Curve

Run plug-ins on everything your Mac plays.

Curve is a free menu bar app that runs Audio Unit and VST3 plug-ins on all your Mac's audio, through low-latency loopback with no drivers to install. AutoEQ headphone correction is built in.

Download for Mac How it works

Completely free and open source. macOS 14.2 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

Curve's editor showing a chain from Interface Loopback, through Headphone Crossfeed and AUNBandEQ, to Audio Output.
System audio, through crossfeed and EQ, out to your headphones.

Headphone correction

Search the AutoEQ database for your headphones, pick a result, and Curve builds the Parametric EQ for you. You can also import a curve from AutoEQ, Squig.link or REW.

Add crossfeed for more natural stereo, or emulate mid-field studio speakers on headphones.

Headphone EQ and AutoEQ
Curve's AutoEQ dialog with Sennheiser HD 650 selected, showing its correction curve and filters.

Your plug-ins on everything

The plug-ins you already own can process music, films, calls and anything else your Mac plays.

Built for low latency. Curve taps your audio device's output directly, with no virtual device in the path, and you choose the buffer size.

Save each setup as a preset, then switch from the menu bar, a global shortcut or a MIDI controller.

Loopback and system audio Curve's menu listing the presets Monitors + Headphones correction, Piano, Rhodes, and Synth and Guitar, each with a number key.
A Curve preset sending system audio through several EQs and Headphone Crossfeed to separate outputs.
One preset, with separate correction for each set of outputs.

Instruments and amp sims

Keep a piano, synth or guitar rig ready without opening a DAW. Curve runs instrument plug-ins in the background and mixes them with your system audio.

Map plug-in parameters, bypass and preset changes to your controller with MIDI Learn.

MIDI control
Genome amp sim and ZENOLOGY synth plug-in windows open alongside Curve's VU meter.
Each preset can open your plug-in windows and put them back where you left them.

Key features

Utility plug-ins included

Curve comes with its own plug-ins, so you can start without owning any others.

Headphones
Parametric EQ, Crossfeed, Speaker Emulation
Level
Gain, Clipper, Invert Phase
Metering
Levels, VU, loudness in LUFS, spectrum
Routing
Pan, Stereo Utility, Mid/Side, Delay
Recording
Audio Recorder, to WAV
All of Curve's plug-ins
Curve's plug-in menu listing Parametric EQ, Headphone Crossfeed, Headphone Speaker Emulation, Gain, Clipper, Invert Phase, Meter, Pan, Stereo Utility, Mid/Side Encoder and Decoder, Delay and Audio Recorder.

See what you're hearing

Connect Curve's Meter to any point in a chain. It shows levels and true peak, needle VU, loudness in LUFS, and a spectrum.

Levels view with RMS, true peak and stereo correlation.
Levels
Loudness view with momentary, short-term and integrated LUFS and the last minute of history.
Loudness
Spectrum view with left and right channels overlaid.
Spectrum

Get started

  1. Install. Download Curve and copy it to your Applications folder. It's signed and notarized, and it lives in your menu bar as Curve's menu bar icon.
  2. Choose your output. Select your headphones, speakers or interface in Audio Settings.
  3. Build a chain. Add plug-ins to the editor and connect them from Interface Loopback to Audio Output.
  4. Save a preset. It appears in the menu, ready to switch to.

Download for Mac Read the full guide

Requires macOS Sonoma 14.2 or later. macOS asks for permission the first time Curve captures system audio.