How to record computer audio via loopback

“Loopback” is a term used to describe the routing of the internal audio from your computer applications back into the inputs of your interface.

Loopback is like a cable from your computer’s audio output going back into your recording device, except it is handled digitally without the need of physical cables.

This lets you record audio from computer applications and control that audio separately from your other input sources. 

There are a lot of cases where you’d want to record your computer audio. Here are just a few interesting examples, and you may think of more! 

Record a podcast with a remote guest 

If you have a remote guest calling into your podcast via an app like Zoom or Teams, you can route that audio via the loopback channel in CONNECT 6. You’ll be able to easily record your guest on a separate channel in your DAW. Check out our blog on how to record podcasts. We also have a video covering this topic -> Click to watch here

Add live sound effects to your podcast 

If you want to spice up your podcast with sound effects or funny clips, loopback is the perfect tool for you. For example, you might want to fire off a one-shot sound effect. And you might want to take them from:

• YouTube
• Streaming platforms like Spotify etc. 
• An existing recording on your computer

Go to your audio recording software, create a track, and set your loopback as an audio input. For CONNECT 6, the loopback channel shows as input 7/8. 

If you now play back the sound, you’ll be able to record it on the prepared track. All recorded sounds can then be used whenever you need them.

Make a reaction video  

If you’re making a screen recording of any kind, whether it’s for a reaction video or an on-screen tutorial, you may find the video's sound is very loud. With loopback you'll have separate control over your computer and microphone audio, so you can change levels of your computer's background audio and your voice can be heard more clearly.

You can follow the same steps as above to set this up, by assigning your DAW track to input 7/8 for computer audio.

Record your game audio 

Streaming or recording game audio can be tricky because these applications are often very loud and dynamic, which can overwhelm your voice. It gets more complex when livestreaming, since your voice must be loud enough to be heard by your audience, who also would like to hear the audio from the game.

The loopback feature alleviates this problem by capturing game and microphone audio separately. You can create separate monitor mixes for yourself and your audience if you are streaming live.

Record reference tracks into your DAW  

A reference track is a piece of recorded audio that’s used by a mixing or mastering engineer to compare to a project they are working on. But it can often be difficult to locate a high-quality audio file of a specific reference track you may be looking for. Using Loopback, you can easily record a reference track directly into your session from your audio player or streaming app. Be aware this is for your personal use only! 

With all the routing flexibility available in CONNECT 6, it’s easy to overlook loopback. But once you master it, you may start finding all sorts of excuses to use it.

We hope this article was helpful in learning about Loopback - let us know on social media about your own experiences with this handy feature!