TONO · MODELL T-1 · FOR MAC
The mixing desk for your whole Mac: a system-wide equalizer, 3D and 8D sound, a fader for every app, recording and a studio voice – plus darker screens, snapped windows and the little tools around them.
Loud, but not clipping.
The knob
TONO lifts quiet speakers by up to +18 dB, and a look-ahead limiter, on by default, catches the peaks before they crack. That’s why our mark stands at 70%: turned up, not overdriven.
One knob · nine modules
The app
No kernel extension, no virtual cables, no ten little apps. TONO sits between every app and your speakers and shapes what you hear – live, in memory, a few milliseconds behind the music.
Sound · Equalizer · 3D & 8D · live in your browser
Ten faders shape everything your Mac plays – Spotify, Safari, games, calls. Here they shape a loop composed in your browser. Press play, pull a fader, send it around your head.
Headphones on. 3D and 8D need them. Then hold Hear original to compare – that’s your Mac without TONO.
Fig. 2The music – eight bars of deep house – is synthesized live in your browser from oscillators and noise: no samples, nothing uploaded, nothing stored. The equalizer, 3D and 8D run on the Web Audio API as a sketch of TONO’s chain; the app does the same with its own engine, to every app on your Mac.
Sound · Hearing Profile Pro
Nobody hears quite like anyone else. With your headphones on, TONO plays short tones from 500 Hz to 12 kHz to each ear and finds how quietly you still hear them – in about five minutes. Your hearing profile then gently lifts what you hear less, on top of every preset.
500 Hz – 12 kHzEach earAbout 5 minGentle · Normal · Strong
Not a medical test: TONO measures against your own best hearing and uses the result only to shape the sound.
Sound · 3D & Space
3D Surround puts virtual speakers in front of you. 8D Orbit sends the music around your head – on a circle, a pendulum, a figure 8.
Sound · Head tracking
With AirPods Pro or Max, TONO follows your head. Turn it, and the music stays where it is – like real speakers in a real room.
3D Surround8D Orbit4D Impact6 rooms + dryHead tracking
Best with headphones.
Live · scrolling moves the sound
Sound · App Mixer
Discord quieter than the game. Chrome muted. Spotify all the way up – on the speakers, while the call stays in your headphones.
Volume & mute per appAn output per appRemembered
Fig. 4Four strips of the App Mixer. Play the demo, and the loop’s four tracks become four apps.
Sound · Recording
Record what your Mac plays – everything, one app, or a call with you on the left and everyone else on the right. Straight to your Music folder.
M4A · WAV · FLACMarkers on a keySplit every 30/60 minCrash-safe
Fig. 5Press REC: the next ten seconds of the demo become a file on your Mac.
Sound · Mic Studio
TONO cleans up your microphone live and passes it on as a new mic, TONO Mikro. Pick it in Discord, Zoom, OBS or the browser – the keyboard, the fan and the street fall away.
AI noise filter, on device6 voicesControl Option Command M mutes any mic
Fig. 6Turn up STUDIO and the noise floor falls away.
Sound · Visualizer
No microphone. TONO hears the kick, the snare and the drop in what it plays and draws the show on the beat – Bluetooth delay included.
6 looks7 themesFull screenMini windowWallpaper
Display · Brightness
Every screen on one slider – external monitors with real hardware brightness where they support DDC/CI, and down to 85% darker than the lowest step macOS allows. Then add warmth, even without Night Shift.
Display · Windows
Halves, thirds, corners, the next display. Rectangle-style shortcuts, or hold Shift while you drag and drop into your layout’s zones. Your old shortcuts come along.
Control Option and the arrow keysLayouts per displayPortrait too
System · Tools
The helpers that usually come as separate menu-bar apps – built in, on the same faceplate, asleep until you need them.
15 to 90 minutes or the end of the song. The music fades, the player pauses, the Mac sleeps.
One word instead of twenty graphs: relaxed, low RAM, hot, disk full – and who’s to blame.
Headphones in, a call starts, the sun sets: TONO switches sound, 3D and brightness – and puts them back.
Estimates today’s dose for your ears (WHO/ITU) and caps the volume if you want.
Keeps AirPods in hi-fi instead of call quality when an app grabs their microphone.
15 minutes, an hour, three hours or until you say so – with the screen on if you like.
Mute the current microphone in every app at once – even mics without a mute switch.
One combination for everything important, one practically no other app uses. Stream Deck and Shortcuts too.
For DJs, streamers & creators
Stream Mode gets your Mac ready: your voice sounds like a studio, the desktop is clean, nothing pops up – and End puts everything back. Even after a crash. Next to it, record the set lossless and put the light show on the second screen.
Ready · press the lamp
0:00:00
Fig. 7Press the lamp. Stream Mode switches five things for you – and puts them back.
tono://stream/toggle, global hotkeys and Shortcuts.Under the hood
Since macOS 14.2, Core Audio can hand an app the sound of other apps: a process tap. TONO uses it – Apple’s own way in. No kernel extension, no BlackHole, no virtual output to pick. Install it, allow it once, done.
Fig. 9The signal path. The volume keys keep working; they sit after TONO.
The sound is processed as it plays, with a few milliseconds of latency, and goes straight to your current output. Nothing is recorded unless you press a button.
Apps are muted only while TONO taps them. If TONO quits – or crashes – macOS unmutes them at once. You never get stuck in silence.
No driver for the sound itself. The one exception is Mic Studio: its virtual mic needs a small audio driver, installed only if you set it up.
Signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple – macOS checks it before it opens.
Privacy
macOS calls the permission TONO needs “Screen & System Audio Recording”. That’s just the name: TONO processes the sound live and records only when you say so.
Your sound stays on your Mac.Processed in memory, straight to your headphones or speakers.
Recordings only on your command.Saved as files on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.
The microphone opens only when needed.For a call recording or Mic Studio – and macOS shows its orange dot.
Your settings stay on this Mac.Hearing profile, rules and history. Head movement is used live and never stored.
No account, no analytics, no ads.In the app and on this website, which sets no cookies and loads nothing from anyone else.
Specifications
Pricing
Free keeps the equalizer with its 60+ presets, brightness and the everyday tools – for good. Pro adds the rest: 3D and 8D (the 3D and 8D presets included), your hearing profile, the App Mixer, recording, Mic Studio, the visualizer, windows and Stream Mode.
The equalizer with 60+ presets, brightness for all your displays and the everyday tools.
TONO starts with all of Pro for one day on each Mac. Afterwards TONO carries on as Free – nothing to cancel.
Download freeEverything in Free, plus:
One license is for one Mac. To move it, sign that Mac out in TONO.
All prices include VAT. Checkout, payment and invoice by Lemon Squeezy, our reseller (merchant of record).
| Module | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Equalizer · Simple10 faders, quick knobs, the live display | Included | Included |
| 60+ presetsSave, share and import your own | Included | Included |
| BrightnessEvery display, below the minimum, warmth | Included | Included |
| Equalizer · ProUp to 24 bands, curve editor, mid/side | Not included | Included |
| 3D & Space3D & 8D sound, rooms, head tracking | Not included | Included |
| Hearing ProfileA hearing test tunes the sound to your ears | Not included | Included |
| App MixerVolume, mute and output per app | Not included | Included |
| RecordingSystem audio, one app or a call | Not included | Included |
| Mic StudioStudio voice as the virtual mic TONO Mikro | Not included | Included |
| VisualizerSix looks, full screen, mini window, wallpaper | Not included | Included |
| Auto Rules“When … then …”, with undo | Not included | Included |
| WindowsSnap by shortcut or drag, layouts per display | Not included | Included |
| Stream ModeReady to go live in one click | Not included | Included |
| MonitorWhat slows your Mac down, in one word | Not included | Included |
| Sleep TimerThe music fades out while you fall asleep | Not included | Included |
| ToolsHearing Guard, AirPods Quality, Stay Awake, Language | Included | Included |
A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 15 Sequoia or newer. TONO speaks English and German.
Since macOS 14.2, apps can tap the audio of other processes through Core Audio. TONO taps what plays on your output, runs it through its signal chain and sends it to your device – in memory, with a few milliseconds of latency. The taps mute the original only while TONO runs; if it quits or crashes, macOS restores the sound instantly.
No kernel extension and no virtual output device are involved. Only Mic Studio installs a small audio driver, and only if you set it up. How TONO works explains the whole signal path.
One is needed: Screen & System Audio Recording, when you first switch the sound on. That’s the name macOS uses – TONO processes the sound live and records only when you press record.
Four more are optional and asked only when you use the feature:
No. Recording starts only when you press the record key or its hotkey, and the files stay on your Mac. The microphone opens only for a call recording or while an app reads TONO Mikro – macOS shows its orange dot whenever it’s on.
For the full effect, yes: 3D and 8D render the sound for two ears, and speakers mix the two sides in the room before they reach you. Any headphones work; with AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, head tracking keeps the sound in place when you turn your head. The equalizer, the App Mixer and everything else work just as well on speakers.
Anything on your output: AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones, the MacBook speakers, USB DACs and interfaces, HDMI and DisplayPort. Apps that you send to another device inside the app itself stay untouched – with the App Mixer, you can route apps from TONO instead and keep your sound. An app that records from the device TONO plays to – a call on your AirPods’ or headset’s own mic, say – plays untouched, so nothing can loop back.
TONO installs an audio driver for Mic Studio’s virtual microphone and uses system interfaces that App Store apps can’t – for example for display brightness. So TONO comes straight from us.
The download is signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple – macOS checks it for malware before it opens.
After one day TONO carries on as TONO Free: the equalizer in Simple mode with its 60+ presets, brightness and the Tools keep working (the 3D and 8D presets then play their EQ, without the spatial part). Buy Pro any time to unlock the rest again.
One license is for one Mac. To move it, sign that Mac out in TONO. After buying you get a license key by email; enter it in TONO. Subscriptions renew automatically and can be canceled any time – Pro keeps working until the end of the period you paid for. The lifetime license is paid once and includes all updates. Pro checks the license about once a week and keeps working offline for 30 days after the last check (60 days with a lifetime license).
Receipts, license keys and cancellation: your orders at Lemon Squeezy.
Lemon Squeezy, our reseller and merchant of record. They run the checkout, take the payment, charge the right VAT and send the invoice. We never see your card details.
No. The music is composed and played by your browser, the equalizer and 3D run there too, and a recording from the demo is saved straight to your Mac. This website sets no cookies and loads nothing from third parties.
Drag TONO to the Trash. If you set up Mic Studio, remove TONO Mikro first under Mic Studio → More → Technical. Your recordings stay in your Music folder on purpose – they’re yours.