What is maceq-native?

MacEQ is a small application that lets you adjust the sound coming out of your Mac using a parametric equalizer, meaning you can boost or cut specific frequency ranges to shape how audio sounds. It works system wide, so it affects all the sound your Mac plays, not just one particular app. What sets this project apart is how it captures the audio. Many similar tools rely on installing a virtual audio driver or extra software like Python just to grab the sound your computer is playing. This one instead uses a built in feature of recent macOS versions called a Core Audio process tap, which lets it capture all system audio directly. It temporarily mutes your normal audio output, runs the captured sound through Apple's own equalizer engine, and then sends the adjusted sound back out to whatever speakers or headphones you normally use. It requires a fairly recent version of macOS, specifically version 14.2 known as Sonoma or later, along with Apple's command line developer tools installed. You run it from the terminal using Swift's build and run command. The first time you launch it, macOS will ask for permission to record system audio, which you need to approve. Despite the wording of that permission prompt, the app never uses your microphone. Once running, you get up to sixteen adjustable frequency bands, each of which can be set to different filter types such as a peak boost or cut, or a shelf or pass filter, with control over the exact frequency, how much boost or cut to apply, how narrow or wide the affected range is, and a way to turn each band on or off individually. There is also a live graph showing the current frequency response curve, an overall output volume control, and a bypass switch to temporarily disable all the processing. Your settings are automatically saved to a configuration file so they persist between uses. To go back to normal, unprocessed audio, you simply quit the app or stop it, and the temporary mute on your original output is released automatically.