ARIA Studio with SoundSource and Local-Only Testing

Applications Used in This Guide

Download and install these before starting:

• ARIA Studio — AU plugin from Altitude Audio. Available at altitude.audio/aria-studio
• SoundSource — system audio routing for macOS by Rogue Amoeba. Available at rogueamoeba.com/soundsource
• FullScale Hearing Test (Desktop) — standalone macOS app from Altitude Audio. Available at altitude.audio/fullscale-hearing-test

Step 1 — Install the Applications

Install each application in any order:

1. Download and run the ARIA Studio installer. The AU plugin is placed in your system Audio Units folder automatically.
2. Download and install SoundSource. Grant the required macOS audio and accessibility permissions when prompted.
3. Download and install the FullScale Hearing Test desktop app.

Step 2 — Complete the Hearing Test (Anonymous)

Run the FullScale Hearing Test without creating an account:

1. Launch the FullScale Hearing Test app.
2. Select ANONYMOUS TESTING on the landing screen, then tap PROCEED OFFLINE.

1. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the hearing test. The test plays tones at different frequencies and volumes in each ear.
2. When the test completes, press TO ARIA to save the CSV results file to your local disk. You can also access this button later from the HOME screen by selecting the completed test.

Step 3 — Load ARIA Studio in SoundSource

Open SoundSource, load ARIA Studio, import your hearing test, and save:

1. Open SoundSource from the menu bar.
2. Under the Output section, select your headphones as the output device.
3. Click the Effects column for the output device and add ARIA Studio as an Audio Unit.

1. In ARIA Studio, load the 0_START factory preset from the preset browser.

2. Import your hearing test — select Import from CSV and browse to the results file you exported from FullScale. This replaces the default profile in 0_START with your personal hearing data.

3. Immediately save as a new user preset — for example INIT, My START, or similar. This preserves 0_START as a clean factory reference you can return to.

Step 4 — Personalize Your Sound

Fine-tune from your saved preset:

1. Increase the DRIVE parameter until you see 2–5 dB of gain reduction on the meters. This brings the corrected signal to a natural listening level.
2. Save again to capture any DRIVE adjustments.

Step 5 — Audition

Verify the setup end-to-end:

1. Play music from any application on your Mac.
2. In SoundSource, toggle ARIA Studio's bypass switch on and off to compare corrected vs. uncorrected audio.
3. Adjust the DRIVE or correction amount if the effect feels too strong or too subtle.
4. Once satisfied, your setup is complete. SoundSource and ARIA Studio will persist across app restarts.

Summary

You now have a fully local, privacy-first hearing correction setup on macOS. Audio from any application routes through SoundSource into ARIA Studio, where your FullScale hearing profile shapes the correction in real time. No account was created, no data was transmitted, and the hearing test results stay on your disk.