PlugInput 0.9.2

Plugin loading now preserves edits made while effects are loading, and failed loads keep their saved settings for recovery.

• Overlapping plugin adds preserve chain order, removals, and bypass changes.
• Unavailable effects remain visible with a Retry control and retain their presets.
• The latency display separates the requested 125 ms capture buffer from reported effect latency. These are not measured end-to-end latency.
• Audio diagnostics count frames discarded by oversized ring-buffer writes.
• The app checks for newer releases and offers a link when one is available.

Validation: all 111 automated tests pass; the installer supports Apple silicon and Intel, is Developer ID signed, and notarized by Apple. Live audio routing and the new UI interactions have not been manually revalidated for this release.

Known issue

The virtual audio device can stop passing audio after repeated app restarts, while the app meters continue moving. This release does not fix that driver issue.

Install

Download and open PlugInput-0.9.2.pkg.

The bundled driver is a modified build of BlackHole v0.6.1, licensed under GPL-3.0. The build flags are recorded in make-driver.sh. This is not the official BlackHole binary and is not supported by Existential Audio.

PlugInput 0.9.1

Fixes a bug that made the app produce no audio at all for some interfaces, and a second one that made the audio it did produce sound crunchy.

The microphone reaches other apps again. On macOS 26.6.2 the audio engine's input node reports a healthy signal level while delivering silence to everything connected below it — so PlugInput's own meter moved while Zoom, Discord and OBS received nothing. Capture has been rebuilt to read from the tap directly.

The crunch is gone. The input tap will not deliver more often than every 100ms, and PlugInput was asking for a buffer that only held 85ms of audio — so a constant 15% of the signal was dropped before it was ever seen, and zero-filled on the way out. The buffer is now sized from the sample rate, and measures a full 48,000 frames/sec with no shortfall.

Also: the log now reports an output level beside the input level, so a silent chain can be localized to capture or to routing rather than guessed at.

Known issue

The PlugInput audio device can stop passing audio after the app is restarted several times in quick succession — the meters keep moving while other apps receive silence. sudo killall coreaudiod restores it. Under investigation.

Install

Download PlugInput-0.9.1.pkg below and open it. The package is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

PlugInput bundles a modified build of BlackHole (GPL-3.0) as its virtual audio driver. This is not the official BlackHole binary and is not supported by Existential Audio.

PlugInput 0.9.0

First public release.

PlugInput runs Audio Unit effects on your live microphone and presents the processed
signal to other applications as an ordinary microphone — a compressor on your voice in
Zoom, Discord, Slack, Teams, or OBS, without opening a DAW.

Install

Download PlugInput-0.9.0.pkg and run it. It installs the app to /Applications, an
audio driver to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL, and restarts CoreAudio so the device
appears immediately. The package is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

macOS will ask for microphone access on first launch. PlugInput captures nothing until
you grant it.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. Universal — Apple silicon and Intel.

To remove everything:

/Applications/PlugInput.app/Contents/Resources/uninstall.sh          # app and driver
/Applications/PlugInput.app/Contents/Resources/uninstall.sh --all    # also delete settings

What it does

• Chain up to 8 Audio Unit effects in any order, each with its own settings and bypass
• Each plugin opens its own vendor interface; several can be open at once
• Pick which input channel your mic is on, for interfaces with more than one
• Optional headphone monitoring, independent of what other apps receive
• Chain, settings, and device selection are restored on launch
• Latency readout, input meter, and an activity log

Known limitations

• Plugins load in-process. Out-of-process loading is AUv3-only and most installed
  Audio Units are AUv2, so a plugin that crashes takes the app down with it. Settings are
  autosaved partly for this reason. If a saved plugin crashes the app at launch, delete
  ~/Library/Application Support/PlugInput/session.json to reset.
• Audio Units only. VST3 is not supported.
• Eight effects maximum. Each adds latency; the window shows a running total.
• The chain editor controls — reordering, bypass, multiple open plugin windows — have had
  less hands-on use than the audio engine beneath them. Please report anything odd.

Credits and licensing

PlugInput is MIT-licensed. It bundles a modified build of
BlackHole by Existential Audio, renamed
so the device is identifiable. This is not the official BlackHole binary and is not
supported by Existential Audio — please report PlugInput issues here, not to them.

BlackHole is GPL-3.0. The corresponding source is BlackHole v0.6.1 plus the build flags
recorded in make-driver.sh. See THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES for details.