you master
A/B before and after with export
A/B, then export

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
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 · Chain pills

Each pill in the chain log is one processing step Acetate applied. Steps that didn't fire don't show up. Ordered roughly from earliest in the chain (cleanup) to last (loudness).

DC Fix
Removes a constant DC offset before processing - frees up dynamic range.
HP NHz
High-pass filter at N Hz. Rolls off sub rumble and inaudible content.
Click Repair
Detects and smooths transient clicks - vinyl rips, glitchy edits, mouse clicks bleeding into a take.
Gate NdB
Noise gate. Silences anything below the threshold - room tone, hiss, low-level bleed.
EQ ±NdB @NHz
Surgical EQ band. Boost or cut at a specific frequency.
Sub +NdB
Low shelf. Adds warmth and weight below ~80 Hz.
Mid Body +NdB
Lower-mid bell (200-400 Hz). Body and thickness without muddying.
Air Shelf +NdB
High shelf. Opens up the top end as a broad lift.
Presence +NdB
Upper-mid bell (around 3-5 kHz). Clarity and forward edge.
Hat De-Esser
Dynamic notch that ducks hi-hat and sibilance peaks only when they spike. Max reduction shown in dB.
Hat Trim NdB
Static shelf cut on the top end. Used when de-essing alone isn't enough.
Punch +NdB
Transient shaper. Boosts attack edges - snap on drums and percussive elements.
Sat N%
Tape-style harmonic saturation. Warmth, glue, even-order harmonics.
Mid Blend
Parallel mid-band compression. Gels the body without flattening transients.
Compression
Whole-mix glue compressor. Light ratio, slow attack - cohesion over crush.
Density Push
Pushes weight without crushing transients. Opt-in.
Limiter NdBTP
True-peak brick-wall limiter at the ceiling shown. Prevents inter-sample clipping on DAC playback. Always on.
Gain → N LUFS
Final gain match to the target loudness. Always on.

04 · 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.

05 · 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.

06 · Support

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