Tutorial: MacOS Audio Routing with Blackhole

This is a video that I threw together to explain a few different aspects of audio routing on MacOS. I'll show you how to set up Blackhole for recording the system audio on your Mac, and demonstrate the setup I'm using to record my voice, guitar, and system audio in the same video.
Apologies for the somewhat quiet audio!

[@davedavis86]

I searched for a video that could correctly show me the way to do this is the first one that has really helped me at all THANKS !

[@alaeddinabugrara3309]

dude you just me saved hours of figuring out how to correctly use it (im still a bit confused but ill keep coming here as a reference till "as you said" things start to make sense) thank you so much

[@GarageGroovin]

Glad it helped you out! It will get easier once you muck with it for a while! Feel free to come back and ask questions if you run into trouble.

[@user-gu8dk7dx9n]

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain all the I/Os & blackhole. Every other video I've watched doesn't go into WHY and HOW routing works - they just give you the settings with no rationale, which doesn't help with troubleshooting. I'm doing something way different - using a looper as an interface & recording device to OBS - but your video helped me understand what the heck blackhole does!

[@GarageGroovin]

I'm really glad it was useful for you. Like I said in the video, it's one of those things where once you understand how everything fits together, it all makes sense, but it's definitely not intuitive to get that understanding initially. Thanks for commenting!

[@oledirtyvangogh6591]

Thank you! This vid saved me quite some trouble. Been trying to figure out sampling beats using blackhole for a minute now. Super duper dopeness. Wicked tips mate. ❤

[@GarageGroovin]

You're very welcome! Glad it helped you out.

[@shakeitoff1000]

Thanks for this!

[@adbmusicify]

My setup is essentially identical to yours except I'm using Ableton -- all my audio tracks are streaming beautifully from Ableton to my Facebook livestream except for my guitar which is really strange. My guitar is just going direct into my Scarlett. Have tried the various and sundry i/o routing options so I'm stumped

[@erickmartinez2135]

Thank you for the time and effort you put into this video! Your recording demonstrations were beyond helpful. I'm wondering if you (or anyone) understand the different use-cases for the Blackhole 2ch vs 16ch. From my investigation I've yet to find examples or seen anyone "use" the channels so I don't really understand it.

[@GarageGroovin]

I have to abashedly admit that I have no idea what the difference is, or how to use the extra channels for anything. I originally downloaded that version in the hopes that I'd be able to set individual levels for the audio from multiple applications (though frankly I have no particular use-case for this). It doesn't seem to be possible to do that (or at least I've never learned how). tl;dr version: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@adbmusicify]

super helpful!

[@syntropiqueTV]

Thank you so much for this very useful video. It shouldn't be so hard yeah? It used to be easier but I think they do this now to help prevent IP violation stuff. Thanks again!

[@GarageGroovin]

You're very welcome!

[@jonathanwilliams7035]

Thanks man! This video was very helpful!

[@GarageGroovin]

Glad it helped, thanks for watching!

[@pianoguy5929]

Have you tested these instructions on M1/M2 macs on Sonoma 14.4.1? For some reason, after installing BlackHole, when I restart, it has disappeared from my Audio Devices.

[@GarageGroovin]

Unfortunately I can't offer any guidance with the newer Apple Silicon CPUs, I'm still on a crusty old Intel machine. I am behind the curve on getting onto Sonoma too - I'll upgrade soon and report back if I have any issues.

[@TheMoxLord]

@@GarageGroovin@GarageGroovin Yeah, I can't even find Audio devices on my M1 ? i see sound.

[@GarageGroovin]

@@TheMoxLord I just thought of something which is not mentioned in the video - and this may be your problem. To see the various audio devices you need to open the "Audio MIDI Setup" app - it's not visible in the "sound" settings. Easiest way is to hit Cmd+Space to pull up spotlight, then type Audio MIDI setup. Let me know if that helps you get unstuck!

[@theflippa416]

thanks for the video, very informative! i just have one question, how do i choose where i want the audio to go first? for example i want my mic audio from logic pro to go to discord so i can eq my mic and use different fx while in discord, but when i add eq and stuff to my mic in logic it doesnt work in discord, is there anyway to do something like this?

[@GarageGroovin]

That is an interesting question - I've never tried to do that. Maybe you could create a multi-output device which you could send your post-processed mic to, and use that as the input on Discord. So a setup might be something like: - Logic set to use the mic as an input (so that could be just the mic, or your interface, or an aggregate device if you need it) - Logic has a track set up with your FX and that mic is set to be "live monitoring" - Logic output is set to some multi-output device - Discord input uses that multi-output device Something like that might work? (Take this with a grain of salt, never tried). Based on what you're describing, i don't think you'd even need BlackHole for this. Of course if your setup needs more inputs it might be a bit more complicated. update / edit: OK - it's actually a bit more complicated, since Discord only wants an "Input" device as an input (i.e. you cannot select a Multi-Output Device as Input on Discord, only Aggregate or regular input devices). So, I think what could maybe work is something like this: - Logic input set to your mic (or some device containing it) - Logic track with mic set to monitoring (so processed sound comes out) - Logic output set to Blackhole - Discord input set to Blackhole - Discord output set to speakesr (or your headset or whatever). I tried this setup, but when I try to test my audio in discord, I get a loud buzzing sound. I can still hear the post-processed mic, so it might be close to working. I also just have garage band - Logic may give you more control. If you can't make Blackhole work, you might also check out AudioHijack. That costs $60 or so but is somewhat more capable than Blackhole. I have no experience with it, but it seems pretty cool. Good luck! Let me know if you get something functional.

[@theflippa416]

@@GarageGroovin thank you i appreciate it, i will try this and let you know if it works!

[@stewartross13]

Question, I’m getting a bit lost in the sauce here. My goal that I’m attempting to accomplish is I would like to hear my DAW which is running AmpliTube while running that audio into Discord. How do I accomplish this? I’ve tried a virtual cable, tried playing with the Aggregate device methods, and other audio routing software… any suggestions?

[@GarageGroovin]

Off the top of my head (so no guarantees, lol) - what I would try is to have your DAW set to output sound to a Multi-Output device containing both Blackhole and whatever you use to hear sound from your computer (i.e. your speakers or headphones). You may have an audio output setting in your DAW itself (like how GarageBand does in the video), or your DAW might just output to the system bus (in which case the way you get audio INTO Blackhole is by setting that Multi-Output Device as your default output in the system Sound settings. That should take care of the audio capture part. Then you should be able to create an aggregate device containing Blackhole (and optionally a mic), and then use that aggregate device as your input in Discord. See if that works out for you, and feel free to come back if you have more questions!

[@stewartross13]

@@GarageGroovin I guess I’m a little confused on what Blackhole is providing for this configuration. Would you be available to chat about getting this setup? Sorry about the questions haha

[@GarageGroovin]

@@stewartross13 You know, you might actually not need blackhole, if you're not trying to capture system audio. You may be able to use an "aggregate device" to direct the output of your DAW into Discord. (You wouldn't actually be _aggregating_, per se, since you'd just have the DAW going into it). I've actually tried something like this once and didn't quite get it to work, but maybe you'd have different results with your particular setup. Feel free to shoot me an email at [e-mail] if you want more help troubleshooting.

[@RunyCalmera]

I got an extremely difficult setup; 1. Headphone and mic plugged into Macbook (sometimes apple airplug in stead of Headphone and mic) 2. Logitec instead of Garageband playing Midi 3. KZbin playing on macbook 4. Zoom: for recording everything. All audio from mic, (or airpod mic) and Logic (midi) needs to go to zoom audio so I can hear myself (voice) and logic music. I cannot figure this out till now. Even after studying the Blackhole website!

[@GarageGroovin]

Did the video help you get unstuck, or are you still having issues?

[@RunyCalmera]

It helped me conceptually. Getting close to a solution. But I’m still stuck. I got all the inputs like mic (headphone plus mic), logic Pro X line, Macbook audio into one. I also added my airpods as an input source. I added the 2 Channel into that. And I made sure the Macbook audio is at the top. I created an aggregate ouput where I added the 2 channel into that. The problem is: 1. If I’m on OBS and I need to stream: should I add the input source and the output source to the scene? 2. If I am in Zoom what should I add as the mic and what should I add as the speaker? I do not hear myself when I am in zoom. 3. If I am on OBS and I need to stream to Twitch I do not hear any sound of my macbook on Twitch. My situation might be complex. What I have is Logic Pro X as source of sounds. I have my mic which comes in via Headphone +speaker or airpods in my ear. I use or the headphone or my airpods. Then I want to either Zoom and share all sounds and record them. Or I want to Stream on Twitch using OBS streaming. When I stream with OBS I want all my sound to be heard

[@RunyCalmera]

Thank you soo much! I’m happy that you actually made it work. So it shows it is possible. Maybe you can add info on how you stream? Are you streaming? How would you stream a gig where you play with another drummer in another location to twitch by using OBS streaming? Could you elaborate on that? Setting OBS and Twitch up? Or maybe stream to KZbin, by using OBS? OBS is open source.

[@GarageGroovin]

@@RunyCalmera I have very little experience with OBS unfortunately, not sure if I can offer much help there. For the videos I've made on the channel thus far, I've just recorded with QuickTime with the aggregate device as the input. I would think you could use the aggregrate device as the input on your OBS scene, maybe I'll play with it and see if I can figure anything out. OBS may also allow you to get slightly more elaborate and add multiple sources so you could mix/level them - I haven't played with it too much. I do know that once you get your OBS sound set up how you want, streaming to either Twitch or KZbin should be straightforward - you just get a stream key for the service and you should be able to go live. I'd probably test things out by just recording locally to start, and once I had the audio dialed in the way I wanted it, then I'd know what settings to use when I went live. As for streaming with another musician - that's probably challenging mostly due to latency. If I was going to try something like that live, I would probably look into some low latency live jamming software (a few examples are Jamulus, Ninjam, and Sonobus - I don't have any experience with this though, just copied those from some notes I took a while back). If you could get to a point where the audio from your machine sounded good, I would just stream that. I'd love to try a livestream at some point, maybe just some looper jams or something. Maybe I'll experiment with that in the future. Good luck! Happy to answer any questions you come up with but you're probably getting past my realm of experience at this point.

[@RunyCalmera]

Thank you very much. My set upis complex. I will keep watching this video and keep trying. Once I can record on Zoomane audio is good I’m good. Will keep trying. Thanks so much for your video that showed it is possible. When I get it down I will record a video to show how it is done. Thanks you inspired me to keep going.

[@skineyemin4276]

With Reason 11, the Multi-output Device does not work. I was told by Reason Studios to use the Output use Aggregate-Device.

[@GarageGroovin]

Interesting. That doesn't really align with my mental model of how Aggregate vs Multi-Output devices function. That's not to say it won't work though, just that I don't have any experience using them as you describe. I haven't tried this, so take it with a grain of salt, but you might be able to set up two aggregate devices and use one for capturing audio and one for output into Quicktime. Then you might be able to set the "input" device to capture system audio, mic input, plus the output of Reason, and the "output" aggregate device as the input on Quicktime. I'm not sure that would work, but it seems like the closest analogue to my setup that wouldn't need a multi-output device. If you try it out with two aggregate devices and get something working, let me know, I'm curious.

[@jmcframe]

I'm sitting here for an hour now following every step of yout video and still about to give up. All I want to do is record audio from my browser into Audacity. I use a Motu M2 audio interface. If I create a multi-output device and check the boxes for M2 and BlackHole and set the audio output to multi-output device I can record audio but I can't adjust the system- and output volume anymore. The volume slider is grayed out. So basically all I can do is record audio into Audacity and that's it. I have to switch audio output devices all the time back and forth between multi-output device and M2. That's not normal I guess. Maybe this is a macOS Sonoma problem, I don't know. Maybe you can give me a hint what to do.

[@GarageGroovin]

Hey - so I can offer one hint, at least, because I had the same issue and it's very counterintuitive what you're "supposed" to do. You should still be able to adjust the volume via the slider associated with the specific output device. i.e. if you're trying to adjust the volume for the "Macbook Speakers" output, click that device, and you should be able to move its slider to change the specific volume. Let me know if that helps at all - I could probably record a quick video demonstrating what I mean if the text explanation isn't clear.

[@skineyemin4276]

Also, recording audio and video on QT used to be easy, but it does not seem to work.

[@TheColorofQuantum]

Dude thank thank you thank you

[@GarageGroovin]

You're welcome!