I couldn’t podcast without the software made by Rogue Amoeba. Their suite of Mac apps including Audio Hijack, Farrago, and Loopback allow me to put together a live podcast production that can rival anything created in a professional studio.
That last piece of software, Loopback, lets you take sound from any app and route it to other devices. For example, I can take audio from YouTube and send it to a caller on Skype. Or I can take music I’m playing in Spotify and send it to my co-hosts. Or I can take me, my co-hosts, a caller, sound effects, and music, and feed it all into a live stream — all while making sure my co-hosts and caller can hear everything I’m hearing.
Truly, Loopback is a dream come true for podcasters who want to create a show with live elements like music, callers, and sound effects. Before Loopback, someone looking to do these things would have to have a physical mixer and numerous physical audio sources. Loopback puts an entire studio into a single computer, and that is freakin’ amazing.
As you can tell, Loopback has been a favorite of mine since it launched. But in late November Loopback got even better with Loopback 2.
The new version has lots of new features, but there are two in particular that Loopback users new and old will be thrilled about: There’s an overhauled UI that makes it easier to set up your “studio,” and even better, each app now has its own volume controls, giving you incredible control over your mix.
The screenshot below shows a simple setup. Each “Device” in the left column is a virtual device that holds a collection of apps. In the right column, you select every app you want to be heard in the virtual device. Once you have your virtual device setup, you set it as an input in whatever app you want this collection of sounds to be heading to.
Full Loopback 2 details can be found here.
As I said, I use some of the other apps as well. I use their new-ish app Farrago to play and store sound effects / music intros, and I use Audio Hijack for the actual recording of my shows.
Audio Hijack has been available for well over a decade but received a major makeover in 2015. This is very powerful recording software that lets you record any app you’d like (simultaneously if you want), but it doesn’t stop there. Audio Hijack will also let you split the input and output into separate audio tracks (great for recording Skype calls), add effects to audio sources, and it’ll save your recordings automatically — even if you encounter a power outage (GOD SEND).
I highly, highly recommend Rogue Amoeba’s apps for any Mac podcaster. If you’re interested in buying them, be sure to check out their Podcast Bundle offer. This’ll give you a $50 discount on the purchase of the three aforementioned apps plus their audio editing app Fission. There’s also an Audio Hijack + Loopback bundle which’ll take off $30.
If you need help setting these up, I’m here. Check out my Podcast Consultations page for more.
