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:

Devices in SysPrefs
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 configured device
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.

A configured device
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.