Staircase Radio

The Desk

The console as a proper app for Mac and Windows. Your mic, your jingle wall, shout outs, MP3s, remote guests and everything your computer is playing, mixed on one screen and sent straight to air.

Download for Mac Download for Windows

Mac: Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 12 or newer (14.4+ for system audio) - signed and notarised by Apple, no warnings. Windows: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Windows may show a SmartScreen notice on first run while the app builds its reputation - choose More info, then Run anyway.

System audioPut anything playing on the computer on air - any player, any app. The desk takes the sound over, so your headphones become the mix.
Pop-out panelsTear the jingle wall, the chat or your MP3s onto a second screen and keep the faders in front of you.
Your music playerPlay, pause and skip your player from the desk, or from a macro.
ON AIR everywhereA light in the menu bar, and a Mac that will not fall asleep mid-show.

Getting started

  1. Download and drag it to Applications.
  2. Open your studio in a browser and sign in as you normally would.
  3. On your Overview, press Open in the Desk app. That hands the app your station - there is nothing to type and no list to pick from.
  4. Sign in at the desk, and you are on air from there.

What macOS will ask you

Once each, the first time you use the thing that needs it. Nothing is asked for up front.

  1. Microphone - to broadcast your voice.
  2. System audio - the first time you put the computer's sound on air.
  3. Your music player - the first time you press play or skip from the desk.

Who it's for

Anyone who broadcasts on a Staircase Radio station. You sign in with the same studio login you already use, and you get your own walls, media, shout outs and slots. If you do not have a login yet, ask whoever runs your station to send you an invite.

System audio: how the desk becomes your ears

When the desk takes the computer's sound over, your apps go quiet in the room and everything - Spotify, jingles, your mic monitor - reaches you through the desk's own output, riding the faders. Where that output goes is yours to choose, in the selector at the bottom of the mixer.

  1. On a Mac it just works: the desk silences the apps themselves, so its mix can play to your headphones, a sound card or the speakers - whatever you pick.
  2. On Windows there is one rule: pick an output that is not Windows' default device, because the default is what the desk silences. Headphones or a USB interface almost never are, so usually there is nothing to do. Want the desk on the speakers that are your default? Change Windows' default to anything else once, then pick the speakers in the desk.
  3. One output only? The desk still puts everything on air - you just keep hearing apps directly, and the faders shape what listeners hear rather than what you do. The desk tells you which mode you are in.
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