AAF Look
Press space.
Read the turnover.
The fastest way to read an AAF turnover: select it in the Finder and press space. AAF Look renders the report instantly, right in QuickLook, with no app to open. It also says what is wrong: media that did not arrive, a file that stopped short, a Sequence the DAW will not pick. Launch the app when you want to dig in or export a PDF.
Download AAF Look free. The complete app runs for 14 days; Finder Quick Look keeps working forever.
$20 once. No subscription, no account, and no internet connection required: not to activate, not to keep working. The 14-day trial is the complete app, so you can be sure before you pay. If it is not for you, there is a no-hassle 14-day refund policy.
Select an AAF in the Finder, press space, and the report renders right there, in under a second. No app to open, no import, no spinner. The answer is one keystroke away, and this QuickLook preview works forever whether or not the app is licensed.
That speed is the engine doing the work right on your Mac: native, in-process, with nothing to spin up first.
Spacebar on a real turnover, not a staged one: 4.4 GB, 34 tracks, 4,073 clips. The AAF Look QuickLook extension parses and renders it in under a second, and a small AAF appears almost instantly. Timing varies with the file and the disk it is on.
- Demo file4.4 GB
- Parseunder 1 s
- Download8.7 MB
- Networknone required
- Enginenative Swift
Available now /aaflook
AAF Look
The full inspection, in a fast native Mac app.
Every turnover starts with the same question: what is actually in this AAF? Opening a session to find out is slow, and opening someone else's AAF in your NLE just to read it is worse. AAF Look answers from the Finder, before you import anything.
The report covers what a sound editor actually wants to know: every track and clip with timecode in and out, markers, source files, audio format (sample rate, bit depth, channel count), whether and where audio effects were already rendered, and whether media is embedded or linked. Since 1.1 it also checks the turnover: linked files that are missing or short, a file that stopped part-way through a transfer, a Sequence the DAW would not have picked.
- Full inspection: tracks, clips, timecode, markers, source files, audio properties.
- Findings: what would cost you time in the DAW, what was checked, and what to do about it. Nothing to read when nothing is wrong.
- Export a clean PDF: reorder the sections, then send it with the turnover. Prints just as cleanly on Letter or A4.
- A native-Swift engine, built and tuned in-house: a 4.4 GB turnover reads in under a second, with no cloud and nothing to wait on.
- Your media never leaves the machine. Works entirely offline, licensing included.
From the Finder preview to a PDF in the mix house's inbox: Open in AAF Look, then File, Export as PDF. Forty seconds, including the reading.
The whole turnover, nothing skipped.
AAF Look reads the entire AAF and lays it out as one report you scroll straight through: every track, every clip with timecode in and out, every marker, and every source file. What is in the turnover is in the report.
- Show or hide any section, so the report carries exactly what the next person needs and nothing they do not.
- Reorder the sections into whatever reading order suits the show.
- Flags where audio has already been rendered, and on which clips, so nothing baked in surprises you downstream.
- Says which linked source files are there, which are missing, and which arrived shorter than the edit needs.
- Put your own logo and company name at the top of the report, on screen and in the PDF, so what you send out reads as yours.
Most turnovers are fine, and the report says so by having nothing to add. When one is not, AAF Look says what would cost you time in the DAW, what it checked to know that, and what to do next, in the words a post operator uses.
The same check runs in the Finder preview, so the banner is the first thing you see, before you have opened anything.
- Linked media AAF Look looks for the source files the AAF points at and reports which are there, which are missing, and which arrived incomplete or hold less audio than the edit needs. Each missing file is named, with where it was expected and which clips go offline without it.
- Recovery Report A file that stopped part-way through a transfer, or whose contents cannot be read, gets a plain explanation of what happened, what could still be recovered from it, and what was not established, rather than a report that pretends nothing is wrong or a DAW import that fails with no reason.
- Next step, every time Compare this copy's size against the original. Point AAF Look at the folder the media is in. Ask for the AAF to be exported again with only one Sequence. A finding tells you what the file needs, never who to blame.
- Copy Report Summary ⇧⌘C puts the short version on the clipboard, ready to paste into a reply to whoever sent the turnover.
The report exports as a clean PDF: one self-contained file you can attach to the turnover, email to the mix house, or drop in the show folder. Whoever opens it sees the same one-sheet you did, laid out exactly the way you set it.
Pick the sections you want, put them in the order you like, then export. It lands right the first time. And when someone does need it on paper, it prints just as cleanly: page breaks fall between sections, table rows never split mid-cell, and a plain monochrome laser copy reads perfectly on Letter or A4.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Never. The app, the QuickLook preview, and the license all work fully offline. We built it this way on purpose: post facilities routinely keep machines that handle sensitive material off the network, and your tools should not argue with that.
Does AAF Look play the timeline?
No. AAF Look is for instant inspection: tracks, clips, timecode, markers, source files, and clean PDF reports. It does not play audio or scrub the cut. Playback is the job of AAF Player, a separate app that opens the same turnover and plays it back.
What if the file is damaged?
You get a Recovery Report that tells you whether the file stopped short or its contents cannot be read, what could still be recovered from it, and what to ask for. It is the difference between knowing the transfer failed and spending an hour finding out in the DAW.
Does it check that the media actually arrived?
Yes. For an AAF that links to its media rather than embedding it, AAF Look looks in the AAF's own folder for every source file and reports which are missing or shorter than the edit needs. If the files are somewhere else on this Mac, point it at the folder with File → Check Linked Media…
How many Macs can I install it on?
The ones you personally use: the desktop, the laptop, the bay. We do not count machines or phone home to check. The license has your name on it; we trust you not to hand it around.
What happens when version 2 comes out?
Your 1.x license includes every 1.x update and keeps working forever. A future major version would be a separate purchase, and your old license never stops unlocking the version you bought.
Setup steps and the full FAQ live in the AAF Look help. Something else on your mind? Email support; the person who built it answers the mail.