Changelog

Pick a filename without typing it

1.5 (Build 10) turns renaming into a short menu instead of a toggle plus a freeform text field. Choose Keep filename, Demo, Standup, or Exploration and Louder applies that name when it relocates the recording.

The same menu now appears inside the drop window’s file options and in Settings ▸ Files. Both surfaces write one shared preference, so changing it in either place updates the other and the next dropped file immediately follows it. Matching values from the previous rename setting carry across.

Commit 5ec0759.

The drop window tells you what it is about to do

1.5 (Build 9) moves the decisions that matter onto the first screen. The hint under the drop target is no longer a fixed sentence — it now reads “Drop video to encode, rename and move” and names only the steps that are actually switched on. Hover any verb and it tells you the specifics: which preset will run, the filename you will end up with, the folder the file is headed for.

The two file-handling switches that drive that sentence came along with it. A receipt button next to the preset menu reveals Move to target folder and Rename file in place, bound to the same preferences as the Files settings tab, so you can change your mind without leaving the window. Renaming only appears next to moving, because relocation is the only path that renames.

The preset menu gained a separated top section for the audio-preserving option, now called Keep Audio where you pick it, and the signal-chain explainer moved out of the way into the window toolbar. Disclosing the options no longer nudges the controls above them, and the hover detail always has room for its second line.

Commit 5be2b58.

Keep the original audio, change everything else

1.4 (Build 8) adds a preset that deliberately does nothing to the sound. Keep Audio trims, resizes, relocates, and renames a video while stream-copying every source audio track through untouched — no filters, no re-encode, no loudness target. It is the option for footage whose audio is already right, or already finished elsewhere.

It stays out of Compare on purpose: the original lane there already is the unprocessed reference, so a second identical lane would say nothing.

Commit 4573a21.

Pick the colors that tell you how it sounds

1.3 (Build 7) adds an Appearance settings tab that recolors the assessment cards. The positive · caution · critical indicators now draw from a palette you choose — 16 palettes derived from the OKLCH palette definitions in the Style Explorer, each a single-hue triad tuned for both light and dark mode. Ocean is the new default.

The picker sits next to a live preview of the three cards, so you see the colors on real indicators before committing, plus an OKLCH color-options reference grouped by role. Press ↑ / ↓ to step through palettes (or P to cycle) and the indicators recolor instantly.

Commit 4c48212.

From a recording in one folder to a shareable file in another

1.2 (Build 6) adds a file-handling workflow that runs before enhancement. A new Files settings tab lets you point Louder at a target folder: on drop it moves (or copies) the recording there, then renames it to your convention — a body you choose plus an appended recording date (yyMMdd) — and only then processes it. Settings now split into Files and Processing tabs to hold it all.

Relocation became its own session-level step, kept separate from per-run processing, so switching presets and using Compare no longer break when renaming is on. Because these are irreplaceable recordings, the safety rules are now covered by unit tests: Copy never touches the source, Move and undo round-trip cleanly, "Rename original" backups always restore, and undo refuses to run if a required file is missing.

Commit 5ea33bf.

The first real download, and an app that explains itself

1.1 (Build 5) is the first published release — notarized, stapled, and attached to a GitHub release, not just a local install. Two things landed for it. When ffmpeg/ffprobe are missing, the drop zone is replaced by a guided setup card that hands you a ready brew install command, re-checks when you return to the app, and dismisses itself once the tools are there — no relaunch. And every build now stamps its own date: a BuildDate in the bundle and an About panel showing version · build · build date, so you always know exactly what you're running.

Commit 2c916ff.

Reset replaces Undo

The toolbar Undo button became a mode-aware Reset. In Compare it confirms deleting every generated variant; in single-process it keeps the new louder file and asks whether to keep or delete the original, then drops back to the initial drop screen. Shipped as 1.1 (Build 4) — the first notarized release since Build 2, bundling everything accumulated since: the Clean AI preset, 4K/1080p output quality, and multi-channel mono downmix.

Commit 2a22ec9.

A Download path and a tighter README

Recorded Build 3 and added a Releases/Download section to the README. Build 3 was a stopgap local install: signed with a Developer ID and Gatekeeper-accepted, but not notarized — no notary credential was available on the machine — so the dist archive was kept for local use only, not distribution. The note flagged a 1.1 minor bump for the Clean preset, 4K/1080p, and downmix that had landed since Build 2.

Commits be45ff2, 231b2c4.

Make in-place rewriting safe to trust

A stability pass from an audit, since Louder overwrites your files where they live. Process launch is now cancel-safe — no terminate on an unlaunched Process. A failed batch rolls back fully, restoring every replaced original. And in-place replacement is atomic on the same volume. If any file fails, its original is left untouched.

Commit 53ca6e4.

The voice-cleanup pipeline

Added selectable local audio cleanup: DeepFilterNet denoise, gentle FFmpeg denoising, and a GTCRN noise-suppression stage — alongside an unchanged loudness-only mode. Pinned Apple Silicon and Intel DeepFilterNet executables plus the DeepFilterNet3 ONNX model are bundled, so every preset runs entirely on-device.

Commits 133ada5, 5088842.

An idle window that says “drop here”

Gave the app its face: a foreground leaf mark and an animated idle-state GIF — arrows briefly sweeping inward toward the icon — with the README intro reworked to lead with it. Then a few passes to match the GIF's size, roundedness, and crop to the static screenshot so the two read as one.

Commits b879f93, 198b691, a1e5e11.

The project so far

First public snapshot, history pruned. Louder is a single-purpose macOS app: drag a video onto the Dock icon and it raises the voice to a consistent loudness target, backs up the original to <name> - original.<ext>, and replaces the file in place. It was born from an abandoned Shortcuts Quick Action — Apple's sandboxed siriactionsd daemon can never be granted access to OneDrive/CloudStorage files, but a real app in the user session gets the permission prompt once and works forever.

Commit 573a290.