Support

Having trouble with BlackBox? Here are some common solutions and ways to get help.

Frequently Asked Questions

BlackBox isn’t recording any audio

Make sure you’ve granted microphone access. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and ensure BlackBox is enabled. Then check the input device in the BlackBox menu, and open the Level Meter window to confirm audio is reaching BlackBox.

Where are my recordings saved?

By default, recordings are saved to ~/Library/Containers/com.dollhousemediatech.blackbox/Data/Documents/BlackBox Recordings/. You can change this in Settings > Output, or click “Show in Finder” in the menu bar.

A recording is missing

With Enable silence detection on (Settings > Recording), BlackBox deletes a finished recording that contains only silence. If quiet material such as room tone or distant speech is disappearing, move the threshold slider toward Sensitive or turn silence detection off.

BlackBox or my Mac crashed during a recording

Your audio is still on disk. BlackBox writes each file as ….recording.wav and refreshes its header every 10 seconds, so the file opens in most audio apps and loses at most the last few seconds. Rename it to end in .wav. With continuous recording on, earlier files in the session were already finished and are unaffected.

What happens when my Mac sleeps?

By default, BlackBox stops the recording when your Mac sleeps and starts a new one when it wakes. You can choose Stop recording instead in Settings > General, and turn on Prevent idle sleep while recording to keep an idle Mac awake.

Why did my recording stop with “quality degraded”?

BlackBox holds five seconds of audio in memory while it writes to disk. If the disk or system stalls longer than that, audio is lost, and BlackBox warns you. If too much is lost it stops the recording rather than keep saving a damaged one. Close other heavy applications, record fewer channels, or record to a faster drive.

Is there a limit on file size?

Yes. A WAV file can’t describe more than 4 GB of audio, which is about 4 hours of stereo at 24-bit/48 kHz, and less with more channels in one file. For long sessions, turn on Enable continuous recording in Settings > Output so BlackBox starts a new file on a schedule (hourly by default), or use split mode for one file per channel.

What audio format does BlackBox use?

BlackBox records uncompressed WAV files at your device’s native sample rate. You can choose 16-bit, 24-bit (default), or 32-bit depth in Settings.

Contact

If you need further help, please email us at info@dollhousemediatech.com or open an issue on GitHub.