brEARk.
A break coach for your ears. For producers who forget to stop.
You sit down to fix one snare. You look up and it’s 2 a.m., the mix is harsh, the master is crushed and your ears are ringing. brEARk sits on your master channel, listens to everything you hear and tells you when to take a break: before your judgement goes, and before your hearing pays for it.
> Listening. Quietly judging nothing.
> Listening. Quietly judging nothing.
One evening with brEARk
From 22:00 to 23:31.
The window runs on the formulas from brEARk’s source code. Only the music is made up.
FRESH.
Play.
At the first music of the day brEARk asks where you listen and how loud it is on your ears. From then on it measures the music.
OK.
The whole window is your battery.
The big word says where your ears stand, the black area how much is left. It sinks faster when it’s loud, bright, squashed or late, or when the same four bars keep going round.
TIRING.
Twenty per cent.
20 % left, and the display turns red. A good moment for the one important call, while you can still judge it.
BREAK.
Empty.
brEARk suggests a break as long as your ears need to get back to 90 %: here 13 minutes.
STOP.
The window turns red.
Keep listening and brEARk gets clearer: BREAK. again after ten minutes, STOP. after twenty. In HARD mode the music would already have wound down at empty, like a turntable losing power.
RESTING.
You press BREAK.
The window counts down, the battery refills, and every minute the bottom line offers a thought away from the mix. After 14 minutes you’re back, with fresh ears.
01 · Why
Ears tire without telling you.
After an hour or two your ears adapt. The mix seems quieter, so you turn it up; the top end seems dull, so you add more; the limiter seems fine, so you push it harder. The next morning you hear what you did.
And hearing damage is permanent. The WHO puts the safe limit at about 80 dB(A) for 40 hours a week, and every 3 dB louder halves the time. A loud session can use up a week’s share in an afternoon, and nothing in a DAW keeps count.
brEARk keeps count and says it out loud, so the big calls (balance, tone, the master) happen on fresh ears.
02 · How it works
Two meters, your rating, three modes.
- Ear battery
- How tired your ears are right now. It drains while you listen (faster when it’s loud, bright, squashed, repetitive or late) and refills in silence. A minute of silence starts recovery; five minutes count as a break.
- Hearing dose
- How much of today’s safe sound you’ve used, after the WHO. It doesn’t refill during the day. At 100 % brEARk says DONE.
Your ears set the level; brEARk measures the music. Once a day you rate it: QUIET (you could talk normally), NORMAL (you’d raise your voice) or LOUD (you’d have to shout), on MONITORS or HEADPHONES. From then on brEARk measures how far the music moves from that moment, and asks again when it drifts by 6 LU.
| At the level you rated | a day’s hearing dose lasts |
|---|---|
| QUIET | practically all day |
| NORMAL | 8 hours |
| LOUD | 2.5 hours |
Every 3 LU louder than when you rated it halves the time.
| Mode | When the battery is empty |
|---|---|
| GENTLE | One sound and a pop-up. |
| ESCALATING | BREAK. again after 10 more minutes of listening, STOP. after 20, then every 15. |
| HARD | The plug comes out: a vinyl spin-down, then at least 5 minutes of silence. Never during a take; SNOOZE buys you 10 minutes. |
03 · Built for hyperfocus
A clock that doesn’t get pulled into the flow.
If you lose track of time when the music is working, and many producers with ADHD know that feeling well, a timer you set yourself is easy to wave away. brEARk starts listening the moment Live plays, with nothing to set and nothing to remember.
Its pop-ups float over full-screen Live and on every Space, and never take your keyboard. Messages close after a few seconds, questions wait for your answer, and SOUND ON or OFF decides whether they chime. Each hint comes at most twice a day.
brEARk isn’t a treatment for anything. It’s the friend who taps you on the shoulder.
04 · Studio-safe and private
It listens. It changes nothing, and tells no one.
- It never touches your audio.
- The output is bit-identical to the input, proven by an automated null test, with zero latency. The only exception is the power-down in HARD mode, and only when you chose it.
- Exports are sacred.
- Bounces and renders are never measured, never alerted, never muted.
- Practically no CPU.
- On the audio thread brEARk only copies samples: about 0.02 % of one core, 2 to 3 MB of memory, flat over hours.
- Nothing leaves your Mac.
- No account, no analytics, no update check, no ads. brEARk makes no network requests at all; your listening history stays in a small file in
~/Library/Application Support/brEARk. - Free, completely.
- No price, no trial, no subscription.
Open source.
brEARk is free software under the GNU AGPLv3. Every claim on this page is in the source code: that the audio passes through untouched, that there is no network code to send anything with, and the formulas the window above runs on.
Source code on GitHubbrEARk stays free. If you would like to support the work on it, you can do so through GitHub Sponsors.
05 · Install
Three steps, then press play.
- Download
brEARk-1.0.0-macOS.pkgfrom the latest release. - Open it and follow the steps. It installs the VST3 and the Audio Unit for all users, so macOS asks for your password.
- Put brEARk on Live’s master track, one per set, and press play. After a few seconds it asks where you listen and how loud it is.
If brEARk doesn’t show up in Live: Live › Preferences (Settings in Live 12) › Plug-Ins, turn on Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders or Use Audio Units, then Rescan.
macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. Made and tested in Ableton Live 11; other VST3 and Audio Unit hosts on macOS should work too, but aren’t tested yet.
Version 1.0.0 · VST3 and Audio Unit · macOS 11 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel
06 · Questions
Short answers.
Will brEARk change my sound?
No. Its output is bit-identical to its input, with zero latency; an automated null test checks it bit for bit. The only exception is the power-down in HARD mode, and only when your battery is empty.
Does it send anything anywhere?
No. No account, no analytics, no update check. Everything stays on your Mac. New versions are announced on the releases page.
Does it work in Logic, Bitwig or Reaper?
It passes Apple’s and Tracktion’s plugin validators as VST3 and Audio Unit, but so far it’s only tested in Ableton Live 11. Reports are welcome, as an issue on GitHub.
Windows or Linux?
Not yet. brEARk’s pop-ups and alert sound use macOS.
Is brEARk a medical device?
No. The hearing dose follows the WHO’s safe-listening guidance, with your NORMAL rating taken as 80 dB(A); the ear battery is brEARk’s own model of listening fatigue, tuned by ear. If your ears ring or feel muffled, stop for the day, and see a hearing professional if it doesn’t pass.
How do I uninstall it?
Delete brEARk.vst3 from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 and brEARk.component from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. Your history and settings are in ~/Library/Application Support/brEARk.