Rogue Amoeba Loopback - Decent Audio Routing in macOS
What is Loopback?
I’m looking at Loopback today. Loopback is software that allows you to route audio however you want in macOS and create virtual audio input or output devices to use in any software that uses audio. That might be something more advanced like Ableton or Logic Pro or something simple like Zoom or a basic audio recorder.
Audio can be passed from one application to another or one physical hardware device to another. It’s incredibly simple to use using a ‘wire based’ user interface (shown below) and pretty much lets you create any audio routing scenario you want within macOS.
What’s in the Video?
Creating a Virtual Input Device. In this demo, I combine the input from a USB mic and music directly from the Tidal app and show how you can then select this in Zoom. This would allow you to not only talk to someone on Zoom but also mix in music directly from Tidal (or whichever music app you want). In this case, Loopback is going directly to the process ID for Tidal so you don’t need to change the output settings in Tidal and you can still monitor that through your speaker or headphones (if you’re on a Zoom call, headphones would be the way to go).
Setting Up my RME Fireface with Loopback. In the second demo, I’m showing you a bespoke setup within the RME Totalmix software. This is a little more specialist and specific but it gives an idea of what level of control Loopback gives you on a professional multi I/O device.
Creating a Virtual Output Device. The third demo looks at the default ‘Pass-Thru’ device that Loopback creates. Again, I use the Tidal app and my RME Totalmix software to show you the results.
Apologies for the length of the video. I wanted to walk you through some real-life use cases in detail in the video which takes more time. I'm not sure I made them quite as clear and concise as I could, but hopefully, if you're already familiar with this subject matter, you'll be able to figure out what I was doing and why.
If you end up with a better understanding of what Loopback is all about, then my work here is done. Alternatively, if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.
Note on Ethics
This is not an advert. I paid for the software myself and I’m writing this as an appreciation for a very powerful and well-designed piece of software offered at the right price.
Discount Code
I approached Rogue Amoeba after purchase and mentioned that I was going to review this product and asked if they had any discount codes I could offer to my viewers and readers.
Use discount code ‘TDCAT’ for 15% off the Loopback software (valid until December 31st 2021).
Audio Capture Engine
It’s all done using Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Capture Engine (ACE). The text below is taken directly from the Rogue Amoeba website. They describe what ACE is all about much better than I can.
“The Audio Capture Engine (ACE) framework provides Mac apps with the ability to capture audio from specific running applications, as well as all audio currently being produced by the system. ACE can be used to provide audio to enhance screen recording, VNC/remote access, game streaming, and much more.
ACE provides an API for applications to create virtual CoreAudio capture devices, which then pull in the desired audio. For example, ACE can be used to programmatically create a capture device pulling audio from a running instance of VLC. Any audio that VLC produces will show up as audio input from the virtual capture device. The audio can then be read and processed by your application, using entirely standard CoreAudio APIs.
ACE can be integrated into an existing application in a matter of hours. It's provided in two parts: A C library that applications integrate to communicate with ACE, and a CoreAudio server plugin to be installed on the user's computer. Functions are provided for installing/uninstalling the server plugin, as well as creating virtual capture devices.” (Rogue Amoeba Website)
M1 Compatible?
Yes. Loopback and the Audio Capture Engine (ACE) have been fully M1 and ARM-compatible since December 2020. As a MacBook Pro M1 owner, this gives me confidence in the product, particularly as ACE is something that runs in the background and potentially impacts so much of the software that I use.
I add this at the time of writing (May 2021) because it’s very relevant right now. I appreciate that once this post is a year old or more, we’ll be much further down the line with the Apple Silicon migration and this will be less of a concern.
