Tools for audio space cadets
Live Audio Mode
A menu bar utility that optimises Mac computers for live audio processing
This app is not publicly available yet. Please contact me for a download link if you’d like to try it out.
Features
- Runs no background processes except when mode switching
- Typically uses less than 30MB of memory
- Detects Time Machine, iCloud Drive, and Automatic Updates and suggests disabling them (these settings are not easily toggleable by a third party, but can sometimes cause issues)
- Disables Spotlight indexing
- Disables Wi-Fi with choice of network adapter (won’t interrupt AoIP networks)
- Disables screensaver, display and drive sleep, powernap, network wake and standby mode
- Quits sync services (such as Google Drive and Dropbox), VPN services and torrent clients
- Quits distracting apps: browsers, messaging, mail and video conferencing apps. Often these apps have push notifications that can interrupt audio or cause network and processing spikes
- For features that require administrator privileges (Spotlight indexing, Wi-Fi and screensaver and power options), the app asks for your password once on each mode switch
Note: See the manual for the full lists of apps that LAM will find, quit and restore.

What it won’t do… NB!
This app targets the big-ticket items for audio optimisation. However, this app IN NO WAY GUARANTEES to find every possible source of audio interruption. You are responsible for finding your own way to a streamlined audio experience on macOS, and I will take no responsibility whatsoever for interrupted audio or CPU overloads.
System Requirements
- macOS 11.5 Big Sur or later*
- 30MB free disk space
- Administrator access
*Not yet tested on macOS 26 Tahoe
Contact
About
Hey, I’m Matt. I’ve worked in live sound for 20 years or so. I’m a bit of a space cadet, and I also have a strong interest in spatial audio, hence the brand name.
I developed Live Audio Mode because I never could remember to turn off all the things one should turn off when using a laptop on live gigs. I often run things like Live Professor, Reaper, Smaart, or QLab, and I want to be absolutely sure that as few things as possible are going to interrupt any audio processing that might be going on. I hope its as useful to you as it is to me!

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