Loopback Rogue Amoeba

[micpool]

For anyone who hasn't stumbled across this yet, Loopback has been developed by Rogue Amoeba as a better alternative to Sound Flower.

With it you can create virtual sound devices of up to 32 channels which are then available to other audio applications running on the same Mac. It's very low latency and seems to be quite stable.

I have managed to take 32 outputs from QLab and record them as a 32 channel multitrack file in Twisted Wave, but there are many possibilities.

I have Waves NX, a 5.1 to binaural  virtual mix environment, running in Reaper and am sending 6 outputs from QLab to it and outputting to headphones to simulate speaker positions in a theatre.

It's worth having a play with.

Mic

[Jeremy S. Bloom]

Thanks so much for sharing this!

[Joshua Langman]

Thank you!

[Andrew Blizzard]

What a great use of Waves NX. Thanks for the tip.

Have you done any testing with sending audio out of QLab using Loopback, and then bringing it back into QLab? Wondering if this setup might be stable enough to allow for another program to process audio (such as mic cue mixing)? I will have to experiment with this...

Andrew

[Matt Padden]

Nice. Like the conventional Aggregate Audio Device, but with the addition of app inputs too.

I've yet to play with it; can you cross patch within the Loopback device (eg ip12 to op25) or is it fixed by the order of the devices you add to it?

Matt

[micpool]

The problem would be that with audio input i.e Microphone cues the input and output device need to be the same.

Mic

[jonathan....@gmail.com]

@Andrew 

I've actually just implemented this on a project. It took a little thinking but it's now working seamlessly. Here's what you do:

1. Set up a loopback device. No need to incorporate any specific apps or routing. The default settings will do it for you. If you need more than 2 channels of audio handling then you'll need to add channels by setting "Channel Mapping" to manual and adding channels to the list. But again, don't associate those channels with any specific applications. This is strictly a passive device.

2. Set up an aggregate device in AudioMIDI setup that incorporates the loopback device and whatever your "real" output is, whether it's built-in output or HDMI or whatever. The trick is in arranging the subdevices in the right way within the aggregate device. See the "Loopback Aggregate" screenshot I attached. The loopback subdevice is output and input 1-2, and the built-in output is output 3-4.

3. Now, in QLab, set your audio cue device to "Loopback Aggregate" and route the audio out 1-2. 

4. Set up a mic cue and set the device to be "Loopback Aggregate" as well. Take input 1-2 and matrix it to output 3-4.

5. Voila! Audio from the cue runs through loopback, into the mic cue, and out channels 1-2 of the built in output! Theoretically you can do the same with as many channels of loopback or output as you need.

This is an awesome way to incorporate a "master volume" fader into your workspace if you don't have hardware between your qlab outputs and your amps. Aaaaand because it's based internally you can address it with OSC or MIDI from a controller. Also, I could be wrong, but I believe you can address AU plugins using fade cues when they are instantiated on a cue, but not when they're on a master output or device output, so this is an opportunity to automate plugin behavior across the master output. 

[John Leonard]

The combination of Loopback, aggregate device and Plogue Bidule is very versatile. For example, I’ve been decoding B-Format surround files playing out of QLab, though Loopback to Plogue and then just going straight to system outputs as a routable 5.1 signal. You do the output routing in Plogue and off you go.

It’s going to change things…

John