XLN Audio Life 1.2.3 (macOS)

XLN Audio Life works on Macs running macOS 10.13 and later, Intel or Apple Silicon. It is a VST plugin and standalone application for making beats from captured audio.

Life Field Recorder

Companion mobile app for capturing audio on Android and iOS.

Life DAW Recorder

Companion app for recording audio directly from a DAW.

Duck

Sidechains sequencer lanes to the kick drum for tighter rhythm.

Offline mode

Version 1.2 added the ability to work with audio stored or recorded on the computer.

Life starts with your own recordings, not spectral synthesis

Life starts with your own recordings, whether from the mobile app or the computer. The creative loop is different: you capture, import, let the software generate a rhythm, then refine.

Izotope Iris leans on spectral synthesis for sound design. Life is more direct. You give it a recording of a coffee machine or a door slam, and it turns that into a beat pattern. Iris is for texture exploration; Life is for rhythm extraction from real-world audio.

Sugar Bytes Turnado is a glitch-and-stutter effect, not a beat generator. Life is a full beat-making tool with its own sequencer lanes, ducking, and offline capability. Turnado processes what you feed it in real time; Life builds a new rhythmic structure from your source.

The closest parallel might be Sononym, a macOS sample browser that organises sounds by similarity. Sononym helps you find the right sample; Life helps you make something new out of whatever you recorded. Both reward the habit of collecting audio, but Life leans harder on generative rhythm rather than manual arrangement.

Offline mode means you don't need the mobile apps

Do I need the mobile apps to use it? No. Version 1.2 added offline mode, so you can work with audio files stored or recorded on the computer. The mobile apps are there when you want to capture something away from the desk — a train, a conversation, a kitchen sound.

Does it replace my DAW? It is a plugin that runs inside a DAW, and a standalone application that runs on its own. It does not replace a DAW for arranging, mixing or mastering. It is a rhythm generator that sits alongside your usual workflow.

Can I use it with Apple Silicon Macs? Yes. It is compatible with ARM and Intel 64-bit architectures on macOS 10.13 and later.

How much space does a project take? That depends on the length and quality of your recordings. The mobile apps record standard audio files; the DAW Recorder captures buffered input from your computer's audio output. Disk space is determined by your own source files, not a built-in library.

Record on your phone first, then generate on the Mac

• Record a few short sounds with the Life Field Recorder on your phone before opening the app on the Mac. A handful of clips gives you material to try the generation engine without reaching for sample packs.
• Try the Duck feature early. It sidechains sequencer lanes to the kick drum, which tightens the rhythm on busy patterns. Enable it on a lane that carries a melodic or percussive element and listen to how the kick clears space.
• Use offline mode to import a single long recording — a room ambience or a field recording — and see how Life segments it into beats. Version 1.2 changed how the software handles stored audio, so it is worth testing with something longer than a one-shot sample.
• Run the standalone version first, not the plugin. The standalone lets you hear the workflow without the overhead of a DAW session. Once you understand the sequencer lanes and the Duck controls, load the plugin inside your usual environment.
• Keep the Life DAW Recorder open on a second monitor or tablet if you have one. It lets you capture audio from the DAW output directly, which is useful for grabbing a bounced loop or a synth line without exporting a file first.

• macOS 10.13 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon