Hushwave Studio

Overview

Hushwave Studio turns your Mac into a multi-channel audio broadcast hub for silent discos, guided tours, fitness classes, or any event where listeners each bring their own headphones.

You create channels — independent audio streams, each with its own playlist or live input. Listeners install the Hushwave app on their iPhone or Android, open it on the same Wi-Fi network, pick a channel, and hear the music immediately. No Bluetooth pairing, no cables, no speaker interference.

System requirements

• Mac running macOS 18 or later.
• Connected to the venue Wi-Fi or Ethernet. A hotspot created by the Mac also works.
• Listener iPhones or Android on the same network with the Hushwave app installed.
• Screen Recording permission for system audio capture.
• Any class-compliant USB or Bluetooth MIDI device for MIDI control.

Quick Start

1. Open Hushwave Studio. If this is your first time, set your event name in Settings › General › Event (⌘,).
2. Click Add Channel at the bottom of the sidebar (⇧⌘N). Give it a name and a color.
3. Drag audio files onto the playlist area in the channel detail view, or choose a live input (microphone or system audio).
4. Press the Start Broadcast button in the sidebar (⌘B). The button changes to ON AIR with a glowing red dot.
5. Click the QR code panel in the sidebar to open the join sheet. Show the QR code to your audience, or tell them to open Hushwave — the studio appears automatically on their phone within a few seconds.

Connecting Listeners

Automatic discovery

When the studio is broadcasting, it advertises itself on the local network using Bonjour. The Hushwave iOS app scans for this advertisement — listeners open the app and the studio appears within a few seconds. No IP address entry is needed.

QR code & manual entry

Some managed networks (hotels, conference venues, schools) block Bonjour multicast. In those cases, use the QR code:

1. Click the QR panel in the sidebar to open the Join sheet.
2. Display the QR code on a screen or projector. Listeners scan it with the iPhone camera and tap the link to open Hushwave.
3. Alternatively, read out the IP address and port shown below the code. Listeners type this into the Connect screen in the app.

Multiple network interfaces

If your Mac is connected to more than one network (e.g., Wi-Fi and Ethernet), the join sheet shows a network picker. Select the interface that your listeners are also connected to.

Refreshing the address

Press Refresh in the join sheet if you switch networks while the studio is running. The IP address may have changed, and the QR code will update to reflect it.

Channels

What is a channel?

A channel is a single, continuous audio stream. Every listener tunes into one channel at a time. You can run as many channels as your Mac’s CPU can handle — typical silent discos use 2–8 channels for different music genres.

Creating & deleting channels

• Add Channel — click the button at the bottom of the sidebar, or press ⇧⌘N.
• Delete Channel — open the channel, then click the trash icon in the toolbar. Listeners on that channel are automatically returned to the channel picker.
• Reorder — drag channels in the sidebar list. The order is reflected in the listener app.

Playlist mode

The default mode. The channel plays its tracks in order and loops back to the beginning (unless Loop is disabled).

• Add tracks — drag audio files or folders onto the playlist, or click Add Tracks… (⌘O). Supported formats: MP3, AAC/M4A, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, CAF.
• Reorder — drag rows up or down.
• Remove — select one or more tracks and press ⌫, or right-click › Remove.
• Play Now — double-click a track or right-click › Play Now to crossfade to it immediately.
• Skip — press the Skip button (▶▶ icon) in the toolbar to crossfade to the next track.
• Loop — toggle the Loop playlist switch in the channel identity card.

Live input mode

A channel can stream live audio instead of a playlist. Select the input from the picker in the channel identity card.

• Microphone — streams your Mac’s selected input device. Grant Microphone permission when macOS prompts you.
• System Audio — captures audio output from a specific app running on your Mac (e.g., Spotify, YouTube in Safari). Select the target app from the dropdown. Grant Screen Recording permission the first time.

Playlist controls are hidden while a live input is active.

Channel settings

• Name — click the channel name in the detail view to edit it inline.
• Color & icon — choose from the swatches and icon picker. These appear in the listener app to help people identify channels.
• Gain — use the speaker slider (0–125%) to adjust output level without touching the master broadcast.

Broadcast & Transport

ON AIR / OFF AIR (⌘B)

The Broadcast button in the sidebar starts and stops the stream. When ON AIR, every active channel sends audio to connected listeners. When OFF AIR, listeners see a “Broadcast paused” message.

Pause All / Resume All

Sends silence to every listener while keeping all connections alive. Use it for announcements, between acts, or any moment where you need quiet without losing the audience. Each channel resumes from where it was when you press Resume All.

Dashboard status

The header line on the Dashboard reflects the current state:

• Live on your network — broadcasting normally.
• Paused — listeners hear silence — Pause All is active.
• Playing cue — channels ducked — a Hot Pad is playing.
• Not broadcasting — broadcast is stopped.

Keyboard shortcuts

Hot Pads

What are Hot Pads?

Hot Pads play a one-shot audio cue through the broadcast while automatically ducking (lowering) all channel volumes. Use them for DJ drops, station IDs, countdown beeps, announcements, or any sound effect that needs to cut through the music.

The Hot Pads panel is on the right side of the window. Show or hide it with the sidebar button in the toolbar.

Assigning a sound

1. Click Add Pad at the bottom of the Hot Pads panel.
2. Click the new pad. A file picker opens — choose an audio file.
3. Alternatively, right-click any pad and choose Assign Sound…

Triggering & stopping

• Click a pad to play it. Channels duck immediately; the pad label shows a countdown timer.
• Click the pad again, or right-click › Stop, to cut the cue early. Channels return to full volume.
• Only one cue can play at a time. Triggering a second pad stops the first.

Pad settings

Click the gear icon on any pad to open its settings.

• Name — label displayed on the pad button.
• Cue level (0–125%) — playback volume of the cue. Useful for normalising files without editing them.
• Duck level (0–80%) — how much the channels are attenuated while the cue plays. 0% = full silence; 80% = faintly audible background music. Default is 15%.
• Color — helps distinguish pads quickly in a live set.

MIDI Control

Connecting a device

Connect any class-compliant USB or Bluetooth MIDI controller. Open Settings › MIDI (⌘,) to see detected devices. If your device does not appear, disconnect it, wait a moment, reconnect it, and reopen the MIDI panel.

Choose All MIDI Inputs to respond to any connected device, or pick a specific device to avoid accidental triggers from other controllers.

Creating a binding

1. In Settings › MIDI, click Add Binding…
2. Click Learn MIDI… and play the note or move the knob you want to assign. Hushwave captures the message type, number, and channel automatically.
3. Choose an Action: Toggle Broadcast, Toggle Transport, or Trigger Hot Pad.
4. If you chose Trigger Hot Pad, select which pad number to fire.
5. Click Add to save.

Available actions

• Toggle Broadcast — same as pressing ⌘B. Starts or stops the broadcast.
• Toggle Transport — same as Pause All / Resume All.
• Trigger Hot Pad — fires a pad by its position in the Hot Pads panel (Pad 1, Pad 2, …).

Activity monitor

The Activity section in Settings › MIDI shows the most recent incoming MIDI message in real time. Use it to confirm your device is communicating and to identify message numbers before creating bindings.

Sessions

What is a session?

A session file (.hushwave) stores your complete studio setup: channels, playlists (as bookmarks to the original audio files), hot pads, event name, crossfade duration, bitrate, and MIDI bindings. Open a session to restore everything exactly as you left it.

Saving & opening

Hushwave Studio also auto-saves when you quit the app.

Moving audio files

Sessions use security-scoped bookmarks, so tracks continue working even if you move the session file itself. However, if you move or rename the audio files that the tracks reference, those tracks will show a failed status and need to be removed and re-added from their new location.

Settings Reference

Open Settings with ⌘, or via the Hushwave Studio menu.

General › Event

Event name — the name shown to listeners when their phone discovers the studio. Also appears as the header on the Dashboard and in the join QR sheet.

General › Audio

• Crossfade (0–12 s) — how long the outgoing track fades out while the incoming track fades in. Also adjustable directly on the Dashboard. 2–3 s works well for background music; 0 for hard cuts.
• Stream quality — AAC bitrate for all channels:
  • 128 kbps — recommended for most venues.
  • 96 kbps — try this on crowded Wi-Fi if listeners report dropouts.
  Each listener uses roughly the selected bitrate. 100 listeners at 128 kbps requires ~12.8 Mbps of Wi-Fi capacity.

General › Startup

Start broadcasting when Hushwave Studio opens — the studio goes ON AIR automatically on every launch. Useful for unattended installations.

General › Server

Shows the active port and all IP addresses the server is listening on. This is the same information displayed in the join sheet.

MIDI

See the MIDI Control section above.

Troubleshooting