Getting Started

Installing

macOS

Open the .pkg and follow it through. It puts all three formats where your DAW expects them:

• VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
• Audio Unit in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
• The standalone app in /Applications

DawCam is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without any right-click-to-open business. An uninstaller is installed beside the app if you ever want it gone.

Windows

Run the installer. The VST3 goes to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and the standalone into Program Files. If you are updating, install straight over the top — there is no need to remove the old one first.

Finding it in your DAW

DawCam is an audio effect, not an instrument. Put it on any track that has sound going through it — the master bus is the usual choice, since then it hears everything.

It does not change your audio. It passes through untouched; it is only listening.

Bridge Mode

Some hosts are awkward about giving a plugin a camera. Bridge Mode is the way round it: the plugin in your DAW sends what it is hearing to the standalone app, and the standalone does the camera work.

1. In the plugin, open Settings and turn on Bridge Mode.
2. Open the DawCam standalone app.
3. That is it. The standalone notices and switches itself over to DawCam Bridge automatically.

You can also pick the source by hand in the standalone's Sound settings, which steps through Default Audio Capture, Input Source and DawCam Bridge. If you choose one yourself, DawCam leaves your choice alone from then on.

Sound sources

The standalone can listen three ways:

• Default Audio Capture — whatever your computer is playing. The one it starts on, and usually the one you want.
• Input Source — a microphone or audio interface.
• DawCam Bridge — the plugin in your DAW, as above.

How the keys work

This is the part most plugins make unpleasant, so here it is plainly.

• No account. There is nothing to sign up for and no password to lose.
• Three machines per purchase. Your desktop, your laptop, and one spare.
• The count resets with every update. If you reinstall your system or change computers, you are not stuck.
• It works offline forever. Activate once and DawCam never needs the internet again. If this website disappears tomorrow, your copy keeps working.
• Group buys are fine. Ask.

Privacy

DawCam does not record, stream, or upload anything. Your photos are files in a folder on your own computer and they never leave it.

If you step away from your machine for a few minutes, DawCam closes the camera by itself and tells you why when you come back — not because anything was wrong, but because a camera light with nobody in front of it is unsettling. You can switch that off under Idle warning in the Plugin settings.

Still stuck?

Mail support and say which DAW and which operating system, and you will get a real answer from the person who wrote it.