Smrt Stem ships updates as we find things worth fixing. We're honest about what changed — bugs, improvements, new features, all of it. If you want the short version, read the headline. If you care about details, each release below has them.
Improvements and fixes
Improvements
- Better handling of non-audio file drops. Dropping non-audio files onto the main drop zone now shows a helpful toast message listing supported formats, instead of routing to a blank error screen.
- Smoother seeking and scrubbing. Playback is now cleaner when clicking around the waveform or holding arrow keys to scrub through a track.
Under the hood
- Improved version comparisons for pre-release builds, removed stale fallback strings, tightened internal code structure, and various cleanup across the codebase.
Cleaner playback starts, plus behind-the-scenes improvements
Fixes
- Resolved an audible click-pop at the start of playback when replaying from the beginning of a track. This covers pressing Play when the playhead is at the start, using Jump to Start, and replay after a track ends.
Under the hood
- Updated internal components to address security advisories. No changes to how the app works.
Refined trial and license experience, clearer drag-and-drop feedback
What's new
- Drop a folder onto the results view to start a new scan. A neon-green visual affordance confirms the drop target, so you can queue up the next batch without returning to the welcome screen.
Improvements
- Clearer feedback for every drag-and-drop interaction. Both the main drop zone and the reference mix drop zone now surface toast notifications for every drop outcome, including files that aren't from Finder, empty drops, and unsupported formats.
- Trial badge refreshes throughout your session. If your trial ends while the app is open, you'll see a toast notification in real time instead of a stale countdown.
- Context-aware trial and license screens. The trial expiry screen adapts its heading based on whether your trial just ended or you opened the license view yourself.
- Detection toggles respond instantly. Switching click or clipping detection on or off hides and shows the waveform markers immediately.
- Refined update banner layout. Improved how the update-available banner sits in the interface across window sizes.
Under the hood
- Single-instance lock to prevent duplicate launches, cleaner process cleanup on quit, and more resilient handling of license activation and deactivation. Plus various reliability and stability improvements.
Apple Silicon performance and reliability improvements
What's new
- Faster launch and improved memory use on Apple Silicon Macs. Addressed a performance issue where the app could take 30+ seconds to launch the first time on modern M-series Macs (M1 through M4). Launches are now fast on first run and every run thereafter, with reduced ongoing memory use.
Fixes
- Improved track reordering. Refined how mute and solo behave when tracks are dragged to reorder them, ensuring both controls target the correct audio file. Also refined drag-and-drop positioning for smoother track rearrangement.
- Smoother pause, stop, and playback transitions. Playback transitions now use a fast fade to eliminate audible clicks on pause, stop, and at the natural end of a track. Also improved how playback recovers when the system is briefly under heavy load.
- Improved handling of filenames with quote characters.
Under the hood
- Various reliability and stability improvements.
Reliability hotfix
Fixes
- Improved license validation resilience. Hardened how the app handles unexpected responses from the licensing service. Short-lived service interruptions no longer affect active licenses.
- Clarified click detection scope on long files. Extended the click detection analysis window, and added an informational note in scan results when files exceed the analyzed duration so you always know exactly what was checked.
- Restored in-app purchase flow. The "Buy Smrt Stem" and trial badge links now open the correct checkout and license screens.
Playback and offline reliability
Fixes
- Fixed playback pitch on non-48kHz systems. Playback is now always at the correct pitch regardless of the system audio output sample rate.
- Truly offline operation. Removed a font CDN dependency so the app no longer makes outbound network requests at launch. Fonts are now fully bundled.
Activation and trial signup fixes
Fixes
- Fixed license activation. Resolved an issue where valid license keys were being rejected during activation.
- Fixed trial email signup. Trial signups now reliably reach our system.
Public launch
What's new
- Smrt Stem is live. A desktop quality control app for stems. Checks sample rate, bit depth, channel count, duration, clipping, silence, glitches, clicks, and pops — across every file in a folder, in seconds.
- 14-day free trial. Full functionality, no credit card required.
- One-time purchase. $59 USD. Two-machine activation. No subscription, ever.