Sorana Flow — free macOS music player with DSP (feedback welcome)

[ruki7423]

I'll look forward to the update. I do a lot of beta testing for folks thus the overpopulated plugin folder, need to clean some of those out.

Hi DWPress,

v1.10.0 is out and addresses your feedback directly:

**Audio Units support** — Sorana Flow now loads macOS-native AU plugins alongside VST2/VST3. Scanner auto-detects all system AUs, and a 3-tier editor is included (native UI, CocoaUI, or generic parameter sliders). Since most of your setup runs through AU-compatible plugins, this should give you a much smoother experience.

**VST3 compatibility improvements** — The double-load issue that caused failures with some plugins has been fixed. Modules are now loaded once during scan and kept in memory. Scan-failed plugins are grayed out with a "(load failed)" label and can no longer be selected, so no more app freezes when clicking a broken entry like basiQ2.

**DAC hot-plug** — Switching audio devices while the app is running now works correctly. Full format reconfiguration happens on device switch, so no more silence when plugging in a USB DAC or Bluetooth headphones.

Would love to hear if the Voxengo and basiQ2 plugins behave better in this build. The underlying loading mechanism has changed significantly, so plugins that previously failed during scan may now load successfully.

 

[ruki7423]

**Sorana Flow v1.10.0 — Audio Units, VST3 Compatibility, DAC Hot-Plug**

New release with three major areas of improvement:

**Audio Units (AU) Plugin Support**
Sorana Flow now hosts macOS-native Audio Unit plugins alongside VST2 and VST3. The scanner auto-detects all installed system AUs (Apple built-in effects like AUDelay, AUBandpass, AUHighShelfFilter, etc. plus any third-party AUs). A 3-tier editor system is included: native plugin UI when available, CocoaUI factory view, or a generic parameter slider interface that works with every AU. Full integration with the existing DSP pipeline — chain AU effects with EQ, crossfeed, and convolution.

**VST3 Plugin Compatibility**
Previously, plugins were loaded during scan, unloaded, then re-loaded when activated. This caused failures with plugins that have non-idempotent static initializers. Now modules are loaded once and kept in memory — same approach used by REAPER and Bitwig. Scan-failed plugins are visually marked as "(load failed)" and disabled, preventing the app freeze that occurred when selecting a broken plugin entry.

**DAC Hot-Plug**
Switching audio devices (USB DAC, Bluetooth) while the app is running now triggers a full AudioUnit reconfiguration — uninitialize, set new device, reconfigure stream format, reinitialize. Previously only the device ID was changed without format reconfiguration, causing silence on sample rate mismatches. The device list in Settings also refreshes automatically on connect/disconnect, and macOS default device changes are followed when using system default.

**Other Fixes**
- Multi-channel VST3 plugins no longer cause crashes (channels clamped to stereo)
- Memory leak fixed in AU plugin error handling
- AU plugin rendering corrected for v2-bridged Audio Units

Requirements: macOS 14+ (Sonoma), Apple Silicon (M1+)

Download: https://soranaflow.com
Support: https://ko-fi.com/soranaflow

 

[sam_adams]

Crashes on open on macOS 15.7.3 on M1 ARM. V 1.10.0 Crash report attached.

 

[ruki7423]

Crashes on open on macOS 15.7.3 on M1 ARM. V 1.10.0 Crash report attached.

I'll fix it asap! Luckily, I am working on it now!

 

[DWPress]

I'll wait then.

 

[ruki7423]

I'll wait then.

I was implementing smb nas streaming, I'll focus on the crash issue and hotfix first. So when hotfix posts, smb might not work.

 

[DWPress]

Lol, I can wait. Roon is my daily driver.

If you could somehow do Tidal or Qobuz integration in addition to Apple Music you would have a Roon killer. I'd drop Roon in an instant (insane subscription plan) and your free app all of the sudden has significant value. All the metadata is fun in Roon but not the biggest selling feature I'll bet. Eventually maybe integrate multichannel capabilities into your DSP and you'd get another small niche of users...

Lots to chew on but nice potential roadmap.

 

[ruki7423]

Lol, I can wait. Roon is my daily driver.

If you could somehow do Tidal or Qobuz integration in addition to Apple Music you would have a Roon killer. I'd drop Roon in an instant (insane subscription plan) and your free app all of the sudden has significant value. All the metadata is fun in Roon but not the biggest selling feature I'll bet. Eventually maybe integrate multichannel capabilities into your DSP and you'd get another small niche of users...

Lots to chew on but nice potential roadmap.

Qobuz-API only for companies, Tidal-API for developer-not available hahaha

 

[DWPress]

I figured there was a $$$$$ brick wall involved there with licensing.

I have a Tidal family subscription which I'd love to abandon if it weren't for the leeches begging me not to so haven't done Apple Music yet but from what I've read it's comparable for my needs and tastes. Is your integration of Apple Music comparable to Roon with local and streaming content together and selectable?

Your big competitors for local files/streaming/DSP all in one app are JRiver and Roon + a couple more that all cost $$+ but none focus or allow for Apple's music service.

Maybe I'll get a trial of Apple Music to test it out

 

[ruki7423]

I figured there was a $$$$$ brick wall involved there with licensing.

I have a Tidal family subscription which I'd love to abandon if it weren't for the leeches begging me not to so haven't done Apple Music yet but from what I've read it's comparable for my needs and tastes. Is your integration of Apple Music comparable to Roon with local and streaming content together and selectable?

Your big competitors for local files/streaming/DSP all in one app are JRiver and Roon + a couple more that all cost $$+ but none focus or allow for Apple's music service.

Maybe I'll get a trial of Apple Music to test it out

Apple music api supports up to aac256k(320k idk) anyway. Don't do that. It supports lossless only on its own app.

 

[ruki7423]

v1.10.1 Hotfix — please re-download if v1.10.0 crashes


Quick heads up — v1.10.0 had a packaging issue where a required library (libmysofa, used for HRTF crossfeed processing) wasn't included in the DMG. This causes an immediate crash on launch.


I've released v1.10.1 which fixes this. Unfortunately since the app can't even start, the built-in updater won't help — you'll need to grab it manually:


Download: https://soranaflow.com/


Apologies for the trouble. Build process has been updated to catch missing libraries automatically going forward.

 

[DWPress]

Also, VST2

Apple music api supports up to aac256k(320k idk) anyway.b

Believe it or not - that is perfectly adequate and you would have to be a highly trained listener to distinguish otherwise on selected material in an A/B test. Besides, your app shines at bringing local files back into a decent GUI that Apple abandoned some time ago.

BTW, Apple has depreciated support for VST2 level plugins (I didn't even know I had any in that folder!) and, while admirable, you might as well too.

 

[ruki7423]

Also, VST2


Believe it or not - that is perfectly adequate and you would have to be a highly trained listener to distinguish otherwise on selected material in an A/B test. Besides, your app shines at bringing local files back into a decent GUI that Apple abandoned some time ago.

BTW, Apple has depreciated support for VST2 level plugins (I didn't even know I had any in that folder!) and, while admirable, you might as well too.

Sure! I'll delete vst2 next update. Most plugins now are vst3 and it's also has been for a while, vst2 will be no needed. Thanks.

Edit: and also aac256k and 320k only less people like professional mixing engineer can distinguish.

 

[myHRTF]

Your update rate is mind-boggling...

One more thing: on your webpage in the DSP pipeline, upsampling comes before VST3 and convolution. The required processing speed for sampling rates higher than 44.1/48 kHz for convolution and some VST3 plugins can be tremendous and can easily exceed hardware limitations resulting in audio dropouts or even a total freeze.
Hence, I would consider to do upsampling after VST3 and convolution.

Maybe I'll get a trial of Apple Music to test it out

Keep in mind that Apple Music is supported without DSP pipeline only, in line with Apple's legal regulations (unfortunately).

 

[ruki7423]

Your update rate is mind-boggling...

One more thing: on your webpage in the DSP pipeline, upsampling comes before VST3 and convolution. The required processing speed for sampling rates higher than 44.1/48 kHz for convolution and some VST3 plugins can be tremendous and can easily exceed hardware limitations resulting in audio dropouts or even a total freeze.
Hence, I would consider to do upsampling after VST3 and convolution.


Keep in mind that Apple Music is supported without DSP pipeline only, in line with Apple's legal regulations (unfortunately).

Thank you Philipp — and thank you for myHRTF/libmysofa, which Sorana Flow uses for HRTF crossfeed processing!

Great point about the upsampling order. You're right that running VST3 plugins and convolution at upsampled rates (e.g., 192kHz+) dramatically increases CPU load. Moving upsampling to the end of the DSP chain would keep plugin processing at the native sample rate and only upsample the final output. I'll look into reordering that in a future update.

And yes, unfortunately Apple Music integration is playback-only without DSP — Apple's DRM (FairPlay) prevents us from accessing the raw audio stream for processing. It's the same limitation that Roon and other third-party players face. We do support DSP for local files, NAS streaming, and other non-DRM sources though.

Also quick note: I partially use AI to assist with development(ui and site are all vibe coded tbh, idk how to design. That's why I accepted UIUX proposal of another user). Since I have a coding background, it serves as a great accelerator. And I've been grinding myself 24/7 for like three weeks(It's been three weeks) to make this app better.

 

[ruki7423]

Sorana Flow v1.10.2 is out — performance & stability update.

**DSP Pipeline Reorder**
Upsampling now runs after the entire DSP chain instead of before it. All processing (EQ, convolution, VST3/AU plugins, HRTF) happens at the source sample rate (e.g. 44.1/48kHz), and upsampling to the output rate occurs at the very end. This reduces CPU load by roughly 4x when upsampling is active — thanks to Philipp from myHRTF for suggesting this.

**SMB/NAS Fix**
Fixed a bug where SMB network mounts would hang on "connecting..." indefinitely. NAS streaming via SMB now works reliably.

**VST2 Removed**
As discussed earlier in this thread — VST2 support has been removed. VST3 and Audio Unit only going forward.

Download: https://soranaflow.com/downloads

Last update this week! (hope so!!! I worked for this without any rest for weeks!)

 

[williaty]

Sorana Flow v1.10.2 is out — performance & stability update.

**DSP Pipeline Reorder**
Upsampling now runs after the entire DSP chain instead of before it. All processing (EQ, convolution, VST3/AU plugins, HRTF) happens at the source sample rate (e.g. 44.1/48kHz), and upsampling to the output rate occurs at the very end. This reduces CPU load by roughly 4x when upsampling is active — thanks to Philipp from myHRTF for suggesting this.

**SMB/NAS Fix**
Fixed a bug where SMB network mounts would hang on "connecting..." indefinitely. NAS streaming via SMB now works reliably.

**VST2 Removed**
As discussed earlier in this thread — VST2 support has been removed. VST3 and Audio Unit only going forward.

Download: https://soranaflow.com/downloads

Last update this week! (hope so!!! I worked for this without any rest for weeks!)

I just downloaded the update it had waiting this morning for 1.10.2

I immediately crashed it. Turns out, clicking on the Albums icon in the left side menu will instantly crash it. Library and Artists still work.

 

[ruki7423]

I just downloaded the update it had waiting this morning for 1.10.2

I immediately crashed it. Turns out, clicking on the Albums icon in the left side menu will instantly crash it. Library and Artists still work.

Thank you for the report! I'll fix it asap!

 

[williaty]

Sorana Flow v1.10.2 is out — performance & stability update.

**DSP Pipeline Reorder**
Upsampling now runs after the entire DSP chain instead of before it. All processing (EQ, convolution, VST3/AU plugins, HRTF) happens at the source sample rate (e.g. 44.1/48kHz), and upsampling to the output rate occurs at the very end. This reduces CPU load by roughly 4x when upsampling is active — thanks to Philipp from myHRTF for suggesting this.

**SMB/NAS Fix**
Fixed a bug where SMB network mounts would hang on "connecting..." indefinitely. NAS streaming via SMB now works reliably.

**VST2 Removed**
As discussed earlier in this thread — VST2 support has been removed. VST3 and Audio Unit only going forward.

Download: https://soranaflow.com/downloads

Last update this week! (hope so!!! I worked for this without any rest for weeks!)

2nd major bug:

Handling of Complications is completely broken.

If an album is marked as a Compilation in the metadata, has a single, consistent Album Artist in the metadata, but the Track Artists are different on each track, Sorana is creating a different album for each track, making it impossible to play the album as it was meant to be played.

If an album is marked as a Compilation in the metadata, has a single, consistent Album Artist in the metadata, but the Track Artists are different on each track, Sorana should group these as a single album to make album-style playback possible.

 

[ruki7423]

2nd major bug:

Handling of Complications is completely broken.

If an album is marked as a Compilation in the metadata, has a single, consistent Album Artist in the metadata, but the Track Artists are different on each track, Sorana is creating a different album for each track, making it impossible to play the album as it was meant to be played.

If an album is marked as a Compilation in the metadata, has a single, consistent Album Artist in the metadata, but the Track Artists are different on each track, Sorana should group these as a single album to make album-style playback possible.

Thanks for the reports!

**Compilation albums:** You're right — this was broken. The grouping logic was using the per-track artist instead of the Album Artist tag, so compilations got split into separate albums per track artist. Fixed in v1.10.3, just pushed it. After updating, do Settings → Library → Rescan to re-index.

**Albums crash:** I wasn't able to reproduce this one on my end — Albums loads and navigates fine. Could you help me narrow it down?

1. What macOS version are you running?
2. Roughly how large is your library?
3. Does it crash immediately on clicking "Albums" or after clicking a specific album card?
4. Console.app → search "SoranaFlow" — any crash logs? The "Exception Type" and backtrace would help.
5. Workaround test: delete ~/Library/Application Support/SoranaFlow/ and reimport — still crashes?

Download v1.10.3: https://soranaflow.com/downloads