Install & docs
Install the app, wire up the plugins, activate Pro, and learn the shortcuts. Want the full tour? Read the user manual.
Session RecorderSessionRecorder.dmg.AU (Logic, GarageBand, Live): nothing to copy — launching the app once registers it. Rescan plugins in your DAW if needed.
VST3 (Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig): copy
SessionRecorderVST3.vst3 from the dmg to
~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ and rescan. Quit your DAW before updating the
plugin to a new version.
Moving to a new Mac? On a Mac you no longer use, open Settings → Deactivate This Mac to free a slot, then activate the new one — as often as you like. Can't reach that Mac (sold or dead)? Use our contact page and we'll free the slot. Deactivating never touches your recordings.
Enter the email address you bought with and we'll send the key again. It's the same key as before — nothing changes on any Mac you've already activated.
Still nothing after a few minutes? Check spam, then use our contact page — give us the address you paid with.
Drag the new version over the old one and launch it. The new copy hands off from the running one automatically — if a recording is running, it's stopped and saved first.
For all-analog sessions, a Mac running Session Recorder can be the room's tape machine. In Settings → Source choose Interface Input, pick your audio interface and the input pair (or mono input) carrying the console feed, and record as usual. This mode uses the Microphone permission (asked once). Marks, the rolling free window, review, and export all work identically.
These work no matter which app is frontmost — made for reaching over from your DAW. A brief confirmation appears under the menu bar so you never have to look away. The combinations below are the defaults:
All four can be reassigned in Settings → Shortcuts. If another app has already claimed one, Session Recorder flags it there so a shortcut that isn't reaching you never looks like a shortcut that isn't working.
A take is built on the output device it started on, so unplugging an interface or switching to Bluetooth ends it — the audio up to that point is saved and waiting in Review. A recording can also fail to start, usually because the System Audio Recording permission was revoked.
Either way the Dock icon bounces and an alert appears that you have to dismiss, so it can't slip past while you're working in your DAW. To hear it too, turn on Settings → General → Play a sound if recording stops or fails unexpectedly. It's off by default: the sound plays through whichever output is live, and a studio Mac may have mics open.
Type a name in the menu bar popover before you hit record, or rename any session
later in Review. The name shows in Review's session list. When you
name it before recording, the session's folder on disk is named too — as
Your Name yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss, so it's easy to spot in Finder while the
timestamp keeps every session unique and in order. Leave the name blank for a plain
Session yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss folder.
~/Music/Session Recorder/ — one folder per session with plain audio
files (segment-001, segment-002, …) and a
session.json describing segments, marks, the session name, and real
wall-clock times. Your Pro credentials live beside them as license.key
and entitlement.key — the entitlement is tied to this Mac, so copying
it elsewhere won't move your license; use Deactivate/Activate to move a Mac.
Prefer a different location — an external drive, a synced folder? Use Settings → Recordings folder → Change…. Session folders are self-contained and portable: move one (or your whole library) in Finder, or copy it to another Mac, and Review still plays it back — paths resolve relative to wherever the folder is, not where it was first recorded.
Still stuck? Contact us — a real person will help.