Spades Audio is a passion project. I'd been using other per-app volume utilities from the community for a while — they worked, but something about the experience always felt off. I kept thinking there was room to approach it differently.
Building it together
I worked on this with Sasi under our Happy Machines banner. I took the product design side, while Sasi aced the engineering — he's been building on Apple platforms since 2012, so the native macOS craft was there from day one. Having someone who actually knows the Apple native APIs and audio frameworks inside out meant we could skip the usual weeks of figuring out what's possible and jump straight into product planning.
We wanted the app to feel simple and efficient, but also aware of how people actually use their machines now. That meant building AI support in from the start — a chatbot you can ask to adjust your audio setup, not something tacked on later as a feature checkbox. The whole architecture was designed around that idea.
Where it's at
We've got a solid set of features already built and being tested with the community. The core experience — per-app volume, output routing, EQ, presets — is working and getting feedback from early users.
Spades Audio is currently in development. Visit theproduct site for updates and early access.
There's a roadmap of what's next too, and we'll shape it based on how people actually use the app. Adoption will drive what we prioritise, not assumptions.