Looped Back Audio — a virtual audio device for macOS
Everything an app plays into Looped Back Audio comes straight back out as an input for any other app. 8, 16, 32 or 64 channels, a plain CoreAudio device in QLab, Ableton, Zoom, OBS and the rest — no kernel extension, no reboot. £20 per Mac, 14-day free trial.
Buy a licence — £20 Included free with Playback Fail
macOS 11 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · Developer ID signed and notarized
Route audio between apps without cables
Looped Back Audio is a user-space CoreAudio driver. Pick it as the output in one application and it appears as the input in another — playback software into a stream encoder, a DAW into a video call, QLab into Playback Fail. Multiple apps can play into it at once and are mixed; multiple apps can listen and all hear the same audio.
Install the channel count you need. The 8-channel version is bundled free inside Playback Fail; the 16, 32 and 64-channel versions, and the 8-channel on its own, are what this licence buys. All four come in the download.
Specification
Channels
8, 16, 32 or 64 — one driver per channel count, install any or all. Device names: Looped Back Audio 8ch, 16ch, 32ch, 64ch.
Format
Float32, interleaved. Sample rates 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192 kHz, switchable from Audio MIDI Setup or the host app.
Latency
Two safety buffers of 48 frames — about 2 ms at 48 kHz. Clocked from host time, so it stays locked to whatever is driving it.
No kernel extension
A CoreAudio AudioServerPlugIn in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL. Nothing to approve in Recovery, nothing that survives an uninstall you didn't ask for.
Signed and notarized
Developer ID signed, hardened runtime, notarized installer. Installs with your Mac password like any other package; an uninstaller is included.
Works everywhere CoreAudio does
QLab, Ableton Live, Logic, Reaper, OBS, Zoom, Teams, Dante Virtual Soundcard aggregates — anything that lists audio devices.
Licensing
£20 per Mac, once
A licence key (LBAD-…) activates one Mac. The small Looped Back Audio Licence app in the download takes the key and your purchase email and activates it; deactivate there before moving to another Mac.
14-day trial
Install first, decide later: without a licence the device runs for 14 days, then its inputs deliver silence until a key is entered.
Delivered on payment
Your key and a download link (valid 90 days) appear on the order page the moment payment completes, and are emailed to you.
Need more than 64 channels, or a site licence?
Tell us what you are routing and we will sort it.
Email info@soundanalysts.co.uk