Under The Microscope


Archive for December, 2025

A Great-Looking Decade

We’re celebrating ten years with our ace designer, Neale!

Back in 2020, we were delighted to celebrate Neale’s fifth anniversary as Rogue Amoeba’s designer. It’s now 2025, and he’s still here doing stellar work. That means it’s now time to celebrate a full decade of Neale Van Fleet!

When you’re using one of our apps, perusing our website, or check in with us on social media, you’re undoubtedly looking at something Neale created. That’s even true of this laudatory blog post, which recycles his artwork from past posts.

Major App Updates and More

Since we last feted Neale, we’ve shipped three massive new app updates, and he led the design of all of them.

When compared against the revolutionary version 3, Audio Hijack 4 was more of an evolutionary update. With over 100 new features, however, it was still a massive design job. Neale rose to the challenge. I always enjoy his design evolution posts, but The Design of Audio Hijack 4 is a particular favorite.

After that came Farrago 2. Neale’s idea to allow the use of emoji on tile faces was a stroke of genius, making it possible for tiles to appear distinct while still maintaining an overall uniform look. He talked about that, and much more, in “The Design of Farrago 2”. That post delightfully details how he managed to make a soundboard app so visually appealing.

We’ve also had dozens of point updates to our apps, and improvements like the sleek new Permissions window certainly didn’t design themselves. A few years back, Neale even went from designer to sound designer when we made the confetti in our License window accessible.

Digital confetti banner

If you’re curious what that means, click the banner to read all about it.

Whimsical Things

We try to have a good amount of fun here, and Neale’s no stranger to that either. You might recall our Historic Screenshot Archive, which displays hundreds of images from 23+ years of Rogue Amoeba software. In addition to helping set that up, Neale also created some fun images to display on social media.

Last year, Neale added a special exhibit dedicated to Ammo the Amoeba. That page features dozens of assorted images of our mascot, and it’s a delight.

A humorous imagining of Loopback on a floppy disk

Even more delightful was Neale’s series on “The Least Likely Ways to Install Rogue Amoeba’s Apps”, like the goofy floppy disk seen above. If you missed that, you’re really in for a retro treat.

So Much More

Neale’s work encompasses far too much to list it all. Day in and day out, his work is outstanding, and we’re lucky to have him. Our users are too!

A Beautiful Award for Beautiful Work

Long-time readers might remember just how Rogue Amoeba celebrates a 10th anniversary: With a bespoke silver token. Neale’s was once again handcrafted by Quentin in his home forge, and it’s as beautiful as ever.

Neale is a particularly worthy recipient of this award, because he designed the logo it represents. We hope it brings him a feeling of pride., because we’re tremendously proud of his great work.

Closing

It’s an honor to be able to celebrate so many employee milestones here. The team that makes the products you use every day is second to none, and it’s a privilege to be able to work with them for such long tenures. Neale is no exception to that.

So thank you for ten great years, Neale, and here’s to many more to come.

SoundSource 6 Is Here!

Our essential Mac audio utility just got its biggest update ever.

We hope you already know our essential audio control utility, SoundSource. It provides fast menu bar access to your Mac’s audio settings, along with powerful per-app control, and the ability to apply effects to any audio. We’ve just released a major upgrade, SoundSource 6, which brings dozens of new features and refinements.

Major New Features in SoundSource 6

Let’s take a quick look at four major new features in version 6.

Grouped Output Devices

You can now play audio through multiple outputs at once, with grouped output devices. Add your desired devices to a group, then select it in any output menu within SoundSource to play audio to all of them. Use groups with per-app audio, as well as your Mac’s entire output.

AirPlay Support

SoundSource has outstanding new support for sending audio to AirPlay devices like HomePods, Sonos systems, and more. That means you can route an individual application to one or more AirPlay devices, while leaving the rest of your audio playing from a local output. You can also stream all of your Mac’s audio to multiple AirPlay devices, in sync.

A Powerful New Audio Devices Window

The new Audio Devices window gives you tremendous control over the audio devices connected to your Mac.

There’s a whole lot of functionality packed in this window, including:

  • Key Settings: Adjust volume, balance, sample rate, channels, and more for your devices, right from SoundSource.

  • Preferred Device Order: SoundSource can automatically select your preferred system devices whenever a device is plugged in or unplugged..

  • Settings Lock: Lock settings on your devices to prevent undesired changes.

  • Improve Sound Quality with AirPods: When AirPods and other Bluetooth devices are used for input on your Mac, output audio quality is unfortunately diminished. Get much better sound quality by adjusting their mode to “Output Only”.

  • Hide Devices: Prevent devices from showing in SoundSource, and from being set as the system’s default device.

  • Maximum Volume: Protect your ears by limiting how loud a device can get.

  • Device Nicknames: Add nicknames and even custom icons to easily identify your devices within SoundSource.

The Audio Devices window is packed with even more, so be sure to check it out.

Quick Configs

With Quick Configs, you can save complete audio configurations for your Mac. Make configs for specific devices or different locations. Load specific effects, change volume levels, and more.

Once a Quick Config is saved, select it to instantly switch your Mac’s entire audio setup with a single click. Quick Configs are wicked powerful and wicked fast.

So Much More to See

SoundSource 6 contains more than 30 major new features, but there’s only so much space to detail everything we’ve added. Here’s a bullet-point list of just a dozen more improvements in this huge upgrade:

  • Recent Noise Indicator

  • New Balance & Pan Effect

  • Per-App “Headphone EQ”

  • Automation Support with New Shortcuts Actions

  • Create a System-Wide “Cough” Button

  • Improved Alternate (Control-Click) Menu

  • Enhanced Effects Management

  • Audio Unit Improvements

  • Multi-Channel Support

  • Per-App Menu Bar Icons

  • Switch Devices via the Keyboard

  • Per-App Volume Control From the Keyboard

Find more info on our “What’s New in SoundSource 6” page, or see the comprehensive release notes to get every last detail.

Interface Enhancements, Too

On top of all the new functionality, we’ve improved SoundSource’s interface to make it both easier to use and more customizable to suit your tastes. Tint things with eight different accent colors, then customize SoundSource’s menu bar icon. After that, resize the app’s main window to your needs, and even control individual apps and devices showing activity in the menu bar.

Try SoundSource 6 Today

SoundSource 6 is available for download right now. Just click this big honking button to get it:

↓ Get SoundSource 6
SoundSource 6 supports MacOS 15 and higher1

If you’re new to SoundSource, a license costs just $49. Existing SoundSource users can upgrade to version 6 for just $25.2 We can’t wait for you to try it.


Footnotes:

  1. Running MacOS 14 or lower? Get the still-supported SoundSource version 5 from our Legacy page.

    When you purchase a SoundSource license through our store, the license you receive is valid for both SoundSource 5 and SoundSource 6. ↩︎

  2. If you purchased SoundSource 5 on September 1, 2025 or later, we’ve emailed you a complimentary upgrade to version 6. Check your inbox for an email with the subject line “Your free SoundSource 6 upgrade is inside!”. ↩︎

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