The dashboard at a glance
The main window uses two rows of working controls, a right-hand detail card and a permanent status footer. Each card observes only the state it needs, so live meters and the repair graph do not continually rebuild unrelated controls.
- Audio devices / Audio level
- The upper-left card configures Input, Output and Format while idle. It becomes a live stereo meter card while the transport is active.
- Monitoring
- Selects Repaired or the aligned Original, or isolates All, Clicks or Noise removed by the restoration. Master gain adjusts the selected output.
- Repair settings
- Shows the fixed NG2 generation, independent DeClick and DeCrackle 0–100 sensitivities and Auto controls, plus NRNG S150/S200, its own Auto control and Relearn action.
- Applied repairs
- Plots only corrections actually made by the audible engine during the latest 60 seconds.
- Activity / Now playing
- The right column alternates between grade and transport diagnostics or recognized track information. The last selection is restored at the next launch.
- Status footer
- Shows processing state, the current Input → Output → Format route, LAN server status and the Refresh and Start or Stop actions.
Audio devices while idle
The Audio devices card is shown when the engine is Idle or has failed. Its controls are unavailable while processing.
- Input
- The stereo capture device receiving the line-level signal from the phono system.
- Output
- The stereo playback device feeding the amplifier, active speakers, recorder or monitoring chain.
- Format
- An exact sample rate and bit depth exposed by both selected devices. If their supported sets do not intersect, the menu shows No common format and Start remains unavailable.
- Refresh
- Re-enumerates devices and common formats. Use it after connecting, powering or waking audio hardware.
Audio level and peak indicators
After Start, the configuration card becomes Audio level. The L and R bars show the peak sent to the selected output on a logarithmic −60 to 0 dBFS scale. They follow the audible signal after DeClick, noise reduction, Monitoring selection and Master gain, so their movement stays aligned with what you hear.
- A bar reaching 0 dB indicates full scale and may already be clipped at the converter. Reduce the level before the Mac.
- The thin peak marker holds briefly, then releases toward the meter floor over approximately three seconds.
- Lock peaks keeps the highest markers visible until it is turned off or audio processing stops.
- Settings → UI selects Blue, Green or Gradient and Continuous or Segmented. The same appearance is used throughout the Mac application and WebApp.
Monitoring
Signal
- Repaired
- The normal listening choice. It sends the DeClick result followed by the current NR mix.
- Original
- Sends the original signal delayed to the same point in time as Repaired, allowing an immediate comparison without a timing jump.
- All
- Sends everything removed by the click/crackle stages and NR together.
- Clicks
- Isolates the difference created before NR. In a + DeCrackle mode this includes both DeClick and DeCrackle.
- Noise
- Isolates only the difference created by noise reduction.
Signal selection does not change detection, the Applied Repairs graph, Auto or the media grade. It changes only what the current audio transport sends to the selected output.
Master gain
Master gain ranges from −12.0 to +6.0 dB in 0.5 dB steps. The default is +0.0 dB. It is applied in software to the selected monitoring signal, and the output meters follow it. It does not alter event detection or the grading reference.
Repair settings
- Correction profile
- Limits how strongly Auto may respond at each media grade. The presets are ordered from gentlest to strongest: Paranoid, Light, Mid and High. A saved Custom profile is also available.
- Generation
- The release product displays fixed NG2. It runs one sequential DeClick → DeCrackle replay while keeping both stages independently controllable.
- DeClick
- An exact integer sensitivity from 0% to 100%. Zero is an exact, latency-preserving bypass for this stage. Auto shows the effective value without overwriting the saved manual value.
- DeCrackle
- An independent exact 0–100 sensitivity after DeClick. Zero is its exact bypass; its Auto limit comes from the profile's separate DeCrackle curve.
- Noise reduction
- Selects NRNG S150 or S200 after both repair stages. S150 is the conservative profile; S200 is the stronger alternative. The prepared branch remains warm and aligned while bypassed.
- NR maximum
- Selects a manual 1–12 dB maximum. The slider is locked while NR Auto is active and shows the effective automatic value.
- NR Auto
- Follows the current grade's NR maximum in the selected correction profile, using the Mint row until a grade is available and clamping every result to 12 dB.
- Relearn noise
- Starts a new bounded P65 acquisition without rebuilding the transport. Until a valid one-second profile is prepared, NRNG is a delayed transparent bypass and Noise monitoring is zero.
See Repair and NR for the complete Auto, profile and noise-reduction behavior.
Applied Repairs is not grading
The Applied repairs graph answers one question: how many correction events did the audible NG2 engine actually generate? It follows the effective DeClick and DeCrackle sensitivities, not the independent grade.
- The horizontal axis covers the latest 60 seconds and stops advancing when processing stops.
- Blue indicates Light activity below 1 repair/s.
- Orange indicates Active repair from 1 to 10 repairs/s.
- Red indicates Heavy repair above 10 repairs/s.
- The history is not cleared by Reset grading and is independent of the Signal selection.
Activity
Select >> Now Playing to replace Activity with recognized track information. From Now Playing, select << Activity to return. Activity contains:
- Media grade
- The current M, NM, VG+, VG, G+, G, F or P result from the median of complete reference windows. A dash means that there is not yet enough graded audio.
- Grade reference
- The fixed method and settings used by the independent engine: Extended · 50% · Pitch off.
- Grade detections / s
- The median reference-detection rate used to assign the displayed grade.
- Reference events
- Total events accumulated by the current grading session.
- Graded audio
- Duration accepted into complete cumulative grading windows.
- Reset grading
- Starts a fresh grading session without stopping audio. The repair Auto controls use bounded fallback values until a new rolling observation is complete; the next qualified side also starts fresh NRNG acquisition.
- Noise reduction
- Shows the selected S150/S200 engine and the current effective maximum in Auto or Manual.
- Noise profile
- Reports waiting, acquiring, active or unavailable state, together with transition, gain mean/minimum, music protection, confidence and invariant diagnostics.
- Auto decision
- A short explanation of the latest automatic choice, such as waiting for input, acquiring the P65 profile, applying the grade maximum or running manually.
- Transport
- XRuns and Errors. Both should normally remain at zero.
Pronounced silence pauses cumulative grading, clears stale Now Playing information and marks the end of a side, but the last grade remains visible. The short rolling observation used by the automatic restoration controls continues. When sound returns, VinylRest Live waits for two seconds of sustained input before resetting the cumulative grade and restarting Shazam for the new side.
Now Playing
When Shazam recognition identifies the input, Now playing displays artwork, title, artist, album, available track details, genres and links to Apple Music or Shazam. The media-grade badge remains in the card heading.
- Shazam hasn't identified this track yet means recognition is active and will continue while audio plays.
- Recognition paused during silence means the end-of-side detector has paused recognition and cleared the previous track.
- Recognition metadata is informational. A failed or incorrect match never changes repair, Auto, grading or the audio output.
Immersive Now Playing
Select the album artwork to replace the dashboard with a listening-room presentation. Landscape places the largest uncropped artwork on the left and shows the grade, title, artist, album and large L/R meters on the right. A narrow or portrait window stacks the same content. Long metadata moves slowly only when it does not fit and respects Reduce Motion.
Select Close, select the artwork again or press Escape to return to the dashboard. The meter Style and Display settings are shared with the main Audio level card. Settings → UI can optionally align the heading and meter panel with the top and bottom of the artwork.
Status footer
- Status indicator
- Green while the engine is Running; red while audio is inactive. The message includes the active Input → Output → Format route when available.
- LAN HTTP
- Reports whether the optional server is stopped or listening and shows its port.
- Refresh
- Refreshes audio devices while configuration is unlocked.
- Start / Stop
- Starts the selected route or performs an ordered shutdown. During shutdown the button reads Stopping…; after a failure the primary action becomes Reset.