AudioAuditor

Audit Your Audio with Confidence

🛡️ Official downloads only: audioauditor.org or GitHub. Any other source is unofficial and may contain malware.

Overview

AudioAuditor is a feature-rich audio analysis app for Windows that analyzes your audio files to detect fake lossless, verify true quality, identify clipping, detect MQA encoding, detect AI-generated audio, estimate effective frequency cutoffs, and much more — all wrapped in a sleek, themeable interface with a built-in audio player, equalizer, spatial audio, spectrogram viewer, and real-time visualizer.

Whether you're an audiophile verifying your FLAC collection, a music producer checking masters, or just curious about the true quality of your library, AudioAuditor gives you the data you need at a glance.

Screenshots

Features

Core Analysis

Fake Lossless Detection — Identifies files that claim to be high-quality but are actually upsampled from lower bitrate sources by analyzing spectral content and effective frequency cutoff
Spectral Frequency Analysis — FFT-based spectral analysis (4096-point, Hanning-windowed) determines the true effective frequency ceiling of your audio
Clipping Detection — Digital clipping scan with percentage and sample-count reporting; thorough mode detects clipping even when audio has been scaled down by up to 0.5 dB, reported as "SCALED (dB, %)"
MQA Detection — Identifies MQA and MQA Studio encoded files, reports original sample rate and encoder info
AI-Generated Audio Detection — Scans metadata tags, raw byte patterns, and content provenance markers (C2PA) to identify AI-generated music from 20+ services including Suno, Udio, AIVA, Boomy, and Stable Audio. Features confidence scoring, false-positive filtering against known DAWs/encoders, AI watermark detection (AudioSeal, SynthID, WavMark), experimental spectral analysis (7 checks), and SH Labs API integration. The AI column reflects results from all enabled detection sources — standard, experimental, and SH Labs
Optimizer Detection — Detects files that have been processed through audio "optimizers"
BPM Detection — Algorithmic beat detection with tag-based BPM fallback
Replay Gain — Extracts and displays Replay Gain metadata from tags
Comprehensive Metadata — Artist, title, sample rate, bit depth, channels, duration, file size, and bitrate (reported vs. actual)
Fake Stereo Detection — Detects mono-duplicated or artificially widened stereo files incorrectly labeled as stereo
True Peak Measurement — Inter-sample true peak level (dBTP) using 4× oversampling, displayed in a dedicated column
LUFS Measurement — Integrated loudness (LUFS / LKFS) per ITU-R BS.1770 with K-weighting
Rip/Encode Quality Detection — Detects bad rips by analyzing zero-sector gaps, clicks/pops, stuck samples, and bit truncation. Opt-in via Settings → Analysis
Silence Detection — Detects excessive silence gaps with configurable threshold (default 500 ms) and edge skip zone to avoid false positives on intros/outros
Frequency Cutoff Allow — Files whose cutoff meets or exceeds a configurable Hz threshold (default 19,600 Hz) are not flagged as low-quality upconverts
Always Full Analysis — Force a complete sample pass even when individual detectors are disabled
AcoustID Fingerprinting — Identify unknown tracks via audio fingerprint against the AcoustID/MusicBrainz database; auto-downloads fpcalc
Improved Bitrate Analysis — Avoids simplistic "320 kbps" labeling for files with steep lowpass filters using a band-energy-drop method; lossless formats (FLAC/WAV/AIFF/APE/WV) report their actual file data rate instead of a lossy-equivalent estimate
Custom FLAC Decoder — Managed FLAC decoder handles files that NAudio cannot decode natively, ensuring full analysis and playback coverage
Full Metadata Editor - Full menu for editing, adding, or removing metadata in an audiofile including search buttons to auto search for the metadata for you
Update Checker — Optionally silently checks for updates in the background each time the program starts

Supported Formats

Lossless	Lossy	Other
FLAC	MP3	DSF (DSD)
WAV	AAC	DFF (DSD)
AIFF / AIF	OGG
APE	OPUS
WV (WavPack)	WMA
ALAC	M4A

Cross-platform note (CLI): On Windows every format above is supported. On the Linux/macOS CLI builds, decoding uses fully-managed decoders — FLAC, WAV, AIFF, OGG/Vorbis, Opus, and MP3/MP2 analyze everywhere. Formats that rely on Windows Media Foundation (AAC/M4A, WMA, ALAC, TTA, Musepack) still have their metadata read but skip spectral analysis on Linux/macOS. The Windows desktop app and Windows CLI support them all. (This will be worked on in a future version)

Built-in Audio Player

Full playback controls — Shuffle, Previous, Rewind 5s, Play/Pause, Forward 5s, Next
Shuffle mode — Toggle shuffle to play tracks in random order; works with auto-play next, manual next/prev, and queue
Animated waveform progress bar with smooth edges
Volume control with mute toggle (click speaker icon)
Click-to-seek slider with drag support
Auto-play next track and queue system
Crossfade with configurable duration (1–15 seconds) and 4 curve types — Equal Power, Linear, Natural, and Sequential (no overlap). Optional Crossfade on Manual Skip toggle
Gapless Playback — Seamless track transitions with zero silence gap between consecutive tracks
Audio normalization toggle (peak-based, targets −1 dB)
Hi-res audio support — Native playback of high sample-rate audio (96 kHz, 192 kHz, etc.) with automatic fallback resampling if the device can't handle the native rate
Spatial Audio — Headphone-optimized soundstage widening using crossfeed, HRTF-like interaural time delay, head shadow simulation, and early reflections
10-band Parametric Equalizer — 32 Hz to 16 kHz with ±12 dB per band, soft clipping protection, collapsible panel, per-band reset, built-in presets, and custom profile save/delete
Seek Safety Protection — Multi-layered audio safety system prevents loud pops or static when seeking
Loop Modes — Cycle between Loop Off, Loop All, and Loop One with a single button
Seek Tooltip — Hovering over the seek slider shows a live time preview that follows your cursor
Favorites — Star any file to mark it as a favorite; favorites always sort to the top and persist across sessions
Main Window Color Match — Optionally tint the entire UI dynamically from the currently playing track's album art
Offline Mode — Disable all network calls with a single toggle
Lyrics Save & Auto-Save — One-click export of fetched timed lyrics as .lrc files, or enable auto-save
Mini Player — A compact, draggable, always-on-top floating window (toolbar button) with cover art, title/artist, transport, seek, volume/mute, and shuffle. It has its own optional inline Circles visualizer that runs independently of the main window, and it remembers its style, ColorMatch toggle, and size/position across restarts

Now Playing Panel

Immersive full-panel view — Click the album cover or press the expand button on the playbar to open a two-column Now Playing panel: album art with color-matched glows on the left, synced lyrics on the right
Configurable background effects — Choose Off, Color Drift, Stars, Rain, Snow, Leaves, or Underwater. Stars include independent per-star twinkle/parallax and occasional shooting stars; Rain has wind-blown streaks with optional lightning; Snow uses soft drifting flakes; Leaves tumble and sway on the wind; Underwater is a calm deep-sea scene with rising bubbles, drifting light shafts, swaying seaweed, and occasional fish. Effect density, lightning frequency, flake/leaf size, and a global animation speed are all adjustable with theme-matched sliders
Album Color-Match Theming — Dominant colors extracted from the album art are applied to the panel background, glows, visualizer accent colors, and even the Windows title bar (via DWM) for a fully cohesive look
Color Cache — Cached extracted album-art colors keep skipping and scrolling through Now Playing with Color Match enabled smooth and snappy. On by default, in-memory only — cleared when the app closes. An optional Persist color cache to disk sub-option (off by default) saves a very small amount of color data (a few bytes of RGB per track, with hashed keys — no file paths) to %APPDATA%\AudioAuditor\ so the smoothness survives app restarts
ColorMatch eyedropper — Pick up to three colors directly from the album cover to override the extracted palette for the current track; right-click the eyedropper to reset
Synced Lyrics — Automatic time-synced lyrics from multiple sources: embedded tags, local .lrc files, LrcLib, Netease Music, and Musixmatch. Lyrics auto-scroll and highlight the current line; click any line to seek directly to that timestamp. Cycle through providers with the source button. Drag-and-drop .lrc files onto the panel to load them instantly
Explicit vs Clean detection — Reads a version hint from tags (title markers like (Explicit)/[Clean]/(Radio Edit), ID3v2 iTunesAdvisory, MP4 rtng) and ranks lyric search candidates so explicit tracks don't get clean lyrics (and vice-versa). A "Wrong version?" button in the lyrics header toggles Explicit↔Clean and re-fetches
Censored-lyrics auto-fallback (opt-in) — When a provider returns lyrics with profanity masked by *****/#####, AudioAuditor automatically tries the next provider for a clean copy
Look Up This Song — The Now Playing magnifier has its own configurable search-service list (up to 6, with custom URLs/icons), separate from the main window's toolbar buttons; one button seeds it from your main-window setup
Focused Lyrics mode — Keep the active synced lyric line clear while inactive lines are softly blurred for easier reading during playback
Lyrics Off Mode — Hide lyrics completely to show only album art + visualizer
Lyrics Translation (beta) — Real-time translation into any supported language; auto-detects the source language or lets you set it manually
Karaoke Mode (beta) — Word-by-word highlighting that illuminates each word as it's sung with smooth color transitions
Next Track / Artist Preview — Displays the upcoming track or current artist below the album cover; click to toggle between the two
Dedicated Seek Bar — Full drag-and-seek slider inside the Now Playing panel with no position jumping while dragging
Visualizer Placement — Choose between a full-width visualizer bar above the playbar or a compact strip under the album cover
Visualizer Drag-Resize — Grab the handle between the album art and lyrics to resize the visualizer strip from 40–400 px
Layout Customization — Adjust album cover size and position, title and artist text size and position, lyrics panel size and position, and visualizer size and position via a live-preview popup organized into collapsible sections. All layout preferences persist across sessions
Layout Profiles — Save named layouts; profiles are visualizer-aware, capturing separate windowed/fullscreen × visualizer-on/off arrangements (sizes, offsets, visualizer height & placement) so one saved look adapts to every mode
Album Cover Glow slider — Size the halo around the cover from off (0) through the default soft glow up to a large bloom (2.0); the breathing pulse respects the scale and the setting persists
Auto-Scaling Layout — The cover, visualizer, and surrounding layout scale proportionally when the visualizer is toggled on or off, so a single slider setting looks right in both modes without needing separate profiles
NP Control Bar — Shuffle, Loop, Auto-Play, Visualizer, Visualizer Placement, Lyrics Off, Translate, Karaoke, Color Match, Queue, and Settings buttons — all directly accessible from the panel
Queue Button & Popup — Opens the full Queue window with drag-and-drop reordering, plus an Up Next preview showing the next track

Spectrogram Viewer

Full-resolution spectrogram generation with logarithmic frequency scaling (20 Hz – Nyquist)
Linear frequency scale — Toggle between logarithmic and linear frequency axis
L-R difference channel — View Left minus Right channel spectrogram to reveal stereo differences; persists across sessions
Jump to end — Zoom into the last 10 seconds of a recording to inspect fade-outs and tail content
Mouse wheel zoom — Scroll to zoom in up to 20x on the spectrogram for detailed inspection; horizontal scrollbar for panning; click the zoom indicator to reset
Hanning-windowed FFT with 4096-point resolution; optional Hi-Fi mode uses Blackman-Harris windowing with 16384-point FFT for enhanced detail
Deep −130 dB analysis floor for visibility into low-level content
Two color gradients: classic (black → blue → purple → red → orange → yellow → white) and Scientific Magma perceptual colormap
Frequency axis labels (50 Hz → 20 kHz)
In-memory LRU cache — Up to 30 spectrograms cached for instant re-opening
Export individual spectrograms as labeled PNG files
Batch export all spectrograms to a folder
Double-click spectrogram to save
View Spectrogram — Right-click any file to open a dedicated fullscreen spectrogram window with Log/Linear, Mono/L-R, Full/End toggles, and a Save button
Compare Spectrograms — Select two files and open a side-by-side full-resolution spectrogram view with:
- Stacked — Top/bottom layout with Fit/Full zoom toggle
- Overlay — Vertical slide-to-merge with a red-channel diff heatmap showing pixel-level differences in the overlap region; includes horizontal Offset slider for alignment and Merge slider for blend control
- Wipe — Draggable vertical splitter revealing one file on the left and the other on the right

Real-time Audio Visualizer

64-band FFT frequency visualizer running at 60 FPS
6 visualizer modes — Bars, Mirror, Particles, Circles, Scope, VU Meter
Smooth attack/decay animation with per-mode rendering
Log-frequency bar distribution matching human hearing
Independent visualizer theme — Choose a separate color theme for the visualizer, follow the playbar, or set the playbar to Follow Theme and match the app color theme automatically
Auto-cycle mode — Automatically rotate between selected visualizer modes on a configurable timer (5–60 seconds)
Full volume rendering — Optional mode that renders the visualizer at full intensity regardless of the current volume level
Theme-aware accent colors across all modes
Toggle between spectrogram and visualizer views

Tools & Batch Operations

Waveform Comparison — Select two files (Ctrl+Click) and compare waveforms side-by-side with correlation, RMS difference, and peak difference stats
Batch Rename & Organize — Rename files using patterns ({artist}, {title}, {track}, etc.) with collision detection and optional folder organization
Auto Rename from metadata — Right-click selected files and rename them to Artist - Title or Title - Artist using tag metadata, with collision checks and safe filename cleanup
Duplicate Detection — Scan your library for duplicates by metadata match (artist + title) and file fingerprint (size + duration)
Playlist Import — Import .m3u, .m3u8, and .pls playlist files; resolves relative and absolute paths
Cue Sheet Support — Import .cue files; parses track boundaries and adds virtual entries with full analysis
Metadata Strip Tool — Remove all metadata tags from selected audio files (ID3, Vorbis, APE, M4A)
Batch Metadata Editor — Select multiple files and fetch missing tags from online providers (MusicBrainz and others). Pick which fields (title, artist, album, album-artist, year, track/disc, genre, composer, lyrics, cover art…) and providers to use, preview every proposed change in a grid, then apply. "Missing-only" by default so existing tags aren't clobbered
Quick Rename — Right-click → Add [Bitrate] or [Real Bitrate] to filenames instantly

Music Service Integration

6 fully configurable slots — Each toolbar button can be set to any service: Spotify, YouTube Music, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Last.fm, or a fully custom search URL with custom icon
Click any service button with a track selected to instantly search for it online

AI Detection (BETA)

AudioAuditor's AI detection tries its best to use verifiable evidence - However that being said, these results can be inacurate, regardless please do not use these finding to defame or harrass anyone :)

The AI column shows a three-state verdict — Yes / Possible / No — derived from the averaged confidence across whichever detectors are enabled (watermark, spectral/experimental, SH Labs). Thresholds: ≥70% → Yes, 35–70% → Possible, <35% → No. The confidence percentage is shown beneath the verdict, and rows are highlighted accordingly (Possible = amber, Yes = orange/red).

Row highlighting: Possible = amber, Yes = orange/red, No = neutral.

Method	What It Checks
Metadata Tags	ID3v2, Vorbis, APE, M4A tags for AI service markers (TXXX frames, comments, encoder fields, free-form atoms)
Raw Byte Patterns	First 128KB, middle 32KB, and last 128KB of the file for embedded identifiers
C2PA / Content Credentials	JUMBF box markers, claim manifests, and provenance data
AI Watermarks	AudioSeal, SynthID, and WavMark watermark identifiers
Confidence Scoring	Strong markers (named services) score higher than generic phrases; minimum 0.4 threshold required
False-Positive Filtering	Files produced by known DAWs (Audacity, FL Studio, Ableton, etc.) or encoders (LAME, FFmpeg, etc.) have weak generic markers filtered out
SH Labs API (Opt-in)	Cloud-based AI speech detection via SH Labs; requires privacy consent and is rate-limited

Export & Reporting

Five export formats, all matching the current DataGrid column layout:

Format	Description
Excel (.xlsx)	Styled workbook with colored status cells, auto-fit columns, frozen header row
CSV (.csv)	Standard comma-separated values with proper escaping
Text (.txt)	Formatted report with box-drawing characters, per-file details, and summary statistics
PDF (.pdf)	Multi-page PDF with monospaced text layout
Word (.docx)	Minimal OOXML document with bold headers and summary

All columns exported including: Status, Title, Artist, File Name, File Path, Sample Rate, Bit Depth, Channels, Duration, File Size, Reported Bitrate, Actual Bitrate, Format, Max Frequency, Clipping, Clipping %, BPM, Replay Gain, Dynamic Range, MQA, MQA Encoder, AI Detection, Fake Stereo, Silence, Date Modified, Date Created, True Peak, LUFS, Rip Quality.

Queue System

Dedicated queue window for managing playback order
Add tracks from the grid via context menu or toolbar button
Drag-and-drop reordering support
Auto-advance through the queue

Integrations

Discord Rich Presence — Shows currently playing track, artist, elapsed time, and song duration bar in your Discord status. Fetches album art from Last.fm when available. Includes play/pause state icons and automatic reconnection (toggle in Settings)
Multi-Service Scrobbling — Scrobble simultaneously to Last.fm, Libre.fm, ListenBrainz, and Maloja (self-hosted). Each is enabled/authenticated independently in Settings → Integrations and a single play fans out to every active service. Configurable thresholds (scrobble-at-percent, scrobble-at-seconds, minimum track length — first rule met fires), anti-duplicate by furthest position reached, a per-song blacklist (cross-library by Artist|Title), Pause All Scrobbling, one-off "Don't Scrobble", and Scrobble Now. A corner ♫ status widget in the main window shows state (Scrobbling / Paused / Offline / Not connected) and per-service profile links. Credentials are stored encrypted (Windows DPAPI)
Windows Media Session (SMTC) — Publishes now-playing info to System Media Transport Controls so media overlays (FluentFlyout, volume OSD, etc.) display the current track and album art

Performance Controls

Configurable CPU usage limit — Choose from Auto (Balanced), Low (25%), Medium (50%), High (75%), or Maximum (100%) in Settings. All presets dynamically scale to your hardware.
Auto CPU mode defaults to half your logical processors (clamped 1–16) for a balanced experience
Configurable memory limit — Choose from Auto (Balanced), Low (512 MB), Medium (1 GB), High (25% RAM), Very High (50% RAM), or Maximum (75% RAM). All presets dynamically scale to your hardware.
Auto memory mode defaults to 25% of your total system RAM (clamped 512–8192 MB)
When memory usage approaches the configured limit, AudioAuditor automatically pauses processing, triggers garbage collection, and waits for memory to free up before continuing
Both limits apply to file analysis and spectrogram batch export
Prevents CPU and memory spikes that could lag or freeze your system when processing large folders
Reduce Motion — A single Settings → Appearance toggle that calms the whole app: Now Playing backgrounds, cover glow, lyric transitions, playbar effects, and both the main and mini-player visualizers all stop
Battery Saver — A Settings → Cache & Files performance mode that disables animations to save power, with a master toggle, per-area checkboxes (Now Playing backgrounds, visualizer, cover glow, lyric transitions, waveform & playbar effects), and an "Entire program" option. Applies live, no restart
Hardware-acceleration control — A render-mode selector (Auto / Force software (CPU only)) for machines with flaky GPU drivers, plus a read-out of the detected render tier. Applies on restart

Theming

10 carefully crafted themes with full UI consistency:

Theme	Description
Dark	Classic dark mode with subtle grey tones
Ocean	Deep navy blues inspired by the sea
Light	Clean light mode with crisp contrast
Amethyst	Rich purple tones
Dreamsicle	Warm orange and cream
Goldenrod	Bright golden yellows
Emerald	Lush greens
Blurple	Saturated blue-purple (Discord-inspired)
Crimson	Bold reds and deep darks
Brown	Warm chocolate tones

Each theme covers window backgrounds, panels, toolbars, headers, DataGrid rows (alternating colors and hover states), scrollbars, buttons, inputs, borders, context menus, dropdown menus, title bar caption color (via Windows DWM), and playbar waveform colors.

Custom Themes — Build your own theme in Settings → Appearance: name it, set the palette, and watch a live preview update as you drag the controls. Saved custom themes persist and appear alongside the built-ins in the theme picker, and can be re-edited or deleted (built-ins can't).

Your Wrapped

AudioAuditor Wrapped — A single, roomy stats dashboard of your local listening and library stats: files scanned, hours listened, top artists/albums/tracks, unique albums, favorite formats, library quality, active date range/days active, average plays per track, and your most-listened track by time
100% local — Stats are gathered entirely from your own plays/scans/analyses (opt-in collection), never uploaded, and can be reset anytime
Toolbar button — Opens from a present/gift icon in the main toolbar (between Mini Player and the music-service buttons) and fills the current window instead of forcing fullscreen

Sessions & Recovery

Session Restore — AudioAuditor remembers which files and folders you had loaded and offers to reload them on the next launch
Crash Recovery — A pending-recovery snapshot lets the app repopulate your working set after an unclean exit; pairs with the scan cache so the re-scan of unchanged files is instant

Toolbar Customization

Optional toolbar buttons — Settings → Appearance toggles let you hide the Your Wrapped, Mini Player, and music-service buttons if you don't use them (all shown by default)
Open With support — Drag a file/folder onto AudioAuditor.exe or use Windows "Open with… → AudioAuditor" to load audio files, archives, playlists, or folders; if the app is already running, the items are forwarded to the existing window instead of being lost

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Windows 10 or later (x64)
No runtime required — the published executable is fully self-contained with the .NET 8 runtime embedded

Feature Config Overlay

On first launch (or after a version update), a Feature Config Overlay appears letting you enable or disable every analysis feature — Silence Detection, Fake Stereo, Dynamic Range, True Peak, LUFS, Clipping, MQA, AI Detection (default & experimental), and SH Labs API. Disabled features are skipped during analysis and their columns are hidden from the results grid. You can reopen this overlay any time from Settings → Columns & Features.

CLI

AudioAuditor CLI is a standalone command-line tool with full feature parity to the GUI. It ships as a single self-contained .exe — no .NET runtime or dependencies required.

Interactive Mode — Launch with no arguments (or double-click the exe) to enter a persistent REPL session with colored prompts, cd/ls/clear navigation, and drag-and-drop path support:

audioauditor> scan "D:\Music\album"
audioauditor> info song.flac
audioauditor> export "D:\Music" -o results.csv

Commands:

Command	Description
`analyze <path>`	Scan files/folders for fake lossless, clipping, MQA, AI, and more
`info <file>`	Detailed single-file analysis (True Peak, LUFS, DR, Rip Quality, SH Labs)
`export <path> -o <file>`	Analyze and export to CSV, TXT, PDF, XLSX, or DOCX
`metadata show\|set\|strip\|remove-cover <file>`	View, edit, strip, or remove cover art from audio metadata tags
`spectrogram <path>`	Generate spectrogram PNG images

Interactive Mode Commands:

Launch with no arguments (or double-click the exe) to enter a persistent REPL session:

Command	Alias	Description
`scan <path>`	`analyze`	Scan files or folders for quality
`info <file>`	—	Detailed analysis of a single file
`export <path> -o <file>`	—	Analyze and export results
`metadata <action> <file>`	`meta`, `tags`	View, edit, or strip metadata
`spectrogram <path>`	`spectro`	Generate spectrogram PNG(s)
`config`	—	Guided config file editor (show / edit / reset / path)
`cd [dir]`	—	Change working directory; prints current if no arg
`ls` / `dir`	—	List files with color coding (green = audio, yellow = archive, cyan = dirs)
`clear` / `cls`	—	Clear terminal screen
`version`	—	Show version, runtime, and OS info
`help` / `?`	—	Show available commands
`exit` / `quit` / `q`	—	Exit interactive mode

Tip: In interactive mode, you can type or paste any valid file/folder path directly and it will automatically run analyze on it.

Global Flags:

--cpu <mode>        CPU preset: auto, low, medium, high, max (scales to your hardware)
--memory <mb>       Memory limit in MB or preset: auto, low, medium, high, very-high, max
--no-color          Disable colored output (also respects NO_COLOR env variable)
--no-fun            Disable scanning word animations, tips, and completion messages
--eta               Show estimated time remaining during scan (default: off)
--no-update-check   Skip the background update check on startup
--version, -V       Show version, runtime, and OS information
--help, -h          Show usage help

Analysis Flags (analyze):

--verbose, -v       Detailed per-file output
--json              Machine-readable JSON output (20+ fields per file)
--fast              Skip DR, True Peak, LUFS, Rip Quality for speed
--experimental-ai   Enable spectral AI detection
--rip-quality       Enable rip/encode quality detection
--shlabs            Enable SH Labs AI detection
--no-clipping       Disable clipping detection
--no-mqa            Disable MQA detection
--no-silence        Disable silence detection
--no-fake-stereo    Disable fake stereo detection
--no-dynamic-range  Disable dynamic range measurement
--no-true-peak      Disable true peak measurement
--no-lufs           Disable LUFS measurement
--no-bpm            Disable BPM detection
--no-tips           Suppress tip messages during analysis
--status <filter>   Show only: real, fake, unknown, corrupt, optimized
--threads <n>       Max parallel threads (default: half logical cores)
--recursive, -r     Recurse into subdirectories (default for folders)
--no-recursive      Do not recurse into subdirectories
--no-config         Skip loading the config file for this run

Export Flags (export):

-o, --output <file> Output file path (required)
--format <fmt>      Force export format: csv, txt, pdf, xlsx, docx
--status <s>        Filter results: real, fake, unknown, corrupt, optimized
--threads, --cpu, --memory, --recursive, --no-recursive  Same as analyze

Metadata Flags (metadata set):

--title <text>          Set track title
--artist <text>         Set artist
--album <text>          Set album
--album-artist <text>   Set album artist
--year <n>              Set release year
--track <n>             Set track number
--track-count <n>       Set total tracks
--disc <n>              Set disc number
--disc-count <n>        Set total discs
--genre <text>          Set genre
--bpm <n>               Set BPM
--composer <text>       Set composer
--conductor <text>      Set conductor
--grouping <text>       Set grouping
--copyright <text>      Set copyright
--comment <text>        Set comment
--lyrics <text>         Set lyrics
--cover <image-path>    Set album cover from image file (PNG/JPEG/BMP/GIF)
--dry-run               Preview changes without writing (single file or batch)

Batch metadata editing: metadata set <folder> applies the specified tags to all audio files inside the folder. Respects --recursive / --no-recursive.

Spectrogram Flags (spectrogram):

--linear              Use linear frequency scale instead of logarithmic
--difference          Render Left–Right channel difference instead of mono
--width <px>          Image width, 200–8000 (default: 1200)
--height <px>         Image height, 100–4000 (default: 400)
--all                 Generate for all files in a folder

Stdin Pipe Support — Pipe paths directly into the CLI: echo "D:\Music" | audioauditorCLI analyze (capped at 50,000 paths). Both analyze and export accept piped input.

Config File — Place default flags in %APPDATA%\AudioAuditor\cli-config.txt (one flag per line) and they'll be applied automatically on every run. Run config in interactive mode for a guided setup wizard.

Interactive Scan Controls — During a scan, press keys without Enter:

p — Toggle pause/resume
r — Resume explicitly
q or s — Stop/cancel early

Pause states are shown in the progress bar: [PAUSED], [FINISHING IN-FLIGHT...] (while draining workers), or [STOPPING...]. Progress uses ANSI cursor positioning to redraw in-place; falls back to \r overwrite on legacy terminals.

Archive Auto-Extraction — Dropping or passing archive files (.zip, .rar, .7z, .tar, .tgz) automatically extracts them to a temp folder, scans the contents, and cleans up afterward. Protected against ZIP-slip attacks; capped at 50,000 entries and 5 GB total size.

Scan Cache — Results are cached to scan_cache.json and reused on subsequent runs if the file size and modification time match, making re-scans of unchanged libraries nearly instant.

CLI UI:

When scanning, the CLI isn't just a boring progress bar:

🎬 Scanning Word Animation — Every 9–13 seconds a new word is picked from a rotating vocabulary of 42 terms (Analyzing, Scrutinizing, Inspecting, Dissecting, Audio-ing, Fingerprinting, Triangulating…) and smoothly morphs into place letter-by-letter at ~14 letters/second. Suppressed with --no-fun.
⭐ Pulsing Star — A Unicode star breathes in and out (· → ✦ → ✧ → ★) next to the progress bar. Changes color to indicate state: cyan = running, yellow = paused, red = stopping.
💡 Random Tips — One of 16 helpful tips appears ~30% of the time at scan start (e.g. "Tip: Use --fast to skip dynamic range, true peak & LUFS for quicker scans."). Suppressed with --no-tips or --no-fun.
🎉 Random Completion Messages — One of 10 witty messages appears ~25% of the time after a scan finishes (e.g. "All done! Your ears deserve the truth."). Suppressed with --no-fun.
⏱️ ETA Display — Pass --eta to see a live estimated time remaining. Calculated from a rolling 30-second completion window with exponential smoothing. Formats as ETA <10s, ETA 45s, or ETA 2m 15s. Default is off to keep the output clean.

AI Detection Parity — analyze, export, info, and --json output now include the same three-state AI verdict (Yes / Possible / No) and confidence score shown in the GUI. info <file> adds a leading AI Detection: {Verdict} ({Confidence}% confidence) line above the per-detector breakdown; --json adds aiVerdict and aiConfidence fields.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Angel2mp3/AudioAuditor.git
cd AudioAuditor
dotnet build

Run

dotnet run --project AudioQualityChecker.csproj

Or open Audio Quality Checker.sln in Visual Studio 2022+ and press F5.

Usage

Add Files — Click Add Files or Add Folder, or drag & drop audio files/folders directly onto the window
Analyze — Files are automatically analyzed on import with throttled parallelism; status shows as Real, Fake, Optimized, Unknown, or Corrupt; the status bar displays counts for each category
Filter — Use the status filter dropdown to show only files with a specific status (Real, Fake, Unknown, Corrupt, Optimized) or search by name/artist/path
Inspect — Click a file to view its spectrogram and full analysis details in the bottom panel
Play — Double-click or right-click → Play to start playback with the built-in player
Search — Click any music service button in the toolbar to search for the selected track online
Export — Click the Export ▾ dropdown to save analysis results (CSV, TXT, PDF, XLSX, DOCX) or batch-export spectrograms
Spectrograms — Right-click → Save Spectrogram to export an individual labeled PNG
Settings — Adjust themes, play options (crossfade, normalization, spatial audio, rainbow visualizer), music service buttons, EQ, integrations, export format, and performance limits

Keyboard & Interaction

Drag & Drop — Drop audio files, folders, or archives (.zip, .rar, .7z, .tar, .tgz) anywhere on the window. Archives are auto-extracted, scanned, and cleaned up
Column Rearranging — Drag any DataGrid column header left or right to reorder the layout; the new order is reflected in exports
Column Header Right-Click — Hide individual columns or show all columns back
Auto-Hide Columns — Columns for disabled features (e.g., AI Detection) automatically hide to reduce clutter
Folder Grouping — Files are grouped by folder with collapsible headers
Shift + Scroll — Horizontal scroll in the file list

Shortcut	Action
`Space`	Play / Pause
`Enter`	Play selected file
`Delete`	Remove selected file from list
`Ctrl+F`	Focus the search bar
`Escape` (in search box)	Clear search and refocus grid
`←` / `→`	Seek backward / forward 5 seconds
`↑` / `↓`	Volume up / down
`M`	Mute toggle
Media Play/Pause	Play / Pause
Media Next	Next track
Media Previous	Previous track (restart if >3s in, go back if <3s)
Media Stop	Stop playback

Search Box — Filter by filename, artist, title, path, extension, or status; use the status dropdown to filter by analysis result; additional Mismatched Bitrate filter shows files where actual bitrate < 80% of reported
Context Menu — Right-click opens 5 submenus:
- Favorites — Star/unstar, Move Up, Move Down
- Metadata — Edit Metadata, Strip Metadata
- Analyze / Identify — AcoustID Fingerprinting
- Spectrogram — View Spectrogram, Compare Spectrograms, Save Spectrogram
- File Operations — Quick Rename (Add [Bitrate] / [Real Bitrate]), Copy to Folder, Move to Folder, Save to Playlist, Batch Rename, Find Duplicates
Save Album Cover — Save the original full-quality embedded cover art from the View Album Cover popup, the cover panel next to the spectrogram (right-click), or the metadata editor
Double-click spectrogram — Save as PNG
Click volume icon — Toggle mute
Scroll-to-Playing — The file list automatically scrolls to the currently playing track when filters change

Player Behavior

Playback History — The Previous button first walks back through your playback history before falling back to the list order
Restart vs Go-Back — Pressing Previous when >3 seconds into a track restarts it; pressing it again (or when <3s in) goes to the previous track
Consecutive Failure Skip — If a file fails to load, the player auto-advances past it (max 3 consecutive failures to prevent infinite loops)

Scan & Analysis

Pause/Resume Scanning — Click the ⏸/▶ button during analysis to pause and resume without losing progress
Re-entrant File Adding — Drop files while a scan is already running and they'll join the current scan batch
Archive Drag-Drop — Drop .zip, .rar, .7z, .tar, .tgz files directly and they'll be auto-extracted, scanned, and cleaned up

System Tray

Close to Tray — Closing the window minimizes to the system tray instead of exiting
Dark-Themed Tray Menu — Right-click the tray icon for a dark-themed menu matching the app aesthetic

Settings Overview

Section	Options
Appearance	Color Theme (10 themes + Custom Theme editor), Playbar Theme (11 + Follow Theme), Visualizer Theme, Rainbow Visualizer Bars, Color Match, Full Volume Visualizer, Reduce Motion, Now Playing visuals & background mode, Now Playing "Look Up This Song" services, optional toolbar buttons
Playback	Auto-Play Next, Audio Normalization, Crossfade (1–15s), Crossfade on Manual Skip, Gapless Playback, Spatial Audio, Loop Mode, Lyrics Auto-Save
Analysis	Toggle individual detectors (Silence, Fake Stereo, DR, True Peak, LUFS, Clipping, MQA, AI, BPM, Rip Quality), Silence Threshold, Edge Skip Zone, Frequency Cutoff Allow, Always Full Analysis
Visualizer	Mode selection (6 modes), Auto-Cycle toggle with speed (5–60s), Custom cycle mode list, Independent theme, Full Volume rendering
Cache & Files	Scan Cache, Quick Rename Patterns, Default Folders, Focus Newly Added Songs, Session Restore, Battery Saver (master + per-area), Clear Favorites, Clear Cache, Reset Layout
Export	Default export format (CSV, TXT, PDF, XLSX, DOCX)
Integrations	Multi-service scrobbling (Last.fm, Libre.fm, ListenBrainz, Maloja) with thresholds, blacklist & pause, Discord Rich Presence, Offline Mode, AcoustID Fingerprinting
Performance	CPU usage limit — Auto, Low, Medium, High, Maximum; Memory limit — Auto, Low, Medium, High, Very High, Maximum; Hardware acceleration (Auto / Force software)

Data & Privacy

AudioAuditor is designed with privacy in mind:

Data	File	Location
Theme preference	`theme.txt`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Settings & options	`options.txt`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Analysis result cache	`scan_cache.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Favorites	`favorites.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Custom themes	`custom-themes.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
EQ profiles	`eq-profiles.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Now Playing layout profiles	`np-layout-profiles.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Album-art color cache (opt-in disk persist)	`np_color_cache.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Listening stats (Wrapped — opt-in)	`stats.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Session restore & crash recovery	`last_session.json`, `recovery_pending.json`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Anonymous install ID (SH Labs opt-in only)	`install_id.txt`	`%AppData%\AudioAuditor\`
Scrobble credentials (Last.fm / Libre.fm / ListenBrainz / Maloja)	`session.dat` (DPAPI-encrypted)	`Documents\AudioAuditor\`
SH Labs result cache (opt-in only)	`shlabs_cache.dat`	`Documents\AudioAuditor\`
SH Labs rate-limit counters (opt-in only)	`shlabs_usage.dat`	`Documents\AudioAuditor\`
Analyzed file data	Memory only	Not persisted — cleared on exit
Audio queue	Memory only	Not persisted — cleared on exit
Spectrograms	Memory only	Only saved if user explicitly exports

options.txt stores theme names, boolean flags, service slot names, custom URLs/icons, EQ gains, scrobble thresholds, the per-song scrobble blacklist, and performance limits — no sensitive data. Scrobble credentials for all four services (Last.fm, Libre.fm, ListenBrainz, Maloja) are stored separately and encrypted with Windows DPAPI in session.dat in your Documents folder. All three SH Labs files are only created if you opt in to SH Labs detection; the install ID is a random GUID (not derived from any machine info) used solely for rate limiting (15/day, 100/month).

Network calls — AudioAuditor makes network requests only in these specific situations:

Trigger	Destination
Click a music service search button	The configured service (Spotify, Tidal, etc.)
Discord Rich Presence enabled	Discord IPC (local process only)
Scrobbling enabled (per service)	Last.fm / Libre.fm / ListenBrainz / your Maloja server
SH Labs AI detection (opt-in)	Cloudflare Worker proxy — no raw audio leaves your device
AcoustID fingerprinting (user-initiated)	`api.acoustid.org` + `musicbrainz.org`
Update check (opt-in, silent on startup)	`api.github.com` — version number only

No telemetry or analytics — nothing is collected or reported without your explicit action
Minimal disk footprint — only small settings/cache files; temp archive extractions are cleaned up automatically
Zero AI training — nothing analyzed or played is ever used to train generative AI

Project Structure

The codebase is organized into three shipped projects — the WPF desktop app, a platform-independent AudioAuditor.Core engine, and a cross-platform CLI — with large classes split into focused partial files (shown below as Name(.Aspect/.Aspect).cs).

AudioAuditor/
├── App.xaml / App.xaml.cs                    # WPF entry point — single-instance + GPU/render-mode bootstrap
├── GlobalUsings.cs                           # Shared global using directives
├── AudioQualityChecker.csproj                # WPF desktop app (Windows)
├── Audio Quality Checker.sln                 # Solution
├── CHANGELOG.md  ·  LICENSE (Apache-2.0)
│
├── AudioAuditor.Core/                        # Platform-independent engine — shared by the app and CLI
│   ├── Models/                               # AudioFileInfo, CustomThemeDefinition, NpLayoutProfile
│   ├── Abstractions/                         # Settings interfaces (decouple Core from the WPF app)
│   └── Services/
│       ├── AudioAnalyzer(.Quality/.Loudness/.BpmDetector/.Optimizer/.FullFilePass).cs  # analysis engine (partials)
│       ├── AudioAnalyzerEngine.cs            # FFT / spectral DSP
│       ├── AiWatermarkDetector.cs · ExperimentalAiDetector.cs · SHLabsDetectionService.cs  # AI detection
│       ├── MqaDetector.cs · AcoustIdService.cs · FlacReader.cs · AudioFormatReaders.cs
│       ├── LyricService.cs · MetadataEnrichmentService.cs · ExportService.cs · Equalizer.cs
│       ├── SpatialAudioProcessor.cs · CueSheetParser.cs · ShuffleEngine.cs · SmartRenameService.cs
│       ├── FavoritesService.cs · ScanCacheService.cs · IntegrityVerifier.cs · UpdateChecker.cs
│       └── Scrobbling/                       # IScrobbler + Last.fm / Libre.fm / ListenBrainz / Maloja + ScrobbleManager
│
├── Services/                                 # Desktop-only services (WPF)
│   ├── AudioPlayer(.Crossfade/.Gapless).cs   # NAudio playback (partials)
│   ├── ThemeManager(.Brushes/.NowPlaying/.Persistence/.Scrobbling/.Visualizer/.Performance).cs  # theme engine (partials)
│   ├── AnimationPolicy.cs                     # Reduce Motion / Battery Saver gate
│   ├── SpectrogramGenerator.cs · MiniVisualizerRenderer.cs · SmtcService.cs
│   ├── DiscordRichPresenceService.cs · TranslateService.cs · EqProfileManager.cs
│   └── SessionRestoreService.cs · LocalCrashLogger.cs · LocalStatsCollector.cs · CustomThemeStore.cs
│
├── Windows/                                  # WPF windows & UI (partial-class heavy)
│   ├── MainWindow(.Spectrogram/.Waveform/.MusicServiceSearch/.Overlays/.TitleBar/.Tray/.Wrapped).cs
│   ├── Np*.cs                                # Now Playing — NpCore, NpColors(.Animations/.GlowPulse/.Underwater),
│   │                                         #   NpLyrics, NpEqualizer, NpSearch, NpScrobbleWidget, NpLayout, …
│   ├── SettingsWindow(.Performance/.NowPlaying/.Scrobbling/.NpServices/.CustomThemeEditor).cs
│   ├── NowPlayingWindow · MiniPlayerWindow · CreditsWindow · WelcomeDialog
│   └── Spectrogram / Waveform / Metadata / BatchRename / Duplicate / Queue dialogs
│
├── AudioAuditorCLI/                          # Cross-platform CLI (Windows / Linux / macOS)
│   └── Program(.Commands/.ConsoleUI/.Interactive).cs   # analyze, export, metadata, info, spectrogram, interactive
│
├── Converters/StatusConverters.cs           # XAML value converters (status, bitrate, MQA, AI colors)
├── installer/AudioAuditor.iss               # Inno Setup installer script
├── Third.Party.Notices/                     # Bundled open-source license texts
└── Resources/                               # App icon + service logos

Interactive Code Tour

Explore all 137 source files across 10 architectural layers in an interactive graph — click any node to see what it does, or take the guided tour.

Technology

Technology	Version	Usage
.NET 8	8.0	Application runtime and SDK
WPF	—	Windows Presentation Foundation UI framework
NAudio	2.2.1	Audio playback, decoding, FFT analysis, BiQuadFilter EQ, crossfade, sample provider pipeline
NAudio.Vorbis	1.5.0	Ogg Vorbis decoding via NAudio
Concentus.OggFile	1.0.6	Managed Opus audio decoding
TagLibSharp	2.3.0	Audio metadata and tag reading (artist, title, bitrate, sample rate, BPM, Replay Gain, AI detection)
ClosedXML	0.104.2	Excel XLSX export with styled cells and formatting
SharpCompress	0.38.0	Archive extraction support
SkiaSharp	2.88.9	Cross-platform 2D graphics for CLI spectrogram PNG generation
DiscordRichPresence	1.2.1.24	Discord Rich Presence client for playback status
Last.fm / Libre.fm / ListenBrainz / Maloja	—	Multi-service scrobbling and Now Playing updates
AcoustID / Chromaprint	—	Audio fingerprinting via fpcalc + MusicBrainz lookup
Windows DWM API	—	Native title bar color theming via `DwmSetWindowAttribute`
Windows SMTC	—	System Media Transport Controls for media overlay integration

Support & Supporters

AudioAuditor is built and maintained in my free time. If you find it useful, consider supporting development so I can keep adding features, improving performance, and squashing bugs.

Contributing

AudioAuditor is currently developed by a single maintainer in their free time. Contributions, suggestions, and feedback are always welcome!

If you'd like to contribute, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

Getting Started:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add my feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
Open a Pull Request

Credits & Acknowledgments

Core Libraries

Library	License	Usage
NAudio by Mark Heath	MIT	Audio playback, waveform reading, sample provider pipeline, FFT analysis, crossfade mixing, and all audio I/O
NAudio.Vorbis by Andrew Ward	MIT	OGG Vorbis audio file decoding and playback support
NLayer by Mark Heath & Andrew Ward	MIT	Pure-managed MP3/MPEG decoder — enables MP3 analysis on Linux/macOS (and as a Windows fallback)
Concentus & Concentus.OggFile by Logan Stromberg	MIT/BSD	Pure managed Opus audio decoding for .opus file support
TagLibSharp by Mono Project	LGPL-2.1	Reading and writing audio metadata tags across all supported formats (ID3v2, Xiph Comment, APEv2, M4A atoms)
ClosedXML by ClosedXML Contributors	MIT	Excel workbook generation with styled cells, headers, and auto-fit columns
discord-rpc-csharp by Lachee	MIT	Discord Rich Presence client for showing playback status
SkiaSharp by Microsoft / Mono	MIT	Spectrogram PNG generation in the CLI
SharpCompress by Adam Hathcock	MIT	Archive extraction support (ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR)
System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData by Microsoft	MIT	Windows DPAPI credential protection for scrobble session storage (Last.fm, Libre.fm, ListenBrainz, Maloja)

Framework & Platform

Technology	By	Usage
.NET 8	Microsoft	Application runtime
WPF	Microsoft	UI framework — all windows, controls, data binding, styling, and rendering

Algorithms & References

MQA Codec Reverse-Engineering — MQA detection is ported from our own MQA-Toolkit Python project. The underlying codec reverse-engineering (the 36-bit sync word and original-sample-rate decoding) is the work of Stavros Avramidis — purpl3F0x/MQA_identifier (Apache-2.0) — and Dniel97/MQA-identifier-python
Cooley-Tukey FFT Algorithm — The radix-2 FFT implementation is based on the classic Cooley-Tukey algorithm for spectral analysis
Fisher-Yates Shuffle — Modern Fisher-Yates algorithm used for fair deck-based shuffle ensuring every track plays once per cycle
NAudio Documentation & Samples — Referenced for AudioFileReader, WaveOutEvent, BufferedWaveProvider, MixingSampleProvider, FFT windowing, and MediaFoundationReader usage patterns
TagLib# API Reference — Referenced for multi-format metadata extraction patterns
LAME MP3 Encoder Lowpass Specifications — Lowpass filter frequency thresholds per bitrate used as reference for bitrate estimation from spectral cutoff detection
Microsoft DWM API Documentation — Used for DWMWA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE and DWMWA_CAPTION_COLOR title bar customization
Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) — Concepts referenced for spatial audio crossfeed, interaural time delay, and head shadow simulation
Last.fm API / Libre.fm / ListenBrainz / Maloja — Scrobbling protocols and authentication flows (Audioscrobbler 2.0 for Last.fm/Libre.fm; ListenBrainz submit API for ListenBrainz/Maloja)
MusicBrainz, Discogs, AllMusic, Rate Your Music — Metadata search integration targets

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Trademark & Brand Notice: The AudioAuditor name, logo, website (audioauditor.org), domain, and all associated brand assets are not covered by the Apache 2.0 license and are not part of the open-source grant. They remain the exclusive property of the project owner. You may not use the name, logo, or brand assets without explicit written permission.

_{Built with ❤️ by Angel for audiophiles who care about quality}

AudioAuditor

AudioAuditor

Overview

Screenshots

Features

Core Analysis

Supported Formats

Built-in Audio Player

Now Playing Panel

Spectrogram Viewer

Real-time Audio Visualizer

Tools & Batch Operations

Music Service Integration

AI Detection (BETA)

Export & Reporting

Queue System

Integrations

Performance Controls

Theming

Your Wrapped

Sessions & Recovery

Toolbar Customization

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Feature Config Overlay

CLI

CLI UI:

Build from Source

Run

Usage

Keyboard & Interaction

Player Behavior

Scan & Analysis

System Tray

Settings Overview

Data & Privacy

Project Structure

Interactive Code Tour

Technology

Support & Supporters

Contributing

Credits & Acknowledgments

Core Libraries

Framework & Platform

Algorithms & References

License

perplexity-cli

executor-community

svelte-audio-waveform

pico-dsp

search