Privacy

Transcend is made by Javid Medina. This page says what the app and this website send anywhere, when, and why. The short version: your music and your projects stay on your computer. The app only sends something when it checks for updates, when you choose to send a crash report, and, in the version that goes on sale, when it checks your licence. We don't sell your information, we don't use it for advertising, and we don't build profiles of you.

Who is responsible

Javid Medina decides what happens to the information described here (under European law, the "controller"). Write to dawtranscend@gmail.com. Javid is based in Massachusetts, United States. If Transcend moves to a company Javid sets up to run it, that company takes over this role, and this page will say so.

The app

Your projects

Projects, their saved versions, recovery snapshots of unsaved work and your settings are kept on your computer. Transcend does not upload them. Opening a project from another DAW reads the file on your computer and never changes the original.

We never use your projects, recordings, exports, crash reports or anything else you make or send us to train AI models, and we never let anyone else do so. Transcend's own AI features, such as separating a song into stems, are trained only on recordings we have the right to use for that.

Update checks

About 30 seconds after Transcend starts, and every 12 hours while it runs, it downloads a small signed file from our server (hosted by Cloudflare) to see whether there is a newer version. The request tells the server your Transcend version and build and your operating system's name (for example "Windows 11"), and nothing about you or your projects; like any web request, it reaches the server with your IP address. Turn it off in Settings > General > Saving, "Check for updates automatically". An update is downloaded and installed only when you say so.

Crash reports

If Transcend crashes or stops responding, it keeps a report on your computer and, on the next launch, asks whether to send it. Nothing is sent unless you press Send Report, or have ticked "Send reports automatically from now on". "Show what will be sent" lists every file first. A report contains:

• a crash dump: a snapshot of Transcend's memory and its threads when it crashed. It can contain pieces of whatever was open, such as file paths, project, track and plugin names;
• a record of the last few hundred things done in the app (actions, undo steps, which project was open, which plugins were loaded) and the audio device settings;
• facts about the computer: operating system and version, processor type and core count, display, language setting;
• the Transcend version, and a random number made on your computer that tells reports from the same install apart;
• anything you type into the report: a note, and an email address if you choose to give one.

Reports are stored in a private storage bucket that only Javid can read, and are used only to find and fix the problem. The server keeps a scrambled (salted hash) form of your IP address to stop floods of reports, never the address itself. A short notice of each report goes to a private Discord channel; it never includes your email. Reports not sent are deleted from your computer after 30 days. Help > Report a Bug > Send to Transcend sends the same kind of report when you ask.

"Tell Transcend" on an import report

When a project from another DAW contains something Transcend hasn't seen before, the import report may offer "Tell Transcend". Only if you click it, and after showing you exactly what will be sent, it sends which format and DAW version the file came from, the names of the file's unfamiliar parts, and the Transcend version and platform. It never sends the project, or any name from it, or the random install number.

Your licence (the on-sale version)

Buying Transcend is handled by Stripe, which is the seller: it takes your payment, name, email and billing details under its own privacy policy. It tells us your name, email, country and what you bought, so we can deliver your licence and help you with it; we don't use them for marketing. We never see your card. When you activate Transcend, the app sends your licence key, a scrambled form of your computer's ID (the ID itself never leaves your computer), a label so you can recognise the computer in your list (for example "Transcend on STUDIO-PC"), and the Transcend version. Our licence server keeps the key, the order it belongs to, that scrambled ID, the label, and when the computer was first and last seen, so it can count your computers and let you remove one. About once a week, when you are online, the app quietly renews its licence the same way. Your licence file, kept on your computer, includes your purchase email so you can see whose licence it is. A build that does not check a licence (every build so far) sends none of this.

The Store, sound packs and the Library

Opening the extension Store or the Library downloads their lists, and installing an extension or a sound pack downloads it, from the same server as the updates. Installing an extension "from a link" asks GitHub for that repository's release, and downloads the package from GitHub; GitHub's privacy policy applies to that request.

Searching for a missing plugin

If a project names a plugin you don't have, clicking its name opens a Google search for it in your web browser. Nothing is sent unless you click.

Your plugins and extensions

Third-party plugins run inside Transcend and can connect to the internet on their own; their makers' privacy policies apply. Extensions can't connect to the internet: Transcend gives them no way to.

This website

• No tracking. No analytics, no advertising trackers, and no cookies. The site keeps nothing in your browser, and the fonts are served from this site.
• "Will my project open?" reads the version stamp of the file you drop in your own browser. The file is never uploaded.
• Applying to test keeps your email, the link you came from and the date, only to tell you whether you're picked and to send your invite. We never share or sell it.
• The ideas wall keeps your note, the name you give (if any), the date, and for one day a scrambled form of your IP address, used only to limit how many notes one person can send. Javid sees each new note, with its name, in a private Discord channel. A note is shown only after he approves it; approved notes and their names are public. If the wall uses Cloudflare Turnstile to keep robots out, Cloudflare's script is loaded when you start writing.
• Hosting. The site runs on Cloudflare, which sees each request (including your IP address and browser) to deliver and protect the site, and keeps request logs for a few days.
• The trailer, once it is on YouTube, loads from youtube-nocookie.com only when you press play. From then on, Google's privacy policy applies.
• Links to Discord, TikTok and Instagram take you to those services, under their own policies.

Why we use it

European law asks us to name the reason (the "legal basis") for each use:

• Update checks, and the site's request logs: our legitimate interest in keeping Transcend secure, working and up to date, and the site safe from abuse. Update checks can be turned off.
• Crash reports, "Tell Transcend", applying to test and the ideas wall: your consent. Nothing is sent until you choose to, and you can withdraw it at any time by asking us to delete what you sent.
• Activating and renewing a licence: carrying out our agreement with you, the licence you bought.

Who else handles it

• Cloudflare hosts this site, the update and Store files, the crash-report storage, the test applications and ideas, and the licence server, and handles them only on our instructions.
• Discord carries the private notices Javid gets for each crash report and each new idea.
• Stripe sells Transcend and is responsible for what it collects at checkout.
• GitHub and Google (YouTube, and the plugin search) only when you use the parts of Transcend or the site that go to them.

Otherwise we share information only if the law requires it, for example a valid court order.

Where it is processed

Javid works from the United States, and our providers may process information there and in other countries. Where information from the EU, the UK or Switzerland goes to another country, it is covered by the safeguards those providers use, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

• Test applications: until testing closes, then deleted. Sooner if you ask.
• Ideas: an approved note stays on the wall until you ask us to take it down. A declined note is deleted 30 days after it is declined. The scrambled IP address is cleared after a day.
• Crash reports you sent: up to 12 months, then deleted. Sooner if you ask.
• Licence records: while the licence exists, and after it ends for as long as tax and accounting law requires. Stripe keeps its own records of the sale, as tax law requires.
• Cloudflare's request logs: a few days.

How it is kept safe

Crash reports and the site's records sit in private storage that only Javid's account can reach, and everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Updates and the Store's list are signed, so Transcend can tell a genuine file from a forged one and refuses the rest. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever puts your information at risk, we will tell you, and the authorities the law requires.

Your choices and rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what we hold about you and send you a copy, to correct it, to delete it (your test application, your notes on the wall, crash reports you sent, or your licence's computer list, which you can also change yourself), to stop using it or use it only in limited ways, and to give it to you in a form you can take elsewhere. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time; that doesn't undo what was done before. Write to dawtranscend@gmail.com or ask on Discord. We answer within 30 days, and may ask you to confirm the request is yours.

If you are in the EU or the UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority. If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law, you have these rights too, and using them won't change how we treat you. We don't sell or share personal information as those laws define it, so there is nothing to opt out of. Because we don't track you, a browser's Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal has nothing to switch off here.

Children

Transcend and this site are not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has sent us something, tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If what the app or the site sends changes, this page changes first, with a new date at the top. A significant change is also announced in the update notes and on Discord.