Cleanfeed Knowledgebase

Routing guests audio to another app (non-linear workflow): macOS

You might find it useful to make recordings of each guest in a separate application such as an audio editor or DAW. This can be useful if you work in a way where recording multiple takes is part of the job. For example, ADR, loop groups, remote crowd ADR and other uses in commercial audio production. This guide will show you how to send audio in real-time into another application, using a virtual audio device on macOS.

Overview

Routing audio to another app requires Auxiliary Outputs and this won’t work in standard Cleanfeed, so you’ll need to upgrade to Cleanfeed Pro to use it.

This guide assumes you already have some basic knowledge Cleanfeed, and audio routing in general. It is intended to give you an understanding of how to route audio from Cleanfeed to another application. In this example we’ll be using a virtual audio device and Adobe Audition, on macOS.

It is also possible to achieve similar results by patching physical cables between multiple sound card devices, or by using an Audio over IP system such as Dante or Livewire+.

Prerequisites

To avoid using physical patch cables between two sound cards, we turn toward a virtual audio device on macOS to achieve everything we need, inside the box. For this there is just one prerequisite:

Audio MIDI Setup

Once you have completed the setup of the virtual audio driver, in order for Chrome to recognise discrete audio routes, it is necessary to create these via the Audio MIDI Setup.

Make sure that the sample rate of the BlackHole device is set to 48.0kHz before continuing.

These audio routes will be used to send audio out of the browser and into the recording application. Each discrete audio route requires its own Aggregate Device.

  1. Open Audio MIDI Setup
  2. Use the plus button, bottom left, and select Create Aggregate Device
  3. Name the device accordingly, eg. Output 3/4
  4. With this new device highlighted, select to use the BlackHole 16ch device from the available Audio Devices list
  5. Select Configure Speakers...
  6. Select the Stereo configuration
  7. Select the corresponding pair of channels. In this case Left is channel 3 and Right is channel 4

Repeat this process a few times. It makes sense to create a handful of these devices to begin with, so you have enough. In this example we are using Out 1/2, Out 3/4, Out 5/6.

The process of creating discrete output pairs from the
          BlackHole virtual audio driver
Creating an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac

Next it will be necessary to pair up the BlackHole virtual audio device with a physical input and output device. This will be used by audio audio editor for both its playback and recording, because it is typically limited to working with a single audio device.

  1. Open Audio MIDI Setup
  2. Use the plus button, bottom left, and select Create Aggregate Device
  3. Name the device accordingly, eg. Multi Device
  4. With this new device highlighted, select to use the BlackHole 16ch device from the available Audio Devices list, as well as your own physical input/output audio device
  5. Ensure that you select Drift Correction for each device you have selected to use in this new Aggregate Device
The process of creating a multi device so your audio editor
          can use your virtual audio device and your physical audio
          device
Creating a Aggregate Device with multiple sound cards in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac

Now, reboot the system. Whilst not strictly necessary, we’ve seen some systems may not reflect your changes immediately or accurately in applications. A reboot is the best way to ensure clarity for the later steps.

We strongly recommend to reboot the system now.

Audio editor setup

With all the necessary devices set up, you can now open your audio editor. We’re using Adobe Audition in this example, but the setup will be similar with other audio editors that support multitrack recording.

  1. Open Audio Hardware settings in Audition Preferences
  2. Default Input/Output: The Multi Device you created in the step above
Selecting the Default Input and Default Output audio
          device in Adobe Audition
Select the new aggregate audio device which comprises of the virtual audio device and your physical audio device

With your device setup, create a new multitrack project.

Ensure your session runs with a sample rate of 48000Hz, to match your audio devices.

Create corresponding stereo audio tracks to match the number of remote guests you expect to have in your Cleanfeed studio.

Assign the respective stereo input device on each track you have created. Use a new BlackHole device to match the ones you created in Audio MIDI Setup.

Selecting the Default Input and Default Output audio
            device in Adobe Audition
Select the new aggregate audio device which comprises of the virtual audio device and your physical audio device

Getting your audio from Cleanfeed to your app

The last step is to get Cleanfeed setup in order to send audio from each guest in your studio.

From the Audio menu, under Playback, tick the checkbox next to Auxiliary outputs.

Ticking the Auxiliary outputs in
          Audio > Playback
Enabling Auxiliary outputs

Now, have your guest join the session in the usual way. Press their gear icon to reveal the new audio routing options.

Close-up of guest display showing the Aux
          menu
One of the new options available with Auxiliary outputs enabled

These audio routing options are specific to guests. They don’t apply to your local audio. Follow our guide if you’re not familiar with how to connect with a guest.

Select your chosen virtual device from the Aux drop-down menu. The guest’s audio will be mirrored to this device.

Selecting an audio aux device a each guest
Select an Aux device for each guest in your studio.

Once you have assigned a device for each guest in your studio that corresponds with a track in your audio editor, it’s time to get recording.

Audio from Cleanfeed, being recorded into
          Adobe Audition.
Start your recording in your audio editor.

We’ve showed you how to get your audio for each guest out of Cleanfeed and into another recording application on macOS. We also the equivalent guide for for Windows.