Installation

Download, double-click, rescan.

StudioZIO Mastering Suite 2.1.1 installs from a signed, Apple-notarized macOS package. Six steps, no licence key, no account, and nothing to disable in Gatekeeper.

macOS 11+AU · VST3 · AAX · StandaloneApple notarized
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Before you start

What the installer needs

Operating system
macOS 11 Big Sur or later
Architecture
Universal — Apple Silicon and Intel
Host
Any application that loads Audio Unit v2, VST3 or AAX

macOS only. There is no Windows or Linux build, and none is planned.

Six steps

Installing the package

  1. Download the installer

    Get StudioZIO-Mastering-Suite-2.1.1.pkg from the current signed and notarized release. It is free, there is no licence key and no account.

  2. Check what you downloaded (optional)

    In Terminal, run shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/StudioZIO-Mastering-Suite-2.1.1.pkg and compare the result with the SHA-256 published on this page. They should match character for character.

  3. Open the package

    Double-click it. macOS checks the Developer ID signature and the notarization ticket before the installer window appears, so there is no Gatekeeper warning to click past and no need to right-click → Open.

  4. Follow the installer

    Accept the prompts and authenticate when macOS asks. The installer places the Audio Unit, the VST3 and the AAX plug-in in the standard macOS locations.

  5. Restart your DAW

    Quit the host completely and reopen it. Hosts scan for plug-ins at launch, so one that was already running will not see the new install.

  6. Load it

    The plug-in is filed under the manufacturer name StudioZIO: in an Audio Unit menu, StudioZIO › StudioZIO Mastering Suite; in a VST3 browser, the same name inside the StudioZIO folder; and in Pro Tools under the StudioZIO category or EQ/Dynamics/Harmonics.

Provenance

The file you should have

Installer
StudioZIO-Mastering-Suite-2.1.1.pkg
Release record
current signed and notarized release
SHA-256
b054098c4f6565e5e469efd41554425d468830a001c9d4c531e72ab8c50f4cf1

Version 2.1.1, Developer ID signed and Apple notarized. That release page is the only place StudioZIO publishes this installer: a copy from anywhere else, or one whose checksum does not match, is not our build.

On disk

Where to look for it

LocationWhat is there
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/The Audio Unit, as StudioZIO Mastering Suite.component
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/The VST3, as StudioZIO Mastering Suite.vst3
/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/The AAX, as StudioZIO Mastering Suite.aaxplugin
/Applications/The Standalone application, as StudioZIO Mastering Suite.app

macOS keeps a second, per-user copy of the two plug-in folders inside your home folder. If a component is not at the system path, look at ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/ as well — hosts scan both.

If something is missing

Three things that actually go wrong

The host does not list the plug-in

Almost always a stale scan. Quit the host, reopen it, and ask its plug-in manager to rescan — in Logic Pro that is Plug-in Manager under the Logic Pro menu, where you can select the entry and rescan it directly. Check the folders above first: if the file is not on disk, the installer did not finish.

The AU shows up but the VST3 does not

The two formats are scanned from different folders by different hosts. Confirm that your host is actually configured to scan /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/, then rescan. Some hosts keep their own additional VST3 search paths.

macOS says the package cannot be verified

Do not bypass that warning. The official package is Developer ID signed and notarized, so macOS opens it without complaint; the message means the download is incomplete or the file did not come from the release page. Delete it, download again, and compare the SHA-256.

Removing it

Uninstall

  1. Quit every audio application

    A host that has the plug-in loaded will hold the files open and may rewrite its cache on quit.

  2. Delete the four items

    Remove StudioZIO Mastering Suite.component, StudioZIO Mastering Suite.vst3, StudioZIO Mastering Suite.aaxplugin and StudioZIO Mastering Suite.app from the locations listed above — checking the per-user plug-in folders as well as the system ones.

  3. Reopen the host and rescan

    The entry disappears once the host rescans. If a greyed-out entry lingers in its plug-in manager, remove it there too, or log out and back in so macOS rebuilds its Audio Unit cache.

There is no separate uninstaller: removing those items and letting the host rescan is the whole process.