Installing Shadow Rack

Shadow Rack is one Mac app. Everything it needs is inside it: the helper that checks plugin files and restarts the app after a crash, and the in-ear engine for Rack IEM. There's nothing else to install.

What you need#

Installing and updating#

1. Sign in to My account at shadowrack.eu and download Shadow Rack for macOS.
2. Drag Shadow Rack to your Applications folder.
3. Open it. The first time, Shadow Rack asks you to activate it – see activate.

The app doesn't update itself. When a new version is out, you download it from My account and replace the old app with the new one. Quit Shadow Rack before you replace it. Your sessions, settings, plugin list and licence stay where they are – they don't live inside the app.

The first start#

• No licence on this Mac yet: the activation window opens before anything else. Once the Mac is activated, Shadow Rack starts by itself.
• No plugins picked yet: with Rack FX, the app opens on Setup > Plugins, because your plugin list starts empty. Shadow Rack never loads every plugin on the Mac by itself – you pick the ones you want. See Setup > Plugins.
• The interface: if a WING is plugged in at the very first start, Shadow Rack picks it straight away, at 48 kHz / 64. Without one, it starts with the inputs off, so a laptop's built-in mic can't feed back through its speakers. You pick your interface in Setup > Audio and all its inputs and outputs switch on by themselves. A built-in microphone always stays off.
• A new rack is empty. You add the channels you need – see your first show.

After that, Shadow Rack always opens with the same rack and view, full screen or in a window – the way it was when you quit. Only one Shadow Rack runs at a time: double-clicking a session file in the Finder opens it in the running app. Quitting always asks first ("Quit Shadow Rack?"), because it stops all the sound going through the app.

Permissions#

macOS asks a few questions the first time. Allow all of them.

Microphone. macOS calls any audio input "Microphone", so this is the one that matters. The question reads Shadow Rack processes the audio coming from your mixer. If you don't allow it, everything coming in from the interface is silent, and Shadow Rack tells you so: Shadow Rack can't hear its inputs. To fix it:

With Rack IEM, the in-ear engine asks for the same permission on its own, under the name Shadow IEM Engine: Shadow IEM plays the audio interface's inputs into the musicians' in-ear mixes. Allow that too, or the musicians hear nothing from the interface. Phones connect to the in-ear engine over the network, so macOS may also ask about incoming connections – allow that too.

Folders. Plugins keep presets and libraries in all sorts of places, so macOS may ask about Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Music, external drives and network drives. Each question says why. Shadow Rack also saves sessions in Documents. Allow these, or a plugin may open without its presets or samples.

Where your files are#

The full list, and what's safe to copy to another Mac, is in files.

Moving to another Mac#

You install Shadow Rack on the new Mac, copy your sessions over and activate it there. One licence is 3 Macs; if all three are in use, deactivate the old one first – see activate.