Pulse OSC is a simple but powerful utility designed to monitor the health of an OSC connection and clearly display its status in real time. Originally created to ensure communication between QLab and ETC Eos lighting consoles, Pulse OSC has evolved into a flexible, user-customizable tool that can monitor any OSC link where a reply to a ping message can be expected.

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Every few seconds, Pulse OSC sends out a customizable OSC message and listens for a specific reply. If the reply is received, the link is alive—if not, it’s dead. The moment Pulse OSC detects a failure, the status window turns red, giving you time to alert a department or troubleshoot before it’s too late.

The main window features a distinctive green ECG-style heartbeat when active, and now includes a live OSC message monitor that automatically scrolls as data is sent and received. This lets you confirm in real time that messages are flowing and replies are coming in as expected.

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The window can optionally float always on top so you never lose sight of your OSC link status—but you can turn this off if you'd prefer it to behave like a regular app.

And if you don’t want the window open at all? No problem. Pulse OSC lives in your Mac’s menu bar and shows a heart icon that reflects the connection status—green when alive, red when not—so you can monitor your OSC link visually at a glance, without even opening the app window.

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Everything from the ping interval, message paths, ports, opacity, and visual title can be customized via the built-in Settings panel. You can even export the log of OSC activity for later review or debugging.

Whether you're syncing lighting cues to sound, coordinating media servers, or simply want confidence your OSC system is working as expected, Pulse OSC is here to give you that heartbeat of assurance.

Download Pulse OSC for macOS below, and if you’ve got feedback or ideas for future features, we’d love to hear from you.