Frequently Asked Questions

Sabes Pro is a lightweight Windows desktop application for music producers and mixing engineers. Once installed, it sits quietly in your system tray and watches your music project folders. Every time you save your project in your DAW with Ctrl+S, Sabes Pro automatically creates an encrypted, compressed snapshot called a Take. You never have to manually rename files like "Mix_Final_v3_really_final.als" ever again.

When you open the Sabes Pro desktop app, your main screen shows the Project Hub. To start tracking a new session, click Open Folder / Track Project at the top left and select your DAW project folder. Your project immediately appears in your workspace list with a live timeline of all saves.

Sabes Pro works with all major 64-bit Windows DAWs, including Ableton Live (.als), FL Studio (.flp), Cockos Reaper (.rpp), Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo (.cpr, .npr), and Avid Pro Tools (.ptx). It supports any DAW that writes standard session files to your local drive.

Sabes Pro runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit only. You need at least 4 GB of RAM and 500 MB of free disk space for the application itself. The Microsoft Store build also requires the WebView2 runtime, which Windows installs automatically when you install from the Store.

Sabes Pro is primarily a standalone Windows desktop app that runs in the background without getting in your way. It also includes an optional 64-bit VST3 companion plugin. You can drop that plugin onto your master bus or any mixer track to bookmark takes, add session notes, or trigger snapshots directly from inside your DAW without switching windows.

Both versions are the same application with the same features. The Microsoft Store version installs through the Store, updates automatically through Windows Update, and is the easiest way to keep the app current. The standalone version installs with its own setup wizard and checks for updates itself. If you bought through the Store, install the Store version. If you bought a lifetime license through the website, the standalone version is fine, and the two do not mix.

Log in to your account at sabespro.com and open the Connected Devices tab. Click Generate 6-Digit Pairing Code. Then open the Sabes Pro desktop application, click Settings (the gear icon) in the top right, select Pair Device, and type in the 6-digit code. Your desktop app links instantly.

No. Sabes Pro uses low-priority operating system file system hooks and runs all compression on background threads. It does not touch your audio buffer, ASIO drivers, or real-time DSP processing, so your DAW performance stays smooth.

When you export a Client Delivery Bundle or capture a session with large audio stems (like 50MB to 100MB+ WAV recordings), Sabes Pro is doing some serious heavy lifting in the background. It reads the raw audio data, calculates cryptographic SHA-256 checksums to verify zero corruption, and applies ZIP compression so your package is clean and ready for your client. On large files, this intensive crunching can take a brief second or two in the desktop window. Importantly, all of this runs in a separate process outside your DAW's real-time audio thread—so your playback, ASIO buffers, and recording will never glitch or drop frames.

In the Sabes Pro desktop app, click your project name to open the Take Timeline. Click any previous save point to view its details. Click Restore Take to replace your current working file with that snapshot, or click Export as New File to save it into a separate folder so your current work stays untouched.

A Fork lets you branch off and try a risky creative experiment, like deleting all guitars or rewriting the chorus drums, without messing up your main mix history. Select any Take on your timeline and click Fork Take in the right-hand action panel. Give your branch a name like "Heavy Synth Bridge" and start producing.

If you worked on two different ideas or alternate branches and want to consolidate their backup blocks into a single milestone save, select both Takes on your timeline and click Combine Takes in the action bar. Sabes Pro merges their file history into a clean new Take row.

Very little. Sabes Pro uses block-level deduplication. If you save a 500 MB project 30 times but only changed a few plugin settings or automation curves, Sabes Pro only saves the tiny altered backup blocks. 50 full saves often take less than 15 MB of extra disk space.

Because Sabes Pro stores independent, encrypted backup blocks in its local database, a corrupted DAW file on your desktop does not damage your previous Takes. Open Sabes Pro, select your last healthy Take from the timeline, and click Restore Take to recover your project in seconds.

Each project card shows a status badge. A green "Healthy" badge means your project and its Takes are being captured and synced correctly. An orange "Unprotected" badge means the project is not currently being tracked, so new saves are not being captured. If a badge shows a take count, that number is the total Takes saved for that project, refreshed automatically in the background.

Use the VST3 companion plugin. Drop it on your master bus or any mixer track, and click the Bookmark button at the exact moment you want to remember. You can also add a short session note right there in the plugin. Sabes Pro pins that moment to the timeline so you can jump back to it later.

In the desktop app, click the A/B Compare tab in the top navigation bar. Drag and drop two mix bounces, or select two Takes that contain rendered WAVs, into Slot A and Slot B. Click Match Loudness to calculate the integrated LUFS difference and level-match both tracks automatically. This lets you hear the real tonal difference without volume bias.

Take Certification creates a cryptographic digital timestamp that proves an exact mix state, including audio stems and session files, existed at a specific date and time. Click your completed Take on the timeline and click Certify Milestone (the Shield icon). You can export a PDF certificate or share a verification link with clients and labels.

Click the Project Health tab in the top menu of the desktop app and click Run Full Audit. Sabes Pro scans your project folder for missing audio samples, unlinked WAV stems, missing plugin references, and backup block checksum errors, highlighting any issues in red so you can fix them before sending files to a client.

Click any Take and click Create Review Link. You can choose whether to include an interactive audio waveform preview. Sabes Pro encrypts the review link locally. When your client opens the link in their web browser, they can listen to the mix, scrub through the timeline, and leave time-stamped comments without creating an account or installing any software.

Yes. The audio preview is served as an encrypted stream, and the decryption key travels in the part of the link that is never sent to the server. Sabes Pro cannot read the audio it proxies, and neither can anyone who intercepts the server traffic. You can revoke a link at any time from the Take details panel, which kills access immediately.

Open the Studio Console in the desktop app (the Team Console button in the top bar), go to Members, and add a collaborator by email. Choose Editor or Viewer for their role. If the person already has a Sabes Pro account, they are added right away and get an email invite. If they do not have an account yet, the invitation stays pending and a join link is generated for you to share.

When you invite someone who does not have an account, Sabes Pro creates a pending invitation and gives you a join link. You can copy that link and send it however you like, by email, chat, or text. When the person opens the link, they sign in or create a free account, and the invitation is accepted automatically. The shared project then appears on their dashboard.

Both roles can open the shared project, browse the full Take history, stream and restore project copies, and add comments. An Editor can also create review links and manage the project alongside the owner. A Viewer can see and restore everything but cannot change sharing settings or create review links.

Sabes Pro syncs automatically. When you save a Take, your desktop app uploads the new backup blocks and a small metadata update to your own cloud storage, and the shared project manifest refreshes. Collaborators who have the project open see it update in real time; everyone else sees the new Take count the next time their dashboard refreshes.

Studio tier subscriptions come with 5 seats by default and can scale up as your team grows. Team members are managed from the desktop app: open the Studio Console, go to Members & Seats, and add a collaborator by email. Each collaborator only gets access to the projects you share with them. To add extra seats, buy them on your account page at sabespro.com/account, or use the Add seats button in the console.

BYOS means you connect your own private cloud storage to Sabes Pro instead of paying for proprietary storage. We support Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, and custom SFTP servers. Open the desktop app, go to Settings, then Cloud Storage, pick your provider, enter your bucket name and API keys, and click Save & Test Connection.

Yes. If you prefer a consumer cloud account, connect Google Drive or Dropbox through the normal OAuth sign-in flow in Settings, Cloud Storage. Sabes Pro creates a Sabes Pro folder in your drive and keeps all backup blocks and project metadata inside it. Nothing is stored on Sabes servers.

Yes. Every file and backup block is encrypted on your local machine using AES-256-GCM before it ever leaves your computer. Your cloud storage provider only sees encrypted data blocks and cannot see your project names, song titles, or audio stems.

Two things: the encrypted backup blocks themselves, and a small metadata database that describes your Take history. The metadata file is a few hundred kilobytes even for large projects. Sabes Pro only uploads new blocks after each save, so a session that barely changed produces a tiny upload. The server never stores your audio.

Nothing breaks. Your Takes are always stored locally first, and cloud upload happens in the background. If the connection fails, Sabes Pro keeps tracking normally and retries the upload. Your local backups and recovery are never dependent on your cloud being online.

The Free Tier is 100% free forever and includes automatic local Take tracking for up to 3 active project workspaces, full timeline history, 1-click local recovery, and compatibility with all 6 supported DAWs. Free accounts can also join projects shared with them and browse the Take history as a collaborator.

Both plans give you the complete Plus feature set: unlimited project workspaces, BYOS cloud sync, A/B loudness comparison, Take certification, project health audits, and VST3 plugin access. Plus is a monthly subscription at $9.99/mo, while Lifetime Plus is a single one-time payment of $129 for permanent access with free lifetime updates.

Studio is the team tier. It includes everything in Plus plus team seats so you can invite collaborators to projects, sync Take history between rooms and machines, and manage members from the Studio Console. Studio subscriptions come with 5 seats by default and additional seats can be bought on your account page.

Log in to your account at sabespro.com, go to Overview & Plan, and click Manage Invoices & Billing (Paddle Portal). This opens your secure customer billing portal where you can download invoices, update your payment card, or manage your subscription.

Your project data is encrypted with keys that only you control. Sabes Pro cannot decrypt your backups for you, and no reset button exists on the server. During setup, the app offers to create a Backup Recovery File protected by a separate recovery code. Keep that file and its code somewhere safe, like a password manager or a printed copy. If you lose your password and do not have the recovery file, your encrypted backups cannot be recovered.

Your account can pair multiple devices. Pair each one from Settings, then Pair Device in the desktop app, using a code generated in the Connected Devices tab of your web account. You can remove old devices from the same tab at any time.

Log in to your account dashboard, go to the Settings & Security tab, and click Download GDPR Data Export (JSON). To delete your account permanently, click Delete Account Permanently in the Danger Zone at the bottom of the page.

Open the Sabes Pro page in the Microsoft Store app on your PC and click Install. Windows downloads the MSIX package, installs it, and pins the app to your Start menu. The Store build automatically detects that it was installed from the Store and updates itself through Windows Update, so you always have the latest version.

When you install an app from the Microsoft Store, Windows automatically places it in your Start Menu and Windows Search rather than cluttering your desktop with icons. You can launch Sabes Pro immediately by opening your Start Menu or typing "SabesPro" into the search bar. If you want a quick shortcut on your desktop, simply open your Start Menu, find Sabes Pro, and drag the icon directly onto your desktop. You can also right-click it and choose "Pin to taskbar" for 1-click access.

For the Microsoft Store version, right-click the app in the Start menu and choose Uninstall, or remove it from Settings, Apps. For the standalone version, run the uninstaller from the setup wizard or remove it from Settings, Apps. Uninstalling does not delete your local Takes or cloud backups; your project history is stored separately.

If you installed from the Microsoft Store, updates come through Windows Update automatically. If you installed the standalone version, Sabes Pro checks for updates on launch and in the background, and prompts you to download when a new version is available.

The VST3 plugin is included in the download. After installing Sabes Pro, copy the Sabes_Pro.vst3 file into your DAW plugin folder. In REAPER that is C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 by default; Ableton and FL Studio scan the same system folder. Then rescan plugins in your DAW and load Sabes Pro from the FX browser.

First, make sure your antivirus or Windows SmartScreen is not blocking it, which is the most common cause. For the standalone version, right-click the installer and choose Run as administrator. If you installed from the Store and the app fails to open, try updating the Store app itself and check that WebView2 Runtime is installed. You can also check the app log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Sabes\logs for details.

Open Settings, Cloud Storage and click Test Connection. Confirm the bucket or drive is still accessible and the credentials have not expired, especially for OAuth connections. If everything tests fine, check that you are on the Plus, Lifetime, or Studio tier, because cloud sync is a paid feature. Local tracking and recovery keep working regardless.