What Afinar needs

macOS 14.4 or newer, on Apple silicon or Intel.

A USB audio interface is what gets your instrument in and your tone into your headphones. Anything class-compliant works, which is nearly all of them, and you don’t need a driver.

Without one, the built-in microphone still records real takes. You lose live amp tone, because there’s nothing for the amp to process. It’s a genuine way to try the whole loop before spending money on gear, and it’s not what the app is built around.

Headphones matter more than people expect. Speakers put the backing back into the microphone, and if you’re monitoring your instrument through Afinar you’ll get feedback.

Microphone, asked for when you first set up recording. It’s how any audio input reaches an app on macOS, including your interface.

Screen and System Audio Recording, asked for the first time you record along to something playing in the browser. It’s how the song gets into your recording cleanly instead of through a microphone.

Both are asked for at the moment they’re needed, with an explanation first, and neither is requested at launch.

The app itself is small. What grows is your own material: scores, and recordings at roughly 10 MB a minute per track.

If you use stems, budget around 95 to 190 MB for each song you separate, depending on whether you keep one instrument set or both. You can remove them per song at any time.

Afinar plays and records with no connection at all. Your scores and recordings are local files.

You need a connection for the parts that reach out: browsing tab sites and lesson platforms, YouTube backings, checking for updates, browsing Tone3000 with Pro, and a one-time download the first time you separate a track into stems.

There’s no account, no sync and no telemetry, so nothing else ever leaves your machine.

Windows and Linux. Afinar is a native Mac app.

iPad is on the way.

Physical iOS devices, and audio over Bluetooth headphones for monitoring. Bluetooth adds enough delay to make playing along unpleasant. Wired headphones into your interface.