AnalogDAW User Guide
Mix and produce with the warmth of an analog console.
Welcome to AnalogDAW — a recording, editing, and mixing studio for macOS and
iPad/iPhone that puts the sound and feel of a classic analog console at the
center of everything you do. Whether you are tracking a band, recording a
virtual instrument, or finishing a master, AnalogDAW gives you fast tools
wrapped around a warm, musical signal path.
This guide is written for everyone — if you have never opened a DAW before,
start at the top and work down. If you are a seasoned engineer, jump straight
to the section you need.
AnalogDAW exists to bring back the recording workflow that made the classic,
timeless records — the era when a great performance was captured, not
assembled. The whole app is built to reward the human touch: a singer leaning
into a phrase, a drummer who pushes the chorus, the small imperfections that
make a take feel alive.
What AnalogDAW is:
- A performance-first studio. You track real players and real takes through
a warm, analog-modeled console, then choose your best moments and mix. The
craft is in the playing and the engineering — not in repairing it afterward.
- A console at the center of everything. Tracks, mix buses, aux returns,
and the master all carry the same modeled color, EQ, saturation, and
compression. On tracks, mix buses, and the master that character is there from
the first take — before you touch a control.
- An honest editing room. The editing tools — trim, fade, gain, slip,
splitting, comping across takes — let you arrange and choose performances.
They shape what you already played; they don't fabricate something you didn't.
What AnalogDAW is not:
- It does not include automatic pitch correction. If a note is flat, you
sing it again. Tuning is part of the performance, not a slider.
- It does not quantize, time-stretch, or "fix" your timing. The groove you
played is the groove you keep. There is no grid that drags your audio into
place, no elastic re-timing of a take.
- It is not a MIDI sequencer. Virtual instruments are performed, not
programmed. You play an instrument live and AnalogDAW records its audio —
exactly like miking an amp. There are no MIDI clips, no piano roll, no step
sequencer, and no note editing to nudge, quantize, or tune a part after the
fact. An instrument performance is treated as a real performance: if you want
to change it, you play it again. See
Recording Instruments.
- It is not a tool for manufacturing a performance that never happened. In
an age when machines can generate flawless, frictionless audio on demand,
AnalogDAW deliberately leaves out the crutches that sand the humanity out of a
record. The point is to capture you.
This is a creative choice, not a missing feature. If your goal is to chase a
great take until it's genuinely great — and to keep the feel of real people
playing real music — you're in the right place.
- Getting Started — the welcome screen, creating
your first session, opening an existing one, and the lay of the land.
- Sessions & Saving — how sessions are
stored, automatic saving, Save / Save As / Save a Copy, crash recovery,
relinking missing audio, snapshots, templates, and session settings.
- The Interface — the transport bar, the timeline
and mixer views, the navigator/minimap, markers, loop, tempo, and meter.
- Tracks & the Channel Strip — what a
track is, how to add one, and a tour of the channel strip.
- The Audio Processors — a deep, plain-language
guide to every built-in processor: preamp & color, filters, gate, EQ,
compressor (all five styles), de-esser, plug-in inserts, and sends.
- Recording Audio — choosing inputs, arming,
monitoring, count-in, the metronome, and capturing a take.
- Recording Instruments — playing virtual
instruments live and recording them as audio.
- Takes & Comping — loop recording, stacked
takes, take lanes, and building a perfect composite performance.
- Editing Clips — selection, the cursor tools,
snapping, trimming, fades, splitting, joining, ripple edit, and automation.
- Mixing — soloing, panning, sends, automation modes,
edit groups, and using the mixer.
- Channel Strip Types — every kind of
strip — track, mix bus, aux return, cue bus, VCA group, and master — and
when to reach for each.
- The Console Sound — a companion to chapter 11:
exactly what analog color is baked in (and where), what stays clean, why
"flat" isn't "off," and how to get a fully transparent path when you want one.
- Audio Settings — devices, buffer size, latency,
and recording delay.
- Exporting & Sharing — bouncing your mix, stems,
formats, and loudness normalization.
- Keyboard Shortcuts — the full key-command
reference.
- Control Surfaces — mix and run AnalogDAW from
external hardware (Mackie/MCU surfaces and generic MIDI controllers).
- It always sounds like a console. Tracks, mix buses, aux returns, and the
master all share the same analog-modeled color, EQ, saturation, and
compression engines. Three of them also impart a gentle character at "flat"
settings, before you enable a single processor: every track through its
always-in-path preamp, every mix bus through a subtle "glue" saturation,
and the master through its tape stage. (Aux returns and cue buses stay
clean until you switch something on.) See Channel Strip
Types for exactly
what is baked in where.
- Your work is always being saved. AnalogDAW autosaves continuously and
keeps a crash-recovery copy, so you rarely have to think about losing work.
See Sessions & Saving.
- One layout, two views. A single session is shown either as a timeline
(Edit) for arranging and editing, or as a mixing console (Mix). Switch
any time with the EDIT / MIX toggle.
- macOS and iOS share the same session format and workflow. The same
sessions open on a Mac, an iPad, and an iPhone. The interface adapts to the
screen, and this guide calls out platform differences where hardware routing,
Files, or Audio Unit support behave differently.
Tip: Throughout this guide, menu paths look like Menu ▸ Save, and
keyboard shortcuts look like ⌘Z. On iPhone and iPad, the main menu is the
☰ button at the right end of the transport bar.