Downloads · release notes

Releases

The latest free beta of Sampledex, earlier builds, their user guides and what changed in each release.

• Sampledex 0.19.0

  LatestFree · Beta

  Released September 27, 2026 · Build 51 · macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

  Download for macOSUser guide
  Release notes

  Advanced audio editing

  • Option/Alt at either audio edge shows a distinct stretch cursor, highlighted moving handle, duration and percentage. The opposite edge stays anchored and pitch is preserved.
  • Trim, fade, gain, slip, repeat, split and erase share target and availability feedback. Stationary modifier changes retain the pointer position; Command held before an edge drag bypasses snap. Option adds tenfold precision to gain and fades.
  • Exact native edit sheets add Stretch, Gain/Silence/Unity, Slip, Repeat and Split, with validated drafts and resolved values. Position/trim and Fades reuse their existing editors. Unchanged numeric fields preserve stored precision.
  • Direct handles edit the grabbed clip. Body move/copy keeps selection behavior. Locks, overlap rules and linked-stem timing protection apply consistently. Completed edits create one Undo step; cancelled, stale and failed edits retain the previous audio.
  • Native accessibility exposes exact audio handle actions and their current values.

  Workspace appearance

  • Mixer strips keep pan, mute/solo, faders and meters visible in compact windows. Instruments and Inserts scroll separately above them; Master stays pinned.
  • Sends can collapse to a heading. Short mixer windows start collapsed, and an explicit choice is remembered across sessions.
  • Audio controls reflow into Position & trim and Timing & fades, side by side in wider panels. Resizing preserves unfinished numeric input.
  • Refined transport alignment, toolbar spacing, browser rows and text hierarchy within the existing charcoal, red and ivory style. Wider arrangement headers give track names more room, and quieter minor grid lines keep musical content readable.
  • Dark, Light, Follow System, Increase Contrast and saved track colors retain their existing meaning. Appearance and layout changes preserve music and Undo history.

  Mixer plug-in dragging

  • Drag an effect to another channel's Inserts area to move it. Hold Option/Alt when dropping to create an independent copy with its preset and automation.
  • Empty insert areas on tracks, buses, returns and Master accept drops, alongside the existing precise before/after insert targets.
  • Pending plug-in settings are captured before the transfer, including settings saved by an open editor during a longer drag. Each completed transfer is one Undo step; Escape cancels.

  Project files

  • File → Rename project updates the saved filename, window identity and recent location while preserving musical edits and Undo.
  • Save As adopts the new filename and location. Save a Copy includes committed editor changes and rejects the active project as its destination.
  • Save and Open perform disk work behind a visible progress sheet. Saves detect external file changes and preserve both the external file and current unsaved work.
  • New-project names use consistent Unicode and filename rules. Recent projects show duplicate-name locations, unavailable files and Clear Recent Projects.
  • Portable packages support uppercase extensions, atomic case-only renames and independent copies after moving media. Internal package destinations, foreign folders and newer-format overwrites are protected.

  Tempo and meter

  • Playback controls disable immediately when a project cannot be prepared, including a timing edit beyond the session limit.
  • Fixed tempo keeps the entire song at one BPM while retaining its authored map for later use.
  • The timeline Tempo control opens an editable lane with Step, Linear and Smooth curves, exact point entry, a dense-event list, tap tempo, map scaling and constant-range edits.
  • The lane displays the full 4–1000 BPM range by default. Its visible-range selector offers 40–240, fit-to-map and custom views for closer drawing.
  • MIDI import keeps project tempo and meter by default. Review the source maps and explicitly apply one over the imported span when needed.
  • Time signatures, custom metronome grouping and one- or two-bar recording count-ins share the musical clock. Notes, clips, sections and chords keep their tick positions when meter changes.

  Audio timing

  • Audio Timing analyzes the original recording locally and presents BPM and beat proposals for review.
  • Edit downbeats and warp markers, fit a musical length or selected range, and quantize beats with strength, swing and triplets.
  • Link aligned stems for shared timing processing. Use confirmed beats to create a project tempo map while preserving the reference recording's absolute start time.
  • Processing starts from retained original PCM. Preparation, cancellation and Undo preserve the previous audible result until a complete edit is ready.

  Long sessions and projects

  • Sessions support up to 7,200 seconds and 120,000 quarter notes, plus an optional ten-second export tail.
  • Large sources, rendering and exports use disk-backed media and bounded buffers. Waveform peaks prepare in the background.
  • Oversized WAV exports use RF64 automatically. Oversized AIFF requests are rejected before rendering.
  • Schema 13 retains tempo modes and curves, meter maps, tick anchors, warp markers, timing groups and absolute audio anchors. Schemas 1–12 remain readable. Use portable `.sdxp` packages for large media.

  Documentation and distribution

  • Includes an updated 75-page PDF user guide covering tempo editing, audio timing, advanced clip gestures and exact editing controls.
  • The application, native installer and DMG are freshly Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple and stapled. Gatekeeper verification passed for all three.
  • The DMG contains the installer, user guide, installation instructions and licenses. A separate app ZIP is also available.
  • The native installer presents the license agreement and installs Sampledex.app at `/Applications/Sampledex.app`.
  • All 119 automated tests passed, with no failures or skipped tests.

  Scope

  • External MIDI clock and cross-app synchronization remain outside this release.
  • Clean-Mac installation, physical audio-device recording alignment and subjective listening were not repeated during distribution packaging.

  See the included Sampledex User Guide for complete workflows, shortcuts and editing limits.

• Past releases

  Sampledex 0.18.7

  Free · Beta

  Released September 25, 2026 · Build 43 · macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

  Download for macOSUser guide
  Release notes

  Cumulative changes since Sampledex 0.18.3, build 39, covering builds 40–43.

  This update addresses MIDI import, overlapping-note editing, clip placement and snapping, track organization, editing performance, and plug-in state handling. It also adds accessible track naming, track colors, and individual MIDI clip names.

  MIDI import and overlapping notes

  • Fixed imported overlapping MIDI notes causing overlap errors that prevented subsequent edits.
  • Fixed velocity and expression changes, note shortening, and movement of an existing overlapping selection being unnecessarily rejected. Existing overlaps can be preserved or reduced while protections against new collisions and edits to locked notes remain active.
  • Fixed short MIDI imports receiving padded clip lengths or unwanted leading space. Imports retain the file’s declared length, intentional trailing silence, and chosen drop position.
  • Fixed an extra bar being added when imported pitch-bend data occurred exactly at the end of a MIDI file.
  • Preserved unrelated tracks and their note-probability behavior when importing MIDI or moving clips between tracks.
  • Fixed playback handling for imported tempo values throughout the supported 4–1000 BPM range.

  Timeline, snapping, and clip repetition

  • Fixed clip dragging to align with the displayed snap grid from the first movement.
  • Made exact grid positions take priority over nearby magnetic snap targets.
  • Fixed MIDI and audio file drops to use the nearest grid line.
  • Set new workspaces to one-bar snapping, with finer snap settings still available.
  • Changed optional magnetic snapping to use visible clip edges and section boundaries instead of individual notes hidden inside clips. Clips being moved are excluded as snap targets.
  • Fixed Repeat to place the next clip directly after the selected clip’s visible end, including trimmed clips and clips with source offsets.
  • Fixed slight horizontal pointer movement shifting an audio clip’s timing when dragging it to another track lane.

  Track organization, names, and colors

  • Added direct track-header dragging to reorder individual tracks or selected groups. The insertion position is shown during the drag; cancellation and Undo/Redo preserve the track selection.
  • Added lane resizing by dragging the track-header edge and expanded the timeline Height slider to 320 points.
  • Added Track Name & Color… to timeline track right-click menus and the mixer’s ⋯ track menu.
  • Track names and colors are saved with the project and support Undo/Redo. Selected colors appear in the timeline, piano roll, and mixer.
  • Added Rename MIDI Clip… for individual timeline placements without renaming their linked source patterns or changing the music in other placements.
  • Clarified the existing Rename Audio Clip… action in the audio clip menu.
  • Clip names are project labels. Original imported files remain unchanged; export dialogs let users choose output filenames.

  Editing performance and playback

  • Reduced stalls during Option-drag duplication and clip repetition by avoiding repeated MIDI layout calculations and reusing unchanged snapped drag previews.
  • Reduced long delays when validating large numbers of linked clips or editing large MIDI patterns, while preserving hidden source notes, controller order, and loop-conflict protection.
  • Prevented rapid editing from accumulating obsolete project snapshots while playback updates are being prepared. Committed edits and Undo history remain independent of those playback updates.
  • Reduced repeated arrangement work in the audio callback and improved note-identity cleanup when explicitly reloading an audio graph.
  • Bounded Undo/Redo memory use for projects containing large plug-in presets while retaining the most recent reverse action.

  Plug-in compatibility and saved settings

  • Added support for compatible mono-input/stereo-output effects, instruments that require an enabled input bus, and effects that require a silent auxiliary input.
  • Fixed mono sidechain inputs to receive both sides of the stereo detection signal.
  • Kept plug-in editors open when their current settings cannot be captured.
  • Save, export, project close, template/preset save, recording, and audio reconnection now stop with an explanation if pending plug-in settings cannot be captured, instead of silently discarding those settings.

  AI removal and retained instruments

  • Removed AI Coproducer, automatic song and loop generation, AI panels, related buttons, and AI startup/settings switches.
  • Removed the bundled AI inference runtime and language model, substantially reducing the application download size.
  • Retained the sound-design instrument as Sampledex Sound Lab, with manual controls, factory sounds, and compatibility with its saved instrument states. Its AI sound-generation controls have been removed.
  • Retained the existing instruments, effects, supplied Sampledex plug-ins, recording, mixing, and export capabilities.
  • Updated the user guide and software notices to reflect the AI removal.

  Compatibility and installation

  • Existing projects remain readable. Projects saved with custom track colors or individual MIDI placement names use schema 12 and require Sampledex 0.18.7 or later. Projects without that new metadata continue to use schema 11.
  • Requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later.
  • The application remains Sampledex.app, installed at /Applications/Sampledex.app.
  • The app, installer, and DMG are signed, freshly notarized by Apple, and have their notarization tickets attached.

• Sampledex 0.18.3

  Free · Beta

  Released September 24, 2026 · Build 39 · macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

  Download for macOSUser guide
  Release notes

  • Timeline track deletion: Fixed being unable to delete a track after removing its last MIDI clip. Select the track header and press Delete or Backspace, or use the right-click menu.
  • Mixer track deletion: Added Delete/Backspace support, a right-click menu, and a visible track-actions button for removing tracks directly from the mixer.
  • Empty MIDI tracks: Added Add MIDI Clip to the empty timeline lane’s right-click menu, so you can create and edit MIDI without an existing clip.
  • MIDI import tempo: Fixed imported MIDI files ignoring embedded BPM and tempo changes, including events stored in a separate conductor track.
  • Tempo handling: Blank projects now adopt the imported MIDI tempo. Projects containing music retain their existing tempo, and conflicting tempos in multi-file imports are reported.
  • Undo and selection safety: Track deletion and MIDI-clip creation support one-step Undo/Redo. MIDI import restores notes and tempo together, and stale menu actions cannot delete a different track.

• Sampledex 0.18.2

  Free · Beta

  Released September 23, 2026 · Build 38 · macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

  Download for macOSUser guide
  Release notes

  A more consistent workspace, dedicated sampler editors, clearer mixing and export controls, and an updated guide make it easier to take a beat from its first notes to a finished mix.

  Workspace and editing

  • Dark, Light and Follow System appearances use Sampledex's red, charcoal and ivory palette across first-party panels and editors.
  • More responsive panels and a scrollable startup chooser improve access to controls.
  • The command palette adds search aliases and clearer explanations when an action is unavailable.
  • Improved timeline, piano-roll and Steps layout, selection, exact-value editing and accessibility targets.
  • Text-field Undo stays with the field being edited; musical edits retain their own Undo history.

  Sampler and plug-in editors

  • Sampledex Sampler and Drum Rack now open dedicated instrument windows from the mixer, Channel Rack and Sound & FX.
  • Edit sample bounds, looping, root note and tuning, envelopes, level, pan and drum-pad settings.
  • Remove a sample or selected pad sample without deleting the instrument, notes, effects or original audio file. Removal supports Undo.
  • Both samplers appear in the built-in instrument picker with search, favorites and recent-item support.
  • Updated all 14 stock instrument/effect editors with clearer labels, exact-value fields, grouped controls and scrollable layouts.
  • Improved shared plug-in host windows distinguish live editing from preset changes that require Apply, and better accommodate oversized editors.
  • The three supplied Sampledex plug-ins retain their own interfaces and sound processing.

  Sounds and mixing

  • Browser actions clearly distinguish Load Sound, Load Sound + FX, Add Track and Import Pattern.
  • Master stays visible while mixer channels scroll.
  • Selected-channel sends support immediately audible manual adjustments and one-step Undo; Read automation retains control when enabled.
  • Safer plug-in move/copy, cancellation and destination checks protect existing settings and musical content.

  Saving and export

  • Clearer mix, loop, clip/note selection and stem delivery controls, with WAV and AIFF output and aligned export ranges.
  • Improved save/export and asynchronous-operation handling protects editable source material and prevents outdated work from overwriting newer edits.
  • Some combined selections with incompatible sidechain requirements are rejected before rendering rather than producing an incorrect export.
  • Project schema 11, existing instrument states and established audio processing are preserved.

  Guide and installation

  The updated 83-page user guide includes limitations near the beginning, quick tips, complete production workflows and recording instructions for microphones, guitars and keyboards through an audio interface.

  Open the DMG and run Install Sampledex.pkg to install or update /Applications/Sampledex.app. The app, installer and DMG are freshly Developer ID signed, Apple notarized and stapled. Built-in instruments, effects and the supplied Sampledex plug-in collection remain included.

  Verification

  The release passed 117 automated tests, eight packaged offline checks and seven signed-runtime checks. It was also verified with physical audio/MIDI hardware, third-party plug-ins and a fresh clean-Mac installation. As always, save a separate copy of important projects before updating.

• Sampledex 0.18.1

  Free · Beta

  Build 37 · macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

  Download for macOSUser guide
  Release notes

  This update improves mixer plug-in management, strengthens plug-in list readability and expands the user guide.

  Mixer plug-in controls

  • Right-click a loaded plug-in to open its editor, bypass or enable it, or remove it directly from the mixer.
  • Reorder effects with Move Up and Move Down, or drag inserts within a channel.
  • Move effects between tracks, buses, returns and Master. Drop above or below an insert, or onto Add Effect to append it.
  • Preserve effect settings during moves without moving instruments or changing MIDI and clips.
  • Undo a completed effect move in one step. Cancelled, invalid or unchanged moves leave the project untouched.

  Plug-in browser readability

  • Improved plug-in browser and manager row layout and text handling.
  • Strengthened text visibility across selection, scrolling, searching, resizing, and light or dark appearances.

  Updated documentation

  The in-app guide and PDF explain mixer context menus and drag targets, with quick tips and chapters covering loops, mixing, 808 tuning and recording through an audio interface.

  Compatibility notes

  The application remains Sampledex.app and updates the existing Sampledex installation. Effect chains support up to eight inserts. Moves involving locked or frozen targets, or cross-channel moves with incoming sidechain routing, are prevented to protect the project.