"Max is an application for creating high-quality audio files in various formats, from compact discs or files."
— Official Website
This is an unofficial version of Max that has been recompiled to support 64-bit architectures (supported on macOS Catalina!) and features a slightly modified user interface compared to those of the official versions.
Build: 24
Requires: macOS 10.9+
Released: Monday, December 2, 2019
Disclaimer: As previously mentioned, this is an unofficial version of the Max app. This version is not endorsed by Stephen F. Booth or anyone else on the original Max development team. Use at your own risk!
Max was my go-to app to convert wav files to mp3 and I loved how simple and easy it was to edit the metadata/album art and export it to various formats (I would frequently export 128/192/256/320 kbps CBR mp3s depending on the intended destination).
When macOS Catalina dropped, I was sad to learn Max wouldn't make the cut since it was still 32-bit (and Catalina dropped support for 32-bit entirely). I've tried alternatives, but nothing streamlined my workflow like Max did. I was hoping that it would be updated for 64-bit, but it appeared that this wasn't happening anytime soon (and people who tried didn't have much luck apparently). So I tried taking a stab at it, and well, here we are!
I wanted to make changes and add new features that would benefit my specific workflow (namely focusing more on the conversion side of Max, rather than the ripping), so I decided to release these changes under my fork as they may make other people ＡＮＧＥＲＹ*. But in case my use case is similar to yours, I'm making this publicly available for you to use!
* I apologize for linking to a "normie" website... oh wait.
Well, sort of. I say this because I have only tested wav to mp3 conversions (since that's all I used Max for). Any other format remains untested. I also haven't tested CD ripping (largely because I don't have a DVD drive/CDs anymore) or MusicBrainz either.
But feel free to let me know if something doesn't work; I'll try my best to fix it! For me, at least, I'm just happy to be able to use Max again :)
Glad you asked! Here's a list of the changes I've made so far:
The original Max icon, while it looks great, is unfortunately low-res (especially noticeable on Macs with Retina displays). I basically recreated a high-res version of it with some minor tweaks so it doesn't look out of place with other modern apps! (You can see what it looks like in the top banner.)
Since dark mode was introduced in macOS Mojave (10.14) and this version of Max was built with the macOS Catalina (10.15) SDK and Xcode 11.1, we got dark mode! I believe there are a few graphical glitches (like white text against a white background in a text field), but I'll get around to fixing those!
Apple had deprecated drawers (the little side panels that slid beneath the window) awhile back. So to give Max a "modern" refresh, I combined both the metadata and album art drawers into a single HUD (heads up display) window! I also tried to mimic the layout of the "Get Info" window of the Music app (formerly iTunes) as much as possible.
I've got some more ideas I'd like to implement, so when they're ready to go, I'll update this list.
Got some cool ideas too? Feel free to send them my way by opening an issue! :)
Disclaimer: My Objective-C/C++ knowledge is super rusty (I primarily work with JavaScript/Node.js nowadays), so I can't promise you I'll be able to implement the craziest of features... but someone else might! ;)