What has changed

Every build since the beta opened, with what it fixed. Separ8 updates itself, so you will normally have read these in the app already.

1.0 build 307

27 September 2026

CURRENT

Fixes

Screen recordings at 60 fps no longer freeze. With the last two updates, a 60 fps recording on a busy Mac, for example with Logic Pro playing, could stop showing new pictures a few seconds in while the sound carried on. If you recorded at 60 fps since then, check those recordings. Separ8 was repeating pictures to keep every frame on an exact beat, and on a busy Mac the repeats crowded out the new pictures. At 60 fps it now records only new pictures, still on the exact beat, so your editor keeps them in sync. At 30 fps it repeats a picture only when your Mac has time to spare.
Cameras got the same fix. When your Mac can't keep up with a camera, the camera's recording now keeps its newest pictures instead of repeating an old one.

1.0 build 301

27 September 2026

Timeline files

Each recording can come with a timeline that opens in your editor with everything lined up. Choose Final Cut, Resolve or Premiere under Timeline for in the Output section, and Separ8 saves one more file with each recording. Import it in your editor and the screen, every camera and every sound file arrive stacked on a 4K timeline at your recording's frame rate, all starting together. It starts on whichever editor you have installed. How to open it in each one: separ8.brandonwells.com/guide.
In Resolve and Premiere, you hear each sound once. The screen and camera files carry small copies of your microphone and computer audio for checking sync. Those copies arrive below the full-quality WAV files, switched off and labeled "sync reference". In Final Cut they stay part of each picture clip, as when you drag the files in yourself.

1.0 build 296

26 September 2026

Sync

Recordings stay in sync in DaVinci Resolve, however long the take. Resolve works out each file's frame rate from how its frames are spaced, and it could take the screen or a camera for 29.97 fps and play it slightly fast: about a frame early every 30 seconds, and almost a second by the end of a 13-minute take. It happened most with two or more cameras, when the screen records at 30 fps, and with cameras that send slightly fewer frames than they're set to. Separ8 now records the screen and every camera at an exact frame rate, so every editor reads the same one. Final Cut Pro and QuickTime already played everything in sync.
To keep that exact rate, the picture before is repeated wherever a frame is missing: when nothing on screen moves, since macOS sends no new frames for a still screen, or when a camera skips one. It looks the same as before, when the picture simply stayed up a little longer, and adds almost nothing to the file's size. A camera that runs at 29.97 fps is recorded at 30 the same way. The sound isn't touched.
A screen frame that arrives while your Mac is busy now waits its turn instead of being dropped, as camera frames already did.

1.0 build 293

25 September 2026

Feedback

After a recording, Separ8 sometimes asks how it went. Click Fine or Something was off. "Fine" lets you add a line if there's anything you'd like to say. "Something was off" opens the bug form with your Separ8 version, macOS version and Mac model already filled in, and copies your diagnostics so you can paste them in. It only asks after a few recordings of 20 seconds or more, never while you're recording, and never more than twice.
Your answer is only sent when you click, along with your Separ8 version, macOS version and Mac model, and nothing about what you recorded. The new privacy page lists everything Separ8 sends: separ8.brandonwells.com/privacy.
Report a bug fills in your versions and Mac model for you, so the form only needs to hear what happened.

The beta

The beta now has an end date, no later than 1 December 2026. Two weeks before it, a note in Separ8's window counts down the days. After it, Separ8 still opens and your recordings and settings stay as they are, but it won't start new recordings.

Updates

New versions are announced in Separ8's window instead of a pop-up. When the daily check finds one, a note appears at the top of the window and in the menu bar dropdown, and nothing opens over what you're recording. Click See what's new when it suits you. Check for Updates in the Separ8 menu still opens the update window straight away.

Other

Separ8 → Acknowledgements lists the software Separ8 includes that isn't its own, with the license for each.

1.0 build 280

21 September 2026

More than one camera

Record from two or three cameras at once, each to its own file. With another camera connected, Add another webcam appears under the Webcam row. Each camera gets its own row, its own preview window and its own file. USB webcams, cameras in their webcam mode, an iPhone as a Continuity Camera and HDMI capture cards all work, in any mix, and every file starts on the same frame as the rest of the take.
The screen switches to 30 fps when you arm a second camera. At 60 fps, the screen and several cameras together were more than a Mac could record smoothly, and the screen recording skipped frames. A note at the top of the window says when it happens, and your frame rate comes back when you're down to one camera. To keep 60 fps anyway, pick it on the Control bar.
If your Mac can't keep up, Separ8 says so during the take, not only afterwards, and suggests what to change, most useful first: switch a 4K camera to 1080p, capture a smaller part of the screen, use fewer cameras, or set a 60 fps screen to 30 fps. The message after a take no longer suggests lowering a screen that's already at 30 fps.
The guide has a new section on cameras, with what to expect from 4K, capture cards and log footage, and when to record in the camera instead: separ8.brandonwells.com/guide.

Cameras

Capture cards record in 4K. Separ8 now asks every camera for its largest widescreen picture, up to 4K. A camera's HDMI output through a capture card like the Elgato Cam Link 4K used to be recorded at 1080p, and now records at the full 3840×2160.
A 4K / 1080p switch appears under any camera that can send more than 1080p. 1080p is a quarter of the work for your Mac, and it's the first thing to change if a take is losing frames. Separ8 remembers it for each camera.
Every camera is held at 30 fps. Some cameras default to 60 in webcam mode, which doubled their file size for footage that lands on 30 or 60 fps timelines anyway. A camera that runs slower, like an iPhone choosing 24, keeps its own rate.
A camera you plug back in comes back by itself. Its preview used to stay black until you unticked and ticked its row.

Computer audio

Fixed: switching off low latency monitoring could stop computer audio. If Separ8 was opened with low latency monitoring on and you then switched it off, computer audio stopped being captured: its meter froze, and a take recorded nothing on that track until you quit and reopened Separ8. Now the sound carries on. As a safety net, if computer audio ever stops arriving, Separ8 restarts it while you're not recording, and tells you if it happens during a take.
Monitoring comes back after a recording fails to start. It used to stay off until you unticked and ticked Computer audio.

Other

When a recording can't be set up, the message says what failed. It used to say "Could not configure the video writer" whatever the cause, which could be a microphone that wasn't running, a camera or the screen.

1.0 build 250

12 September 2026

Computer audio

A low latency option, for playing an instrument while you record. The last build cut the delay in hearing your computer's sound from 93 milliseconds to 23. This goes further for the people who need it to. Arm computer audio, then tick Low latency monitoring beside the monitoring destination. Measured on an Apple Silicon Mac through a USB interface, the delay roughly halves again, to about 10 milliseconds. If you play guitar through amp sims in a DAW while you record, that is about the difference between noticing the delay and forgetting it is there.
It is off by default, and it does cost something. Separ8's processor use roughly doubles while it is monitoring, from about 7% of one core to 14%, and the cushion that absorbs a busy moment drops from 12 milliseconds to 4. On a heavy session the sound can break up. Separ8 widens the cushion on its own when that happens, so the worst case is a click and a return to where you started rather than a spoiled take. If it breaks up, turn it off. Leaving it off changes nothing at all.

1.0 build 244

11 September 2026

Computer audio

Hearing your computer's sound through Separ8 is now four times closer to real time. The delay was 93 milliseconds and is now 23. If you monitor a DAW through Separ8, playing guitar through amp sims or reviewing plugins, it was unusable and should now be playable. Nothing about the recorded files changes. This is only what reaches your ears while you work.
It finds its own setting. Separ8 starts at the low delay and only backs off if your Mac genuinely cannot keep up, which it detects from the sound actually breaking up rather than from guessing at your hardware. There is nothing to configure.
Fixed a drift correction that could not fire. Separ8 nudges a single frame when your interface's clock and its own disagree. The tolerance for that was too wide to ever trigger at the new buffer size, which over a long take would have drained the buffer instead of costing one repeated frame.

Diagnostics

Copy diagnostics now reports where your computer audio is actually being sent, and how the buffer behaved during your last take. It used to name whichever device macOS had as its default, which during a recording is Separ8's own. The line always said Separ8 Audio and looked like a routing loop that was never there.

1.0 build 234

5 September 2026

Webcam

Resizing the preview with the S, M and L buttons no longer interrupts the camera. Those buttons were rebuilding the preview from scratch, and some cameras treat that as being unplugged and briefly stop sending video. Because the buttons work during a recording, that could lose frames in the middle of a good take. Dragging the preview's corner was never affected.
Bringing the preview back with Show preview no longer interrupts it either, for the same reason.

1.0 build 230

5 September 2026

Webcam

Closing the webcam preview no longer stops the webcam recording. If you hid the preview and recorded, the webcam file came out the right length with no picture in it at all, and Separ8 said Saved. Hiding the preview was tearing down the camera's video connection, and some cameras stop sending video when that happens. The preview is now made invisible rather than removed, so the camera keeps sending. If you have hidden the preview during a recording, that take's webcam file is worth checking.
Separ8 now tells you if the webcam recorded nothing. Every audio track was already checked for this. The webcam was not, which is why the problem above went unreported.

Capture bar

The ratio menu appears as soon as you choose Selected area. It used to stay hidden until you had drawn an area, which is backwards: the ratio is what you want to set before dragging, especially for a vertical crop.

1.0 build 221

5 September 2026

Recordings on big screens

If your display is larger than 4K, recordings stay smooth now. On a 5K iMac or Studio Display, or a Mac set to a scaled resolution, Separ8 was capturing at the full size and your Mac could not encode it in time. About half the frames were being thrown away, which is a stuttering video. It now records at a capped resolution of 4096×2304 on those screens and keeps every frame. The Screen row shows the size you will actually get. QuickTime does the same thing for the same reason.
The dropped-frame message no longer blames your drive. It used to suggest recording somewhere else, which was almost never the cause. It now says what actually helps: a lower frame rate or a smaller capture area.

Two monitors

You can choose which display to record. With a second screen attached, a picker appears next to Capture options. Before this there was no way to reach the second screen at all.
Separ8 notices when displays change. Plugging a monitor in, unplugging one or changing resolution used to leave it holding a stale list until you quit and reopened it.

The capture frame

The frame stays on screen after you click Done. It used to disappear along with the control bar, so you pressed record with nothing showing where the shot was. It now stays as a plain outline, undimmed and click-through, so your desktop works normally around it.
Everything outside the frame dims while recording, as it does while you are choosing the area.
Window mode with no window chosen is no longer a dead end. Capture options would not open, which left no way to change mode. That happened after any relaunch, because a window cannot be remembered between app launches.

Smaller things

Show clicks now stops when you switch to window mode, instead of leaving an invisible overlay on your screen.
Some internal bookkeeping was removed from the audio path, where it was doing work nothing read.

1.0 build 203

2 September 2026

Recordings that quietly went wrong

A track that stops early is now reported. If your microphone or an input becomes disconnected partway through a take, or a sample rate changes underneath it, that track ends short while everything else keeps going. Separ8 used to report this as “Saved”. It now tells you which track is short, by how much, and that the take is worth doing again.
Dropped video frames are counted. If a disk can’t keep up, the frames it loses are named after the take instead of disappearing silently.

Audio that stops on its own

Separ8 now notices when audio stops flowing and restarts it. If an interface is reclaimed by another app, a sample rate changed, or a cable knocked loose, the mic meter and computer-audio monitoring could go dead and stay dead until the app was quit and reopened. It now recovers by itself, usually within a few seconds.
If it happens mid-recording it warns you instead, and leaves the take alone.

Show clicks

Fixed: it did nothing on your first recording. Turning it on from the capture bar before a take had no effect until you had recorded once.
Ripples now appear as soon as you turn them on, before recording, so you can check the color against your own screen. If macOS hasn’t granted permission, you find out then rather than after hitting record.

Capture bar

It now appears when you open Separ8, so choosing what you’re recording on your screen is the first thing in front of you.
While recording, it only shows what still works. Capture mode, ratio, frame rate and Show clicks are fixed once a recording starts, so they’re hidden rather than left there looking live. The ripple color stays, because it genuinely does change mid-take.
Dismissing it now sticks. It used to come back the moment you pressed record.

Smaller things

There’s now a Show in Finder button next to the output folder. This helps you find the folder that you wrote the files to instantly instead of opening Finder and manually looking for it.
Warnings stay until you close them, and carry a Copy diagnostics button. Previously a click anywhere made them vanish. This would refresh the warning and not let you copy the warning and diagnostic for bug submission. Now they stay until you dismiss them or start a new recording.
Audio is recorded at 24-bit, and gain is applied at full precision before it reaches the file.

Older builds are not listed: the beta began at build 203, which is the first one with notes worth keeping. Separ8 checks for updates on its own, and you can check whenever you like from the Separ8 menu. Back to Separ8 · Privacy