I think I’ve never read a product pitch that resonated quite like this one: “It’s built for people like me who juggle Logic, Ableton, and endless folders full of half-finished tracks.” Oh, uh — that. Yes, SessionDock is an app for organizing all your projects, built for macOS and iOS. And you can use the core functionality for free, minus only unlimited online sync.
If you’re like me, you’ve tried various ways of attempting some order — notes in the projects, notes elsewhere. Developer Chris Warner has come up with a quite creative way to go about this:
It’s beautifully designed, and there are enough nicely thought-out details that going through projects looks like it will actually be some fun. Features:
- One library for all your projects (unlimited)
- Add artwork, notes, and custom tags (which will aid in search)
- Sort by tag, folder, or recent edits
- Automatically connect to file locations (including Ableton Live session support, though other DAWs will work just as well)
- Preview mixdowns of each song without loading up the DAW
- Waveform Notes, which let you add timestamped ideas/reminders/tasks or whatever you like
There’s even CarPlay support for browsing and listening, in case you like to listen back on your mixes while driving. (Please keep your eyes on the road, though, of course.)
Chris just added that Waveform Notes support, and it’s really nicely done:
All of this is free for an unlimited number of projects. You pay only to unlock unlimited sync (Dropbox, iCloud); the free version only lets you sync four projects. That’s useful if you’re checking out your projects on the go on an iPad or iPhone.
Also if this is triggering your Fear of Subscriptions — which have become a kind of scourge of the App Store — there is a complete unlock that works forever.
You know, my only immediate question is, could there have been a Web version? I have no idea how difficult it is to port UI/UX from the Apple development world over to the Web these days, but that does jump out. Feels like we need some self-hosted thing that does this. As long as you’re okay staying in the Apple ecosystem, though, this looks perfect.
I’ll be trying it out as I go through my projects, for sure.
Pricing for Pro (with themes and full automatic sync and backups) is 6.99 EUR a month for me or 34.99 EUR lifetime. You can easily back up the database manually, just based on where you put it, so that’s really all about the mobile sync use case. (Is there anyone out there using CarPlay? I’m lacking the car, for starters, but I’m not you!)
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