Frequently Asked Questions

TwistedWave for macOS

Can I add a track, or add music to my voice recording?

TwistedWave is a multichannel editor. i.e. it can edit stereo or 5.1 audio files. But TwistedWave is not a multi-track editor, and you will only have a single track at a time.

That being said, it is still possible to mix music and voice together. In order to do that, you should open your music track in a second editor window, select all and copy it.

Then, in your voice track, place the cursor where you want the music to start, and select Edit > Paste Over from the main menu. This will mix the contents of the clipboard with the existing audio.

If the level of the music is not right, you can undo your paste, select "Effects > Amplify" from the main menu in order to adjust the sound level of your music file, and then copy / paste over again.

I have already purchased TwistedWave for iOS, can I install it on my Mac?

The three versions of TwistedWave, iOS, macOS and Online are three independent applications and have to be purchased separately. You will have to purchase from TwistedWave's online store, or from Apple's Mac App Store.

Can I install TwistedWave on more than one Mac?

Yes! According to TwistedWave's license, you are allowed to install TwistedWave on as many computers as you want, as long as you are the main user of TwistedWave on these.

How can I transfer a license to another computer?

If you want to install TwistedWave on a new computer, you should first download and install the trial version from TwistedWave's web site. When you run it, you will be asked to register. You can then enter the user name and serial number you received when you purchased.

If you have purchased from the App Store, you will have to use the same iTunes account on both computers. On the new computer, you can simply go to the App Store, and because you have already purchased it, you will have the option to re-download TwistedWave for free.

How can I transfer my preferences and presets to another computer?

Your preferences and presets are stored in this directory, in your home folder:

Library/Application Support/TwistedWave

If you have purchased TwistedWave form the App Store, the preferences are stored in this directory instead:

Library/Containers/com.twistedwave.TwistedWaveAppStore/Data/Library/Application Support/TwistedWave

Or if you are using TwistedWave Lite, you will find the preferences there:

Library/Containers/com.twistedwave.TwistedWaveLite/Data/Library/Application Support/TwistedWave Lite

In order to transfer your preferences, first make sure TwistedWave is not running anywhere, and transfer the contents of this directory to the corresponding directory on the destination computer. You will have to run TwistedWave at least once on the destination computer for this directory to exist, and you will also have to empty it before filling it with the presets you have copied from the other computer.

Note that the Library directory is hidden by default. In order to access it, in the Finder, while maintaining the option key pressed, select Go > Library from the main menu, and a Finder window showing the Library directory will appear.

Why are my AudioUnit plugins not working?

TwistedWave supports AudioUnit plugins, and should work fine with all the available plugins, but there are some known issues with plugins from certain manufacturers.

  • Slate Digital.

    The Virtual Mix Rack plugin from Slate Digital (possibly others from the same manufacturer as well) only works with stereo audio. If applied to mono audio, instead of returning an error, it will simply not process the audio. The workaround is to convert the audio to stereo, apply the plugin, and then convert back to mono.

  • IK Multimedia.

    The T-Racks plugin from IK Multimedia (possibly others from the same manufacturer as well) needs some time to initialize. Instead of waiting for the initialization to be complete before letting TwistedWave know that the plugin is ready, they respond immediately, and then finish initializing in the background. There is no way for TwistedWave to know when the plugin is ready to be used. When the plugin is not ready, it produces silence. When applied to short files this will result in completely silent files. When applied to longer files, the beginning of the file will be silent. The only workaround at the moment is to add one minute of silence at the beginning of your file, apply the plugin, and then remove the silence from the beginning of the file.

How can I meet the ACX requirements for audiobooks?

Here is how you can use TwistedWave to meet the ACX requirements for audiobooks.
  • Use a 44.1 kHz sampling rate.

    When you create a new recording with TwistedWave, you are asked to select the sampling rate to use. Make sure 44 100 Hz is selected, and everything will be fine. If you have selected 48 000 Hz or higher by mistake, you can still change it after the fact by selecting Convert Sampling Rate... from the main menu. If you used a lower sampling rate, the sound quality has already been degraded, and it is not possible to recover it.

  • Have a maximum -60 dB noise floor.

    The noise floor is determined by your recording environment, and to a lesser extent to your recording equipment. You should make sure to record in a quiet room for the best results. You can measure your noise floor by recording silence, and measuring its level. Make sure your recording contains only silence, and select File > Analyze... from the main menu. You can then read the noise floor in the "Average RMS Power" line. Keep in mind that if you have to increase the level of your recording to meet the other requirements, the noise floor will also increase.

    If you can record in a quieter environment, you may want to try TwistedWave's built-in noise removal tool, by selecting Effects > Denoise... from the main menu. For better results, you can use a more powerful denoiser, such as iZotope RX or SoundSoap.

  • Measure between -23 dB and -18 dB RMS.

    You can use File > Analyze... from the main menu to measure the RMS level of your file. You can then use Effects > Amplify... to adjust the level if it not in the -23 to -18 dB range. Or even better, you can use Effects > Normalize... to automatically adjust the audio to a target level, such as -20 dB RMS.

  • Have -3 dB peak values.

    You can measure the peak value by selecting File > Analyze... from the main menu, and reading the value in the "Peak Amplitude" line.

    Your peaks may exceed -3 dB if the recording level was too high, or if you had to amplify the recording in order to meet the -23 to -18 dB RMS requirement. If that is the case, you can't just reduce the level, as it will also reduce the RMS level. It is possible to reduce the peaks without affecting the RMS level too much by using a peak limiter. You can find one in Effects > Audio Units & VST > AUPeakLimiter in the main menu.

  • Be a 192 kbps or higher MP3, Constant Bit Rate (CBR).

    While you are working on your audiobook, recording and editing, I suggest you save your files losslessly, with an uncompressed file format, such as WAV or AIFF. It is only when you are done editing and are ready to deliver your work that you should save it as MP3. Be sure to keep a WAV version around, in case you need to perform more edits.

    In order to meet the requirements, when you save your file, select "MP3 Audio" from the file format selection menu, and click the format settings button next to it. Then, make sure that Variable Bitrate is not selected and that the Bitrate is set to at least 192 kbps. And for good measure, set the Encoding Quality to best.

Meeting both the RMS level and peak level requirements can be tricky. This video may help with that.

I have also made a basic batch process you can use in TwistedWave's batch processor. It uses the "Normalize" and "AUPeakLimiter" effects to meet the RMS and peak levels. You can get it there: acx.twbatch.

For much better results, it is preferable to use presets suited to your voice and recording equipment. George Whittam knows TwistedWave very well and can help you with that.

Can I load songs from YouTube in TwistedWave?

In order to load songs from YouTube in TwistedWave, you should first download them on your computer. YouTube doesn't have an option to do that, but you can use a tool such as youtube-dl or yt-dlp to do it for you. Youtube-dl needs to be used from the command line, but there are many tutorials online that could help you getting started with it.

Alternatively, there are many websites that offer the option to download videos from YouTube for you.

Can I record sound from other applications, and not from a microphone?

There is no built-in support in TwistedWave for recording sounds produced by other applications, but you can use some third party applications such as Soundflower or Loopback to send the audio from other applications to TwistedWave.

With Soundflower for instance, you can configure macOS to play through soundflower (by selecting it as the output device in macOS' sound preferences), and configure TwistedWave to record from soundflower (by selecting the soundflower input device). The sound will then flow directly from other applications to TwistedWave. If you want to hear the audio being recorded, you should open TwistedWave's preferences window, select the right output in the devices tab, and select the option to "Play through when recording".

TwistedWave won't let me save! Can I access the temporary files?

If you are using the trial version of TwistedWave, saving is disabled after 30 days. If you want to be able to save your work, you need to purchase a serial number from TwistedWave's online store, select TwistedWave > Registration... from the main menu and enter your registration information. You don't have to restart TwistedWave and will be able to save your file.

In some very rare cases, because of a misbehaving AudioUnit plugin or for other reasons, TwistedWave is frozen or won't let you save your recording. If you force quit TwistedWave and restart it, you should be asked if you want to recover the previous session, and it usually works.

You can force quit TwistedWave by pressing Command-Option-Escape, and selecting TwistedWave from the list that shows up.

If you want to be extra safe, here is what you can do:

  1. Before Force Quitting TwistedWave, open the Sessions folder in the Finder. If TwistedWave is not completely dead yet, you can select Help > Open Application Support... from the main menu, and locate the Sessions folder in the Application Support folder that shows up in the Finder. If that doesn't work, you can find the Sessions folder there:
    ~/Library/Application Support/TwistedWave/Sessions

    If you have purchased TwistedWave form the App Store, the sessions folder is in this directory instead:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.twistedwave.TwistedWaveAppStore/Data/Library/Application Support/TwistedWave/Sessions

    Or if you are using TwistedWave Lite, you will find it there there:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.twistedwave.TwistedWaveLite/Data/Library/Application Support/TwistedWave Lite/Sessions
    Note that the Library directory is hidden by default. In order to access it, in the Finder, while maintaining the option key pressed, select Go > Library from the main menu, and a Finder window showing the Library directory will appear.
  2. The Sessions folder should contain a session folder named something like Session.MMsbUQ. Make a copy of this session folder somewhere, in case the restore doesn't work.
  3. Press Command-Option-Escape, select TwistedWave from the list, and click "Force Quit",
  4. Re-open TwistedWave, and select the option to recover your session,
  5. Try saving your file.

If that doesn't work, could you send me the sessions folder you have saved before, and I will see if I can recover it. You can find my contact information on TwistedWave's support page.

What is the difference between TwistedWave and TwistedWave Lite?

TwistedWave Lite is available on the App Store only. It is the same as the full version of TwistedWave, except from a couple of features that are not available, such as:

  • ZTX technology for pitch shifting,
  • Batch processing,
  • Support for markers, metadata and VST Plugins,
  • Silence detection,
  • Effect stacks,
  • Support for additional file formats, such as amb, mpg, mp2, flac, ogg/vorbis, wma, WavPack, Wave64 and video files,
  • Tab to transient,
  • Exporting waveforms,
  • LUFS loudness measurement,
  • Noise reduction.

TwistedWave for iOS

Can I add a track, or add music to my voice recording?

TwistedWave is a multichannel editor. i.e. it can edit stereo or 5.1 audio files. But TwistedWave is not a multi-track editor, and you will only have a single track at a time.

That being said, it is still possible to mix music and voice together. In order to do that, you should open your music track in a new editor, select all and copy it.

Then, in your voice track, place the cursor where you want the music to start, and select Paste Over from the effects menu. This will mix the contents of the clipboard with the existing audio.

I have already purchased TwistedWave for macOS, can I install it on my iPhone / iPad?

The three versions of TwistedWave, iOS, macOS and Online are three independent applications and have to be purchased separately. You will have to purchase from the App Store.

How can I access my recordings/edited songs on a computer?

There are many ways you can access your audio files on a computer:

  • The fastest is to use the File Sharing. See the next question for details on how to use it.
  • You can also use the browser access if your iPhone/iPad and computer are on the same WiFi network. At the bottom of the document list, tap the "Sharing" button, and enable the browser access. You will then be able to connect to TwistedWave from a computer by entering the url shown.
  • If you have a Mac with WiFi enabled, you can also use AirDrop. Open a Finder window on your Mac and select "Go > AirDrop" from the menu. In TwistedWave's export options, select "Open In...", and you will see a list of nearby devices that can accept AirDrop files.
  • You can also use a cloud storage, such as iCloud Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive, and upload a file from TwistedWave directly to your iCloud Drive / Dropbox / Google Drive. It will automatically appear on your computer if you have configured it with the same account.
  • If none of these solutions work for you, you can still attach the file to an email addressed to yourself.

Note that the last two solutions will take more time, as the file will have to be sent to either your cloud storage or your email server through your internet connection.

How can I adjust the recording level?

When the recording level can be adjusted, a level slider appears in the toolbar when you start recording.

The input gain control appears, but only if the level of the microphone used for recording can be adjusted. With external microphones, it depends on the microphone. Some microphones have a physical knob to adjust the recording level, some don't and a slider shows up in TwistedWave, and some microphones have none of these options.

With the built-in microphone, it depends on the kind of iPhone / iPad you are using. With earlier iPhone devices, it was possible to adjust the recording level of the built-in microphone, but Apple does not offer that option in later models. There is nothing I can do about this, unfortunately.

You can amplify your audio after recording if you want, but if the audio was too loud and you have some clipping, there is nothing you can do other than trying to enable or disable iOS processing.

What is File Sharing?

File Sharing can be used to send files to, and receive files from TwistedWave on a computer using the Finder, or iTunes on Windows or older macOS versions.

In order to use it, when you are editing a file, tap the export button, and select "Send to File Sharing". This will save your audio file in a special folder that can be accessed from your computer.

You can read the instructions on Apple's website to learn how to share files between your iPhone / iPad and your computer:

Note that you can also use File Sharing to place files on your iPhone/iPad to be edited by TwistedWave. When you are in the File Sharing section of iTunes or the Finder, simply drag and drop files in the "TwistedWave Documents" list, and they will be available in TwistedWave. In order to open them in TwistedWave, tap the "Import" button at the bottom of the document list, and select "File Sharing".

I have edited a song from my iPod library, and would like to put it back. How do I do that?

Unfortunately, iOS does not allow third party applications to add or replace a song from the iPod library. In order to do that, you will have to first copy your edited song to a computer with iTunes, add it to the music library, and synchronise it with your iPhone/iPad.

Why are my recordings taking so much space in TwistedWave?

In the document list, TwistedWave shows the total amount of disk space used by each document. They can appear larger than expected for two reasons:

  • The audio is stored uncompressed. In order to be able to efficiently edit and apply effects on your audio without any distortion, TwistedWave has to store the audio uncompressed.
  • TwistedWave keeps all the undo history for the edited files. If you only cut or copy and paste audio, this will generally not be a problem, but if you apply a more complex effect on a large portion, the processed audio is stored in addition to the original audio.

What is the difference between TwistedWave Recorder and TwistedWave Audio Editor?

Unlike TwistedWave Audio Editor, TwistedWave Recorder is free, but with two in-app purchases to unlock the editing and extra export options. Once both have been purchased, the two applications are identical. If you have one, it is therefore not necessary to purchase the other.

Initially, only TwistedWave Audio Editor was available, but because people wanted to try TwistedWave before committing to purchasing it, I have published a free version with limited features to get a feel of the application.

TwistedWave Online

Can I add a track, or add music to my voice recording?

TwistedWave is a multichannel editor. i.e. it can edit stereo or 5.1 audio files. But TwistedWave is not a multi-track editor, and you will only have a single track at a time.

That being said, it is still possible to mix music and voice together. In order to do that, you should open your music track in a second editor window, select all and copy it.

Then, in your voice track, place the cursor where you want the music to start, and select Edit > Paste Over from the menu. This will mix the contents of the clipboard with the existing audio.