Loopback for Mac

A virtual patch-bay for macOS audio. Loopback captures sound from one application and delivers it to another, turning your Mac into a freely configurable audio matrix.

For the experienced ear: deeper capabilities

• Multi-source virtual devices: combine several physical inputs — a microphone, a guitar interface, the system output — into a single virtual device any app can select as its input.
• Chaining with Audio Hijack: set a Loopback virtual device as the output in an Audio Hijack session. This routes captured audio onward for recording or broadcast, with full control over gain and effects at every stage.
• Hardware pass-through: when recording with Elgato Game Capture hardware, route microphone audio and game audio through Loopback so both appear cleanly on the stream, without software mixers getting in the way.
• Silent launch on macOS 27: the app no longer warns at start-up on the latest system, removing a small but persistent friction for users who upgrade promptly.

Under the hood: the ARK plugin

Loopback relies on Rogue Amoeba's ARK audio plugin to intercept and route streams at a low level. Version 2.5.0 ships with ARK 13.5, which brings tighter integration with macOS 27 and improves stability across the routing graph. For anyone building complex chains — perhaps feeding a microphone through a compressor app before it reaches a conferencing tool — this update keeps the signal path clean and predictable.

Double-click to configure: overlooked canvas shortcuts

Once you have built a few virtual devices, the interface becomes second nature, but a handful of shortcuts remain easy to overlook. Double-clicking any source in the canvas opens its configuration panel without needing to hunt through menus. Dragging a wire from a source to a device at the bottom of the window scrolls the canvas automatically — a small touch that saves frustration when the graph grows tall.

The Pass-Thru button on each virtual device deserves particular attention. When enabled, audio from the device's own output monitoring is sent back into the mix, which is rarely what you want and can produce startling feedback. Keeping it off by default is wise; toggling it on is useful only when you deliberately need to route a device's output back to another application, such as feeding a processed signal into a second DAW track.

Another detail: you can rename any virtual device by clicking its title in the sidebar. The name you choose becomes visible to every application on the Mac, so a clear label — Podcast Mic + Music rather than Loopback Audio 3 — prevents confusion when selecting inputs in a hurry. The same sidebar supports drag-and-drop reordering of sources within a device, which sets their channel assignment. Moving a source to the top of the list places it on channels 1–2, the next on 3–4, and so on. A logical order here makes post-production routing far tidier.

Lastly, holding the Option key while clicking the volume slider on any source snaps it to unity gain. No guessing, no tiny adjustments.

Podcasters and streamers: three workflows that fit best

Loopback is not a general-purpose tool, and its value concentrates sharply in a few workflows. The user who gets the most from it tends to fall into one of these groups.

The live streamer or podcaster with multiple audio sources. If you run a microphone through a processing app, want to play sound clips from a browser, and need everything to arrive as a single input in OBS or Zoom, Loopback is the quiet workhorse that makes it possible. It removes the need for a hardware mixer and keeps the signal path entirely digital, which preserves quality and eliminates ground-loop hum. Users who combine a USB microphone, a soundboard app, and a guest on a VoIP call find the wiring metaphor instantly legible.

The screen recorder who needs application-specific audio. QuickTime Player and many screen-recording tools capture either the microphone or the entire system output, with no granularity. Loopback lets you build a virtual device that takes audio from one application — Keynote, for instance — and combines it with your voice, leaving notification pings and background music out of the recording entirely. This is cleaner than editing them away later and requires no post-production silence-stripping.

The musician or sound designer who routes audio between DAWs and effects processors. Some audio units and standalone effects apps do not expose themselves as selectable inputs. By placing Loopback between the source and the destination, you can treat any application as a patchable audio node. The low latency of the ARK plugin keeps timing tight enough for real-time processing, provided the buffer sizes in your DAW are set reasonably.

Disable the feedback alert: first preferences to adjust

Loopback ships with sensible defaults, but a few preferences reward immediate attention. Open the app's Preferences window and consider these adjustments.

• Disable "Play feedback warning sounds." The alert that fires when Pass-Thru is enabled on a device is protective, but it becomes an irritation during experimental routing. If you understand the risk, silencing it removes a regular interruption.
• Set a default sample rate. All virtual devices default to 44.1 kHz. If your workflow centres on video production, switching the default to 48 kHz avoids sample-rate mismatches that cause subtle pitch shifts when audio moves between apps. The setting lives under the Audio tab.
• Assign a global keyboard shortcut for "Show Loopback." The app runs primarily as a menu bar item. Giving it a shortcut — Command-Shift-L, for instance — means you can summon the wiring canvas without reaching for the mouse. This is especially handy during a live stream when you need to adjust a level or mute a source quickly.
• Turn off "Automatically check for updates" if your system is mission-critical. Rogue Amoeba's updates are stable, but in a production environment you may prefer to update manually between sessions rather than receive a prompt minutes before going live.

Voiceover without music bleed: a complete QuickTime session

Imagine a common scenario: you need to record a voiceover in QuickTime Player while hearing a reference track from Music and capturing neither system alerts nor the track itself in the final recording. The voice must be isolated; the music is for timing only. Here is one way to build that routing step by step.

1. Open Loopback and click the New Virtual Device button. Name it VO Record.
2. In the Sources column, click Add Source and choose your USB microphone from the list of input devices. Drag its volume to unity gain by Option-clicking the slider.
3. Add a second source: select Music from the application sources. This pulls audio only from the Music app, ignoring everything else playing on the Mac.
4. In the wiring canvas, check that the microphone is routed to channels 1–2 and Music to channels 3–4. Drag to reorder if necessary.
5. Open the VO Record device's Output Channels section and enable only channels 1–2. This means applications that select VO Record as an input will hear only the microphone, not the music. The music still flows to channels 3–4 for monitoring.
6. Launch QuickTime Player, start a new audio recording, and select VO Record as the input source. The recording will capture only your voice.
7. To hear the reference track during recording, open Audio MIDI Setup, find the VO Record device, and enable channels 3–4 for output to your headphones. Alternatively, route those channels through a second Loopback pass-through device connected to your audio interface.
8. Begin recording. The music plays in your ears but never reaches the QuickTime file. When you stop, the result is a clean voiceover track ready for editing, with no bleed from the reference audio.

This same routing principle adapts easily to other tasks — isolating a guest's voice from a VoIP call while capturing your own, or sending a processed microphone signal to a streaming app while monitoring the raw input in headphones. Once the logic of sources, channels and output channels clicks, the canvas becomes a fast and precise tool rather than a puzzle.

Version 2.5.0 brings quiet compatibility with the latest system and a refreshed audio core.

• Added full support for macOS 27; the launch-time warning on that system has been removed.
• The ARK audio-handling plugin was updated to version 13.5.

• macOS 11 or later
• Apple Silicon and Intel Macs