CTD Live Studio app icon

SOFTWARE BY CTD · macOS

Coming soon

Control OBS Studio natively on your Mac — multiview, switching, mixer, and macros

CTD Live Studio is a real OBS control room for macOS — a Metal-powered multiview with live program and preview feeds, instant scene switching, an audio mixer with live meters, macros, and full control surfaces. It talks to OBS over obs-websocket 5.x, so there is no capture card and no OBS-side plugin to install. Open it next to OBS or run it on a second Mac, hit connect, and the multiview fills in.

macOS 13.0 or later

Where you'll get it

  • Mac App StoreComing soon
  • SteamComing soon
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CTD Live Studio OBS multiview control room on Mac — live program and preview panes with a scene grid below

A real OBS control room, not a read-only grid

OBS's built-in multiview is a passive fullscreen grid, and a phone scene-switcher isn't a control surface. CTD Live Studio is a native macOS OBS control room that puts multiview, studio-mode switching, an audio mixer, macros, and automation in one window. It connects to OBS Studio over obs-websocket 5.x — no capture card, no OBS plugins, nothing installed beyond OBS's built-in WebSocket server. If you've been hunting for OBS multiview on Mac that you can actually drive, this is it.

Metal multiview with hardware-accelerated live feeds

Choose OBS-style layouts — Preview + Program on top with a 4/8/12-scene grid below, pure 2×2 / 3×3 / 4×4 grids, or program-only — all rendered on one Metal GPU surface with on-demand redraw. JPEG frames decode through VideoToolbox, the hardware JPEG decoder on Apple silicon, and map zero-copy into Metal textures via CVMetalTextureCache, so decode and upload stay off the main thread while the UI just swaps a texture pointer. This is the OBS Studio Mode multiview Mac operators have wanted: live PVW/PGM and a real scene grid on a separate monitor or a second Mac, not a finicky fullscreen window.

Instant scene switching and Studio Mode TAKE

Click a scene to send it to preview, double-click to take it to program, and right-click to pin — with red/green program/preview borders, scene labels, and a transition picker with duration. Flip on Studio Mode for a proper preview-to-program TAKE workflow, or switch from the keyboard (arrows and Tab to select, Return to switch with a transition, Space to stage preview). An iPhone-style edit mode lets tiles jiggle and rearrange, while a scene checklist popover controls exactly which scenes appear — turning OBS scene switching on Mac into a fast, tactile show-calling surface.

Control surfaces: hotkeys, game controllers, and MIDI

Bind system-wide keyboard shortcuts, game controller buttons (Xbox, PlayStation, or MFi), and MIDI notes and CCs to scenes, macros, or single OBS actions — each captured with press-to-learn. That makes CTD Live Studio a software OBS control surface and a genuine Stream Deck alternative for Mac: instead of buying a button pad, you switch OBS scenes with a game controller or map MIDI to your show using the controllers you already own. There's also a raw obs-websocket request escape hatch for power users who want to fire anything the protocol supports.

Audio mixer, broadcast toggles, and live stats

Ride your levels from a built-in OBS audio mixer with faders, mutes, and live per-channel meters fed by high-volume obs-websocket meter events — no need to crowd your OBS machine. Toggle stream, record (with pause), virtual camera, and replay buffer, each with live timecodes, and keep an eye on CPU, render fps, dropped frames, and render time. It's the OBS audio mixer remote and broadcast control that lives right alongside the multiview, so you run the whole show from one window.

Automation: macros, playlists, and trigger rules

Build macros as sequences of actions with delays — "switch to Starting Soon, wait 5 seconds, start stream" — runnable from the UI or any binding, and macros can even call other macros. Auto scene switching covers timed scene playlists (with loop and stop-on-manual-switch) and event rules like "when streaming starts, do X" or "when my mic mutes, show an overlay," cooldowns included. It's OBS macros and automation without an Advanced Scene Switcher plugin or config files — all native, all in the app.

Built for Mac, with a menu bar quick switcher

CTD Live Studio is a native macOS app, a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, requiring macOS 13 Ventura or later and OBS Studio 28+ with the WebSocket server enabled. A menu bar quick switcher lets you change scenes without opening the main window, and OBS passwords are stored in the Keychain — never in config files — under App Sandbox and Hardened Runtime. Compared with browser remotes or cross-platform tools like Touch Portal and Bitfocus Companion, you get hardware-accelerated VideoToolbox decode, Metal zero-copy textures, and native macOS security with zero plugins and zero config.

Pair it with CTD Live Mobile for the iPhone and iPad

Want to call the show from across the room? CTD Live Mobile is the companion iPhone and iPad remote built on the same engine — portrait-first multiview, tap an angle to preview, a big TAKE button to cut to program, QR pairing, pulsing stream/record tally, and Bluetooth game-controller support. Studio runs the control room on your Mac; Mobile is the OBS remote in your pocket. Together they cover the desk and the floor.

CTD Live Studio vs OBS Blade vs Stream Deck vs OBS built-in Multiview

OBS Blade is a free, open-source phone app, and it's genuinely handy for quick scene cuts, stream stats, and Android support — if all you need is a flat scene list on your phone, it's a solid free pick. But it isn't a control room: there's no desktop Metal multiview, no audio mixer with live meters, no macros or automation engine, and no MIDI/game-controller/hotkey surfaces. A Stream Deck gives you tactile buttons but no live multiview, and OBS's built-in multiview is a passive, read-only grid you can't switch from. CTD Live Studio's honest pitch is that it's a native macOS OBS control room — live PVW/PGM Metal multiview plus studio-mode TAKE, a real audio mixer, macros, timed playlists and trigger rules, and bindings for the controllers you already own — all over obs-websocket with no capture card and no plugins. If you want a phone-only or Android remote, OBS Blade wins; if you want one Mac window that runs the whole show, that's CTD Live Studio.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a capture card or an OBS plugin to use CTD Live Studio?

No. CTD Live Studio talks to OBS over obs-websocket 5.x, which is built into OBS Studio 28 and later — you just enable the WebSocket server under Tools → WebSocket Server Settings. There is no capture card, no OBS-side plugin, and nothing to install beyond OBS itself.

How does CTD Live Studio connect to OBS?

In OBS, open Tools → WebSocket Server Settings, enable it, and note the port (default 4455) and password. In CTD Live Studio, go to Connections → Add Connection, enter the host, port, and password, and connect. The Metal multiview fills in automatically, and your OBS password is stored securely in the macOS Keychain.

Does it work with OBS 28, 29, and 30?

Yes. CTD Live Studio requires OBS Studio 28 or newer because that's when the modern obs-websocket 5.x server became built in. OBS 28, 29, and 30 all ship that server, so any of them works once you enable it.

Can I run the multiview and OBS on the same Mac, or do I need a second computer?

Either way works. You can run CTD Live Studio right alongside OBS on the same Mac, or put the multiview and control room on a separate monitor or a second Mac and connect over your local network. Offloading the multiview to a second machine keeps the load off your streaming computer.

Does CTD Live Studio support Studio Mode with a preview/program TAKE?

Yes. Turn on Studio Mode from the toolbar for a full preview-to-program workflow: click a scene to load it into preview, then take it to program with a double-click or the Take button, with a transition picker and adjustable duration. You also get live PVW/PGM panes with red/green borders so the on-air state is always obvious.

Can I switch OBS scenes with a game controller or a MIDI controller on Mac?

Yes. You can bind Xbox, PlayStation, or MFi game controller buttons and MIDI notes/CCs to OBS scenes, macros, or single actions, all captured with press-to-learn. That makes it a flexible OBS control surface and a Stream Deck alternative for Mac using hardware you already own.

Can I map system-wide hotkeys to OBS scenes and macros?

Yes. CTD Live Studio supports system-wide keyboard shortcuts that fire even when the app isn't focused, so you can switch OBS scenes or run a macro from anywhere on your Mac. Hotkeys, game controllers, and MIDI all bind to the same actions.

What are macros and auto scene switching, and how do playlists and trigger rules work?

Macros are sequences of OBS actions with delays — for example, switch to a scene, wait five seconds, then start streaming — and a macro can call other macros. Auto scene switching adds timed scene playlists (with loop and stop-on-manual-switch) and event trigger rules like "when streaming starts" or "when my mic mutes," each with cooldowns, so you can automate a show hands-free without an OBS plugin.

Is it a real OBS multiview with live feeds, and how is it rendered?

Yes, it's a live multiview, not a static grid. Frames stream over obs-websocket and decode through VideoToolbox hardware JPEG decode, then map zero-copy into Metal textures via CVMetalTextureCache, with decode and upload running off the main thread. The result is a smooth, GPU-rendered OBS multiview on Mac with live program, preview, and grid panes.

How is CTD Live Studio different from OBS Blade or a Stream Deck?

OBS Blade is a phone-only scene switcher, and a Stream Deck is a button pad. CTD Live Studio is a native macOS control room that combines a Metal multiview, studio-mode TAKE, an audio mixer with live meters, macros, automation, and hotkey/game-controller/MIDI bindings in one window — and it adds a live multiview that neither of those gives you, while reusing the controllers you already have.

Where can I get it, and does it support older Macs?

CTD Live Studio is coming to the Mac App Store and Steam. It's a universal binary that runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs and requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, plus OBS Studio 28+ with the WebSocket server enabled.

Launching soon.

CTD Live Studio is on the way. Want it the moment it drops? Tell us what you'd run it on and we'll get you on the list. Local-first — no accounts, no cloud. Read the privacy policy.

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