How ARADAR works

What ARADAR is for

ARADAR is for managing your reference track library – the music you collect, study, and submit to. It’s not a DAW, not a DJ tool, not a sample browser. The workflow it supports:

1. Import tracks from your library on disk
2. Tag, rate, and organize them into playlists
3. Track which labels release what kind of music (with built-in audio metric aggregations)
4. Match your tracks against label catalogs using loudness and frequency profiles
5. Manage submissions to those labels through a pipeline

Common workflows

ARADAR supports two distinct loops:

• Production reference: filter for a sound you’re chasing → drag the track into Ableton → A/B against what you’re working on.
• A&R targeting: profile labels by their catalog’s loudness and frequency signatures → match your finished track’s profile to compatible labels → submit and track responses through the pipeline.

The same library data powers both. Most producers use both loops – referencing during the production phase, targeting once a track is finished.

Importing your tracks

Drag a folder onto the Library tab, or use File → Import Folder. ARADAR scans recursively, reads ID3 metadata, and queues each track for audio analysis.

What happens next: indexing. ARADAR treats analysis as a setup phase, similar to how Loopcloud or Lightroom index a new library. A small panel appears in the corner showing progress. Tracks appear in your library only after their analysis completes – you’ll see the library fill gradually rather than all at once. For a large library (5,000+ tracks), this can take several hours; for a smaller batch, minutes. You can quit ARADAR at any time and analysis will resume from where it stopped when you next launch.

Supported formats: AIFF, WAV, FLAC, MP3, and M4A.

Re-importing the same files is safe.ARADAR deduplicates on the file path, so dragging a folder you’ve already imported (or dragging a track out into a DAW and the same file back in later) silently skips anything already in the library. No duplicates appear; the rest of the drop is imported as usual.

External drives and NAS.ARADAR stores a security-scoped bookmark to each file, not just its path, so it can access tracks on external volumes. If the drive isn’t mounted when you launch ARADAR, those tracks show as Unreachable until the drive comes back online – then they’re accessible again without manual steps.

What ARADAR imports – and what it skips

ARADAR is for tracking released tracks and demos, not sample libraries. During import three categories are filtered automatically:

• Files that aren’t actually audio when probed (renamed images, corrupt headers).
• Files hosted on remote storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, iCloud) – accessing them would trigger downloads.
• Files shorter than 60 seconds – almost always samples, loops, one-shots, or stems rather than full tracks.

Each skipped file is listed in the import summary sheet under a disclosure so you can spot anything caught by mistake. Keep your sample library outside ARADAR.

Best file format: AIFF

ARADAR reads track metadata (artist, label, genre, year, BPM, key) from embedded ID3 tags. AIFF is lossless, widely supported, and has proper ID3 tag support that every modern DAW writes correctly. When you drag an AIFF from ARADAR into your DAW, it imports instantly without background decoding or stuttering.

WAV technically supports metadata but most music tools don’t write it consistently – WAV tracks often land in the library with empty metadata fields. The Inspector autocomplete on Label, Genre, Year, BPM, and Key helps fill those gaps from values already in your library. FLAC works too, but your DAW will likely have to decode it to a temporary WAV file when you drag it in, which slows down your workflow. Avoid MP3 for your reference library if you can.

File permissions and Full Disk Access

macOS protects certain folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, external drives, network shares) and requires apps to explicitly request access. ARADAR is intentionally not sandboxed, so it can read your music from anywhere on disk – the trade-off is that for files in protected locations you need to grant Full Disk Access once.

If a track shows in red with “Permission denied”, a banner at the top of the Library shows how many tracks are affected. Click Open Full Disk Access… to jump directly to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.

If ARADAR isn’t already listed there, click the + button below the list and select ARADAR from /Applications, then make sure its toggle is on. ARADAR is intentionally not sandboxed (so it can read tracks from anywhere on your Mac, including external drives and synced folders), which means macOS only lists it in the per-folder grant panes after it has tried to access a protected folder. Full Disk Access avoids that bootstrap problem entirely – once granted, every previously denied track works again.

After granting access, right-click the affected tracks and choose Retry Analysis.

ARADAR also stores a security-scoped bookmark for each imported track. Bookmarks survive renames and moves better than raw file paths, and let ARADAR reach the file on every subsequent launch without re-asking permission per file.

Filter and find

The Library has dropdowns for Label, Key, Year, BPM, and Rating. Combine them – [Label Name] + Fmin + 2024 narrows in seconds. Use the search box for free-text matching. Active filters appear as chips with × to clear each one individually.

Under More Filters → Played, find tracks you have not listened to yet (Never played) or only ones you have (Played). A small green mark appears next to a track’s title after about 12 seconds of listening (or when a very short file finishes). Accidental double-clicks do not count.

To see every track for a specific label, artist, genre, year, etc., right-click any track → Show All Tracks → pick the facet. The library clears all active filters first and applies only the picked one, so you always get the full set for that facet – no stray search query or year filter silently narrowing the result. The same clean-slate behavior applies to View Tracks in the Labels view and to clicking an artist name in the Label Inspector.

The player

The player bar sits at the bottom of the window whenever a track is loaded. Double-click any row to play it. The waveform is the timeline – click anywhere to jump, drag to scrub. Analysis numbers (BPM, key, LUFS, length) sit above the waveform.

Loop a section. To the right of the waveform, press Loop (also Playback → Loop Section). ARADAR marks a stretch on the waveform and plays it over and over. Drag the handles under the markers to set where the loop begins and ends. Press Loopagain to turn it off – the markers stay faintly visible for that track so you can turn it back on. Changing tracks turns Loop off; coming back to a track in the same session restores that track’s markers. Markers are session-only – they are not saved when you quit.

Listen checks. Between the transport and the waveform is a 3×3 grid for quick production checks: six additive band solos (hear just the sub, just the air, or several bands together), plus MONO, SIDE, and PHONE. Checks stay pressed across track changes so you can A/B a band or fold-down between your track and a reference, and reset when you relaunch. Ranges are editable in Preferences → Playback.

Ratings

Rate any track or label (0–5) via right-click → Rating, or click the stars in the Inspector panel. The Rating dropdown lets you filter by minimum rating level – set a floor and the library shows only tracks at that level or above.

The Inspector

Click any track row to open the Inspector on the right. It shows:

• Artwork and editable metadata – title, artist, album, label, genre, year, BPM, key, and freeform notes. Edits save to the ARADAR database immediately; the original audio file’s ID3 tags are never modified.
• Autocomplete on Label / Genre / Year / BPM / Key – as you type, a dropdown suggests matching values from your library. Label names come from the Labels table; Genre / Year / BPM / Key sort by how often each value already appears. Click a suggestion or keep typing a new value freely.
• Editing artwork – click an empty thumbnail to pick a file, drop an image (JPEG / PNG / TIFF / HEIC) onto it, or right-click for Choose Image… / Paste from Clipboard / Clear Artwork. Images live in ARADAR storage; the original audio file is never modified.
• Star rating – click directly on the stars (0–5) to set.
• Audio Analysis – LUFS Integrated, LRA, true peak, RMS, crest factor, plus the 10-band Frequency Profile chart.
• Label Matches– top labels ranked for this track with their composite fit score. Click any row to use that label’s profile as the active reference curve in the Frequency Profile chart above. The active row gets a subtle accent tint so you can see which label is driving the chart. List length is configurable in Preferences → Audio Analysis → Label Matches (3–10, default 5).
• Tags – add or remove freeform tags. Tags are searchable and can be used as filters.
• Status – pending / analyzed / failed / unreachable, with a Retry Analysis button when relevant.

Batch metadata edit

Editing metadata track-by-track is fine for a handful of edits. For anything larger – “set the label on these 30 promos”, “tag this crate as reference material”, “strip the year field on this mislabeled batch” – use the batch edit sheet.

Select two or more tracks in the Library or My Tracks tab, right-click → Edit Metadata…. Every editable field appears with three explicit choices:

• Keep– don’t touch this field on any of the selected tracks. Chosen by default.
• Set – write the same value to every selected track.
• Clear – blank the field on every selected track.

Tags work slightly differently – Add attaches a tag to every selected track without touching the tags already on them; Remove strips a specific tag from every selected track and leaves the rest alone.

BPM and Key aren’t in the batch edit sheet on purpose – ARADAR calculates them from audio analysis, not from anything you type.

Before your changes go in, ARADAR shows a confirmation dialog that lists which fields will change, what they’ll change to (or that they’ll be cleared), and how many tracks it applies to. A blank Set value can never accidentally wipe your data – you’d have to explicitly pick Clear. Changes go in for all selected tracks at once: if anything goes wrong on any single track, no tracks are changed.

Drag tracks into your DAW

Click and drag any track from the library directly into Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, or any other DAW. ARADAR exposes the original file through a secure bookmark – no copies are made, no decoding step, just the source file landing on your timeline.

If the drag seems to do nothing, confirm the track’s status is Analyzed. Pending or Failed tracks may not resolve correctly.

Tags

Tags are freeform labels you attach to tracks for any organizing scheme that doesn’t fit the built-in fields. Mood (dark, uplifting), purpose (set-opener, peak-time), production state (needs-mastering, pitched), reference category (kick-reference, vocal-reference) – whatever helps you find tracks later.

Adding tags. Open the Inspector and type into the Tags field. Press return to commit each tag. Existing tags auto-complete as you type so you don’t end up with darks, dark, and DARK competing.

Filtering by tag. The Library search box matches tag text. Type #dark or just dark and tracks with that tag surface.

Removing tags. Click the × on any tag chip in the Inspector.

Tags live in the ARADAR database – they don’t write back to the original file’s ID3 tags.

Statistics window

⇧⌘S (or Window → Library Statistics) opens a separate window with an overview of your library:

• Overview – total tracks, total labels, hours of music, average LUFS / crest / BPM across the library.
• Top Lists – your top labels by track count, top genres, top years.
• Distributions – histograms of BPM, key, year, and rating across the library.
• Quality Averages – average loudness and dynamics by year, useful for spotting how your reference collection’s mastering style shifts over time.
• Action Items – tracks needing attention (missing metadata, failed analysis, unrated, untagged). Click any row to jump straight to those tracks in the Library tab with the right filter applied.
• Submissions – pipeline summary by status, average response time, top labels by submission count.

The window is independent of the main one – leave it open on a second monitor while you work.

Themes

Six themes ship with ARADAR. Switch any time from Preferences → Appearance, or from the appearance switcher in the toolbar. Each theme adapts every surface in the app (sidebar, tables, inspector, charts, charts’ band colors, focus highlights).

• Nocturne (default) – deep neutral dark theme, low-contrast, designed for long studio sessions in dim rooms. Recommended for most users.
• Pulse – saturated dark theme with stronger accents. Good if Nocturne feels too restrained.
• Velvet – warm dark theme with reduced blue light. Easier on the eyes late at night.
• Open Air – bespoke light theme for bright rooms, daylight, or screen-sharing.
• System (Light) – system-style light theme using Apple’s native appearance colors. Picks the macOS look when you want the app to blend with the rest of the OS in Light mode.
• System (Dark) – system-style dark theme using Apple’s native appearance colors. The dark counterpart to System (Light) for blending with macOS in Dark mode.

The chart colors, match-score gradients, and frequency-corridor shading are theme-aware, so switching themes doesn’t break the visual language of the data.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Space – Play / pause current track
• ⌘F – Focus search field
• ⇧⌘N – Create new playlist
• ⇧⌘S – Open Statistics window
• ⌘? – Open this help window
• Delete – Remove selected track from library (confirmation required)

What ARADAR measures

ARADAR analyzes each track on import using the bundled ffmpeg with ebur128, astats, and a custom FFT-based frequency profiler. Metrics are stored per track and surfaced in the Inspector and the Labels tab aggregations.

Loudness metrics

LUFS Integrated (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale, ITU-R BS.1770). The track’s overall perceived loudness across its duration. Lower values mean quieter, higher mean louder. Stored as a signed dB value where 0 is the maximum theoretical loudness.

LRA (Loudness Range). The difference between the loudest 95th percentile and quietest 10th percentile of a track’s loudness distribution. Higher LRA means more dynamic; lower means more compressed.

True Peak. The highest instantaneous peak in the audio, measured in dBFS (decibels relative to Full Scale). 0 dBFS is digital maximum; negative values indicate headroom. ARADAR measures with the peak=true flag for true peak (oversampled inter-sample peak detection).

RMS Level. Root Mean Square level – the average power of the signal. Calculated across the entire track in the astats Overall section. Lower means quieter on average.

Crest Factor. The ratio of peak amplitude to RMS amplitude. Computed from 10^((peak_dB − rms_dB) / 20). Higher crest factor means more dynamics relative to peaks; lower means more compressed. A pure sine wave has crest factor √2 (~1.41); modern club masters tend toward 3–4; pre-loudness-war recordings can hit 8–12.

Frequency metrics

Frequency Profile. ARADAR computes a 10-band frequency spectrum for each track using a Fast Fourier Transform with a +4.5 dB/octave tilt – the industry-standard slope for tonal-balance analysis. The tilt compensates for the natural high-frequency rolloff of mastered music, so a well-balanced track reads as roughly flat across the bands rather than bass-heavy. The 10 bands cover 20 Hz to 20 kHz logarithmically: deep sub, sub-bass, bass, low-mid, mid, upper-mid, presence, brilliance, air, ultra-high.

Reference Curve. A target spectrum ARADAR compares tracks against. Two kinds: built-in references (Electronic, Hip-Hop, Pop/Rock, Acoustic, Orchestral – broad genre archetypes; pick the closest in Preferences → Audio), and custom curvesbuilt from your own selection of tracks (e.g., a label’s catalog or your own production style).

Three-band Summary (Low / Mid / High). A simplified roll-up of the 10-band profile into three numbers, used in the Labels tab aggregations and the quick-look deviation bars. Faster to compare across many tracks at once than the full chart.

The Analysis panel

A small floating panel appears in the corner of the app whenever ARADAR is analyzing tracks. The panel is intentionally non-dismissible – it disappears on its own when the queue is empty.

The panel shows:

• Progress – how many tracks are done, how many remain, and an estimated time to completion. Early in a run the estimate can be rough; it settles after the first several tracks.
• Current file – the title of whatever track ARADAR is analyzing right now.
• Failure warning (when applicable) – if more than 10% of tracks analyzed this session have failed, the panel surfaces the count with a click-to-filter link that filters the library to show only failed tracks. From there, right-click any failed track → Retry Analysis (works for multi-selection too).
• Cancel– clicking Cancel opens a confirmation dialog that spells out exactly what will happen in three buckets, so you always know what you’re about to lose:
  • Fresh imports– tracks being analyzed for the first time. These are removed from your library. Re-import the batch to bring them back; there’s no undo.
  • Re-analyzed tracks – tracks that were previously completed and had their analysis re-triggered from the Inspector or right-click → Re-analyze. These revert to Completed with their previous measurements intact. Nothing is lost.
  • Retried failures – tracks that were in Failed state and had their retry cancelled. They stay Failed– the retry attempt just didn’t run.
  Ratings, notes, tags, playlist membership, and submission history are always preserved on tracks that stay in your library.

While the panel is visible, the Import button is disabled. ARADAR processes one batch at a time so the queue stays predictable.

Single-track re-analysis uses a simplified version of the panel – just a spinner and the file name, no ticker – because there’s nothing meaningful to count down. The full panel only appears for bulk imports.

You can quit ARADAR at any time during indexing. On next launch the panel reappears and analysis resumes from where it stopped. Any track that was mid-analysis at quit time is reset to pending and re-attempted.

Troubleshooting analysis

“My library is empty after I imported.” Analysis is still running. Check the panel for progress. Tracks appear in the library as their analysis completes, not all at once. For a 5,000-track import this can take several hours. You can quit and come back; analysis resumes.

“A track shows Failed.” ARADAR tried to analyze the file three times and ffmpeg couldn’t read it. Common causes: corrupted file, format mismatch (e.g., a renamed .wav that’s actually something else), or a permissions issue. Right-click the track → Reveal in Finder to confirm the file opens. Then right-click → Retry Analysis. If it keeps failing, the file itself is likely the issue. Multi-selection of failed tracks supports bulk retry.

“A track shows Unreachable.”The file was moved, renamed, or deleted after you imported it. ARADAR’s bookmark to the file no longer resolves. Try right-click → Retry Analysis first; if the file is back in its original location, this will pick it up. If not, right-click → Remove and re-import from the new location. A manual relink option is planned for a future version.

If your library lives on an external drive that was disconnected, plug the drive back in – ARADAR watches for volume mounts and clears the “Unreachable” state automatically on reconnect. No manual retry needed.

Network shares (SMB, NFS, NAS mounts) have a caveat: ARADAR’s bookmarks track files by inode on local volumes, so renames and moves survive. On network mounts, bookmarks degrade to path-based, so a rename or move on the server side leaves the track permanently Unreachable until you use the manual relink feature (when available) or remove-and-re-import. If you keep your library on a NAS, treat file paths as stable – renames on the share are unrecoverable in-app for now.

“Indexing seems frozen.” Confirm the panel is still updating the current file. If the same file has been shown for several minutes, that file may be unusually long or there may be an issue with ffmpeg processing it. Wait a few more minutes; if no progress, quit ARADAR and relaunch – the queue will resume and the stuck track will retry.

Reading the frequency profile chart

The Frequency Profile chart in the Inspector shows how a track differs from the selected reference, not the track’s absolute spectrum. The 0 dB horizontal line is the reference – wherever the track’s curve sits on that line, the track matches the reference exactly in that frequency band.

Reading direction:

• Curve above 0 dB → the track has more energy than the reference in that band.
• Curve below 0 dB → the track has less energy than the reference in that band.

Worked example. A bump at L (low band) showing +6 dB means your track is 6 dB heavier in the lows than the reference. To match the reference, you’d reduce the low end of your track – EQ down the low-shelf, turn down the kick or sub, etc.

Conversely, a dip at M (upper-mid) showing -3 dB means your track has 3 dB less upper-mid energy than the reference. To match, you’d boost your track’s mids.

The reference is the fixed target; the track’s curve is what moves relative to it.

Practical reading. A curve sitting roughly flat across the 0 dB line means the track’s tonal balance matches the reference well. Big bumps or dips are tonal differences – sometimes deliberate stylistic choices, sometimes mix issues worth investigating before pitching.

Loudness doesn’t change the chart. ARADAR normalizes each track by its own total spectral energy before comparison, so the chart shows tonal shape, not absolute level. A track at −16 LUFS and the same track at −8 LUFS draw identical curves. You don’t need to gain-match tracks before comparing them.

Built-in reference curves

ARADAR ships with five genre baselines and one mathematical reference:

• Electronic, Hip-Hop, Pop/Rock, Acoustic, Orchestral – genre archetypes. Useful for rough tonal sanity checks within each family. Not precise enough for label-level targeting – build a custom curve for that.
• Pink Noise (reference) – mathematical baseline of equal energy per octave. A track that draws a flat 0 dB line against pink has perfectly balanced spectral energy.

Pink is a mastering yardstick, not a genre target. Most modern music shows a low-end drop against it (mastering high-pass + sub-bass roll-off) and a roughly flat upper region (where the +4.5 dB/oct tilt is calibrated to put well-mastered music). Two genuinely different tracks may look similar against pink – that’s expected. Pink reveals mastering balance; the genre curves reveal tonal signature.

Custom reference curves

The built-in genre curves are broad archetypes. For real A&R targeting, you want a reference grounded in actual material – typically a specific label’s catalog, a sub-genre, or your own production style.

Create a custom curve. In the Library or My Tracks tab:

1. Select 3 or more tracks that represent the sound you want as your reference. (Examples: 10 tracks from a label you’re targeting; 8 tracks from your own released catalog if you want to compare new productions against your established sound; 15 tracks from a sub-genre like “Berlin techno 2024”.)
2. Right-click → Create Custom Reference Curve…
3. Name the curve (e.g., “Target Label”, “My Sound”, “Berlin Techno 2024”).
4. Click Create.

ARADAR computes the median 10-band spectrum across your selected tracks and saves it as a new reference. The minimum is 3 tracks – fewer doesn’t produce a meaningful median.

Use a custom curve. The Reference Curve picker in Preferences → Audio (and in each track Inspector) now shows two sections: Built-in and Custom. Pick your custom curve and the Frequency Profile chart for every track measures deviation against that curve.

Delete a custom curve. Preferences → Audio Analysis → set the curve as the default reference → click Delete '<name>'… below the picker → confirm. Any tracks or settings using the deleted curve fall back to the new default.

Editing an existing curve. Not supported – delete and recreate with a different selection if you want changes. The curve is a snapshot of its source tracks at creation time.

Label profile overlay

The Inspector’s Label Matcheslist doubles as a one-click reference picker. Clicking any row paints that label’s median 10-band spectrum as the active reference curve in the Frequency Profile chart above – the chart immediately re-draws to show how the current track sits relative to what that label typically releases. A pill below the section title reads “vs [Label Name] · N tracks · NN%” so you can see at a glance which label is driving the curve and how the current track scored.

The overlay is transient: it lives only while that track’s Inspector is open. Re-opening the same track resets the chart to the global default reference (Preferences → Audio). To pick a different label, click another row. To go back to a preset or saved custom curve, use the “vs …” picker just under the section title – the menu intentionally only lists built-ins and custom curves, not labels.

If the label has 3 or more analyzed tracks, the chart also draws the ±1σ corridor around the median (same convention as custom curves – see below).

The shaded band (corridor)

When the active reference is a custom curve or a label profile (set by clicking a row in Label Matches), the Frequency Profile chart shows a subtle shaded band around the 0 dB line. This is the ±1 standard deviation envelopecomputed from the variance of the source tracks – the tracks you picked when creating a custom curve, or all of that label’s analyzed tracks. Label-profile overlays draw the corridor only when the label has 3 or more analyzed tracks; below that, the variance isn’t meaningful.

What it means in plain English.Say you built a custom curve from 8 tracks on a label you’re targeting. Each of those 8 tracks has its own frequency shape – they’re not identical. The median of those shapes is the 0 dB line (the reference). The shaded band shows how much those 8 tracks varied around that median, per frequency band.

How to read it as a producer:

• A track whose curve stays inside the shaded band is tonally in the same range as what that label has released. Within normal catalog variation. No obvious mismatch.
• A track whose curve goes outside the bandin a given region sits outside the typical range for that label – not automatically an outlier (±1σ contains ~68% of a label’s own tracks; the rest sit outside by construction), but a real difference worth noticing before you pitch.

Tight band = cohesive label or sub-genre. If the source tracks consistently have e.g. heavy lows, the band will be narrow in the low region. Hard to fit if your track doesn’t sit there.

Wide band = broad or diverse source. If the source tracks span lots of different sounds, the band is wide – tonal match matters less, the label takes variety.

Built-in curves don’t show a corridor.By design – they’re broad genre archetypes (not derived from a specific corpus), so a variance band around them wouldn’t reflect any real catalog’s spread. The corridor is meaningful only when the curve came from a real set of tracks (your custom-curve selection or a label’s analyzed catalog).

Comparing multiple tracks or labels

The same comparison sheet works two ways – overlay tracks against a reference, or overlay labels against a reference.

Compare tracks. In Library or My Tracks, select 2 to 10 tracks → right-click → Compare Frequency Profiles…. The sheet opens with each track’s curve overlaid in a distinct color, the reference and its shaded corridor visible, and a list below showing each track’s tonal deviation from the reference (lower = closer match).

Compare labels. In the Labels tab, select 2 to 10 labels → right-click → Compare Frequency Profiles…. Same chart, same sort, but each row in the legend is a label name + track count instead of title + artist. Useful for spotting which labels in your catalog cluster around the same tonal balance – sister labels, sub-genre families, or alternate-target candidates when your first-choice label isn’t biting.

Pick the reference in the picker at the top of the sheet (built-in or custom curve). Sort by tonal deviation to float the closest matches to the top. Click any row to highlight its curve on the chart while the others fade.

Practical use:select your last 5 finished tracks → set reference to your target label’s custom curve → the track at the top of the sorted list is your strongest candidate to pitch first.

The Labels tab

The Labels tab shows every label you own tracks from. After audio analysis runs, each label gets a loudness signature (LUFS range, average LUFS, crest factor, RMS) plus a frequency profile (10-band spectrum) computed from its tracks – useful for understanding what the label releases.

Click a label row to open the Label Inspector with the full aggregations and frequency profile. Click View Tracks to inspect the catalog you have for that label.

A&R workflow

The Library, Labels, and A&R Tracker tabs are designed to work together:

1. Build the library. Import all the tracks you reference, regardless of submission intent. Let analysis complete before moving on.
2. Profile labels. As analysis completes, the Labels tab fills with loudness and frequency signatures per label. Sort by Avg LUFS, Avg Crest, or any of the frequency band averages to find labels that match your production style.
3. Identify targets two ways. From the Labels tab, click View Tracks to inspect what kind of music a label releases. Compare their frequency deviation profile to your own track’s profile in the Inspector – labels with similar tonal balance are stronger match candidates than those with opposing curves. Or use a custom reference curve: pick 5–15 tracks from a specific label, save them as a custom curve, then your own tracks are measured against that label’s sonic identity directly.
4. Compare candidates side by side. Select multiple tracks from your library → right-click → Compare Frequency Profiles. The overlay chart shows which of your tracks best matches a given reference.
5. Create submissions.Right-click a finished track → Add Submission to Label → pick the target label. The submission lands in A&R Tracker with status draft.
6. Attach the demo link you sent. Every submission has a Demo linkfield in its Inspector for the private preview URL you sent the label – unlisted SoundCloud, Dropbox / WeTransfer / Google Drive share, private Bandcamp, whatever you used. ARADAR doesn’t check the link or connect to it in any way; it just holds onto what you paste. The demo link is also included when you export your submissions as a CSV file.
7. Track responses. Update submission status (submitted, responded, accepted, rejected) as the conversation progresses. Note response times to learn label behavior over time.

How label matching works

When you click “Add submission to label” on a track, ARADAR ranks your labels by how well the track matches each one’s profile. Labels appear sorted by composite match score.

The composite score combines four dimensions:

• Frequency profile – 40%. How closely your track’s 10-band frequency balance matches reference tracks in your library whose Label metadata field matches that label’s name. This is the strongest signal – it’s what makes ARADAR different from sorting by genre and BPM. Labels that have analyzed tracks in your library get a real frequency score; labels with no tracks in your library show “Freq –”.
• Loudness – 25%. How close your track’s integrated LUFS is to the label’s typical range.
• Tempo – 20%. How close your BPM is to the label’s typical tempo range.
• Genre – 15%. Binary match between your track’s genre tag and the label’s. Smaller weight; the other dimensions do the heavy lifting.

The percentage in each dropdown row is the weighted combination. A 70%+ match means the track is genuinely in the label’s range; below 50% signals significant divergence.

Tracks with missing tags score lower than they should

If your track doesn’t have a genre tag, the genre dimension contributes zero – that’s 15 points it can never earn. Same for BPM (worth 20 points). A track with no embedded ID3 metadata at all can only ever score on loudness and frequency, capping its composite at 65%.

This is the most common reason a track ranks lower than expected: not a real mismatch, just missing metadata. Open the Inspector, fill in the empty genre / BPM / key fields, and re-open the label matches – the score recomputes immediately.

How label data affects score reliability

The frequency dimension carries the most weight (40%), but it needs a handful of the label’s releases analyzed in your library before ARADAR has enough data to score it confidently.

The track-count pill.Next to a label’s name in the breakdown you’ll always see a small pill like “4 tracks” or “12 tracks” – the number of analyzed tracks ARADAR currently has for that label’s frequency profile. The pill stays visible at every count so you can see how much evidence backs each score (an 89% match from 12 tracks is more trustworthy than the same 89% from 2). Profiles built from 8 or more tracks are considered fully reliable; below that, ARADAR dampens the composite score (see below).

Fewer tracks → softer score. When ARADAR has very few (or no) tracks for a label, it dampens the composite score to reflect lower confidence. This isn’t a penalty against the label – it’s an honest signal that ARADAR doesn’t yet know enough about the label’s sound to be sure of the match. As you analyze and tag more of their releases, both the confidence and the accuracy improve.

Labels with no frequency data at all. ARADAR falls back to LUFS, tempo, and genre. The breakdown shows “Freq –” so you can see the dimension was skipped, not failed. To unlock the full match potential for a label, import a few of their releases and set the Label field on those tracks to match – the profile builds automatically as analysis completes.

Adjusting matching strictness

Preferences → Audio Analysis → Fit Scoring lets you pick how strict the matching is:

• Lenient – more labels surface as matches. Use if scores feel too low across the board.
• Balanced – default tuning.
• Strict – only confident matches score high. Use if everything looks like a match.

The setting affects how harshly band-level mismatches and thin label catalogs pull the score down. Try Balanced first; reach for Lenient or Strict if your results feel off.

Number of matches shown

Preferences → Audio Analysis → Label Matches → Matches Showncontrols how many labels the Inspector’s Label Matches list surfaces per track. Default is 5; range is 3–10. Use a tighter shortlist (3) for a focused workflow, or a longer list (10) to explore lower-confidence fits. Changes take effect immediately – re-open a track to see the new list length.

Why a label might rank lower than you expect

If a label you want to pitch to ranks lower in the matching results than expected, ARADAR is telling you the track is off-profile on one or more of the four metrics. The breakdown in the Inspector shows which dimension is dragging the score:

• Freq low – your track’s frequency balance is far from what that label typically releases.
• LUFS far from their range – your master is significantly louder or quieter.
• Tempo outside their pocket – your BPM is outside what their catalog typically uses.
• Genre missing on your track – the genre dimension can’t contribute (fill the tag in the Inspector to fix).

You can still submit to any label manually by navigating to the Labels tab and adding the submission from there. The matching results are a shortcut for likely matches – not a hard filter. Sometimes a label that ranks low on the metrics is exactly the right home for a track that’s deliberately off-trend.

Submissions pipeline

Right-click any track → Add Submission to Label→ choose a label. The A&R Tracker tab shows your pipeline with submission status, dates, and response tracking. Status is derived from the date fields on the submission – set Submitted At and the status moves to Submitted, set Released At and it moves to Released, and so on – so the badge and the dates never disagree. Status moves through draft → submitted → responded → accepted or rejected as the conversation progresses.

Click a submission row to expand it and add free-text notes – useful for tracking who you contacted, what response you got, and any follow-up. Paste the Demo linkyou sent the label into the submission Inspector so you can reopen the exact preview later. Submission timestamps and response times feed the Statistics window’s submission summary so you can spot which labels tend to respond fast.

Free trial

ARADAR includes a 14-day free trial on first launch. During the trial every feature works exactly as it does in the licensed version – importing, custom reference curves, label matching, submissions, exports. Nothing is degraded; this is so you can evaluate the real app, not a stripped-down preview.

A banner above the main UI shows how many trial days remain, with a one-click path to purchase or to paste a license key you already have.

After the trial

When the 14 days run out, your library, ratings, submissions, tags, custom curves, and analysis data stay intact and remain accessible. What’s locked is creating new content:

• Importing new tracks
• Creating new custom reference curves
• Logging new submissions
• Adding new tags

Existing content keeps working – you can still browse, filter, listen, drag into your DAW, and view analysis. The lock is lifted the moment you activate a license.

Buying ARADAR

Click Buy ARADAR from the trial banner or from Preferences → License. The button opens the ARADAR store (shop.aradar.app) in your browser. Lemon Squeezy handles checkout and tax compliance (they’re the Merchant of Record). After purchase you’ll get a receipt email containing your license key.

Activating a license

You have two paths:

1. One-click from the email. The receipt email contains an “Activate ARADAR” button. Click it; macOS hands the link to ARADAR, which opens Preferences → License, prefills the field, and runs activation automatically. If your email client strips custom URL schemes (rare; some corporate Outlook setups do this), use path 2.
2. Manual paste. Copy the license key from the email → Preferences → License → paste into the License Key field → click Activate.

Either way, the License tab confirms with a green success message once activation completes. Status switches to Licensed.

Multi-Mac use (3 activations)

Each license activates on up to 3 Macs – your studio Mac, your laptop, and one spare. You don’t have to use all three; the count is a ceiling, not a quota.

If you hit the limit (e.g. when buying a new Mac), ARADAR shows an “Activation limit reached” message with two options:

• Free a slot from an old Mac – open ARADAR on the Mac you no longer use → Preferences → License → Deactivate This Mac. The slot is released immediately and you can activate on the new Mac.
• No access to the old Mac – email hello@aradar.app with the license key and we’ll free the slot manually.

Offline use

ARADAR validates your license periodically over the internet to confirm it’s still active. If you’re offline (no Wi-Fi, on a plane, etc.) ARADAR keeps working in fully-licensed mode for 30 days without contacting the server. The status badge shows “Licensed (offline N days)” so you know how long it’s been since the last successful check.

After 30 days offline, the app drops back to the “License invalid” state and content-creation features lock – exactly like after trial expiry. The moment you reconnect and ARADAR successfully revalidates, full access is restored. Nothing in your library is touched.

Deactivating before selling or wiping a Mac

Before you sell, give away, or wipe a Mac running ARADAR, open Preferences → License → Deactivate This Mac. This releases the activation slot on the server so you can use it on the next machine without contacting support.

If you forget (e.g. you wiped first), email hello@aradar.app with your license key and we’ll free the slot.

Refunds and receipts

Lemon Squeezy keeps your receipt and order history. The receipt email you receive after purchase has a “View Order” link that opens your order page where you can re-download the receipt, see the license key, or request a refund within the policy window. If you can’t find the email, search your inbox for “Lemon Squeezy” or for the ARADAR store name. For anything beyond what the Lemon Squeezy order page handles, email hello@aradar.app.

Troubleshooting license activation

“License activation fails with ‘Couldn’t reach the license server’.” ARADAR needs an internet connection to activate a license (subsequent validation re-checks can be deferred up to 30 days). Confirm your connection, then click Try Again on the error banner. If your network blocks Lemon Squeezy’s API (api.lemonsqueezy.com), try a different network – corporate firewalls occasionally do.

“License activation fails with ‘Activation limit reached’.” Your license is already activated on 3 Macs. Open ARADAR on one of them → Preferences → License → Deactivate This Mac → activate on the new Mac. If you don’t have access to any of the old Macs, email hello@aradar.app with your license key.

Anything else. Open Preferences → Diagnostics and click Export Log as File. Attach the file to a support email with a short description of what you were doing. Logs reflect the current app session – if you’ve restarted ARADAR since the issue occurred, reproduce it first so the log captures the relevant events.

Logs

ARADAR writes structured logs to the macOS unified log system, viewable in Console.app. Filter by subsystem app.aradar.aradar to see ARADAR events only.

Categories: imports (metadata extraction), analysis (audio analysis pipeline), playback (track load and seek events), database (migrations and writes), bookmarks (security-scoped bookmark resolution), app (application lifecycle).

Privacy

ARADAR is a local Mac app. Your library, ratings, submissions, tags, custom reference curves, frequency profiles, notes, and audio files never leave your machine. There is no telemetry on what you import, how you organize it, what you listen to, or who you submit to.

Three exceptions – narrow, explicit network requests that exist only to support paid use of the app:

1. License activation, validation, and deactivation. When you activate a license, ARADAR sends the license key, the name of this Mac (used by Lemon Squeezy to label the activation slot in their dashboard), and the response identifier to api.lemonsqueezy.com. Validation re-checks the license periodically. Deactivation releases the slot. No library data, audio data, or analysis results are sent – only what’s needed for license bookkeeping. Lemon Squeezy is also the merchant of record for the purchase itself, so they handle your billing details directly.
2. Crash reporting (opt-out). If ARADAR crashes or hits an unhandled error, a crash report is sent to Sentry – stack trace, OS version, app version, the type of error. No file paths, no track names, no license key, no email address. You can turn this off entirely in Preferences → Diagnostics → Crash Reporting. The toggle takes effect immediately.
3. Update checks. ARADAR uses Sparkle to fetch the appcast feed at aradar.app/appcast.xmlon launch and once a day while the app is running to learn whether a new version is available. No identifiers are sent – just an HTTPS GET of a static file. Updates are EdDSA-signed; Sparkle refuses to install anything whose signature doesn’t match the public key baked into the build. Trigger a manual check via Help → Check for Updates….

That’s it. No analytics. No usage telemetry. No “phone home” to count active users.