Getting started

What is APPA?

APPA (audio professional personal assistant) is a Mac app that runs alongside Pro Tools or Logic Pro and does the slow, repetitive parts of a session for you. It isn't a plug-in: it's an app of its own that works your DAW for you.

The three jobs

Everything in APPA is one of three jobs, each with its own part of the window:

• Import turns audio and MIDI files into tracks that arrive already recognised, named, coloured, routed and in their folders, with groups, track presets, markers, the tempo and stripped silence. It can build a whole new session from your template, and queue several sessions to set up in one go.
• Organize does the same to the tracks of a session that already exists: colours, folders, outputs, groups, clean names and Strip Silence, all shown first and done when you press Apply.
• Export bounces mixes, alternative versions and stems from a list you build once, for one session or many, unattended.

A menu bar icon adds quick jobs on the tracks selected in your DAW, on your own keyboard shortcuts.

How APPA works your DAW

In Pro Tools, APPA talks through PTSL, the scripting interface Avid builds into Pro Tools, and uses Pro Tools' own menus and windows (through macOS Accessibility) for the few things PTSL can't do yet: reading your I/O names, making groups, recalling track presets, setting the tempo and Strip Silence. It never moves your mouse.

In Logic Pro, there's no scripting interface, so APPA works Logic through its menus and windows with macOS Accessibility. Two jobs Logic only allows with a real click (choosing a track colour and picking from an output menu): APPA makes that click and puts the pointer back.

The window

A rail down the left switches between Import and Export (⌘1 / ⌘2). Each keeps its work while you switch. The Newton's cradle at the top swings while APPA is working. The ? at the bottom turns on Info: a strip along the bottom says what the button under the mouse does, with its shortcut.

Getting started

Installing and first launch

Installing

Open the downloaded APPA.dmg and drag APPA into Applications. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

The setup window

The first time APPA opens, a short setup window walks you through:

1. What APPA does, in a page.
2. Your DAW: Pro Tools or Logic Pro. You can switch later from the side rail; APPA never changes it by itself.
3. Accessibility: a button opens the right page of System Settings. Turn APPA on there and the window moves on by itself.
4. Your license: start the 7-day free trial, or enter a license key.

Requirements

• macOS on an Apple Silicon or Intel Mac.
• Pro Tools 2025.10 or later for everything (some parts work with earlier versions).
• Logic Pro 11.
• Accessibility permission for APPA (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility).

Getting started

Preparing your DAW

Accessibility

APPA needs Accessibility to use your DAW's menus and windows. Turn it on once in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility. Until it's on, Import shows a button that takes you there.

Import

How to import files

Drop files on the window, check the plan in the list, press Import.

Adding files

Drop files or whole folders anywhere on the Import list, or press Add Files… (⌘O). APPA takes WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, AAC and MP4 audio, and MIDI files (.mid). Each file is read: its waveform, channels, length, level and tempo, and what instrument it is.

Where the tracks go

Each session is a tile on the left. The session open in your DAW is always at the top: click it to import into it. + New adds a new session (made when you import, from your template if you pick one), and Add… adds one on disk.

Importing

Press Import (⌘↩). A Ready to import window lists every step first: the files, folders, groups, tempo, markers and so on. Press Import there and APPA does it, then a window says how it went, with Undo Import to remove the tracks it just made.

Each folder's files go in with one import, straight into the folder, then each track is renamed, coloured, routed and given its track preset. Pro Tools brings tracks in by file name order within a folder.

Files come in through Logic's own browser as new tracks, where Options says, then each track is named, put in its Track Stack, coloured and routed.

MP3, M4A and other formats

Compressed files (MP3, M4A, AAC) are decoded cleanly by macOS to a WAV at the session's bit depth first, then imported. Your original files are never changed.

Import

How instruments are recognised

Every file's instrument comes from its name (Kick, OH, BV, Rhodes, 808…), even when the words run together (LEADVOX, SNRTOP, GTRAMP). Backing vocals are recognised however they're spelled out (Oooh, Ahhh, Mmm…). If the name doesn't say, APPA listens and makes a guess; hover over the menu to see why.

Files it can't place go to the top with a ! and stay in Other until you choose. Add your own instruments, with their own keywords, in Settings › Rules: they're matched before anything else.

Import

The track list

Each row is a track to be made, tinted in its colour, with its instrument, folder, output, group and track preset.

Editing

• Double-click a name to rename it (Tab moves to the next). Double-click elsewhere on a row for all its details: waveform, file, sample rate, bit depth, length, level and tempo.
• Select several rows (click, ⇧-click, ⌘-click) and change a menu on one: they all change.
• Rename… does find and replace, adding before or after, trimming, numbering and case.
• Drag rows to reorder them, or click a column heading to sort.
• New Tracks… (⌘N) adds empty tracks of any kind, and new folders.
• Copy and paste tracks (⌘C / ⌘V) or just their settings (⌥⌘C / ⌥⌘V).
• ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z undo and redo any change to the list.

Listening

Press a row's play button (or Space) to hear a file; click the waveform to play from there.

Keyboard shortcuts

⌘R rename · ⌘I details · ⌘D duplicate · ⌘K colour · ⌘G group · ⇧⌘N new folder · ⌘E Strip Silence · ⌘T detect tempo · ⌘O add files · ⌘N new tracks · ⌘, options · ⌘↩ import. ⌘/ lists them all.

Import

Folders and routing

Left on automatic, each track goes into the folder its instrument's rule names, when the session has it, and its output follows that folder. APPA doesn't guess from folder names you didn't choose.

In Pro Tools a folder is a Routing Folder (its tracks go out to its bus) or a Basic Folder (it only holds them). Scan I/O reads every bus and output from Setup › I/O so they all show in the menus; nothing is changed.

In Logic a folder is a Track Stack: a Summing Stack (its tracks go out to its bus) or a Folder Stack (it only holds them).

Folder › New folder… makes a new folder for the selected tracks, made first when you import. Turn on Set outputs separately to choose each track's output yourself. Every output menu also has No output.

Import

Colours, groups and track presets

Colours

Each instrument has a colour in Rules; tracks get it as they come in. The colour picker is laid out like your DAW's own palette.

Groups

Turn on Groups above the list for a group per instrument, named after it, or pick a group the session already has. Options can also group all the imported tracks together, and turn that group off afterwards.

Track presets

Turn on Track presets to recall one of your Pro Tools track presets onto each track (from Documents › Pro Tools › Track Presets): per instrument in Rules, or per track.

Turn on Track presets to load a channel strip or patch from your Logic library onto each track: per instrument in Rules, or per track.

Import

Tempo, meter and markers

Detecting the tempo

The tempo comes from a BPM in the file or folder names ("Song 120bpm"), or press Detect (⌘T) and APPA listens. Stems are listened to together, so a pad doesn't blur the drums. A certainty % shows how sure it is; use /2 or ×2 if it hears half or double time, or type over it.

With Set in your DAW when importing on, the session's tempo is set at its start to that BPM.

Meter

6/8 and 12/8 are recognised by how the beats are divided. Options › Meter sets the session's meter at the start, with its usual click.

Markers

Options › Markers adds a Start marker where the audio starts and an End marker where the longest file ends, and can add markers in between with your own names (Verse, Chorus…). Those are evenly spaced placeholders: move each to where its part really starts.

Import

Strip Silence

Turn on Strip silence in Options and every imported track has its silence cut by your DAW's own tool, Pro Tools' Strip SilenceLogic's Remove Silence, with your settings: threshold, minimum duration, and the start and end pads. APPA sets them in the window for you.

A preview shows the parts it keeps. Don't strip files that are silent throughout leaves empty files whole.

Import

Stereo to mono conversion

A stereo file with the same audio on both sides gets a → Mono tag and comes in as a mono track. Click the tag to keep it stereo, or turn off Make fake-stereo files mono in Options.

A stereo file with sound on only one side gets → Mono L or → Mono R: it comes in as a mono track, panned hard to that side.

The mono file is a new copy of that one side, bit for bit. Your original file isn't changed.

Import

New sessions and templates

Nothing needs to be open first. Press + New, pick your template, name and location, and the sample rate and bit depth; the sessionproject isn't made until you press Import, so all of that can still change after you've added the audio.

My Templates (Settings) reads your Pro Tools templates' folders and buses from a scratch copy, so a new session can be routed before it exists. Add template and Import session data bring another template's or session's tracks into the session first.

If the files aren't at the session's sample rate, APPA asks: convert them as they come in, make the new session at their rate, or leave them out.

Import

The queue: a whole album at once

Set up one song, press Add to Queue, and set up the next. Each queued session is a tile with its own tracks and settings; click one to open it and change it. Run Queue makes or opens each session in turn, imports its tracks and saves it, so you can set up an album in one go.

If your DAW stops to ask something while opening a session (e.g. Missing Files), APPA waits for your answer however long it takes; it never answers that window for you. The queue is kept when APPA is closed.

Import

After an import

A window says how it went: the tracks imported, any with notes or that failed, tracks that couldn't go into their folders, and how long it took. Undo Import deletes only the tracks that import made, even ones renamed since; a track of yours is never touched.

Anything that couldn't be done is shown on that track's row (hover over its !), never guessed.

Organize

How to organize tracks

The Organize tab lists the tracks already in the open session, with the instrument each name says.

1. Search by name, or show one kind (Audio, MIDI, Aux, Folders, VCA).
2. Select tracks and change their folder, instrument, colour (or Colour by Instrument), output, group, or tick Strip Silence.
3. Only ticked tracks are changed. Press Apply: the moves, colours, outputs and Strip Silence are done, then the groups.

When a rule changes while a session is open, the tracks it now affects wait in Organize for you to apply.

Organize

Clean Up Names

Takes duplicate, playlist and copy endings off (".dup1", ".01", " copy") and numbers tracks that then share a name, in session order: "Vox", "Vox.dup1", "Vox.dup1.03" become "Vox 1", "Vox 2", "Vox 3". Names that are already clean are left alone, and no track is given a name another track or playlist has.

It shows old → new first. Settings › Menu Bar chooses numbers ("Vox 1"), letters ("Vox A") or a word of your own ("Vox Comp"). Undo Clean Up Names puts the names back, which Pro Tools'Logic's own Undo can't always do.

Export

How to bounce

1. The session open in your DAW goes in the Sessions list by itself. The first time, a setup window asks for its mix sources, format and where the bounces go.
2. Set the range: the timeline selection (Get Timeline) or between two markers.
3. Add bounces with the buttons along the top (below), select tracks in your DAW first where a bounce needs them.
4. Press Bounce for this session, or All Sessions for every session's ticked bounces.

Solo and mute states, plug-ins and sends are always put back afterwards, even if a bounce fails.

Export

Bounce types

• Mix (⇧⌘M): the mix as it is.
• Solo (⇧⌘S): the selected tracks soloed together, as one bounce (an a cappella, say).
• Mute (⇧⌘U): one bounce with the selected tracks muted (an instrumental or TV mix).
• Batch (⇧⌘B): one bounce per selected track, folder or VCA, each soloed on its own: stems.
• Clips (⇧⌘L): one bounce per clip on the selected tracks, inside the range.

Select bounces to Edit (⌘E), Rename (⌘R), Duplicate (⌘D) or Delete. Drag them to reorder. Batch and Clips names take a prefix and suffix.

Export

Reverb returns, inserts and sends

Solo and Batch bounces can change what's heard while they bounce, then put everything back exactly as it was:

• Bypass inserts: the soloed tracks' plug-ins off, for dry stems.
• Mute sends: their sends muted, so no reverb or delay from them.
• Reverb return mode (no output): the soloed tracks feed only their sends, so you bounce just the wet reverb and delay returns.

A Mix can bypass inserts or mute sends on tracks of its own, e.g. your mix bus, to bounce without its plug-ins.

The master bus

Tick Master bus changes to choose what happens on it: Dynamics processing off (only limiters and compressors off; EQ and colour stay) or All processing off, per bounce. Stems start with your default; a Mix starts with processing on. Ask me to check my limiter is on reminds you before a run that goes through the master as it is.

Choose which plug-ins on the Stereo Out to bypass for each bounce; they're switched back on after.

Export

Formats and file names

WAV, AIFF, MP3 or M4A; interleaved, multi-mono or mono; any bit depth and sample rate. Bounces can go in the session's folder or anywhere you choose, and be imported back into the session afterwards.

Logic's own bounce formats: WAV, AIFF or CAF (any bit depth and sample rate, interleaved or split), MP3 and M4A (AAC or Apple Lossless), with normalize, mode and audio tail as in Logic's Bounce window.

Each bounce has its own name; Batch and Clips bounces are named from the track or clip with your prefix and suffix.

Export

Presets and many sessions

Presets save a whole delivery list (the mix, instrumental, a cappella, stems…) to put on any session. Markers in a preset are found by name in each session. Save This Session's Bounces as Preset… makes one from the list you've built.

A preset can go on a session that isn't open: its bounces are worked out when the run opens it.

All Sessions saves and closes the open session, opens each in turn, bounces its list and closes it, then reopens the one you started on.

All Sessions opens each other project beside yours (yours stays open), bounces its list and closes it again without saving.

APPA always shows what will happen and asks first.

Menu bar & settings

The menu bar icon

While APPA is open, its cradle icon sits in the Mac menu bar with quick jobs on the tracks selected in your DAW: Strip Silence, Colour by Instrument, Colour As ▸ an instrument, Clean Up Names, Detect Tempo (then Set Tempo to … BPM) and Show APPA. A notification says how each went.

Settings › Menu Bar gives each job a keyboard shortcut of your own that works with your DAW in front (⌃, ⌥ or ⌘ with a key, or F13–F19). Pick keys your DAW doesn't use.

Menu bar & settings

Settings › Rules

Rules say what each instrument gets: its colour, folder, output, name keywords, group and track preset, so sessions are built the way your template is laid out.

• Drag an instrument to reorder: the track list, and so the order tracks go in, follows.
• Add your own instrument (e.g. Snare Top, a kind of Drums): files with its name or keywords match it first.
• Select several instruments to set a colour, folder, output, group or preset on all of them at once.
• The tabs are rules presets (e.g. one for mixing, one for recording). + New copies the current one.
• Use the template's groups joins the template's own group whose name fits.

Menu bar & settings

Import options

Options (⌘,) holds where clips land (session start, some bars or beats in, the timeline selection or the file's timestamp), colouring, routing, mono and one-sided files, groups, Strip Silence, markers, the meter, track height and saving when done. Copy Options / Paste Options copy them between sessions, and a saved Preset (top bar) keeps the whole setup.

Account & help

Your license

• Free trial: 7 days with everything working, once per Mac.
• Monthly: renews each month. APPA keeps working offline until the end of the month you've paid for, plus 14 days.
• Perpetual: yours for good, updates included, and works offline forever.
• Each license works on 2 Macs. Settings › Account shows your plan, renewal, your Macs (deactivate one from the other) and Manage Subscription.

APPA checks your license about once a day when it's online. Nothing about your sessions is sent.

Account & help

Troubleshooting

APPA can't see my DAW

Open your DAW and a session first. Pro Tools 2025.10 or later is needed for everything. Check APPA is ticked in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility (untick and tick it again after an update).

A track has a !

Hover over the !: it says what happened (not recognised, couldn't go into its folder, a note from the import). Nothing is guessed.

Logs

If something goes wrong, APPA writes what happened to ~/Library/Logs/APPA/. In Finder, press ⇧⌘G, paste that path, and attach the files when you contact support.