Audio Hijack 4 Has Arrived!

Today, we’re thrilled to unveil a major upgrade to Audio Hijack, our flagship audio recorder and processor. Audio Hijack 4 brings both powerful new functionality and powerful new interfaces, to make its ability to record any audio on your Mac more accessible than ever. With an absolutely ridiculous 107 new features, enhancements, improvements, and bug fixes, Audio Hijack has never been better.
Read on to learn more or just click to download Audio Hijack 4!

In Audio Hijack, individual blocks that capture, record, and manipulate audio are combined into powerful pipelines. For version 4, we made improving blocks a major focus. We’ve created brand-new blocks, added new features to the way blocks work, and improved nearly every existing block.
Three Brand-New Blocks

First up, the powerful new Mixer block is great for podcasters, live streams, and other performers. It makes it easy to mix up to 5 sources together, with useful volume controls and fades.
There are also two new audio effects offering simplified controls for effortless adjustments. Magic Boost can boost quiet audio without increasing louder sounds, great for action movies and other content. Simple Compressor reduces the range between soft and loud sounds, improving microphones and other audio with minimal configuration.
Helpful New Block Features

Every single block now has its own popover. This allows all blocks to have saved presets, making complex settings easy to retrieve. As well, block controls can now all be detached and pinned for easy viewing and access, even when Audio Hijack is in the background.

Editable block titles, first introduced on the Broadcast and Live Stream blocks, are now available on all blocks. Editing a block’s name customizes how it displays, especially helpful when using multiple blocks of the same type within a session.
Improved Blocks
Our existing blocks also received new features and enhancements. We’ll highlight just a handful:

The Input Device and Output Device blocks can now track your default system devices, so less configuration is needed.

In an effort to avoid inadvertently recording a lower quality microphone, the Input Device block now visually distinguishes built-in mics and requires you to select a device.

The Volume block now has on-face meters, as well as optional presets. In addition, its Overdrive feature uses an enhanced lookahead peak limiter to avoid distortion and excessive volume jumps.

The Live Stream block has exited its beta period, and it’s ready to help live stream podcasts and other events, with RTMP streams sent to services like YouTube Live and Twitch.

The all-important Recorder block has been reorganized, and now features a larger tags area. It also offers a status indicator at the top of its popover, great for use when pinning.

Both the 10-Band Lagutin EQ and the Channels block now offer on-face settings selectors, as well as on-face indicators.

Like all blocks in Audio Hijack 4, the Input Switch block now offers a popover that can be pinned for instant access anywhere on your Mac.

Both the Peak/RMS Meters and VU Meters have been overhauled, with new art, built-in menu bar meters, and clipping indicators.

Audio Hijack includes over two dozen built-in blocks, and they’ve all been modernized in version 4.

If you’ve used Audio Hijack before, you’ll feel right at home, but there are many improvements to both how the product looks and how it works. The biggest change is the addition of a lovely new Light Mode. Audio Hijack will match your system’s appearance by default, but you can always select Light or Dark mode, right in the app’s preferences.
We also optimized many parts of the layout based on real-world usage. The powerful new session sidebar lets you search the Block Library to more quickly find the block you need, particularly great if you have dozens of Audio Units. Recordings and Timers are now grouped logically with their individual sessions, and previews for recordings feature a helpful waveform. The Info sidebar tab even offers a new Notes field, perfect for storing information about your sessions.
Beyond these refinements, we used years’ worth of customer feedback to guide us as we made several major updates to the way Audio Hijack works.
Manual Connections

For power users with complex setups, we’ve implemented the ability to manually connect your audio pipeline. Most users will still want to rely on Audio Hijack’s automatic connections, but you now have the option to turn them off. You can then draw wires between blocks to achieve tricky pipeline setups, independent of layout.
Background Sessions & Auto Run Sessions
Sometimes, the best user interface is no interface at all. New background sessions mean session windows no longer need be open for Audio Hijack to capture and manipulate audio.

Sessions can also now be set to run as soon as Audio Hijack launches. We’ve seen all manner of interesting workflows requiring sessions to run constantly, and the new Auto Run feature makes this work smoothly. Go even further by adding Audio Hijack as a “Login Item” in System Preferences to have sessions running any time your Mac is on.
A Powerful Session List & Global Window

Audio Hijack’s main window, called the “Session List”, has also gained new powers. No longer just a list of your saved sessions, it can now serve as a control center from which to start sessions and monitor their status.

In addition, a new global window can optionally live in your Mac’s menu bar. It too provides instant control and monitoring of sessions, no matter what application you’re using.

With an all-new JavaScript engine and API, building programmatically-driven workflows in Audio Hijack is now a reality. Scripts can run automatically when sessions start and stop, and process recordings as they’re created. A whole new world of automation is possible with this ability to manipulate sessions.

Scripting isn’t just for power users, however. Even if you’re not fluent in JavaScript, you can streamline your use of Audio Hijack. The built-in scripts make automation possible for anyone, and on MacOS 12 (Monterey), Audio Hijack even integrates with the Shortcuts app.
See Everything That’s New

While this post has covered a few of the new features, enhancements, improvements, and bug fixes ready for you in Audio Hijack 4, there’s still lots more to see. To discover even more, visit our what’s new in Audio Hijack 4 page.

If You Own Audio Hijack 3

Owners of Audio Hijack 3 are eligible to upgrade to Audio Hijack 4 for just $29. Use our site to purchase your discounted upgrade.
We’ve also provided upgrades to a generous number of recent purchasers at no charge. If you purchased Audio Hijack 3 since January 1, 2022, we’ve emailed you a complimentary upgrade. Check your inbox!

Get Audio Hijack Now



Audio Hijack 4 has never been more powerful, but it remains straight-forward and easy to use. You can visit the Audio Hijack product page to learn more, but the best way to see the incredible power Audio Hijack provides is with the fully-featured downloadable free trial to try it for yourself.
In just a few minutes, you’ll be recording any audio on your Mac.

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