mmarkuz Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 I connected the Helix to my Mac via USB. On the Mac I am playing guitar to as backing track. The guitar sound comes from the Helix, the backing track from the Mac. That's actually a fantastic combo to practice songs. Now I'd like to record those sessions, ideally with a webcam or Quicktime. Quicktime allows to select the microphone source too so you are able to pick Helix as the sound source. However, the Mac sounds from my backing track are missing, since you can only pick one source. How can I get the Mac sound mixed in the Helix and output to the Mac again and get it recorded? Thanks for your support, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaschaFranck Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 You might want to check out Soundflower, which is a virtual audio cable kind of thing (fwiw, it's free). You can send pretty much anything into it and then use its output as an input for Quicktime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayridge Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Mac has an option for aggregate audio devices built in - maybe this will help. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaschaFranck Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 No, aggregate devices won't help as they don't show up as possible inputs in Quicktime (just the physical ins, which is irrelevant for the playbacks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malhavok Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Assign Helix as the primary mac sound output as well. Go to your Audio MIDI Setup on the mac, right-click Helix and choose Use This Device For Sound Output. Your playback will now come from Helix. However, this still won't let you record via QuickTime as that output is actually output and will not show on Helix as input. I'm not too familiar with loopback capabilities of macOS since I record in DAW while also recording with camera and then sync up audio and video in Final Cut (or iMovie) after the fact. I have been experimenting with OBS and BlackHole (both free) which seem like they may be able to solve this problem but I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaschaFranck Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Really, Soundflower will do exactly what is asked for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malhavok Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 @SaschaFranck, Soundflower is great but also old and not well maintained. For new things, I recommend BlackHole which is the exact same thing as SoundFlower but with complete updated capability for Catalina's security model. Check out BlackHole here. Of course, if anyone is already using Soundflower and it's working perfectly for you, no need to switch. Just pointing out a newer option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaschaFranck Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Sorry, missed the Blackhole part - yeah, looks every bit as appropriate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarkuz Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 actually been a little too early - I am not getting it setup. now the sound from the Mac comes up and I can play along, however the Helix sound won't get recorded. I have setup the way it says in the instructions, and always using latest firmware and macOS... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malhavok Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Make sure you are down with the basics. Some important concepts: The computer records inputs You hear outputs The computer won't record outputs Helix allows your "guitar sound" to be heard as an output while also sending it to many inputs Your computer playback is only an output (and not an input) This is what allows a DAW to work (because you can listen to playback of already recorded tracks while recording only your unimpeded input) There exists add-on software (BlackHole is my preference, but Soundflower is the older one) that makes your computer think outputs are inputs, but it requires configuration Which part of the above are you having trouble getting setting up. Then we can help you with more details about that part. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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