The Audita reference.

1. What Audita does #

Audita is a macOS menu bar app that protects the hearing of audio professionals. It continuously measures the sound pressure level (SPL) reaching a microphone at your listening position and calculates how much of your safe daily hearing budget has been used, using the NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (85 dBA reference, 3 dB exchange rate, 80 dBA threshold). It runs passively alongside any DAW, with no conscious interaction required.

One measurement chain feeds two jobs:

• Hearing protection. A-weighted SPL (IEC 61672-1) accumulates into a cumulative dose percentage. Color-coded thresholds, NIOSH-aligned notifications, EU 2003/10/EC peak monitoring on a parallel C-weighted path.
• Monitoring Discipline. A separate, optional layer that pins your monitoring level to a calibrated reference (K-14 / K-12 / K-20 / mastering / custom) and warns when your level drifts or sits off-target for too long.

Safe duration at different levels

The NIOSH formula gives you a budget that halves every 3 dB. Below 80 dBA no dose accumulates at all. This table is the canonical reference cited from the landing page and FAQ.

The dose resets at midnight.

Audita is $19.99, one-time purchase, with a 7-day free trial. macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.

2. First launch #

On first launch:

1. macOS asks for microphone access. Click OK. Audita needs microphone access to measure SPL; the measurement microphone you pick (see below) is the only audio source it reads.
2. The Audita icon appears in the menu bar. Click it to open the popover.
3. Open Settings → Audio and select your measurement microphone from the input device picker. Defaults to the system default input. Any mic works (built-in, talkback, anything CoreAudio sees); for the most accurate readings we recommend a small condenser or omnidirectional measurement mic permanently mounted near the listening position.
4. Run the 3-step calibration wizard (Settings → Audio). Without calibration, the SPL numbers Audita displays are not in real-world dB.

Audita is agent-only. It never appears in the Dock or the ⌘-Tab switcher. All interaction happens through the menu bar.

DAW auto-detection

Audita watches for known DAWs to launch and quit, and automatically starts and ends sessions accordingly. Out of the box, 15 DAWs are tracked by bundle ID: Logic Pro, GarageBand, Pro Tools, LUNA, Ableton Live, REAPER, Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Audacity, Adobe Audition, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve.

When the first tracked DAW launches, an Audita session starts. When the last one quits, the session ends and a recap notification fires. Multiple simultaneous DAWs are handled correctly - only the first launch and last quit trigger transitions.

To add a DAW that isn't in the built-in list, open Settings → DAWs → Add Custom DAW and enter its bundle ID and display name. Custom DAWs persist across launches and survive Auris imports.

Pressure Bloom states (menu bar and popover header)

The menu bar glyph is the Pressure Bloom, the same arcs-and-dot shape as the Audita app icon. The number of arcs reflects live SPL; the colour reflects today's NIOSH dose tier. So a single glyph tells you "loud right now" and "how much of today's hearing budget has been spent" at the same time. The same state machine drives the larger Bloom in the popover header.

The 80 dBA arc-count maximum lines up with the NIOSH dose accrual threshold (Constants.thresholdDBA): the moment your listening starts counting against today's budget is the moment the glyph reaches its full shape. Higher-dB cues come through the dose-tier colour, not extra arcs.

The dose-tier colour is unchanged from v1.1: safe 0-40 % is green, caution 40-70 % is yellow, warning 70-90 % is orange, danger 90 %+ is red. Today's dose is saved continuously so a quit/relaunch doesn't lose progress. Accumulated dose is stamped with the calendar date and discarded if the date has changed since last launch - each day starts clean at midnight.

The no-session state is deliberately distinct: a full bloom with no dose tint reads as "Audita is present, just not measuring".

3. Menu bar display #

By default the menu bar shows just the Pressure Bloom glyph (or the legacy SF Symbol ear if you've enabled the fallback in Settings). From Settings → General → Menu Bar you can switch to a live SPL readout that updates 10 times a second.

Display modes

One-decimal toggle

Settings → General → Menu Bar → Show one decimal formats the number as 85.2 instead of 85.

Color-coded readout

Settings → General → Menu Bar → Color-code reading by level tints the SPL number according to three configurable thresholds. The defaults follow the NIOSH risk gradient:

The three thresholds (yellow / orange / red) are individually configurable. Their steppers cross-clamp to keep the bands monotonic - you can't set red below orange. Colors use NSColor.system{Green,Yellow,Orange,Red} so they adapt for accessibility and color-blind palettes.

Dash placeholder when stopped

When the audio engine is not running (no session, no active measurement), the readout shows a dash placeholder rather than "0 dBA" - a stopped meter is genuinely silent in the room only if you've calibrated against the room noise floor, which most users haven't. The placeholder makes it visually obvious the meter isn't measuring.

Prefer the v1.1 ear icon?

Settings → General → Menu Bar → Use classic ear icon restores the SF Symbol ear in both the menu bar and the menu window. Off by default; flip it on if you preferred the v1.1 look or if the dose-tier colour reads more clearly to you as the four-icon set than as a single colour-shifting bloom.

4. The dropdown menu #

Click the menu bar icon to open the popover. Two panels: the live measurement panel (default) and the session history panel (accessed via the History button).

A larger Pressure Bloom sits in the popover header next to the accumulated dose readout. It's driven by the same state machine as the menu bar glyph - see Pressure Bloom states for the arc and colour rules.

License status

"Licensed", "Trial - N days left", or "Trial expired" in red, with an Activate or Manage button alongside.

Active session block

Visible while a session is running (auto-started by a DAW or manually started). Shows the DAW name, elapsed time, running average dBA and peak dBA / dBC, and the dose accrued during this session only. The peak counters (≥115 dBA, ≥135 dBC) appear as red badges when the corresponding EU thresholds have been exceeded.

Live dBA and dBC

Two large numbers showing the smoothed A-weighted and C-weighted SPL at your microphone position. Exponentially smoothed (α = 0.3) for display only; dose, Leq, and session statistics use the energy average of each 100 ms measurement interval, so every sample contributes its actual acoustic energy and short bursts are counted at full weight. A dBC − dBA gap indicator appears below when the gap exceeds 6 dB (caution) or 10 dB (warning), flagging significant low-frequency content that A-weighting alone underreports.

Monitoring Discipline gauge

When Monitoring Discipline is enabled and the audio chain is calibrated, a small gauge shows the active reference target (e.g. K-14 / 79 dBA ±3), the live distance from target in dB, and the rolling on-target % for the current session. See Monitoring Discipline for the full mechanic.

Today's dose

The cumulative NIOSH dose percentage for the current calendar day, color-coded by zone (green / yellow / orange / red). Below it, peak counters for today's ≥135 dBC and ≥115 dBA events when non-zero. The dose resets at midnight.

Calibration status line

A single line above the footer summarises the same state as the health card in Settings → Audio: whether your level calibration, mic correction, and last self-check are all in order for the devices currently selected, or which of them needs attention. It also carries the input-volume compensation indicator when a UMIK calibration is active and the mic's volume control sits below 100%.

Footer: pin and history

Two buttons at the bottom:

• Pin icon - opens or closes the floating measurement panel. The icon swaps between an outline pin (closed) and a filled accent-tinted pin (open).
• History - opens the second panel of the popover, showing the 7-day bar chart and chronological session list. Click History window at the top to open the standalone resizable history window with calendar navigation and 30-day range stats.

Start Session / End Session

Manual session control. Useful when you're not in a tracked DAW (e.g. mixing in iZotope RX, listening on Spotify, scoring against a reference track in QuickTime). The session records exactly like an auto-detected one but is labelled Manual until you give it a custom name.

Settings…

Opens the Settings window. Six tabs: Audio (device, calibration), Safety (conservative dose, peak monitoring), Reference (target dBA, alerts), DAWs (custom bundle IDs), Panel (floating panel sections), General (menu bar display, launch at login, notifications, Auris import).

5. Floating measurement panel #

A detached always-on-top window that keeps the measurement panel visible while you work in another app. Opened via the pin icon in the menu bar footer; dismissed via the same pin or by double-clicking the panel surface.

What it shows

All the same data the menu bar popover shows, configurable per section in Settings → Panel:

• Hearing dose (today's NIOSH dose with color)
• Current SPL (dBA + dBC)
• Monitoring Discipline (target, distance, on-target %)
• Leq / Ln statistics
• Active session details
• Today's summary (dose, peaks)

All sections default on. Sections that depend on context (no active session, monitoring disabled, audio not running) auto-hide regardless of the toggle.

Behaviour

• Always on top. Floats above other windows at NSWindow.Level.floating.
• Follows you across spaces and full-screen apps. Joins all spaces; visible whether you're in a DAW's full-screen mode, on a different Mission Control space, or on a secondary display.
• Borderless and translucent. No title bar, no traffic lights. The SwiftUI material background draws edge-to-edge.
• Liquid Glass on macOS 26+. Uses the system's translucent .glassEffect material and inherits the color of whatever is behind it. On macOS 14-25 it falls back to .regularMaterial - still translucent, but flat.
• Resizable, position-remembered. Drag any edge to resize. The frame is auto-saved between launches.
• Auto-resize on section toggle. Toggling sections in Settings → Panel re-fits the window without leaving a gap; the top edge stays where you put it so the resize feels anchored.

6. Calibration #

Audita's measurement chain is only as accurate as its calibration. Settings → Audio opens with a calibration health card and then presents calibration as a numbered 3-step journey, because the steps depend on each other: Step 2 only matters if Step 1 has flattened the mic, and Step 3 only matters if Steps 1 and 2 have made the broadband level reliable.

Calibration health at a glance

The card at the top of the Audio tab answers three questions before you touch a slider:

• Level. Where the offset came from - a factory calibration file, a file's sensitivity header, or your own hand-set number - and whether it belongs to the input you currently have selected.
• Mic correction. Whether a correction is active, which source it came from, and whether the audio engine's current sample rate is bypassing a measured correction (a measured filter is only valid at the rate it was measured at; a correction from a calibration file re-designs itself instead).
• Verification. When this mic-and-monitor pair last passed a self-check, or that it has not been checked yet.

Each line carries its own tint, and the card takes the worst of the three, so a stale or silently bypassed calibration does not look identical to a healthy one. The menu bar popover carries the same state as a single summary line above its footer.

Below the card are the input and output device pickers and the free-text Mic Location field. Use the location field to record the physical setup ("Earthworks M30 at LP, 1.2 m behind monitors, 38 cm above desk, gain at unity"); it is stored alongside the calibration so you can reproduce or cross-check it weeks later.

Step 1 - Mic frequency response correction (optional)

Most desk-mounted measurement mics, talkback channels on audio interfaces, and onboard laptop mics have non-flat frequency responses that bias dBA readings by 1-5 dB depending on programme content. Step 1 measures your mic's actual frequency response with pink noise and an FFT, then derives a corrective FIR filter that flattens the input chain before the A and C weighting filters run.

1. Place the measurement mic at your normal listening position - where your head sits during a session.
2. Turn your monitors to a normal listening level - loud enough to dominate room noise, not so loud the mic clips.
3. Settings → Audio → Step 1 → Measure.
4. Pink noise plays for ~4 seconds. The mic captures the response. The FIR is computed and saved automatically.
5. The status row updates to Active.

Re-run when: you change the measurement mic, move it to a meaningfully different position, or change room treatment in the listening area.

Import the manufacturer's calibration file

Most measurement mics ship with a calibration file: a text file of frequency and gain pairs describing that exact unit's deviation from flat. Audita reads the REW-style formats (.cal, .txt, .frd) that miniDSP, Dayton, and most vendors publish. If you have one, you can skip the pink noise measurement.

1. Settings → Audio → Step 1 → Import Calibration File.
2. Pick the file. Audita shows what it found: the number of data points, the frequency span, the serial number, and, for USB mics, the sensitivity figure.
3. Click Apply. The correction is derived from the manufacturer curve, limited to ±9 dB, and enabled.

The two paths describe different things, and both are valid. The manufacturer curve is anechoic data for the microphone alone, so it corrects the capsule without folding in your room and monitors. The pink noise measurement captures the combined room, monitor, and mic response. The file is the better description of the microphone itself, and it survives a sample-rate change: a file-based correction re-designs itself for whatever rate the device runs at.

miniDSP ships two files per serial number: 0 degree for a mic pointing at the monitors and 90 degree for a mic pointing up (grazing incidence). Import the one matching how yours is mounted. Audita flags 90 degree files so you can check.

After importing, Step 1 names the file and serial number it is using, so the number on screen is always attributable. Settings also notes on Step 2 when the offset came from a file; moving the slider by hand returns to manual calibration.

UMIK-1: absolute SPL straight from the file

A UMIK cal file's header carries a per-unit sensitivity line (Sens Factor). The UMIK-1 is a USB mic with fixed internal gain, so that number maps digital level to real dB SPL directly, with nothing left to measure. When a UMIK-1 is the selected input, the import sheet offers Set level calibration from the file: Audita sets the Step 2 offset from the sensitivity figure and records where it came from. The conversion accounts for the digital gain miniDSP's figure assumes but macOS never engages, and it has been checked against the NIOSH SLM app.

Three conditions apply, all handled in the sheet:

• The input device must be the UMIK itself. Through an audio interface the preamp gain is unknown, so an analog mic's file corrects frequency response only.
• The mic must be selected by name in the input picker. With the picker on System Default the sheet asks you to select it first - one click when a UMIK-1 is connected. A level set from a file always belongs to one specific device.
• Input volume. The sensitivity is defined at full input volume, so the sheet offers a one-click Set to 100%. If the control sits lower anyway, Audita adds the shortfall back in real time and shows the compensation in Settings and the menu bar. 100% still gives the most headroom.

Expect the resulting offset to sit well above the 94 dB default. That is correct: it encodes the mic's absolute USB sensitivity rather than a pistonphone reference. To verify, play pink noise and compare Audita against the NIOSH SLM app at the listening position; they should agree within about 2 dB.

UMIK-2 files import the same way for frequency correction, but the automatic level conversion is calibrated for the UMIK-1, so set the level with Step 2 there.

Download a UMIK-1 file by serial number

With a UMIK-1 connected, Step 1 leads with the download instead of the measurement. Type the serial printed on the mic body, pick the 0 or 90 degree variant, and Audita fetches the factory calibration for that exact unit and opens the same import sheet.

Analog mics through an interface

An ECM8000, EMM-6, or similar analog measurement mic takes its frequency correction from the cal file exactly like a USB mic. The level offset still comes from Step 2, because the file cannot know what gain your preamp was set to.

Some analog files carry a Sensitivity -12.34 dBFS line: the level the mic produced at 94 dB SPL at whatever interface gain was used when the file was made. Audita can use it as the level reference, off by default, and both the import sheet and Settings say what it depends on. It holds only while your gain matches that measurement state, and the file cannot tell you what that state was. Treat it as a starting point and cross-check with Step 2.

Step 2 - Level offset (the main one)

This is the single number that maps 20·log₁₀(digital RMS) to real-world dB SPL. The default 94 dB matches the IEC 60942 pistonphone standard - a calibrator that produces a 1 kHz tone at exactly 94 dB SPL. If you have a pistonphone, place it on the mic and adjust the offset until the live reading shows 94 dBA. For everyone else, calibrate against an iPhone running the free NIOSH SLM app (independently validated to ±2 dB):

1. Install NIOSH SLM on iPhone.
2. Place the iPhone at your listening position - where your head would be - not next to the measurement mic.
3. Open Settings → Audio → Step 2. Click Play Pink Noise under the offset slider and let your monitors settle at a typical listening level. The live SPL reading is shown next to the slider.
4. Note the difference: NIOSH reads X dBA, Audita reads Y dBA.
5. Adjust the offset slider by (X − Y). So if NIOSH says 78 and Audita says 72, increase the offset by 6.
6. Repeat until both meters agree to within 1-2 dB. Click Stop Pink Noise when you're done.

Step 3 - Reference monitor level (per output device)

Steps 1 and 2 establish that what Audita measures matches reality. Step 3 captures which physical knob position on your monitor controller produces your target reference level - and stores that record per output device UID, so each monitor pair carries its own calibration.

1. Settings → Audio → Step 3 → Run Calibration Wizard.
2. Pink noise starts playing through the selected output device. The live SPL is shown alongside your target dBA (set in Settings → Reference, defaulting to 79 dBA / K-14).
3. Adjust your physical monitor controller until the live SPL matches the target. Take your time - this is the moment that defines what "K-14" means on your rig.
4. Click Capture position. Pink noise stops; the measured value is held so you can check it before saving.
5. Type a short note describing the controller position (e.g. "Apollo knob at 11 o'clock, monitors L+R at 0 dB on the desk panel").
6. Click Save. The record is persisted; the card shows a green checkmark.

Audita stores the captured measuredDBA alongside the target for honesty - if you aimed for 79 but the closest knob detent gave 80.4, that's recorded. The discrepancy is shown in the saved-record card so you can decide whether to live with it or fine-tune.

Re-run when: you switched monitor pairs or selected a different output device, you moved a knob and forgot to put it back, you changed monitor placement or room treatment, or you added/removed a hardware level pad.

The rig self-check

Steps 1 to 3 make the chain accurate on the day you run them. Run Self-Check tells you whether it still is. Audita plays pink noise through the selected output at your calibrated reference, measures it back through the mic for a few seconds, and compares the result with what it measured when you captured Step 3.

1. Set your monitor controller to the calibrated position. The card shows the note you typed in Step 3. On an Apollo output with Lyra installed, Audita can recall the matching reference slot for you so the level is right before the noise starts.
2. Click Run Self-Check. Pink noise plays while the measurement settles.
3. Audita reports the measured level, the expected level, and the delta, with a pass or fail against the tolerance band you calibrated with (±2 / ±3 / ±5 dB).

A failed check means something in the chain moved: the knob, the mic position, the preamp gain, the input device, or the room. Every run is logged with a timestamp and feeds the verification line on the health card. Checks age out after 90 days, the same interval as the Step 3 staleness hint.

A check verifies one chain: this mic into these monitors. Switch either end and the verification line reads unverified, because nothing on the new path has been measured. Each pair keeps its own result, so switching back to a rig you already verified reads verified again without re-running.

Calibration profiles

If you work in multiple physical setups - studio desk, mobile rig with its own measurement mic, second room - saving a named profile lets you restore one in a click. Settings → Audio → Calibration Profiles has a save button and a picker.

A profile is your microphone's calibration: the Step 1 correction, the Step 2 offset, and the calibration file behind them. All three describe the input chain, so none of them changes when you switch monitors. The output-dependent parts live elsewhere: the Step 3 reference level is stored per output device, and a self-check result belongs to the input and output pair it measured. So switching monitors keeps your mic calibration and asks for a fresh verification.

Audita offers the profile back

Select a microphone you have saved a profile for and Settings → Audio shows a row above Step 1 offering it: Apply when a single profile fits, Choose… when several do. Nothing is applied without you asking, and Dismiss hides the offer for that mic until you next launch Audita.

Each profile records where it was captured, so the row and the chooser can say "saved 11 Aug on UMIK-1 into Apollo Twin X" when you are deciding which one you want. That is there to help you recognise the sitting a profile came from; it does not restrict when the profile applies. Profiles saved before Audita recorded outputs, including anything imported from Auris, show no output.

When a saved profile is already in effect, the same row names it - Using saved profile: Desk, Apollo 40% - with where and when it was captured. So the calibration on screen is always attributable, whether you just applied it or it was already loaded.

A profile saved while a calibration file was setting your level carries that file's proof with it: file name, serial, and Sens Factor. Apply it with the same microphone selected and the level returns as factory calibration, so the health card and Step 2 read exactly as they did after the import. Apply it with a different mic selected and only the number is restored, as a manual offset: a UMIK's factory figure is a claim about that one microphone and says nothing about another.

7. Monitoring Discipline #

A separate, optional layer on top of dose tracking that helps you mix and master at a stable, calibrated reference level - and warns you when you've drifted off it.

Reference targets

Audita ships with four presets in Settings → Reference, plus a Custom option:

On-target percentage

Every SPL tick (10 Hz) is classified into one of four zones:

The on-target % reported in the menu bar's Monitoring Discipline section is:

on_target % = on_target_seconds / (under + on_target + over) × 100

Silent time is excluded from the denominator - breaks don't penalise your discipline score. A session where you mixed for 90 minutes (80 % on target) and then took a 30-minute break still reports 80 %. The metric is suppressed (shown as "-") until at least 30 seconds of non-silent monitoring time has been recorded.

The drift detector

Drift is the slow, unconscious creep of monitoring level upward over a long session. Your ears adapt, you compensate, you get louder, the cycle continues. Audita catches this in the background.

1. Ten minutes after the session begins, Audita snapshots the current rolling 30-minute Leq as the session baseline.
2. From then on, the rolling 30-min Leq is compared against that baseline on every 1 Hz tick.
3. When the rolling Leq exceeds the baseline by ≥3 dB, a stopwatch starts.
4. If the elevated condition persists for ≥5 continuous minutes, the alert fires.
5. The alert is one-shot per session - once you've been told you're drifting, you won't be told again until the next session starts. The 30-min snooze action defers any future drift warnings.

The off-target detector

Drift is about change. Off-target is about intent. You can be totally stable for 30 minutes and still be 5 dB below your stated target the whole time. The off-target detector asks: was that intentional?

1. Every 1 Hz tick, the current dBA is classified against the alert tolerance band (separate from, and wider than, the on-target tolerance - default ±5 dB vs ±3 dB).
2. Classifications fill a rolling buffer trimmed to the user-configured window (default 15 minutes).
3. The alert fires when the window is full, and at least 50 % of it was active monitoring (we don't ping you on a break), and at least 90 % of that active time was off-target (the deviation has to be persistent).
4. The notification reports the dominant direction: below target or above target.
5. One-shot per session, with a 30-min snooze.

Configurable in Settings → Reference → Alerts

• Drift alert - on/off.
• Off-target alert - on/off, plus window (5 / 10 / 15 / 30 / 60 min), tolerance (±3 / ±5 / ±10 dB), and direction (under-only, over-only, both).

Snooze is routed by category

Snoozing a drift alert silences future drift alerts only - dose alerts still fire. Snoozing an off-target alert silences future off-target alerts only. Snoozing a dose / peak / sustained-SPL alert silences those collectively but leaves drift and off-target alone. A user who's mid-mastering at a level intentionally below K-14 can silence off-target alerts without losing the safety net of dose alerts.

When Monitoring Discipline is meaningful

When you're working at a roughly stable level (mixing, mastering, music creation) on a calibrated output. If you're tracking, A/B-ing across levels, or the output device has changed since the last Step 3 calibration, disable Monitoring Discipline in Settings → Reference.

8. Sessions & DAW detection #

A session is a contiguous span of recorded measurement. Each session captures start and end time, the DAW that triggered it, average dBA, peak dBA and dBC, peak impulse counts, the dose accumulated during that session only, and sparse SPL readings taken every 10 seconds for the session chart.

How sessions start and end

• Auto. The first tracked DAW launch starts a session. The last tracked DAW quit ends it. Multiple simultaneous DAWs are correctly handled (only the first/last transitions trigger).
• Manual. Menu → Start Session and End Session. Use when you're working outside a tracked DAW.
• URL. audita://session/start and audita://session/end. See the URL scheme reference.

Session recap notification

When a session ends, Audita fires a recap notification: "This session used X.X% of your daily dose. Running total: Y.Y% - Z.Z% remaining today." Sessions with < 0.1 % dose (mic wasn't meaningfully active) are skipped. No action buttons - informational only.

Session history

Sessions persist to ~/Library/Containers/com.headroom.Audita/Data/Library/Application Support/Audita/sessions.json. Retention is configurable in Settings → General → Storage - default is 90 days for full session records and 14 days for the detailed time-series within each session. See Session reports & sharing for the full retention model.

Two ways to review history:

• History panel in the menu bar popover. 7-day bar chart at the top (each bar is one day, color-coded by dose) plus a chronological session list grouped by date. The chart header shows the EU L_EX,w weekly exposure level (ISO 9612, in dBA, green/orange/red against the 85 dBA criterion) and a daily average.
• History window. Standalone resizable window with a 30-day calendar on the left and six stat tiles on the right (Total dose, Avg per day, EU weekly, Peak dBA, Peak dBC, Impulses ≥135 dBC). Open it from the menu bar popover's History button. Each tile has an ⓘ button with a plain-English explanation.

Peak monitoring (EU 2003/10/EC)

Beyond cumulative dose, Audita monitors for dangerous peak impulses on the C-weighted path. Three thresholds per EU Directive 2003/10/EC:

Notifications fire when an impulse exceeds 135 dBC, rate-limited to one per 30 seconds. Every audio buffer feeds peak detection, and the counters count exceedance events: one count when the level first crosses a threshold, re-armed once it falls about 2 dB below it again. A sustained loud passage is one event; a snare hit every half second counts every hit. Counts are tracked per session and per day. EU Directive 2003/10/EC also defines a maximum 115 dBA instantaneous A-weighted level - a separate limit from the C-weighted thresholds. A red ≥115 dBA: N badge appears in the active session block, today's summary, and session history rows whenever the count is non-zero. Even a count of 1 indicates a level capable of immediate mechanical hair-cell damage.

Conservative dose mode

Standard dose calculation uses A-weighted levels only. For bass-heavy work (sub-bass mixing, kick tracking, live sound with subwoofers), Settings → Safety → Conservative dose mode uses max(dBA, dBC) for dose accumulation. Each tick, whichever weighting gives the higher reading is used. For mid-range content (speech, acoustic instruments), dBA ≈ dBC and behaviour is unchanged. There is no formal NIOSH or OSHA standard for this approach - it's a maximum-protection option.

9. Session reports & sharing (v1.2+) #

Every session Audita records can be opened as a one-page Session Report and shared as a PDF through the standard macOS Share menu - AirDrop to a phone, attach to a Mail draft for a producer, drop into a Messages thread, or save to disk for an archive. The Session Report is also a self-contained brief for anyone who hasn't seen Audita before: chart, stats, and a footer link to the product.

What the report contains

A single-page layout, top to bottom:

• Brand strip - Audita mark and the session's DAW + date + duration.
• SPL chart - dBA (and dBC) plotted across the session's duration. The chart's background is shaded by monitoring-discipline zone: silent, under, on-target, over. The shaded bands make it easy to see at a glance how much of the session was spent at reference and how much drifted off.
• Stats grid - average SPL, peak SPL, session dose %, EU peak-impulse counters (135 / 137 / 140 dBC and 115 dBA when non-zero), elapsed time, on-target % for the session.

Behind the scenes the time-series sample rate was bumped from one reading per minute (in v1.1) to one reading every 10 seconds in v1.2, so the chart has enough density to read. Older v1.1 sessions still render - they just plot at the lower density they were captured at.

Three ways to open it

• History panel context menu. Open the menu bar popover, switch to the History panel, right-click any session row. The context menu has Open Report and Share Report… entries.
• Menu bar popover button. Share Last Session… sits in the popover next to the manual session controls - one click on the most recent finished session.
• Session-recap notification action. When a session ends, the recap notification carries a Share Report… action button. Use it right after a session if you want to send the report to someone without opening Audita.

PDF format and the Share menu

Hit Share in the report window (or the Share Report… entry on any of the three entry points above) and Audita renders the report to a temporary PDF, then opens the standard macOS Share menu. From there: AirDrop to another device, Mail to attach to a draft, Messages to a thread, Save As to drop the file anywhere on disk, or any third-party share extension you've installed (Slack, Things, Drafts, Reminders, your password manager - whatever you have).

The generated PDF lives temporarily at ~/Library/Caches/Audita Reports/. Caches are macOS-managed - the system handles cleanup on its own schedule, and you can safely empty the folder by hand any time.

CSV export (the analyst's companion)

The PDF is the per-session narrative. For broader-time analysis, the History window's Export CSV button drops the selected date range into a spreadsheet-friendly file. Two blocks per file: one row per session, then a per-day summary block.

Per-session columns: Date, DAW, Start, End, Start ISO (sortable), Duration (min), Avg dBA, Peak dBA, Peak dBC, Leq dBA, L10 dBA, L50 dBA, L90 dBA, Target dBA, Tolerance dBA, Time under (s), Time on target (s), Time over (s), Time silent (s), On-target %, Impulses ≥135 dBC, Impulses ≥140 dBC, Peaks ≥115 dBA, Dose %.

Daily summary columns: Date, Sessions, Total dose %, Peak dBA, Peak dBC, Impulses ≥135 dBC, Impulses ≥140 dBC, Peaks ≥115 dBA.

Leq is the legally-cited metric in ISO 9612 and EU Directive 2003/10/EC; the CSV is the place to extract it for compliance logs. Sessions that pre-date a feature (e.g. v1.1 sessions, which had no Monitoring Discipline buckets) leave those cells empty.

Retention settings

Old sessions take up disk space, mainly through the per-session SPL time-series. Settings → General → Storage exposes two sliders that let you tune the trade-off between archive depth and disk footprint:

• Keep detailed time-series for [N] days (default 14). After the threshold passes, that session's chart downsamples to one sample per 100 seconds - still legible in the report chart, roughly 10x smaller on disk. The report still opens, the chart still draws, you just lose the fine grain.
• Keep sessions for [N] days (default 90). Sessions older than this are deleted entirely. Replaces the v1.1 hard-coded 30-day prune, so by default you keep three times as much history as before.

A live preview caption under the sliders shows how the current settings will affect existing data. If a slider drag would drop existing sessions, the caption turns orange and reads, for example, "7 sessions older than 60 days will be deleted on next launch" - so you can see what you're about to commit to.

10. Pause & resume monitoring (v1.2+) #

There are days when you don't want Audita to count what's playing - you're auditioning loud reference tracks, running a sweep, testing a speaker, or rehearsing in the room and don't want the rehearsal to spend your hearing budget for the working day. Pause halts dose accumulation without ending the active session.

Three ways to pause and resume:

• Menu bar popover. The Pause Monitoring button sits next to Start Session / End Session and toggles to Resume Monitoring while paused. Indefinite pause only from this surface; for timed pauses use the URL scheme or a Shortcut.
• URL scheme - audita://monitoring/pause for an indefinite pause, audita://monitoring/pause?duration=900 for a 15-minute timed pause. audita://monitoring/resume ends it. See the URL scheme reference.
• App Intents (Shortcuts / Siri / Spotlight) - the Pause Monitoring intent takes a required durationMinutes value. Enter 0 for an indefinite pause; any positive number gives you a timed pause that auto-resumes. Spotlight prompts for the value when you run the action without one. The Resume Monitoring intent takes no parameters. See the App Intents reference.

While paused, the SPL feed still runs (the menu bar readout keeps updating) but the dose calculator skips accumulation on every tick. The pause state is checked at 10 Hz, so dose stops accruing within ~100 ms of the pause being requested. A timed pause auto-resumes at the configured deadline.

Visual indicators. Three surfaces reflect pause state so the gated pipeline is never silent:

• The menu bar Pressure Bloom and live SPL number desaturate to neutral grey while paused; they spring back to colour the moment monitoring resumes.
• The menu bar popover shows an orange "Monitoring paused" banner at the top, with the resume time appended for timed pauses (e.g. "Resumes 14:32.").
• The floating measurement panel shows the same banner above its sections.

11. Send to Lyra - write a calibrated level into a Lyra reference slot #

Lyra is the Headroom menu bar app that controls Apollo Twin X monitor volume via the UA Mixer Engine. Lyra has three Reference Level slots (Ctrl+F10 / F11 / F12). Audita can write the calibrated dB SPL value and the live Apollo monitor position into one of those slots so the slot recalls the exact level you just calibrated.

How to use it

After running Step 3 calibration against an Apollo output device, the saved-calibration card in Settings → Audio → Step 3 grows a Send to Lyra… button. Click it to open the sheet:

1. Slot picker - 1, 2, or 3 (Ctrl+F10 / F11 / F12 respectively).
2. Name - defaults from your K-System target (73 dBA → "Mastering", 79 → "K-14", 83 → "K-12", 85 → "K-20"). Edit freely.
3. SPL readout - read-only, the calibrated value about to be stored.

When you confirm, Audita fires lyra://reference/{n}/save?name=…&dBSPL=… and Lyra:

1. Reads the live Apollo monitor level (so the slot reflects exactly what Audita just measured against).
2. Stores tapered + name + dBSPL together.
3. Pops the labeled HUD as confirmation - e.g. Mix - 85 dB SPL.

Audita does not send the tapered position itself. Lyra reads it directly from the Apollo when receiving the URL, which is exactly the position the user just calibrated against. Audita contributes only name and dBSPL as metadata that Lyra surfaces in its menu and HUD.

12. URL scheme & automation #

Audita registers a custom audita:// URL scheme so any tool that can fire a URL can read its state or drive its sessions and pause - Shortcuts, Stream Deck, Keyboard Maestro, Hammerspoon, BetterTouchTool, AppleScript, open from the shell, other apps.

A brief overview:

All endpoints accept the standard x-callback-url parameters (x-success, x-error) so you can chain Audita into a wider workflow. Read endpoints require an x-success URL to deliver their payload; write endpoints treat both callbacks as optional. Responses use flat snake_case query parameters in plain ASCII - no JSON parsing required on the consumer side.

Audita also ships a bundle of App Intents for the Shortcuts app, Siri, and Focus Filters - seven intents covering the same reads, sessions, and pause/resume that the URL scheme exposes. If you live inside the Shortcuts ecosystem, the intents are the smoother path; the URL scheme is the lowest-common-denominator surface for everything else (Stream Deck, Keyboard Maestro, Hammerspoon, AppleScript, shell). For sharing a report of a finished session, the Session Report window below covers every export case better than a Shortcut step.

The cross-app studio-on ritual is a three-step Shortcut that chains both apps: open your DAW, start an Audita session, switch Lyra to a reference monitor level.

13. Importing from Auris #

Audita is the successor to Auris, which was sunset on 2026-05-08. Auris 1.3 shipped with a Move to Audita export modal; Audita 1.0 and later include a first-launch import wizard that reads the exported JSON and brings your data over.

What's imported:

• Session history (up to 30 days).
• Today's accumulated dose.
• Calibration profiles (Step 1 FIR + Step 2 offset).
• Step 3 target calibration records, keyed by output device UID.
• Custom DAW bundle IDs.
• Mic frequency response correction filters.

The wizard runs once on first launch. It can be re-run later from Settings → General → Migration → Import from Auris if you want to bring data over from a second Mac.

Your existing Auris license key and trial state carry across automatically. Reinstalling Audita on a machine that previously had Auris finds the same trial countdown and license credentials. Existing Auris users do not need to re-pay.

14. Trial & licensing #

Audita is $19.99, one-time purchase, via Lemon Squeezy.

Trial

The first launch starts a 7-day free trial with full functionality - every feature, no nags, no watermarks. The trial start date persists across reinstalls. After 7 days Audita shows a hard-lock window on launch and refuses to run until you activate a license.

Buying

Click Buy Audita in the menu (or the Buy button on the website). Lemon Squeezy emails you the license key after checkout.

Activating

Menu → Activate (or Manage if already licensed) opens the license window. Paste your key and click Activate. Activation requires an internet connection. Once activated, Audita works fully offline.

Two-machine limit

Each license can be active on up to two Macs. To free a slot, open Audita on the machine you want to release, Menu → Manage License → Deactivate, then activate on the new Mac.

Lost your key?

Check the Lemon Squeezy confirmation email. If you can't find it, email hello@headroomstudio.dev with the address you used at checkout.

Validation

Audita silently re-validates your license on each launch. If activation has been revoked (refund, deactivation, abuse), the local credentials are cleared and the app drops to trial / expired state. Network failures are silently ignored - the offline case is benefit-of-the-doubt.

15. Updates #

Audita checks for new versions automatically. When one's available you'll see an update prompt at the next launch. To check on demand: Menu → Check for Updates…

Release notes: headroomstudio.dev/audita/releases.html.

16. Troubleshooting #

No SPL reading - the menu bar shows a dash

1. Microphone permission. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and verify Audita is in the list and toggled on.
2. Input device selected. Open Settings → Audio and confirm the measurement microphone is selected. If you previously selected a device that has since been unplugged, Audita stops measuring gracefully - re-select an available device or plug the original back in.
3. Audio engine status. The dash means the audio engine isn't running. After granting microphone permission for the first time, quit and relaunch Audita to re-initialise the engine.

Readings are wildly off (off by 20+ dB)

Audita measures relative to the digital full-scale level of your microphone. Without Step 2 calibration, the displayed dB is not in real-world SPL - it's a digital level offset by the default 94 dB pistonphone constant. Run Step 2 against an iPhone running NIOSH SLM to map the digital scale to real-world dB SPL. On a UMIK-1, importing the mic's calibration file with Set level calibration from the file does the same job in one step.

If the offset was set from a UMIK file and readings still look low, check the health card first: it names the device the level belongs to, so a mic swap or a switch to System Default shows up there. Then check the input volume - Audita compensates for a lowered control automatically and says when it is doing so, but a value it cannot read is a value it cannot correct.

dBA and dBC differ by > 10 dB on broadband content

On broadband pink noise, dBA and dBC should be within ~3 dB. A larger gap means your mic has significant low-frequency response that A-weighting alone underreports. Run Step 1 to flatten the mic, then re-verify against pink noise. If the gap persists after Step 1, the mic itself may be the issue (check the cable, preamp, and gain staging).

Settings says the mic correction is bypassed at this sample rate

A measured correction is a filter designed for the rate the audio device was running at when you measured it. Start the engine at a different rate and the filter cannot be applied, so the health card reports it as bypassed. Either set the device back to the rate you measured at (Audio MIDI Setup), re-run Measure at the current rate, or import the mic's calibration file - a file-based correction re-designs itself for whatever rate the device runs at.

The UMIK-1 download can't find my serial

The label prints the serial with a dash; type it without. If the number is right and the download still fails, minidsp.com may not have a file for that unit; download it from their site in a browser and use Import Calibration File instead.

The self-check fails but the level sounds right

The check compares what the mic hears now against what it heard when you captured Step 3, so any change on either side of the chain shows up as a delta: the monitor knob (set it to the position in your Step 3 note first), the mic's position, the preamp gain, a different input or output device, or room changes. Work through Steps 1 to 3 in order, then re-run. If the level really is where it should be and only the mic moved, re-running Step 2 and Step 3 is the fix.

On-target % stays at "-"

The metric is suppressed until at least 30 seconds of non-silent monitoring time has been recorded. If you've been monitoring for longer and it still says "-", check that the dBA is above the silent floor (50 dBA, or target − 30 dBA, whichever is higher).

Drift alert never fires

The drift detector needs 10 minutes of baseline plus 5 minutes of sustained elevation. A 20-minute session is the earliest it can fire. If you're in a longer session and expected an alert, check that Settings → Reference → Alerts → Drift alert is enabled.

Auris import skipped or didn't find data

Re-run from Settings → General → Migration → Import from Auris. Make sure the Auris export JSON is on the same machine; the wizard expects the file at the path produced by Auris 1.3's "Move to Audita" modal. If you've moved Macs, copy the export file across first.

Trial says expired but I just installed

The trial start date persists across reinstalls and across a prior Auris install on the same Mac, so a reinstall won't reset it. If you genuinely just installed Audita for the first time and it's reading as expired, email hello@headroomstudio.dev.

License says invalid even though I just bought it

Wait 30 seconds and try again - Lemon Squeezy occasionally needs a moment to propagate. If it still fails, double-check that there's no leading/trailing whitespace in the key you pasted. Otherwise email hello@headroomstudio.dev with the key and order number.

Notifications don't appear

Open System Settings → Notifications → Audita and confirm notifications are allowed. For Focus-breaking alerts (warning/danger dose, peak alerts, 115 dBA ceiling, sustained-SPL), enable Settings → General → Notifications → Time Sensitive notifications in Audita and confirm Time Sensitive is allowed in the system Notifications pane.

Sparkle won't show an update prompt

Reset Sparkle's "already checked / already skipped" state:

defaults delete com.headroom.Audita

Relaunch, then Menu → Check for Updates… to force a fresh check. This also resets other preferences (menu bar display, today's dose, etc.) to factory defaults.

17. Reporting bugs & feedback #

Email hello@headroomstudio.dev with what happened, what you expected, and ideally what's in the Console.app logs filtered by Audita.

18. Widgets (v1.3+) #

Audita ships six desktop widgets so both sides of Audita are visible at a glance, without opening the app: how closely you are holding your monitoring level, and how much of your hearing budget the day has used. To add one, right-click the desktop (or open Notification Center and choose Edit Widgets) and find Audita. They run on macOS 14 (Sonoma) and later, and need Audita to have run at least once so it can publish its current state.

On Target (small, medium). How much of your monitoring this week was at your calibrated reference level, as a time-weighted percentage, with a 7-day chart on the medium size. When a session is running it also shows the live state (on target, below, or above). This is the Monitoring Discipline use case on the desktop, and it stays useful when you are not monitoring. The same figure also appears as an On target tile in the History window.

Latest SPL (small, medium). The most recent A-weighted level Audita measured, with dBC on the medium size. Widgets cannot listen to your audio the way the app does, so this is the last reading, with the time it was taken. When Audita is not measuring it reads Idle rather than showing 0 dBA.

Safe Streak (small, medium). Consecutive days, up to yesterday, your dose stayed under 50% of the daily limit. The same streak Audita reports through Shortcuts and Siri.

Weekly Exposure (medium, large). Your last 7 days of dose as a bar chart, with the EU weekly exposure level (L_EX,w, ISO 9612) against the 85 dBA criterion. The same figures as the in-app weekly chart.

Today's Dose (small, medium) shows your accumulated NIOSH dose as a ring that fills and changes colour from green to red; the medium size adds your safe streak and EU weekly level. Overview (large) puts today's dose, latest SPL, your on-target state, your streak, and the weekly chart in one tile.

Widgets refresh when your dose tier changes colour, when a session starts or ends, at midnight, and on a light schedule while you are measuring. The system limits how often a widget can redraw, so the numbers move about once a minute rather than in real time. For a live reading, use the menu bar or the floating panel.