ROARKIT
Toolbox · The Mad Lions Lab · Experiment 07
ROARKITbeta
One app, sixteen tools. It sees what your computer needs, makes room, copies and checks a shoot's cards, reports every clip, keeps your files tidy and your passwords locked.
Free · Mac and Windows · nothing is deleted, only moved to the Trash
New · 0.4.0 and 0.4.1
Out on 29 October: a first page that looks after the computer, a light mode, every tool checked and grown, and a new icon, a toolbox.
RoarKit now opens on the Overview: a score for the computer, then what needs care first: the start-up disk, a failing or full drive, the caches, memory, heat, battery, an update. Each one comes with the button to the tool that sorts it out.
v0.4.0
Dark, Light or Automatic with the computer, six accent colours, three text sizes, less movement. A glass lens glides to the tool you choose, and on a Mac the side menu is the system's own frosted glass.
v0.4.0Make a twin copies a card to several drives at once, reads every copy back against the card, and writes an ASC MHL with MD5 into each: the file DITs, post houses and insurers ask for.
v0.3.0Disk speed test can write for longer and counts what the drive holds once its cache is full. Each drive's last results stay, so one slowing down over the months shows.
v0.4.0Quick reads only the first and last seconds of every clip, where a card or a copy that stopped short shows. BRAW, R3D, ARRIRAW and other camera RAW are named, with the app that opens them, not called broken.
v0.4.0Make a ZIP locked with a password (AES-256) that a Mac, Windows 11 and 7-Zip open. Test an archive without unpacking it, or drop several to open one after the other.
v0.4.0As in a browser: the arrows at the start of the top row, ⌘[ and ⌘], a swipe on the trackpad, the mouse's side buttons. Every screen is remembered, inside a tool too: the folder you were in, the report you made.
v0.4.0Drive health sees a drive the moment it is plugged in or out, and ejects it safely from the list, never the start-up disk. Each drive shows when it was last checked against its copy report.
v0.4.001 · A look
The real app, with the demo's sample drives. Choose a screen.
RoarKit opens on a score for the computer: the start-up disk, the drives, the caches, memory, heat and battery, in a few seconds. Each thing to sort out comes with the button to the tool that does it.
A drive, your home folder, a shoot: every folder by its size, the biggest files, the space each kind of file takes, and the big files nobody has touched for months. On a Mac, the local Time Machine snapshots too.
The same file twice whatever its name, the same video in another size, codec or format, the same sound in a WAV and its MP3, a trim cut out of a longer video. Previews side by side, the one to keep suggested.
Every clip of a card or a folder with a frame, its length, codec and profile, picture, frame rate, timecode and sound. Save it as a PDF for the post house or as a list for Excel.
Copy and move between two folders without ever writing over, compare them, make a project's folders from a template. Choose a file to see everything inside it: every stream, its colour, bit depth, timecode and camera.
Every core of the processor, the graphics, memory and its pressure, swap, the drives, the network, heat and battery, and the programs that work it hardest. One button measures the internet: how long a 10 GB delivery takes to go up and come down.
A test file is written, read back and removed; then you see which ProRes, BRAW, H.264 and H.265 rates the drive can record and play. A long write shows where an SSD slows down once its cache is full, as on a long take, and each drive keeps its last results to compare.
One master password opens them; they are sealed with AES-256 on this computer and never leave it. 2FA codes, a generator, weak, reused and old passwords marked, and an import from Chrome, Safari, Firefox, 1Password or Bitwarden.
What each drive reports of its own health, its free space and how it is connected, with Eject in the list. A drive that warns it may fail moves to the top of the Overview.
Dark, Light or Automatic with the computer, six accent colours, the text size, less movement. On a Mac the side menu is the system's own frosted glass.
02 · The tools
In the side menu by what they are for. Each one does its one job, and does it carefully.
03 · For the shoot
From the card that comes out of the camera to the drive that goes on the shelf.
Put a card in and RoarKit offers to copy it to your drives, all of them at once. Then it reads every copy back and checks it against the card, byte for byte, writes an ASC MHL next to each, and tells you when the card is safe to eject. Nothing is written over; the clips keep their dates.
Media report lists every clip with a frame, its codec and profile, frame rate, timecode and sound, as a PDF for the post house or a CSV for Excel. Contact sheet puts a frame of each clip on one page. Clip check plays them all through and names any that is cut short or damaged, before the card is formatted.
Find twins compares what is inside, never the name: the same file twice, the master and its web export, a WAV and its MP3, a teaser cut out of the film. A folder copied twice shows as one. Lock your Masters folders and nothing in them is ever offered for the Trash.
04 · Everything
RoarKit, briefly.
The Overview checks the disks, memory, heat, battery and caches each time it opens, and puts what matters first.
Like a browser: ← → in the top row, ⌘[ and ⌘], a swipe on the trackpad, the mouse's side buttons.
Dark, Light or Automatic with the computer, six accent colours, three text sizes, less movement.
A long copy, check or report tells you when it ends while you are in another app, with a sound if you like.
The whole app in either language, chosen in Settings.
MOV, MP4, MXF, MKV, AVI, MTS, WebM and more: ffmpeg comes inside the app. Camera RAW it cannot open (BRAW, R3D, ARRIRAW) is named, with the app that opens it.
Reports and contact sheets carry the name you set, for the client or the post house.
It can open on the tool you used last, and each tool remembers its folders.
Every long job can be stopped; the computer does not fall asleep in the middle of one.
A new version downloads in the background; one tap to restart.
Nothing to sign up for, nothing uploaded: it all runs on your computer.
No subscription, no ads.
05 · Safe
RoarKit only reads until you choose. Then it moves, never deletes.
RoarKit never deletes your files: what you choose goes to the computer's Trash and waits there until you empty it.
Of every group of twins one file stays, checked twice, on the page and in the app. Nothing in a Masters folder is ever offered.
Copies, moves, archives and renames never write over a file: a name already taken gets a number, and a rename can be undone.
Everything runs on your computer. It goes online only to look for an update and, when you press it, for the internet speed test.
The passwords are sealed with AES-256 under your master password and never leave the computer. We cannot open them, and no one can bring a forgotten master password back.
06 · Download
Free, and in beta: an experiment of The Mad Lions Lab that we use on our own shoots.
It updates itself. RoarKit fetches new versions on its own and asks for a quick restart. If you have RoarTwin, it becomes RoarKit with its next update.
First time on a Mac? The app is not signed by Apple yet: right-click it in Applications and choose Open, or press Open Anyway in System Settings › Privacy & Security. On Windows: More info › Run anyway.
07 · Questions
Yes. No subscription, no ads, no account.
It grew. RoarTwin found duplicates; RoarKit still does, as Find twins, next to fifteen other tools. If RoarTwin is on your computer, it updates itself into RoarKit and keeps your settings.
It does not delete your files at all. What you choose goes to the Trash, one of each group of twins always stays, and Masters folders are never touched. Empty the Trash only when you are sure.
It looks only in the folders where programs keep their caches, the render cache of Resolve, the media cache of Premiere, the browsers' and the like, and moves only what is inside them. The programs make them again when they need them. Your projects, media and renders are never touched.
Every copy is read back from the drive after it is written and compared with the card, file by file, with SHA-256. Each copy gets a report and an ASC MHL with MD5, which DITs and post houses read. Months later, Check a backup reads the drive again against that report.
In one file on your computer, sealed with AES-256 under a key made from your master password. They are not sent anywhere and there is no cloud. You can save an encrypted backup for another drive. If the master password is forgotten, no one can open the vault, we neither.
Computers do not let an app read their heat sensors without special rights. RoarKit shows what the system itself says, the heat level and whether it is slowing down to cool off, which is what you need to act on.
Yes: any folder your computer can open, a card, a USB or Thunderbolt drive, a network share. Drive health needs the drive to pass its SMART on, which many USB cases and card readers do not.
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