Beat Kitchen Audio Tools

A right-click utility for macOS that measures loudness and converts audio and video files — directly from Finder.

What It Does

Right-click any audio or video file and select Beat Kitchen Audio Tools. For files with audio you get:

• Integrated Loudness (LUFS) — the overall perceived loudness
• True Peak (dBTP) — the absolute signal peak
• Loudness Range (LRA) — how much the loudness varies
• Loudest Moment — timestamp of the peak momentary loudness so you can find it

Results appear in a dialog with a Copy button for pasting into notes or a session log.

The Convert menu offers:

• Convert to MP3 (320kbps) — saves alongside the original (audio)
• Stereo to Mono — saves as filename_mono.ext alongside the original (audio)
• Normalize — EBU R128 loudness normalization to a target (presets for -14, -16, -23 LUFS or custom). Saves as filename_-14LUFS.ext (audio)
• Convert to MP4 — H.264 / AAC, web- and QuickTime-friendly with fast-start. Saves as filename.mp4 (video)
• Convert to GIF — animated GIF from a short clip, two-pass palette for clean color, with a width picker (320 / 480 / 640 px / original) and a loop / play-once choice. Saves as filename.gif (video)

The menu adapts to the file — video conversions appear for video files (including silent screen recordings), audio conversions for files with an audio track.

Works on WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC, MP4, MOV, and any format ffmpeg supports.

Install

Download

Grab the latest .dmg from the Releases page.

1. Open the .dmg
2. Double-click Beat Kitchen Audio Tools.pkg
3. Follow the installer prompts
4. Done — the tool is ready to use

ffmpeg is downloaded automatically on first use if you don't already have it installed.

A note about security warnings

macOS may warn that this installer is from an "unidentified developer." This is normal — it means the package isn't signed with a paid Apple Developer ID certificate ($99/year), not that anything is wrong with it.

The tool is open source. You can read every line of code in this repo before installing. The installer places a single Automator workflow in ~/Library/Services/ — it does not install background processes, daemons, or anything that runs when you're not using it.

To proceed past the warning: right-click the .pkg and choose Open, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/BeatKitchen/bks-audio-tools.git
cd bks-audio-tools
./build.sh
./install.sh

Requirements

• macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
• ffmpeg (auto-downloaded on first use, or install via brew install ffmpeg)

Usage

1. Right-click any audio or video file in Finder
2. Go to Services (or Quick Actions on macOS 13+)
3. Click Beat Kitchen Audio Tools

Customization

MP3 bitrate

The default MP3 conversion is 320kbps CBR (the highest quality). To change it:

1. Open ~/Library/Services/Beat Kitchen Audio Tools.workflow in Automator
2. Find -b:a 320k in the shell script
3. Replace 320k with your preferred bitrate (e.g. 192k, 256k) or use -q:a 2 for VBR (~190kbps)

Uninstall

rm -rf ~/Library/Services/Beat\ Kitchen\ Audio\ Tools.workflow

To also remove the auto-downloaded ffmpeg:

rm -rf ~/.bks-audio-tools

License

MIT

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Made by Beat Kitchen School