Tim Exile's Finalist 2 Leaves Reaktor Behind

Browser based, no AI, no install, pay to export   24-Sep-26

Tim Exile has spent two decades building tools that do things slightly differently - Reaktor ensembles, The Finger, and a live looping rig held together with his own code. His mixing tool Finalist has been out since  last October. Version 2 leaves Native Instruments' Reaktor behind entirely.

Finalist 2 runs in Chrome or Edge at finalist.audio, and as a free standalone app for macOS and Windows. The workflow is the whole point: drop your stems in, let it analyse them, choose a preset, tweak if you want to, export. There is no download, no licence redemption, no DAW template and no account until you want to export. Your audio never leaves your machine - which is the direct argument against the AI mixing services it sits alongside.

Tim describes the engine as hand-designed listening and processing algorithms mapped onto the mixer through genre-based presets: analogue warmth emulation, mid-side processing, multiband dynamics, transient shaping, clipper-limiters and a limiter network working at several points in the signal path. It runs in realtime on your own hardware. What has changed most for version 2:

• Export - one click, offline rendering to WAV, AIFF or FLAC, with the option to bounce Drums, Bass, Back and Front group stems that sum exactly to the master. Stem separation, but without the AI artefacts.
• Stems - the limit doubles from 32 to 64, and stems are placed automatically from their file names. You can add, replace, delete or update stems inside an existing project without starting again.
• Library - every mix is saved to a browsable library, with Versions for comparing settings within a project and Templates for reusing a sound across an album or EP.
• Interface - resizable, with context-sensitive help, tutorials and a live support assistant built in.
• Engine - recalibrated for more dynamic range and transparency after user feedback, and null-tested against the original at every stage. The Strength knobs still dial in a thicker, denser sound when you want it.

"A lot of the time you don't actually need AI to build a really useful tool," says Exile. "With hand-rolled algorithms you can intentionally design an infinite number of ways to make a mix sound, rather than relying on a black box of training outputs."

Mixing, analysis, presets, versions and templates are free. Exporting a finished mix costs a credit, is covered by a monthly or annual subscription, or is unlimited with a perpetual licence for the desktop app - usable on up to three machines, with no internet required. That licence is £149, reduced to £99 in a launch offer running until 9th October with code FINALIST2. Finalist 1 owners upgrade for £25, half the usual £49.

It is aimed at anyone without the time, skills, budget or appetite to mix their own music, with a second use case for pros: a rapid prototyping playground for trying radically different directions before committing to a manual mix. Finalist was built by Tim Exile with graphic design from Efflam Le Bivic, both former Native Instruments collaborators now working independently.

More Info: https://finalist.audio