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📅 Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Careful repairs, clearer options and optional update notifications

The Flickwerk Edition is here! 🧵 Version 4.1.1 brings together a wide range of careful repairs and practical improvements across configuration handling, FFmpeg processing, metadata preservation, themes, documentation and everyday usability.

Highlights of the new v4.1.1 release:

• Optional Update Notifications with automatic startup checks, manual checks and optional pre-release detection.
• Redesigned Options Window with a clearer layout for appearance, FFmpeg, logging and update settings.
• External JSON Themes that make custom themes possible without editing Python source files.
• Safer Configuration Handling for malformed, incomplete or invalid options.ini files.
• Reliable Metadata and Artwork Preservation through improved FFmpeg stream and metadata mapping.
• Improved Audio Properties with refined metadata tools, artwork management and detailed audio statistics.
• Updated Documentation and Localization for English, German, Polish and Swedish.

The release package was built without UPX to reduce the risk of false-positive antivirus detections.

Flickwerk Edition focuses on stability, clarity and the small details that make everyday audio work more reliable.

💾 View the complete release overview, current screenshots and download links here.

📅 Thursday, June 11, 2026

Welcome to the Kontrollraum Edition - where raw audio signals meet absolute Kontrolle

What started as a simple FFmpeg frontend has evolved into a true audio command center. With the new Kontrollraum Edition, melcom's FFmpeg Audio Normalizer reaches an entirely new level of inspection, diagnostics, metadata management, artwork handling, playback control, and workflow flexibility.

Highlights of the new v4.1.0 release:

• Configuration Profiles for quickly switching between different workflows.
• Live-Sync Inspector with metadata, artwork and detailed audio statistics.
• Advanced Export Controls for formats, sample rates, bit depths and quality settings.
• Lossless Metadata & Artwork Management for modern audio collections.
• Numerous workflow improvements across playback, queue handling and diagnostics.

The detailed feature overview, screenshots and downloads are available on the project page.

The Kontrollraum Edition is focused on one goal: giving you complete Kontrolle over every stage of your audio normalization workflow.

💾 Check out the full release, screenshots, downloads and feature overview here.

📅 Saturday, May 30, 2026

Official Dynamic Flat Themes, Swedish Localization, and Progress-Bar Stability Fixes

Embracing the dark side... 🦇 I am incredibly proud to announce that FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v4.0.3 (Läderlappen Edition) is officially out now! This release represents a massive milestone, delivering a beautiful visual overhaul and resolving all remaining multi-track rendering and progress-bar bugs.

Key highlights of the official v4.0.3 release:

• Modern Flat UI & Theming Engine: A beautiful flat aesthetic for both Dark and Light modes. Features 6 dynamic, on-the-fly switchable color schemes, including the default gold-accented Läderlappen, Melcom (ocean slate), Midnight, Modernlight, Light, and the tracker-inspired Aquamarine & Blue.
• Swedish Localization: Officially added full Swedish (sv-SE) language support, including interface elements, presets, and help documentation. 🇸🇪
• Progress-Bar & Multi-Track Stability: Resolves all rendering freeze, flicker, and queue collision bugs during multi-file normalization, ensuring a fluid visual rendering flow.
• High-Precision Modular Engine: Under-the-hood optimization for clean subprocess/FFmpeg termination and thread-safe rotating logs.

💾 Check out the full release, new screenshots, and download links here.

📅 Sunday, May 24, 2026

New mastering character presets, cleaner defaults, and a more musical workflow

I'm happy to share that FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v3.2.0 (Nachtschicht Edition) is out now! 🎉 This release focuses on a more musical and production-focused workflow while keeping the default behavior transparent and easy to use.

The biggest updates are:

• Mastering Character presets: The UI now uses clearer labels such as Transparent, Cohesive, Punchy, and Aggressive, with localized wording in the supported languages.
• Transparent as default: The default preset shown in the UI is now Transparent, so you get a neutral starting point without extra character processing.
• Preset-driven filter chain: The mastering stage is now built from the preset definitions, making the processing path easier to extend and maintain.
• Refined user experience: The UI and wording were harmonized across the app, help files, and website.

💾 Check out the release, downloads, and more details here.

📅 Friday, February 20, 2026

Professional Two-Pass Normalization and Quality Preservation

I'm excited to announce the release of FFmpeg Audio Normalizer v3.1.0 (Feierabend Edition)! 🍻 This version is a major milestone, introducing professional-grade features that make the tool even more versatile for musicians and audiophiles.

Key highlights of this update:

• Linear Two-Pass Normalization: A high-precision mode that analyzes audio first to calculate a perfect gain adjustment while keeping the original dynamic range (LRA) intact.
• Quality Preservation: WAV and FLAC outputs now automatically preserve the source's original sample rate and bit depth (e.g., 24-bit/96kHz).
• Metadata Preservation: All tags (Artist, Title, Album) are now correctly mapped and transferred to the output file.
• Automated Cleanup: The program now ensures that temporary work files are removed even if a process is cancelled.

💾 Click here for downloads and more information.

📅 Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Hey everyone,

As 2025 comes to a close, I wanted to look back on what has been a huge year of learning and growth. I dove into different programming languages and created tools like melcom's FFmpeg Audio Normalizer, which I hope has made life easier for fellow creators managing audio for platforms like YouTube and Spotify. 🛠️

On the music front, I spent a lot of time learning FL Studio, but I remain faithful to OpenMPT for building my own unique samples and instruments with VST plugins. I also contributed to a major collaborative project set to be released in 2026, featuring one (or maybe even two) massive tracks from me-we'll see how the runtimes turn out!

A Personal Wish for 2026

I would love for my new tracks, as well as my old ones (and the even older mod files), to get more attention and downloads. I know that my tracks don't really-or rather, less and less-sound like the typical demoscene style. But then again, hasn't that always been the case for me?

Anyway, I would just be happy to see more downloads. I promote my work enough, and I'm also active on platforms like Bsky, where you're always welcome to visit me. Feedback? I often ask myself, what is that? I simply get no feedback, no matter how good a track might be. Even some of the big musicians from the demoscene are stumped; they're enthusiastic about my work themselves but don't understand the lack of engagement either and are out of ideas on how to help.

So, those are the "little things" I'm simply wishing for more of in 2026.

Have a great start to the new year, and take care.

All the best,
melcom