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Install on macOS

Tested on macOS 13 (Ventura), 14 (Sonoma), and 15 (Sequoia) on Intel and Apple Silicon.

1. Install Homebrew (if needed)​

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

2. System dependencies​

brew install rustup git git-lfs ffmpeg pkg-config
rustup-init -y                # Rust stable toolchain
brew install blackhole-2ch    # virtual audio cable

For v0.2+ GNU Radio flowgraphs:

brew install gnuradio soapysdr
# gr-dnn ships as a wheel in v0.2; see Architecture → Flowgraphs

3. Virtual cable setup​

BlackHole is the de-facto free virtual cable on macOS.

  1. After brew install blackhole-2ch, open Audio MIDI Setup (⌘+Space → "Audio MIDI Setup").
  2. Click + → Create Multi-Output Device.
  3. Check both BlackHole 2ch and your MacBook / external speakers.
  4. Rename it to something obvious like "RFW-Listen".

Use BlackHole 2ch as RFWhisper's output device and as WSJT-X's input device.

4. RFWhisper​

git clone https://github.com/jakenherman/rfwhisper.git
cd rfwhisper
cargo build --release
sudo install -m755 target/release/rfwhisper /usr/local/bin/
rfwhisper models fetch
rfwhisper doctor

5. Apple Silicon: CoreML acceleration​

When the ONNX (DFN3) backend is enabled, RFWhisper prefers the CoreML execution provider on Apple Silicon automatically:

rfwhisper info providers
# CoreMLExecutionProvider   (preferred on M-series)
# CPUExecutionProvider      (fallback)

This typically halves inference latency vs CPU-only for DeepFilterNet3.

6. Privacy & mic permissions​

macOS will prompt for microphone access the first time you run rfwhisper denoise-live. If you miss the prompt:

  • System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone — allow Terminal (or your editor).

Troubleshooting​

  • No sound through BlackHole — verify the Multi-Output Device is selected as system output; check that input/output sample rates match (48 kHz is our default).
  • cargo: command not found after install — restart your shell or source "$HOME/.cargo/env".
  • Rosetta — not required. Build natively on Apple Silicon; you'll keep CoreML eligibility.