Loopback gives you the power of a high-end studio mixing board right inside your computer, with no wires required! Create virtual system-level audio devices on your Mac, for use in real-time by other audio applications. Take the sound from any applications or audio input devices, then send it all to another application for processing.

With Loopback's custom audio routing, you control exactly how and where audio is heard on your Mac.

### Getting Started

To begin, we recommend having a quick read-through of this manual. You can also refer back to it at any time by accessing it from the Help menu.

### Updated in Loopback 1.1.3

- Major Enhancement: Loopback's audio capture system, powered by Instant On, has been updated to improve audio capture from VMWare Fusion, FaceTime, and Flash running in Safari.

- Bug Fix: The monitoring menu now correctly shows multiple audio devices with identical names.

- Bug Fix: An incompatibility with TouchBar Macs, seen when VoiceOver was on, has been corrected. In addition, the “Add Source” popup menu now properly accepts VoiceOver presses.

- Other: Loopback now has (extremely) preliminary compatibility with MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra). While we strongly recommend users stick with a fully supported version of MacOS for now, those who are testing High Sierra will now be able to test Loopback as well.

- Other: Loopback now requires MacOS 10.10 (Yosemite) or higher.

### Recent Major Updates

- Major Enhancement: Loopback now supports nested devices, allowing one Loopback virtual audio device to be embedded inside another Loopback device. Now you can create even more powerful (and complex) setups.

- Major Enhancement: Loopback's backend, powered by Instant On, has been updated with full support for MacOS 10.12 (Sierra).

- Major Enhancement: We've made a ton of small but useful interface improvements, including tooltips for overly long device summary information, visual warnings for missing devices, a Type column in the Audio Sources table, improved window resizing and full-screen support, a popover in the Home view, and changing the “Select Application…” modal dialog into a sheet.

### System Requirements

- A Macintosh computer

- MacOS 10.10 or higher

### Installation and Removal

To install Loopback, just drag it from your download folder to the Applications folder, and launch it. Loopback will walk you through the installation it needs to run.

If you wish to remove Loopback, be sure to select "Uninstall" from the Loopback menu to properly remove any Loopback virtual audio devices from the system. Once that's done, simply drag Loopback to the Trash.

### Purchasing Loopback

We provide a free trial of Loopback for you to test. During the trial, the quality of audio passed through Loopback devices is degraded after twenty minutes. The full version of Loopback can be unlocked with a license key from our online store.

When you're ready, head over to https://rogueamoeba.com/store/ to purchase Loopback.

For more information, see the Purchasing page.

# Virtual Audio Device Basics

With Loopback's virtual audio devices, you can route audio around your computer in powerful new ways. These virtual devices appear throughout your system in the same way as physical devices, like microphones or speakers do. Let's begin by discussing the basics of how virtual audio devices work.

### Loopback at Startup

Loopback's Main Window in Its Default View

Loopback has a single window which lists all of your current virtual audio devices in the device list on the left side. When you first launch Loopback, you'll see the “Loopback Audio” device. This default device is automatically created and enabled when you first install Loopback.

### Creating and Deleting Virtual Audio Devices

Controls for Adding and Removing Virtual Audio Devices

To create your first virtual audio device, a helpful bubble will guide you to the “(+)New Virtual Device” button. Click this, and a new device will appear in the device list, already enabled and ready for further configuration as desired.

To delete a virtual audio device entirely, highlight it in the list, then click the “(-)” button. Note that device deletion can't be undone. You can, of course, create a new device.

Rather than permanently deleting a device, you may instead wish to temporarily disable it.

### Enabling and Disabling Virtual Audio Devices

The “iTunes & Mic” Device Is Enabled;
The “Loopback Audio” Device Is Disabled

Newly created virtual audio devices are enabled by default, so that they can be used immediately. To disable a device, click the checkbox next to its name in the device list. To re-enable the device, click the checkbox back on.

It may be useful to think of disabling a virtual audio device as the equivalent of unplugging a physical device from your computer. Likewise, enabling a virtual device is the equivalent of plugging a physical device into your computer.

### Set It and Forget It

The Loopback application does not need to be running for your virtual audio devices to appear throughout the system. Once you’ve created and configured things in Loopback, you can quit the app. The virtual audio device will persist, even across machine restarts.

### Using Your Devices

This page covers the basics of creating devices. For more information on actually using these devices on your Mac, see the Device Usage page.

# Using Your Virtual Audio Devices

This page details how to use your virtual audio devices with other software on your Mac.

### Selecting Virtual Audio Devices on Your System

When a virtual audio device is enabled in Loopback, it's immediately ready for use by any application. You'll see the device in the Sound System Preferences, under both the Output and Input tabs, as pictured here:

A Loopback Virtual Audio Device in the Sound System Preferences

The virtual audio device will also appear in the device selectors for any audio applications which offer them. You'll be able to select the device as an audio input in Skype, FaceTime, GarageBand, and many other applications.

A Loopback Virtual Audio Device Selected in Skype's Preferences

### Device Name

You can adjust a virtual audio device's name at the top of the Loopback window. This affects how the device will appear in audio input selectors throughout the system.

The Name Field for a Loopback Device

Note that some applications may not immediately detect the new name. Disabling and then re-enabling the virtual audio device in Loopback should cause the new name to be shown everywhere. If the old name still persists in an application, quit and relaunch that app to get the new device name to appear.

### Adjusting Device Sample Rate

Loopback virtual audio devices default to an industry standard 44.1 kHz sample rate, but just like actual hardware audio devices, they can be configured to use other sample rates. This can be useful when using higher fidelity audio, as increasing the sample rate is the only way to ensure the entire audio flow will not contain any lossy conversions.

To change the sample rate of an enabled Loopback virtual audio device, open OS X's Audio MIDI Setup application (located in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder). Here, you can change the sample rate exactly as you would for an actual hardware audio device. Your Loopback virtual audio device will remember its new sample rate, even if it is later disabled and re-enabled.

Changing the Virtual Audio Device's Sample Rate in Audio MIDI Setup

### Additional Configuration

You'll probably want to configure your virtual audio device to pull in audio from specific audio sources (both applications and physical devices). Learn more about this on the Audio Sources page.

# Configuring Audio Sources

Virtual audio devices can be used as simple pass-thru devices, but Loopback provides much more power by allowing you to configure audio from specific sources to flow through a device. This is done by adding sources to the Audio Sources table.

The Audio Sources Table

To add a source to the table, click the + button to select an application or an audio device and have it added to the table. Any audio produced by the source will then be included in the virtual audio device’s output.

To remove an audio source, just highlight it in the table and click the “-” button, or press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Below, you can see that we've added the software applications QuickTime Player and iTunes to our device, as well as a USB Microphone.

The Audio Sources Table, With Sources Added

Thanks to Loopback, the audio from all these sources will be combined into one virtual device.

### Additional Settings

#### Muting Audio

With the “Mute audio sources” checkbox, you can toggle the muting of application audio sources included in the virtual audio device. By default, this checkbox is turned on. That means that when the virtual audio device is in use, audio from any sources included in the device will not be played through. This is usually desirable, as applications using the Loopback virtual audio device will frequently want to perform their own audio play-through, after some amount of processing.

The “Mute Audio Sources” checkbox should generally be left in its default On state. However, if you instead want the audio from sources to be audible regardless of how the application using the device is configured, you can toggle the checkbox off.

#### Monitoring Audio

With the “Monitor audio through” setting, you can direct audio from any audio sources to a secondary audio device. This can be useful for monitoring how your virtual Loopback device will sound to others. This setting is off by default, so if you wish to monitor audio, turn it on and select the desired output device.

Note that enabling monitoring will cause the Loopback virtual audio device to become active, even if no specific application is using the device. This will in turn cause the muting setting mentioned in the previous section to apply.

### Channel Mapping

By default, Loopback configures the channels for your virtual audio device automatically based on the sources you include. It will include as many channels as are needed to map channels from the audio sources one to one to output channels. Most users will likely want to leave the channel mapping in its default state.

If you wish to set a custom channel mapping, see the Manual Channel Mapping page for details.

# Channel Mapping

Audio devices usually have two or more channels, each of which can carry distinct audio. For example, a stereo microphone has both left and right channels. By default, Loopback handles channel mapping automatically, as detailed on the Audio Sources page. However, if you know you need a custom setup for your virtual audio device, you can modify the channel mapping as needed.

### Manually Configuring the Channel Mapping

After you've added your desired sources to the Audio Sources table, you can manually configure the virtual audio device's channel mapping. To begin, toggle the Channel Mapping setting to “Manual”. When you do, the Channel Mapping table will appear, as will the Channels column in the Audio Sources table.

The Channel Mapping Table

By default, virtual audio devices have two channels, but they can be configured to offer anywhere from 1 to 32 channels. To add or remove channels, just use the +/- controls at the bottom of the Channel Mapping table.

Once you've got your desired number of channels set, you can drag and drop individual channels from the Audio Sources table down to the Channel Mappings table. Below, you can see that channels from QuickTime Player, iTunes, and the USB mic have been added to the device.

The Channel Mapping Table, Configured

In this setup, the physical microphone's audio will be heard on channels one and two of the virtual audio device, while QuickTime Player and iTunes will be heard on the third and fourth channels. Custom setups like this make it easy to record audio to distinct tracks, just based on the channels selected in your recording application.

With that set, the device is now ready for use! Here's our fully configured device:

A Fully Configured Loopback Device

# Real-World Loopback Usage Examples

Loopback's virtual audio devices provide incredible power and control over your audio. Below, we've listed a few examples to help you get started using these devices.

#### Play Audio to All Podcast Guests

Create a Loopback device combining your microphone with music and sound effects sources like iTunes and QuickTime Player, then select that Loopback device as your source in Skype. Presto! Your guests will hear both your voice and your audio add-ons.

#### Live Podcast Broadcasting

If you want to broadcast your podcast live as you record it (with a Rogue Amoeba's own Nicecast, perhaps), just create a device for it! Have Loopback mix all the audio you want together, then capture that device in your broadcasting tool and play it to the world.

#### Recording Multiple Hardware Audio Devices

Apps like GarageBand, Logic, and Ableton Live only record from a single audio device at a time. Thankfully, they record from nearly infinite channels. Use Loopback to combine multiple input devices into one virtual device for easy recording.

#### Create Top-Notch Screencasts

Screen recording tools like QuickTime Player tend to allow you to include either microphone audio or all system audio at once, neither of which tends to be ideal. Use Loopback to create an input device consisting of the microphone and the app’s audio, so you get just the audio you need.

#### Recording Gameplay Videos

Using an Elgato Game Capture device, and want to record both mic and game audio? Loopback to the rescue, with a device that combines both!

### Tell Us More

We hope the above examples help you get started with Loopback. We'd love to hear more from you though. Get in touch to let us know how Loopback helps you!

# Pass-Thru Devices

Without any configuration, a Loopback virtual audio device will function as both an audio input and an audio output device, enabling audio to be piped through it. We refer to this as as a “pass-thru device”. Using a device as a pass-thru, you can send audio directly from one application to another. Some users may have previously used the tool “Soundflower” in this capacity. Loopback modernizes the necessary infrastructure, providing a reliable method of passing audio directly between applications.

To send audio out of an application, select your pass-thru device as the audio output device in the sending application. To receive audio into an application, select the pass-thru device as the audio input device, in your receiving application. Read on for more details.

### Creating a Pass-Thru Device

All Loopback virtual audio device can function as a pass-thru device. To make a new one, simply click the “New Virtual Device” button in the device list on the left side of the window. You can give it a name like “Pass-Thru”, as we've done here, but that's the extent of configuration that's required inside of Loopback.

A Simple Device Ready for Pass-Thru

Like all Loopback devices, this pass-thru will appear on the system as both an audio output and an audio input. Any application with an audio output selector can feed audio into the pass-thru device, while any application with an audio input selector can pull it out.

### Adding Audio to the Pass-Thru

To add audio to a pass-thru device, select it from the audio output selector inside the desired source application. Below, we sent audio into the device by adjusting an Output block in our audio recording tool Audio Hijack.

Audio Hijack setting “Pass-Thru” as an audio output device

With this setting, audio from the Audio Hijack Session in question will be sent into the pass-thru device.

### Receiving Audio From the Pass-Thru

To receive audio from the pass-thru device, just select “Pass-Thru” as the audio input inside the desired source application. Now any audio being sent to “Pass-Thru” will be pulled in by your application.

Nicecast Selecting “Pass-Thru” Hello as Its Audio Input

Above, we've set our Internet radio broadcaster Nicecast to pull audio out of the pass-thru device.

### Adjusting the Channel Count

If you desire, you can add and remove channels from this pass-thru device. By default, with Channel Mapping in “Automatic” mode, the device will have two channels. If you toggle the Channel Mapping to “Manual” mode, you can configure the device to have between 1 and 32 channels.

A Pass-Thru Device With 8 Channels

# Real-World Pass-Thru Device Examples

Using a Loopback virtual audio device as a pass-thru enables even more audio control. Below, we've listed a few examples to help you get started.

#### Route Audio Between Any Applications

Set your pass-thru device as the audio output in one application and the audio input in another to make audio flow between applications. For example, set a pass-thru device as the output at the end of an Audio Hijack chain, and the input in Skype. Now, audio will flow from your Audio Hijack session to the other caller in Skype!

#### Live Stream a Podcast

As a podcast is being recorded, the “Podcast Pass-Thru” device pictured below is making it easy to simultaneously live stream that audio to listeners on the Internet:

Audio Hijack Passing Audio to the “Podcast Pass-Thru” Device

This example uses Audio Hijack to capture audio from several sources: a microphone for local audio input, Skype for remote audio input, and iTunes for background music. In addition to being recorded, that audio is all sent to an Output block, where the “Podcast Pass-Thru” device has been selected.

Nicecast Broadcasting the “Podcast Pass-Thru” Device

To provide a live web stream for listeners, Nicecast is used. Above, the “Podcast Pass-Thru” device has been selected as an audio input in Nicecast's Source drawer. Now all the audio that's being played into “Podcast Pass-Thru” will be heard via the broadcast.

#### Use Multiple Pass-Thru Devices for Even More Power

If you utilize multiple pass-thru devices at once, you'll have even more power in routing your audio, particularly when teaming them up with Audio Hijack. For instance, you can use multiple pass-thru devices and Audio Hijack, along with FaceTime and Skype, to host a three person podcast with signal processing. The possibilities are nearly infinite!

### Tell Us More

We hope the above examples help you get started with Loopback. We'd love to hear more from you though. Get in touch to let us know how Loopback helps you!

# Preferences

Loopback's preferences can be accessed from the Loopback menu. At the moment, there is only one preference setting.

Loopback's Preferences window

### Software Update

Automatically check for software updates: With this option activated, Loopback periodically compares itself to the most current version available from our server and alerts you when a new version is available. Leave this on and Loopback will help you stay up-to-date. You can also select "Check for Update" from the Loopback menu to initiate a check manually.

# Purchasing Loopback

Quick Link: Visit our online store to buy a license key for Loopback.

### Why should I buy Loopback?

Put simply, you should buy Loopback because it isn't free. We provide a free trial, so you can test out the program and all its features before you buy it. It's like test driving a car, for as long as it takes you to decide.

In trial mode, all of Loopback's features are available to sample, but it won't work for full-time use. During the trial, the quality of audio passing through Loopback's virtual devices will be degraded after twenty minutes.

If you use Loopback and find you like it, please purchase a license key - support the software you use and love!

To purchase your license key, just visit https://rogueamoeba.com/store/.

## After Purchase

### How do I unlock the full version?

The download of Loopback from our site contains both a free trial of the software and the full version. To unlock the full, unlimited version, you just need a valid license key. When you purchase through our store, you'll immediately receive a license key in your browser. It will also be sent to you via email. Simply enter this key into Loopback to unlock it.

### What's your upgrade policy?

While we don't have a hard and fast upgrade policy, our philosophy regarding paid upgrades is simple: We try to do what's right for you and what's right for us. We've got a great track record, with many years of very satisfied customers.

For more details on free updates and paid upgrades, please see this page.

### What's your refund policy?

All Rogue Amoeba products are available to try before you buy. We believe that no customer should have to buy software in order to find out how well it works. Our software can be fully evaluated with no limitations in capabilities, prior to purchase. Customers are strongly encouraged to take advantage of these trials prior to purchase. You may also seek any needed technical support from us - we answer support emails rapidly and responsively for current and potential customers alike.

If you would like a refund, please contact hello@rogueamoeba.com within 14 days of your purchase. Because we cannot recover the license key that was sold, refunds are issued on a case-by-case basis.

# Contact Information

#### Loopback Homepage

https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/

#### Rogue Amoeba Homepage

https://rogueamoeba.com

#### Loopback Support

Check out our Support Center first.

If you still need help, choose "Contact Support..." from Loopback's Help menu to get in touch!

#### Rogue Amoeba Mailing List

Join the Rogue Amoeba low-traffic announcement list. There's no spam, EVER. It's as simple as that.
https://rogueamoeba.com/company/lists/

# Loopback Rights and Restrictions

### Distribution

Unless explicitly stated in writing, Rogue Amoeba Software does not grant permission to sell Loopback ("The Software"). Non-profit distribution of The Software in its trial form is acceptable provided that The Software is not modified in any way, and the complete works of The Software are included in the distribution package. If The Software is to be included in a distribution package, Rogue Amoeba requests but does not require that one complimentary copy of said package be sent to the snail mail address found on our site.

#### What that said:

Don't sell this software directly for profit. If you want to distribute it, great! Just make sure it's unmodified from the download from our site. If you create a distribution package, it'd be cool if you sent a copy to the address above, though this is not required.

### Disclaimer

Loopback ("The Software") is provided as is. Rogue Amoeba Software ("The Author") is not responsible for any damage to the user's computer system or data and in no event will The Author, its officers, directors, employees or agents be responsible to the user for any consequential, incidental, or indirect damages (including damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like) arising out of the use or inability to use the The Software, even if The Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitations may not apply to you. Further, the consumer agrees that using this software in any way illegal, or even for the purposes of assessing its viability for illegal usage, is prohibited.

#### What that said:

Be safe when you use the software. Be aware that it's simply a tool designed to make your life better. Don't use it to do illegal or evil things. If you do, be ready to take responsibility for your own actions.