Features
Everything it does, and where it does it.
One job: get a heap of new downloads heard and into the right folders as fast as you can decide. Everything below makes that faster, safer, or possible from somewhere other than the laptop.
- MacmacOS 12 or later. Version 0.7.7.
- WindowsWindows 10 or later. Version 0.7.7.
- Phone pageAny phone or iPad browser, served by your computer. Nothing to install.
- iPhone appiPhone and iPad. Private beta.
- WatchApple Watch, with the iPhone app. Private beta.
New in 0.7.6 Crates go straight into Serato, rekordbox, VirtualDJ and Traktor, and stay in sync as you build them. Add the playing track to a crate from your phone or watch, and connect a DJ Buddy account to have your crates on every computer. 0.7.3 gave the menu bar item a right-click menu with Settings, a switch to hide it, and Quit. 0.7.2 brought faster filing, instant undo, and half the CPU while a track plays. Traktor playlists keep every cue point. 0.7.1 brought suggestions that learn where your tracks go; 0.7.0 brought the Studio look, a menu bar deck, the Dock, Now Playing, a sidebar and an Artist column. What’s new
Keys are shown as on a Mac. On Windows, Ctrl stands in for ⌘, and Alt for ⌥.
Shown in Deck, the original look. On the Mac, 0.7.0 opens in Studio, light or dark with your Mac. The artists and tracks are made up for the demo.
The loop
Hear it, file it, next. A track plays, you press a key, and the next one is already waiting.
The start point sits past the intro, and the waveform’s colours show bass, body and treble.
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Starts where the music is
Tracks start 30% in, because intros tell you nothing. On the computer, Skip the breakdown checks that point and moves it when it lands somewhere quiet, and Settings ▸ Playback changes the 30%.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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The next track is ready
It loads while you listen to the one playing, so a key moves you straight on. On the computer, its waveform is drawn ahead too.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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A waveform you can read
Coloured by frequency, warm for bass and cool for treble, so you can see the drop coming. Click or tap it to jump there.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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BPM and key up front
Read from the tags, decimals kept. The key shows in both notations, like F♯m 11A, whichever one the tag used.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Every format a pool sends
MP3, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, M4A and AAC. A file that won’t preview stays in the queue and can still be filed.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Continuous play
Press C. When a track plays to its end, the next one plays from the top. Nothing is filed for you, and it stops at the end of the crate.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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Your pace
How many you’ve sorted, how many an hour, and how long the rest will take. A gap of over two minutes counts as a break, so a coffee doesn’t wreck the numbers.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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New downloads join the queue
It watches the folder. Tracks join in the order they arrived, and a download still in progress waits until it’s finished.
- Mac
- Windows
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Find a track
⌘F filters the queue by name, artist, album or genre. Click a column heading to sort by it, or drag it to move it.
- Mac
- Windows
Filing
Ten keys, six pages, and a separate setup for each kind of gig. A new install copies rather than moves, so nothing leaves where you put it until you say so.
⌘B opens the shelf: every folder in your library, one click from the track that’s playing.
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One key, one folder
1–0 file into ten folders. Press a key that has no folder yet and it asks you to pick one.
- Mac
- Windows
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Six pages of ten
Sixty folders in one setup. ⇧1–⇧6 switch pages, and the number keys follow.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
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Profiles
A wedding setup and a club setup, each with its own folders. ⌘P swaps the whole layout. Duplicate a profile to start the next one.
- Mac
- Windows
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Copy or move
Choose what a number key does in Settings ▸ Keys. Hold ⌘ to copy or ⌥ to move just this track.
- Mac
- Windows
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Maybe and Trash
M sends a track to your Maybe folder. On the computer, ⌫ moves it to Soundboy Trash, a folder you can open, so nothing is ever deleted. In the iPhone app, Trash sends it to Dropbox’s deleted files, and undo restores it.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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It suggests a folder
It learns where your tracks go from everything you file: the artist and the remixer, the crate, the genre, the pool’s pack, where the last track went. A key lights only when it’s very likely, and the line above the keys says why. ⏎ files it there. A file you’ve trashed before is marked Trashed before. The iPhone app’s Cloud mode learns the same way, from what you file on the phone.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Auto page
Your ten most-filed folders, busiest first, on a page after your own. ⇧ and its number reach it like any page. It re-ranks when you ask, never while you sort.
- Mac
- Windows
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The folder shelf
⌘B shows every folder in your library, not only the ones on keys. Search it, click one to file there, or drag one onto a number key.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
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A run in one press
Shift-click to select a run of tracks, and one number key files them all, or ⌫ trashes them. One ⌘Z takes the whole run back.
- Mac
- Windows
Now it looks and works like a Mac app
Studio, the new look, follows your Mac, light or dark. And with the window out of sight, you can sort from the menu bar and the Dock, and play, pause and skip from your keyboard.
The tracks left to sort, in the menu bar and on the Dock. Drawn for this page around the new icon.
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Studio, the new look
Warm neutrals, light or dark with your Mac, and Soundboy green. It’s the default now. Deck, the original dark look, and Nineties are still in Settings ▸ Window ▸ Skin.
- Mac
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A real Mac window
The Mac’s own red, yellow and green buttons, and your crate’s name as the window’s title.
- Mac
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A new icon
A sound-system speaker: a cream cabinet with one green dust cap, on a dark tile.
- Mac
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A sidebar
The crates you’ve sorted lately, a click apart, with the open one’s count. Maybe and Soundboy Trash, which open in Finder. Your pad sets and your pace. It folds away when the window is narrow.
- Mac
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An Artist column
Artist has its own column beside Track, and Track stops repeating the name. As the window narrows, the words give way before anything scrolls sideways.
- Mac
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The menu bar deck
Soundboy’s speaker sits in the menu bar with the count of tracks left. Click it for the track, Undo, Play, Skip, Trash and your pads, and the keys work there too. Turn it off in Settings ▸ Window.
- Mac
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The Dock
The Dock icon counts the tracks left. Right-click it to Play, Trash, Skip, Maybe, Undo or file to a pad. In Purge mode it offers Purge and Keep instead.
- Mac
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Now Playing and media keys
The track shows in Control Center. Your keyboard’s play keys, AirPods and headphone buttons play, pause and skip. Next always skips and never trashes.
- Mac
It knows what you already own
Pools resend tracks you bought last year, and four versions of the one you wanted. It catches both before they cost you an audition.
Before the first track plays: three exact copies to trash, eight you already have, and nine that came in more than one cut.
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Checked before you start
When a crate lands, it says how many tracks you already have and which came in more than one version, before the first track plays.
- Mac
- Windows
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It names the folder
A track you already own says which folder has your copy. On the computer that’s anywhere in your library, and a click shows you the file. It’s a warning only, and never stops you.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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Clean and dirty aren’t duplicates
It reads the version from the filename, and says nothing when two cuts really are different.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Exact copies, cleared at once
Tracks that are byte-for-byte copies of ones already in your folders are offered as one sweep to the trash. There’s nothing to listen to. On the computer, one ⌘Z brings them all back.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Skipped tracks come back
S skips without deciding. ⇧S brings back every track you skipped, and so does the end-of-crate summary. On a phone, skipped tracks wait in the list, a tap away.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
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Crate cleared
The last track ends on a summary: what was filed, skipped and trashed, how many went into each folder, and your pace.
- Mac
- Windows
Purge mode
For a folder that’s already sorted but has grown too big. Nothing gets filed: each track is kept where it is, or purged.
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Keep or purge. K keeps a track, ⌫ purges it, and ⌘Z undoes either. ⇧P turns Purge mode on for the folder you’re in.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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Swipe it. In the iPhone app, swipe the track right to keep it or left to purge it. The Keep and Purge buttons do the same.
- iPhone app
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It remembers what you kept, for each folder, so the next pass only plays the ones you haven’t decided on. Start over plays them all again.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
Purge and Keep take the place of the number keys, and the count says how many you’ve kept.
Voice mode
Say where a track goes, from across the room. It listens for a short list of commands and ignores everything else, lyrics included. On the Mac it needs macOS 13 or later.
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Numbers, names and the basics
“Three.” “File Latin.” “Trash it.” “Maybe.” “Next.” “Undo.” “Back thirty.” And in Purge mode, “keep” and “purge”.
- Mac
- iPhone app
- Watch
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Hears you over the music
A command only counts when it’s short, said on its own, and the only command in what you said. A chorus with “trash” in it does nothing.
- Mac
- iPhone app
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One track per command
A second command right after the first is held back, so “three… three” files one track, not the next one too. “Undo” always goes through.
- Mac
- iPhone app
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What it heard, and why
The screen shows what it heard and what it did. A list keeps what it heard lately, near misses too, and why each did nothing.
- Mac
- iPhone app
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Listens through your AirPods
Choose whether voice mode uses your AirPods or the phone’s own mic, depending on whether full-quality music or being heard from across the room matters more.
- iPhone app
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From the wrist
Tap the mic on the watch and say one command. The same rules apply as everywhere else.
- Watch
Your DJ software sees it too
Your files live in the folders. Turn these on in Settings ▸ Playlists and your sorting is copied into the apps you play from.
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Serato crates
A Soundboy crate with a sub-crate for each folder, written into Serato’s own crate files. Crates you made yourself are left alone.
- Mac
- Windows
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rekordbox
A collection XML with a playlist for each folder. Point rekordbox’s Imported Library setting at it once.
- Mac
- Windows
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Traktor
A playlist for each folder. Importing it again updates it in place and keeps your cue points.
- Mac
- Windows
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M3U for everything else
An .m3u8 for each folder, which any DJ app can import.
- Mac
- Windows
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The folder, in the file
Optionally writes the folder’s name into each MP3’s Grouping tag. Audio and artwork are untouched, and undo puts the old tag back.
- Mac
- Windows
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Undo reaches them too
Take a filing back and it comes out of the crates and playlists as well. The folder stays the truth.
- Mac
- Windows
Remotes and hardware
The keyboard does everything. So can your phone, a Stream Deck, a MIDI pad or your watch.
The phone page on an iPad, in the Monitor layout: the waveform large, your pace, and the keys.
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Your phone, nothing to install
Turn it on in Settings ▸ Remotes and scan the code. Your phone’s browser becomes the whole control surface, over your own Wi-Fi and not the internet.
- Phone page
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Three iPad layouts
Sorting, Browsing and Monitor, one button to switch. The ten keys are laid out like a Mac’s number row.
- Phone page
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Every folder on the phone
Search all your folders and file into any of them. Hold one to put it on a number key.
- Phone page
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Away from home
Put Tailscale on the computer and the phone, open the phone page at the computer’s Tailscale address, and it works from anywhere. The computer just has to be awake.
- Phone page
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Stream Deck
The Stream Deck’s own Hotkey action sends F13–F21, so each key files into a slot while you work in another app. A plugin whose keys show the playing track and the folder behind each slot is coming.
- Mac
- Windows
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Works with the window in the background
F13–F21 file, trash, skip and undo from anywhere, for a macro pad or Keyboard Maestro. They aren’t on a normal keyboard, so no other app loses a shortcut.
- Mac
- Windows
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MIDI learn
Pick what a pad should do, press the pad, done. A small pad controller like an Akai LPD8 becomes a filing console. The same pads work in every profile.
- Mac
- Windows
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Always on top
A slim window that floats over your other windows while you work, and the Window menu switches it off. It comes as Deck, built to read at a glance at 1am, or Nineties, and on the Mac as Studio too.
- Mac
- Windows
iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch
An app with two modes: Remote drives the Mac, and Cloud sorts a Dropbox with no Mac at all. It’s in private beta on TestFlight.
Ask to join the beta-
Remote mode
The Mac’s whole remote in an app, with a strip on top showing whether it can reach the Mac and what’s playing.
- iPhone app
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Cloud mode
Sorts your Dropbox right on the phone, with the Mac asleep or no Mac at all. Dropbox moves the files on its own servers, so nothing downloads to file it.
- iPhone app
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Pads copied from the Mac
Up to six pages of ten pads. Copy the Mac’s pages in one tap, while it’s awake, instead of choosing sixty folders again.
- iPhone app
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A quicker folder picker
Search, with pinned and recent folders, and make a new folder right there. Tick several and they all become pads.
- iPhone app
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Crates on a shelf
The folders you sort often stay on a shelf in Setup. Tap one to sort it.
- iPhone app
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Clashes ask
If a folder already has that track: keep both, replace it, skip it or decide later. Undo brings back a copy you replaced.
- iPhone app
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Sort from your watch
What’s playing and its waveform, play and pause, Trash, Maybe, undo, and every folder in one list. Keep and Purge in Purge mode, and the Continuous switch. In Remote mode the Digital Crown sets the Mac’s volume; in Cloud mode the watch drives the phone.
- Watch
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On the watch face
A complication shows how many tracks are left in the Mac’s crate.
- Watch
Dropbox, without syncing it
Point Soundboy at your Dropbox instead of a folder. Your tracks never have to download to the computer to be filed.
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Filing moves nothing
Dropbox moves the file on its own servers, so a 60 MB WAV files as fast as an MP3.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Only what you hear comes down
The track playing, and the next one while you listen. Filing downloads nothing. On the computer, the queue’s tags come from the first quarter-megabyte of each file.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
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Your own setup stays put
Connecting Dropbox leaves your computer’s folders and keys alone. Switch back and everything is where you left it.
- Mac
- Windows
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Your password stays with Dropbox
You sign in on Dropbox’s own page, never in the app. The sign-in is kept in your system’s keychain, and you can revoke it at dropbox.com any time.
- Mac
- Windows
- iPhone app
On the computer, three things need the music on its own disk, so they wait while it’s in Dropbox: the DJ software playlists, the Grouping tag and the sweep of exact copies.
Safe with your library
Moves can be taken back, a file is never quietly overwritten, and there’s no account to make.
The status bar says where the last track went, and Undo is ready to take it back.
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Undo that actually undoes
⌘Z puts the file back where it was, up to fifty steps back, and ⌘⇧Z redoes. If something else has taken the name since, it stops rather than overwrite it. The iPhone app undoes back to the start of the session, with no redo.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
- iPhone app
- Watch
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Never overwrites
Same name, different file: it’s saved as Track (2) and you’re told. Same name and same size: it asks first. A move to another drive is checked before the original is removed.
- Mac
- Windows
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A double-press files one track
A stuttered keypress can’t file the next track before you’ve heard it.
- Mac
- Windows
- Phone page
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A record of every move
Each filing goes into a daily log on your own disk, with where every file went. Help ▸ Open Session Logs shows them.
- Mac
- Windows
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No account, no tracking
No sign-up, no analytics and no crash reporting. What you sorted stays with you.
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A licence that works offline
Your key is checked on your own computer, so a venue with no Wi-Fi can’t lock you out. It’s never checked while you’re filing.
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Signed, and it updates itself
The Mac app is signed and notarised, so it opens with a double-click and no warnings. New versions download quietly and install when you quit.
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Problem reports you can read
A plain text file you can read first and decide whether to send. Nothing is sent without you.
Where each one works
The Mac app does everything in the table. The other columns show what the others can do.
| Feature | Mac | Windows | Phone page | iPhone app | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audition: waveform, BPM, key | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Title and waveform |
| Ten keys, six pages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Every folder, one list |
| Maybe, Trash, Undo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Profiles, folder shelf | Yes | Yes | Folders | Crates shelf | No |
| Purge mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, with swipe | Keep and Purge |
| Continuous play | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | The switch |
| Voice mode | macOS 13 or later | No | No | Yes | Tap to speak |
| Suggested key | Learns from every decision | Learns from every decision | The Mac’s | Yes | File to it |
| Duplicate warnings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Serato, rekordbox, Traktor, M3U | Yes | Yes | Through the computer | No | No |
| Dropbox without syncing | Yes | Yes | Through the computer | Yes, no Mac needed | Through the phone |
| Stream Deck, MIDI, F13–F21 | Yes | MIDI and F-keys | — | — | — |
| Studio look, sidebar, Artist column | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |
| Menu bar deck, Dock count and menu | Yes | No | — | — | — |
| Now Playing, media keys | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |