hey it's Harry and today we're going to have a look at the audio loopback feature on
the EVO 4 audio interface, when you'd use it and how it works.
Loop-back enables you to capture your computer audio as a separate source
alongside your microphones, imagine taking a set of cables from the output
of your interface and bringing them straight back into the inputs of the
interface and then accessing them from your audio software.
This is essentially what audio loopback is doing but it all happens internally without the need for
cables and most importantly while leaving your inputs free for you to use
your microphones with.
There are two main ways that you can use Audio Loop-back
the first is to record your computer audio and your microphone audio separately on
different channels, this is perfect if you want to record a Skype conversation
for a remote podcast that you're doing or maybe you want to capture some game
audio alongside your microphone to create a YouTube video.
Doing it this way it gives you the most flexibility in terms of mixing your two different audio
sources to get the best result.
Secondly, you're able to combine your mic and your
computer audio into a single stereo channel, this is perfect if you're
wanting to record or stream using some software that doesn't let you use more
than one audio input at a time.
There are a number of ways that you can use Audio Loop-back
in your workflow and it's up to you to get creative with it but as with
any audio routing, Loop-back can be a little bit hard to get your head around
sometimes especially seeing as there aren't any physical cables for you to be
able to see exactly where the audio is going.
So to make the whole process easier, we've developed the Audio Loop-back mixer
which will allow you to choose exactly what's being sent where.
So I'm going to talk through how it works and give you a couple of examples of using Loop-back.
To access the Audio Loop-back mixer you need to make sure that the EVO app is running
and then click on the EVO icon in the menu bar on a Mac
or the system tray on Windows
find the Show Loop-back mixer menu item and then click it this will open the Look-back mixer window.
So the mixer controls exactly what's being sent to the Loop-back inputs
and therefore what will be picked up by your audio software, whether you're
recording or computer audio on to some audio software, or whether you're sending
things out to a stream. When you turn up any of the channels it will be sent
through to the Loop-back inputs and your audio software will pick up these
loop-back inputs in the same way that it does with your microphones
so your microphones come in on input one and two and your loopback
will come in on input three and four.
So first you have the mic channels which
controls the level of your microphones or instruments and these are the actual
physical microphone inputs that you have on the units itself
next you have the main outputs and this is the default output of your computer so any audio
coming from a web browser, game, or any other application that's currently running
will automatically be sent through here by default
next you have Loop-back 1+2
and these are the virtual outputs that you can send audio to
to send audio to this output you either do it in the
application you're actually wanting to capture audio from so you'd set the
audio output of that application to outputs 3+4 or loop-back 1+2
depending on what is shown to you or alternatively you can change the
default output of your computer to the loop-back output so that everything on
your computer is sent there instead of to the main outputs.
It's probably easiest to go through an example together so you can see exactly
how the audio is being sent around so in this scenario we're going to go through
how to record the output of a video conferencing app in this case Skype
alongside a microphone in a digital audio workstation
This is a handy solution often used in the world of podcasting where someone might want to
bring in a remote guest and they can record their output separately from
their own microphone in high quality.
I'll go through the example on both Mac and Windows, starting with Mac
so if you want the Windows version, please go to the time stamp on the screen now.
When EVO 4 is selected as your computer's and skype's audio device, any audio that comes
through them will appear on the main outputs, so the absolute easiest way to
record your Skype conversation would be to turn up the main output fader then
create channel in your audio software using inputs 3+4 or Loop-back 1+2
as the input source and the name you see will depend on whatever software you're actually using
We then create another channel to record your microphone
and set it to input 1 and then you're ready to record.
okay so right now I am recording onto the separate mic channel
and I am coming through on the loop-back channel via the main outputs.
This method however it means you need to mute the audio channels in your software
while you're recording because otherwise by default it gets sent to your outputs
which is now being sent through to inputs which then get sent back to outputs
and you basically keep going round and round and create a feedback loop
which makes a horrible noise
to give an example of what happens if you
decide to monitor through your audio software I'm going to try and do that
now and you'll hear some lovely lovely feedback so now I'm going to turn it on
so make sure you have the channels muted and don't worry you'll still actually be
able to hear everything that's going on on your computer so Skype and whatever
else is happening as normal through speakers or headphones and if you do
want to be able to hear your microphone through your headphones as well you can
still make use of the monitor mix which does let you blend between your inputs
and your computer as normal
if you want to be able to listen through your audio software
if you maybe have some processing that you want to listen to live
or you just want to avoid the issue of having feedback all together then
this is where you use the Loop-back 1+2 outputs in the loopback mixer
so your computer or application sends everything through to the loop-back outputs
which is then brought back through into your audio software and
then your audio software sends everything to the main output so
everything is kept completely separate there's no chance of feedback and you
can listen through any effects or anything you have in your audio software
so let's switch the computer to use the loop-back outputs 1+2
so we go to Finder and click Applications
then Utilities
then Audio MIDI Setup
and we select EVO 4 from the list of devices and select configure speakers
set your left and right output to loop-back 1+2 now any audio sent from
your Mac will be sent through to the loop-back outputs instead of the main outputs
and you can see that in the loop-back mixer. So now we go to the
loop-back mixer again and make sure that only the loop-back 1+2 faders are
turned up so now when you play audio on your computer or make a sound on skype
you should be able to see signal in the meters on those channels
So now that Loop-back is set up this way, the channel that we created earlier in the audio software
will be taking its input from the loop-back outputs instead of the main outputs
which means that we can unmute the channels in audio software and
listen to the live without issues
okay so this is my microphone coming in separately
and I'm coming through on the loop-back inputs using the dedicated loop-back outputs
When using the loop-back outputs you'll need to make sure that your audio software or
streaming platform or whatever it is you're using is using the main outputs
as the output device, therefore you'll be able to hear whatever's happening in
your speakers or headphones
One final option to consider with loop-back
is combining your microphone with your computer audio so it all comes in on one
single channel and as I said earlier this could be great if you're wanting to
use some software or a streaming platform that will only allow one input
channel at a time or maybe you don't want to have to mix and edit two
channels and you just want to balance it and have one audio file to deal with in your edit.
So by turning up the mic channel while the main output or
loop-back output are also turned up you'll combine the signals together and
you can balance the taste in the loop-back mixer.
Okay so now we should be
combined into a single channel so this is me talking
and this is me talking
okay and Dan there is coming in a little bit too hot so what we'll do is we'll
just turn down his channel a bit and now again this is an example of me talking
and here's an example of me talking
yeah and that's much better and we can continue to tweak if we'd like
So now I've switched my Mac over to run Windows and we can go through how to get this
all set up on a Windows system
So when EVO 4 is selected as the sound device on
a window system or in an application specifically, any audio sent from that is
going to be sent through to the main outputs of EVO 4, so the absolute easiest
way to record your Skype conversation is to turn up the main output fader, then we
just create a channel in our audio software that uses inputs 3+4 or loop-back 1+2
as the channel input and the name will change depending on what software you're using.
we then create another channel in your audio software
to record your microphone and set it to input 1
and now you're pretty much ready to record
although this method does require you to mute the channels in the
audio software while you're recording and this is because by default your
audio software will be sending audio out to the main outputs of EVO 4 which
because of the loop-back mixer is now being sent back through to the inputs
which will then get sent through to the outputs and it'll keep going round and
round and basically create a feedback loop
ok so right now I am recording onto
the separate mic channel
and I am coming through on the loop-back channel via the main outputs
and to give an example of what happens if you decide to monitor through
your audio software I'm to try and do that now and you'll hear
some lovely lovely feedback so now I'm going to turn it on now
so just make sure that you mute your channels in your audio software while
you're recording but don't worry though you can still hear everything that's
going on on your computer you can still hear your Skype conversation through
your headphones or speakers as normal and if you do want to be able to hear
whatever's happening on your inputs you can still use the monitor mix button on
EVO 4 itself and blend between your inputs and your outputs
if you do want to be able to listen through your audio software if
you've maybe have some effects you want to listen through live or maybe you just
want to minimize the possibility of creating any feedback loops then using
the loop-back outputs is the way to do it so your computer or application sends
everything through to the loop-back outputs which is then brought back
through into your audio software and then your audio software sends
everything to the main outputs so everything is kept completely separate
there's no chance of feedback and you can listen through any effects or
anything you have in your audio software
so in this particular example if you go
into the audio settings of Skype you can actually select the loop-back 1+2 outputs
as the audio output so this sends any of Skype's audio straight to
the loop-back outputs but not all applications are going to give you this option
so the other thing to do would be to change your computer's default output
to the loop-back outputs so we'll go through how to do that now
so first you go to control panel
and then you go to hardware and sound
then sound
and then select the playback tab
then in the list of outputs find loop-back 1+2
select it and then click Set Default
Any application or any audio from your computer will now default to use the loop-back outputs
instead of the main outputs. Now we go back into the loop-back mixer and make
sure that only the loop-back 1+2 fader is turned up
and panned left and right if you want stereo
so now we've set up loop-back in this way
the audio channel that we created earlier in our audio software to capture our Skype audio
will be taking its audio from the loop-back outputs instead so now if you
un-mute the channels you'll be able to listen to them live without the risk of feedback
when using the loopback output you'll need to make sure that
your audio software or streaming platform or whatever it is you're using
is using the main outputs as the output device therefore you'll be able to hear
whatever's happening in your speakers or headphones
okay so this is my microphone coming in separately
and I'm coming through on the loop-back inputs using the dedicated loop-back outputs
One final option to consider with loop-back is combining your microphone with your computer audio
so it all comes in on one single channel and as I said earlier this could be
great if you're wanting to use some software or streaming platform that will
only allow one input channel at a time or maybe you don't want to have to mix
and edit two channels and you just want to balance it and have one audio file to
deal with in your edit
so by turning up the mic channel while the main output or
loop-back channels are also turned up you'll combine the signals together and
then can balance it to taste in the loop-back mixer
okay so now we should be combined
into a single channel so this is me talking
and this is me talking
Okay and Dan there is coming in a little bit too hot so what we'll do is we'll just turn
down his channel a bit and now again this is an example of me talking
and this is an example of me talking
and that's much better and we can continue to tweak if we'd like.
Hopefully this all makes sense and remember that audio loop-back functionality can be
slightly different depending on the software or even the operating system
that you're using but there's loads of different ways to use it and we can't
wait to see what you come up with.
We have some written instructions on how
to set loop-back up available on our website if you'd rather read about it
than hear me talk about it.
If you found this video useful then please give it a like
and if you still have any questions about loop-back or how it works then
please leave a comment or get in touch with our support team and they'll be
happy to help and don't forget to subscribe to keep up to date with
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