DarkStage

Your studio displays, under control.

See nothing. See everything.

DarkStage is a professional and fully customizable macOS display, metering and visual monitoring system designed for recording, mixing, mastering and post-production environments.

Black out distracting screens. Beam transport status and session position to anywhere in the studio. Build dedicated displays for meters, scopes, waveforms and real-time analysis or float a single widget over unutilized part of the screen DarkStage turns unused or distracting screen space into part of the studio.

Buy DarkStage Studio — $tbc

Compare Editions

macOS

One-time purchase

Built for professional studio workflows

Overview

Darkness when you need it. Information when it matters.

If you'd like to listen more than you look, DarksStage is for you.
If you love meters, analytics or the vibe of a vintage oscilloscope, DarkStage is for you.
No more switching off screens manually, or waiting for a sleeping screen to wake or accidental hot corner triggers. DarkStage gives you direct control over what each connected display shows. A screen can become completely black, wake only when you need to make a mix adjustment, display a thin transport triggered border or operate as a dedicated visual monitoring surface.

Each display can be configured independently, allowing DarkStage to fit editing rooms, recording spaces, mix rooms, mastering studios and presentation environments.

Core Capabilities

Display Blackout

Turn selected displays into clean, controlled black surfaces without changing your physical monitor arrangement or disconnecting screens. All triggered from custom shortcuts.

Mouse Peek

Grab the mouse to temporarily reveal the screen beneath DarkStage, make your mix adjustment then return automatically to blackout. Targeted sensitivity only wakes the single display you need.

Professional Metering

Full custom control of the look, feel, style and response of your meters. Choose from Bars, LED, Nixie,

Wireless Displays

Use an iPad as a recording light for the live room, a warning on the studio door or bars:beats display for the string section to follow.

Are We Rolling?

Display transport state using borders, counters and visual indicators driven by compatible HUI/MTC/MMC information.

The artist always knows when we're rolling. No more false starts.

Audio Analysis

View real time spectrum, waveform, scope, polar and related analysis widgets without crowding the main DAW workspace.

Multi Channel Metering

Keep an eye on up to 64 input meters while tracking. Breathe new live into old gear by building a meter bridge for your old console or 4-track. LED, Plasma & VU meters. In any colour size and style you can imagine.

Host 3rd Party Plugin Meters

AU Plugin hosting for displaying your favourite meters and analysis plugins you already trust.

Display Presets & Looper

Build your ultimate display and move quickly between configurations for recording, editing, mixing. Assign up to 4 presets to a loop to scroll through them via a shortcut

Utilities

Quickly show a tuner to the musician or flash in sync with the metronome Display simple text messages or show a clock.

Tap Directly Into System Audio

Take a feed of the system audio for hassle free metering. No change in workflow. No routing. No worries.

Flexible Audio Routing

Utiliize Pro Tools' virtual busses or add your own to tap into any part of you r signal or mix chain. Measure LUFS pre final limiting or send your synth the oscilloscope or tuner.

Editions

Three editions, one system.

DarkStage Free

Core display control, at no cost.

A free tier to try DarkStage — blackout control and essential display tools. Upgrade any time for the full studio toolkit.

Free

No cost

Download DarkStage Free

Includes

• Blackout control for one display

• Standard Peek

• Programmable shortcuts

• One factory display preset

• System audio capture

• Lightweight studio operation

• Simple clock

Best for

Anyone who wants to try DarkStage, or needs core display control at no cost.

DarkStage Blackout

Focused display control.

For studios that need clean blackout, fast screen access and simple visual transport feedback without the complete analysis toolkit.

$TBC

One-time

Buy DarkStage Blackout

Includes

• Independent blackout control for connected displays

• Standard Peek

• Transparent Peek

• Cursor hiding

• Configurable display borders

• Display positioning and configuration

• Saved display setups

• Lightweight studio operation

• Simple clock

Best for

Recording rooms, voice-over booths, client displays, projection environments and anyone who primarily needs controlled darkness.

Recommended

DarkStage Studio

The complete studio visual system.

Includes the Blackout toolset and adds professional meters, scopes, analysis widgets, display presets and deeper visual customisation.

$TBC

One-time

Buy DarkStage Studio

Everything in Blackout, plus

• Transport-aware border behaviour

• Professional peak, PPM and VU-style metering

• Spectrum RTA

• Waveform display

• Oscilloscope and stereo scope tools

• Polar and stereo visualisation

• Loudness and level monitoring tools

• HUI transport widgets

• Transport counters

• Configurable text and utility widgets

• Widget positioning and sizing

• Widget colour and appearance controls

• Global widget presets

• Factory display presets

• Dedicated layouts for multiple studio tasks

• Single AU plugin meter hosting (beta)

Best for

Mix engineers, mastering engineers, producers, editors and studios building dedicated visual monitoring displays.

Comparison

Compare editions.

Display and Visibility

Feature

NOTHING IS Free

DarkStage Blackout

DarkStage Studio

Display Blackout

Programmable Shortcuts

Standard Mouse Peek

—

Transparent Mouse Peek

—

Wireless Displays Via Airplay

—

Cursor Hiding

—

Full Display Presets

1 x Factory

Preset Looper

—

Custom Border Styles

—

DAW Following Pro Tools & Logic Pro

Feature

Free

Blackout

Studio

Display Border

—

Transport Status

—

Big Counter

—

SMPTE / MTC

—

Metronome - Flash / Numeric / Solid Shape

—

Status Text

—

Utilities

Feature

Free

Blackout

Studio

Text Display

Limited

Studio Clock

—

Tuner

—

Metering and Analysis

Feature

Free

Blackout

Studio

VU-style metering

—

Peak and PPM metering - LED / Nixie / Bar

—

Spectrum RTA - Line / Filled / LED / Nixie / Bar

—

Waveform Oscilloscope

Limited

LUFS Meters

—

Spectrogram 2D

—

Spectrogram 3D

—

Spatial Spectrogram

—

Rolling Waveform

—

Scope X/Y

Limited

Correlation Meter

—

Polar Sample

—

Polar Level

—

Meter Bridge / Multichannel Input Engine

—

Third Party AU Plugins

Feature

Free

Blackout

Studio

AU plugin meter hosting

—

Single

Live AU insert workflow

—

Multi-plugin workflows

—

Audio Engines & Inputs

Feature

Free

Blackout

Studio

System Audio - Requires Mac OS 15 & Above

Any Available Core Audio Device

Any Available Virtual Audio Device

Multichannel Input

—

Workflow

How DarkStage fits into the studio.

Choose a display

Select any connected display and decide whether it should be blacked out, used for transport feedback or turned into a dedicated monitoring surface.

Build the view

Add only the meters, analysis tools and information needed for that display’s job.

Save the setup

Store layouts for recording, tracking, editing, mixing, mastering or client review.

Recall it when needed

Move between studio tasks without rebuilding the workspace or scroll through you favourite displays via the preset looper.

Stop treating every display like another desktop.

Make it vanish or make it work for you.

Buy DarkStage Studio — $tbc

Buy DarkStage Blackout — $tbc

DarkStage is currently in beta

All prices in USD. Taxes calculated at checkout. Payments are securely processed by MOR TBC, our authorised reseller and Merchant of Record.

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Professional macOS tools for studios and DAW workflows.

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