OctoTrack Studio

Real tape

Recording is a performance, not a draft.

Remember how records got made on a 4-track? You armed a track, hit RECORD, and committed. OctoTrack brings that way of working back: recording is destructive, on purpose. When you record over something, it's gone — so every take counts.

Faders, EQ and pan stay exactly where your hand left them, like a real console. There is nothing to save, because everything is already on tape. No dirty-document dot. No “Save changes?” dialog. No ⌘S — the tape remembers.

Two channel strips up close: the Lead Gtr track armed with its red REC button lit, EQ knobs, pan, a VU needle mid-swing and the fader where the hand left it.

The luxuries

The safety net tape never had.

One level of take undo (⌘Z) flips the last recorded track between the new take and the one before it — audition both, even while playing, and keep the winner.

And Revert to Opened rolls the whole project — audio and mix — back to the moment you sat down, in case the session went somewhere the song didn't. That's the entire safety net. It's enough.

The Edit menu open over the console, showing the single Undo Recording command (⌘Z) — the one level of take undo.

Bounce

Bounce it down. Make it eternal.

Export your mix to a 24-bit WAV or AAC file, faster than real time (⌘E) — or record a performance mix live (⌘⇧E), riding the faders while it prints.

Once bounced, the mix is eternal: the file never changes, no matter what you do to the tape afterwards. Your guide click never leaks into a bounce.

The Export Mix save panel over the console, with the format picker set to WAV 24-bit / 48 kHz and an Export button.

Ping-pong

Ping-pong without the hiss.

The sacred 4-track move: bounce tracks 1–8 down to the 7-8 pair (⌘B) and free six tracks for new parts. The pair comes back as one wide stereo strip, locked against accidents — the mix is already printed in the audio.

On real tape, every generation added noise. Here the tape is digital: ping-pong as many generations as the song needs. Nothing degrades — not even the TAPE knob prints on a ping-pong. Bounces stay clean, always.

The console after a ping-pong: tracks 1–6 empty and ready, and the whole mix printed on the locked 7-8 stereo pair, its padlock closed and activity bar full.

Tape character

Sounds like tape. Not just works like it.

One amber TAPE knob next to the master fader adds gentle tape saturation to the whole mix: at working level the sound passes nearly clean, and the character shows up on the peaks, highs first — the way real tape rounds a hot signal. You hear it while you play, and it prints on your exports. At zero, the path is bit-exact dry. That's the entire effects department, and it's the tape's — the console stays dry.

The master section of the console: the master fader with the amber TAPE knob beside it, turned to 35%.

The metronome

A click worth following.

The metronome speaks six voices — beep, sticks, hi-hat, cowbell, woodblock, side-stick — all synthesized inside the machine, all staying out of your bounces. Set a count-in and RECORD gives you up to four clicks before the tape rolls, so you start on the one. And when a song needs the click printed — a scratch tempo track to build on — Print Click to Track puts it on any track you choose, as an ordinary take. On purpose is the only way the click ever reaches tape.

Control surface

Hands on the faders.

Plug in a Mackie Control (MCU-mode) surface and it just works: faders, mute/solo/arm, SELECT, pan and transport, with LED feedback. No setup, no mapping, hot-plug included. SELECT puts a channel in your hand — the strip lights up on screen and the M, S and A keys follow it — and holding REW/FF shuttles the playhead. The app even echoes fader positions back to motorized surfaces.

Illustration of a compact Mackie Control surface: eight faders with mute, solo and record buttons, eight V-Pot knobs and a transport row — the layout OctoTrack maps automatically.

What OctoTrack is not

Not a DAW. On purpose.

There is no timeline editing, no automation, no plugins or effect racks, no unlimited undo. The console is dry by choice — EQ, pan and level; your sound comes from the source, the way a Portastudio always made you commit to it.

If you need the rest, you already have it somewhere else. OctoTrack is for the moment you want to stop arranging regions and start playing music.

The details

Everything on the tape.

8 tracks, 48 kHz — your interface is switched automatically.
Punch in / punch out with seamless splices, from the keyboard or the surface.
Tape-style varispeed (PITCH) — it even prints on export; chipmunk solos included.
Tape character (TAPE) — gentle tape saturation on the whole mix; prints on exports, never on a ping-pong.
3-band EQ, pan and true VU meters (0 VU = −18 dBFS) on every track.
Stereo pairs — import a stereo file and mix it as one wide channel.
Metronome with six click sounds and a 1–4 click count-in — and it never leaks into your bounce (Print Click to Track when you want it on tape).
Import any audio file your Mac can read; export WAV (24-bit) or AAC.
Tape trading — share the whole project as a single .octotape file; takes, mix and locks travel together.
Track sheet & J-card — print the tape-box paperwork for your mix as a PDF.
Mackie Control support, plug-and-play with LED feedback.
Hands-free punch — any footswitch that types a key can drive the R shortcut.
Track locks — freeze a finished track completely with one click.
Built-in guide covering every corner, right in the Help menu.

FAQ

Fair questions.

Why is it 48 kHz only?: Because a tape machine has one tape speed. OctoTrack runs everything at 48 kHz and switches your interface automatically — you never open Audio MIDI Setup, and every project sounds the same everywhere. Files at other rates are converted on import.
How does the trial work?: Download is free and everything works for 14 days. After that, a single $19.99 in-app purchase unlocks it forever. One payment — no subscription, no accounts.
What formats does it read and write?: Import: any audio file your Mac can read (mono lands on one track, stereo on a pair). Export: WAV 24-bit / 48 kHz or AAC. Recordings live as plain WAV files in a project folder under ~/Music — yours, always.
Is recording really destructive? What if I ruin a take?: Really destructive — that's the instrument. You get one level of take undo to flip between the new take and the previous one, and Revert to Opened to roll the whole session back to where it started. Beyond that: commit.
Which control surfaces work?: Any surface that speaks Mackie Control (MCU mode). Faders, REC/MUTE/SOLO, SELECT (track focus), pan V-Pots, cursor keys and transport are mapped — hold REW/FF to shuttle — with LED and motorized-fader feedback.
Does it collect any data?: No. Nothing. No analytics, no accounts, no network calls. Your recordings never leave your Mac. (Privacy policy — all three sentences of it.)

Ready

Press record. Mean it.

Coming soon to the Mac App Store Free 14-day trial · $19.99 one-time purchase · no subscription