Review Beta

Your clients' comments, right next to your session. Review brings the comments on a mix in Samply or Pibox into StudioTools — lined up with your Pro Tools session on a timeline, with the whole thread. Jump to a comment and hear it, reply, put the comments on a Pro Tools ruler as markers, and send the next mix without opening your browser.

Requires StudioTools 2.5.0 or later and Pro Tools 2025.06 or later. Coming soon to the Mac App Store — beta testers have it now.

What it's for

You send a mix to your client in Samply or Pibox, and the comments come back timed to the mix: "1:04 — the snare is too loud here". Review shows those comments next to the Pro Tools session they belong to, so you don't have to switch between the browser and Pro Tools, or work out where 1:04 in the mix is in your session.

• Read every comment with its replies, version by version.
• Line them up with the session once — even if the bounce started after a count-in.
• Jump and listen: double-click a comment to move the Pro Tools selection there, press Space to hear it.
• Answer in the thread, or add a comment at the Pro Tools selection.
• Tick them off — with Pibox, mark comments done right in StudioTools.
• Add the comments to Pro Tools as markers on a ruler of your choice — only if you want to.
• Bounce & Send the next mix in one go.

What you need

• StudioTools 2.5.0 or later.
• Pro Tools 2025.06 or later, with the session open. StudioTools talks to Pro Tools through its scripting interface (PTSL) and connects automatically — see Pro Tools connection.
• An account with a review service:
  • Samply — and a personal access token from it (see Connect Samply), or
  • Pibox on a Team plan — Pibox's API, which StudioTools uses, is part of that plan (see Connect Pibox).
• An internet connection — StudioTools reads and sends the comments directly to and from your account.

To open it, choose Utilities… in the StudioTools menu and click Review in the sidebar's Pro Tools section. If something is missing, the utility says what — see When a utility can't run yet.

Choose your review service

Review works with two services. Connect the one you use — or both, if your clients use different ones. You connect one account per service.

The first time you open Review, it shows Connect a Review Service: both services, each with Connect…. Pick one — you can add the other one later from the service menu.

Connect Samply

Samply uses a personal access token. With it, StudioTools reads your projects and comments and posts comments under your name.

1. In Samply, open Preferences › API (samply.app/preferences/api) and create a personal access token. Create a Token in Samply in Review takes you there.
2. Copy it, paste it into Review and click Connect.

StudioTools checks the token with Samply and keeps it in your Mac's Keychain. It's only sent to Samply and never written to a log. Only projects you own are listed — projects others have shared with you don't show up.

Connect Pibox

Pibox doesn't need a token — you sign in to Pibox itself.

1. Click Sign In with Pibox….
2. A browser window opens Pibox's sign-in. Sign in as usual, and allow access if Pibox asks.
3. The window closes and Review shows your Pibox projects.

Your login stays with Pibox — StudioTools never sees your password. It keeps a sign-in token in your Mac's Keychain, only sends it to Pibox and renews it by itself. If Pibox ends the sign-in, Review asks you to sign in again.

Pibox's API is part of its Team plan, so you need that plan to connect Pibox.

Switch, add or disconnect a service

The name of the service you're looking at — Samply or Pibox — is a menu at the top of Review:

• Switch: choose another connected service to see its comments. Each Pro Tools session stays connected to its song in each service.
• Add: Add Pibox… or Add Samply… connects the other service.
• Disconnect: Disconnect Samply… (or Pibox) removes StudioTools' sign-in for that service from this Mac. Your sessions stay connected to their songs, so they're back when you connect the service again.

Connect the session to a song

Next, tell StudioTools which song the open Pro Tools session belongs to:

1. Choose the project.
2. Choose the song in it. If a song is named like the session, it's already selected.

In Pibox, a song is a file with its versions — or a single file.

StudioTools remembers the song for that session, and shows its comments whenever the session is open in Pro Tools. To pick another song, choose Change Song… in the ⋯ menu.

Mix not uploaded yet? Click Bounce & Send… right on that screen to bounce it from Pro Tools and upload it (see Bounce & Send). Or upload it in Samply or Pibox yourself, then click Reload.

Versions

A song has versions — v1, v2 and so on, one for each mix you upload — and every comment belongs to the version it was made on. Review shows the newest version, and when a new one is uploaded, it shows up by itself. To read the comments on an earlier version, choose it from the version menu; the menu shows how many comments each version has.

Read the comments

The comments of the version are listed in a table:

• Open or all. The Open | All filter shows only the comments that still need work, or all of them — done comments are dimmed.
• The whole thread. Select a comment to read it in full, with all replies, in the panel below the table. Open in Samply or Open in Pibox opens it in your browser.
• Always up to date. Comments reload every minute. Click ↻ or press ⌘R to reload now.

Line the comments up with the session

The service times every comment from 0:00 of the mix you uploaded. But a bounce often starts later in the session — after a count-in, say. Then a comment at 0:30 in the mix is at 0:42.5 in your session, not at 0:30.

Tell StudioTools once where the version starts, and it does the math. The row above the timeline says where it is, for example v2 starts at 0:12.500 in the session. Set it with the Align Comments menu:

• At the Pro Tools Selection Start — first put the Pro Tools selection where the mix starts (for example on the first beat after the count-in), then choose this.
• At the Session Start (0:00) — when the bounce started at the very beginning of the session.

A version without its own value uses the previous version's, so you usually set it once per song. If you set a value for one version and want it to follow the earlier one again, choose Same as v1 (or whichever version it follows). The ⓘ next to the row explains it in the app.

The timeline

Above the table, a timeline shows the version's comments where they are in your session:

• Session time ruler along the top.
• The version as a band, with its own time ruler drawn where the version is in the session — so you can read both the session time and the time in the mix.
• The comments in rows, in their place; done comments are dimmed.
• A reference marker ruler (optional): choose one of your Pro Tools marker rulers in the ruler menu in the timeline header — your song-structure ruler, for example — to see its markers in their Pro Tools colors under the comments. Double-click one of these markers to move the Pro Tools selection there.
• Selection. The Pro Tools selection is a blue Selection line — or a band with Start and End when the selection has a length. Drag it to move the Pro Tools selection; hold Option while dragging for fine adjustment.
• Zoom and follow. Zoom in and out, Fit to see everything again, and turn Follow Playback on to keep the playhead in view while Pro Tools plays.
• Transport. ■ stops Pro Tools, ▶ plays from the Pro Tools selection, and the counter next to them shows where you are.

Jump to a comment and hear it

• Click a comment — in the timeline or the table — to select it and read its thread. While Pro Tools plays, playback follows to the comment.
• Double-click a comment to move the Pro Tools selection there. A range comment selects its whole range.
• Space plays from the selected comment — just its range, for a range comment. Press it again to stop.
• ← and → step through the comments.

Reply and add comments

Answer your client without opening the browser. Everything you write is posted under your name — the account you connected.

• Reply in the thread panel under the table, and send with ⌘↩.
• Add a comment at the Pro Tools selection: click Add Comment in the timeline header, press ⌘N, or choose it in the ⋯ menu. The sheet shows the Pro Tools time and the time in the version — they differ by the alignment — and follows the Pro Tools selection while it's open. A selection longer than a moment becomes a range comment.
• Or a general comment about the whole mix, without a position.

Mark comments done

Fixed the snare? Tick the comment off.

• Pibox: click Mark Done in the thread panel, or right-click a comment and choose Mark Done. A done comment can be opened again with Reopen. The change goes straight to Pibox, so your client sees it too.
• Samply doesn't let other apps mark comments done, so tick them off in Samply; StudioTools shows the change.

When every comment on a version is done, Review says so — and Remove Markers of Done Comments… tidies up the Pro Tools ruler.

Comments as Pro Tools markers

Prefer the comments right in Pro Tools? Add them to a marker ruler. This is optional: StudioTools writes nothing to Pro Tools unless you ask, and reloading the comments never changes your markers.

Prepare a ruler

Pro Tools has five marker rulers, and StudioTools can't add a ruler for you. Use one you don't need: in Pro Tools, rename an unused marker ruler — for example Markers 4 — to Samply or Pibox, and show it in Pro Tools' ruler menu.

Add the comments

1. Click the flag button in the header, or choose Add Comments to Pro Tools as Markers… in the ⋯ menu.
2. Choose the marker ruler by name. It starts as the service's name — Samply or Pibox.
3. Add them. The open comments of the version you're looking at are added — general comments and done comments never are.

• Short names, whole threads. The marker's name is short, for example Tomas: The first two or three h…. The marker's comment holds the whole thread, up to the 999 characters Pro Tools allows.
• Range comments get a marker at the start of the range. (Pro Tools draws each marker on a ruler up to the next one.)
• Add again any time. Adding again only adds the new comments. If you deleted a comment's marker in Pro Tools, you can add it again. The Marker column shows which comments are in Pro Tools.
• One comment at a time: right-click a comment and choose Add Marker for This Comment.
• Tidy up: Remove Markers of Done Comments… in the ⋯ menu removes the markers StudioTools added for comments that are now marked done. Markers you've renamed, and all other markers, are kept.
• Markers aren't added or removed while Pro Tools plays or records.
• If you change the alignment after adding markers, the markers already in Pro Tools stay where they are — move them with Shift Markers.

Bounce & Send

Made changes? Send the next mix in one step — no Bounce dialog, no upload in the browser. Bounce & Send bounces the Pro Tools selection through Pro Tools and uploads it to Samply or Pibox. Open it with the Bounce & Send button in the header, in the ⋯ menu, or on the connect screen.

1. In Pro Tools, select what to bounce — for example from the first beat to the end of the reverb tail. A selection is needed, and Pro Tools mustn't be playing or recording.
2. Choose where to send it:
   • a new version of the connected song (the default with Samply when the session is connected),
   • a new version of another song,
   • a new song in a project,
   • or a new project — the service also makes a private share link for it.
   New songs and projects are named after the session unless you change it; Samply numbers versions v1, v2 and so on by itself.
3. Send it and follow the progress: bouncing, uploading (with a percentage and Cancel Upload), and the service processing the new mix.

Afterwards the session is connected to the song, and the new mix is lined up at the start of your selection automatically — no Align Comments needed. If the upload fails, Send Again sends the same bounce without bouncing it again.

Options

Bounced files are named after the session and the time of the bounce, for example My Song 2026-11-02 143015.mp3.

Privacy

StudioTools talks directly to your Samply or Pibox account over the internet. Nothing goes to Nornio. Your Samply token and your Pibox sign-in stay in your Mac's Keychain and are only sent to their own service. Remove them at any time with Disconnect… in the service menu.

Tips and troubleshooting

• The comments are in the wrong place. The version isn't lined up with the session yet — see Line the comments up with the session.
• A Samply project is missing. Only projects you own are listed.
• Pibox won't let StudioTools in. Pibox's API is part of its Team plan — check your plan, then sign in again.
• The new mix doesn't show up. Click ↻ or press ⌘R; comments and versions also reload by themselves every minute.
• "New version" can't be picked in Bounce & Send. You're sending to Pibox — send the mix as a new song instead (see Bounce & Send).
• A comment wasn't added as a marker. General and done comments are never added. Check the Marker column, and that Pro Tools isn't playing or recording.
• Bounce & Send doesn't start. Make a selection in Pro Tools first, and stop playback or recording.
• The utility shows Open a Session in Pro Tools or Pro Tools 2025.06 or Later Needed. See When a utility can't run yet.

Samply and Pibox are trademarks of their owners. StudioTools works with your account through their APIs and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Samply or Pibox.