Let DOT hear your Mac
The first time you open DOT, click Allow audio recording. macOS asks once, and the switch lives in System Settings›Privacy & Security›Screen & System Audio Recording if you ever need it again. Nothing records until you press Record.
Then click Try it with a song. DOT plays its own song and records it, so you can see a finished take before you record anything of yours.
Record
Press the red Record button, or ⌘R while DOT’s window is open, or ⌃⌥R from any other app, even your DAW. DOT listens for a few seconds and then shows the tempo and key as the take goes.
Press the same button or key again to Stop & keep. Space pauses, and Discard throws the take away. You can change the shortcut in Settings›Record shortcut.
Choose what to record
Click Source, left of the Record button. Under Sound from your Mac, pick All Mac audio, or one app on its own. Apps that are playing come first, each with a level meter, so you can see which one has sound.
To record a call in FaceTime, Zoom, Meet or Teams, pick All Mac audio and turn on your mic as well.
Record a mic, guitar or turntable
In the same Source menu, turn Mics and inputs On and pick your mic or audio interface. Each list has its own On and Off, so you can record an input alone, an app alone, or both together, like Logic Pro plus your interface.
An interface with many inputs shows Listening… while DOT finds the pair with sound, then Inputs 3–4 or whichever it found. Click it to step to the next pair that has sound. macOS asks for microphone access the first time.
Trim a take
With Auto-trim on, DOT cuts the silence at both ends for you. To trim more, drag the handles under the waveform. They snap to the beat, and ← and → step a beat at a time. Hold ⌘ while you drag to move freely.
⌘D saves the trimmed part as a new clip and keeps the full take. Crop and Restore full take are in the Edit menu, and ⌘Z undoes.
See the key, BPM and chords
The key and BPM sit at the top right. When two readings are close, DOT shows the second one in grey; click it to use it instead. The chords run above the waveform, with Roman numerals. Click a chord to hear it, and double-click to keep just that chord.
DOT only shows what it’s confident about, so speech and noise usually get no chords.
Loop a section and save it as a new clip
Drag the two handles around the part you want, like two bars of a groove. Right-click the waveform and choose Loop, or press ⌘L, then press Play, and just that section repeats while you listen. When it sounds right, right-click again and choose Save as new clip, or press ⌘D. The full take stays as it was, and the new clip is ready to drag into your DAW as a loop.
Find a take
Your takes sit in the list on the left. Press ⌘F and type a name, a key like Dm, or a tempo like 120. To rename a take, double-click it or press Return.
Space plays the selected take, and pressing it twice plays from the start of the kept part.
Drag it into your DAW
Drag a take from the list straight into Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Finder or any app that takes audio. Only the trimmed part goes, and the file carries its tempo and key where the format allows. ⌘C copies it too.
Export the chords as MIDI
Click Export, or press ⌘E, and choose Export chords as MIDI to play the chords with your own sounds. The same menu has Export audio, and Export audio and MIDI for both at once. The format row picks WAV, MP3, AIFF or M4A, and Share sends a take by AirDrop, Mail or Messages.
Find the key and BPM of your own files
Drag audio files onto DOT’s window, up to 50 at once, and each one gets its key, BPM and chords. It takes WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A. In the free version, each file counts as one of your 10 recordings.
Save in studio quality
Open Settings with ⌘, and set Export quality to Studio. Exports and drags then come out as 24-bit WAV or AIFF at the source’s own sample rate, up to 96 kHz. Standard is 16-bit at 48 kHz.
In the same window, Normalize volume brings quiet takes up when you export them. It changes the volume only.
Record from the menu bar
DOT’s icon sits in the menu bar and shows the recording time while it records. Its menu has Start recording, Open DOT, Source and Settings, so you never have to leave the app you’re in. You can hide it in Settings›Show in menu bar.
Unlock the full version
DOT needs macOS 14.4 or later, on an Apple silicon or Intel Mac. The free version records 10 takes and makes 3 chord MIDI files, with no time limit.
Click Buy in DOT, or choose Purchase DOT… from the DOT menu. It’s $49 once, for up to 3 of your own Macs, with free updates and a 30-day refund. Your key arrives by email. Choose Enter License Key… and paste it in. A discount code goes in at checkout, not in the key field.
What changed in each version is on the DOT changes page.
Still stuck? Email kai@plastic.audio and I’ll help.
