Soundflower For Mac
JACK Audio Connection Kit. Sophisticated real-time, low latency routing of audio and MIDI data. Aug 01, 2020 Soundflower is a Mac OS X system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications. Soundflower is easy to use, it simply presents itself as an audio device, allowing any audio application to send and receive audio with no other support needed. Soundflower is free, open-source, and runs on Mac Intel and PPC computers. Oct 28, 2019 Ex Soundflower users may have a new solution for audio routing on Mac, thanks to a free solution posted recently to GitHub by Existential Audio. Running in the background as a virtual input/output, and appearing in your DAW alongside your in/out interface options, Blackhole can shuttle audio around your system to connect anything to anything under the hood.
Wheather you want to record your favorite radio station or the video game music playing on your Mac, Soundflower is the most popular option out there. For the unknown, Soundflower is a software that helps you route sounds to any Mac app instead of the default speakers. I’ve been using Soundflower for the past 3 years and never had any problem. However, after the latest macOS updates, the recent version of Soundflower has stopped working on Seria and High Seria. If you download Soundflower setup from Google, you are most likely to get Soundflower installation failed error.
Read: Automatically Transcribe YouTube Video/Audio using Soundflower on Mac
So, why do we get Soundflower Installation Failed error?
After a bit of research, I found the answer on StackExchange, according to the author alecail, this is due to System Integrity Protection. El Capitan and higher versions require kext to be signed in order to load them. This one gets its kext installed in /Library/Extensions/ and not in /System/Library/Extensions as previous versions were
However, his solution didn’t work for me. Thankfully after a bit of research, I was able to dig in the kext signed version from the developer. Follow the steps.
Fixing Soundflower Installation Failed
1. Download the signed version of Soundflower using this link. Download the file that says “Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg” and install the dmg on your Mac like you install any other app. Simply, run the Soundflower package installer by double-clicking on the pkg file. Depending on your macOS setting, you might see an error from GateKeeper.
Soundflower For Mac Free
2. To bypass it, you need to temporarily disable GateKeeper. Go to System Preferences choose Security & Privacy and then click the General, next, to make any changes you have to click the Padlock icon in the bottom left corner to unlock the settings. Next, click on Open Anyway, next to Soundflower.pkg was blocked.
3. Accept the security warning and go back and click on the Soundflower package, once done, you’ll be able to install the signed version with no problem
4. Now, open System Preferences on your Mac, select Sounds, switch to the Output tab and set Soundflower (2ch) as the device for sound output. A quick way to test if Soundflower is working or not is by start playing any audio file, while Soundflower is ch2 is select for output. You shouldn’t be able to hear anything.
5. Now, open Quicktime or any audio recording software. QuickTime allows the Mac user to play movie files, but it can also be used to record screencast and audio. Since it’s free and built-in, we’ll use it for this instance. However, if you want more control, you can use a free app like Simple Recorder. We use it and it works fine.
6. Go to File and choose Audio Recording, a new window will pop-up. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the recording icon and set the audio source select Soundflower ch2 and start audio recording. you won’t hear anything but your Mac’s internal audio will record in the background.
The only downside is, you can’t hear want’s being recorded, so make sure you place close attention to the timestamps of the audio you want to record. Once you are done, simply click on the stop icon on QuickTime icon to stop the recording. It’ll show you a preview your recorded file.
Again, remember, you won’t be able to hear anything since you have set the output source to Soundflower in the Sound setting of your Mac. So, you need to reverse the changes you did there (set the Sound output to speaker or headphones) and listen to your recording. If you are satisfied with your recording, save it on your desktop or something. And that’s it.
Soundflower For Mac Review
How to Uninstall Soundflower
Unlike other Mac’s app, you won’t find Soundflower in your Application folder. Instead, to uninstall Soundflower, just run the Uninstall Soundflower.scpt present in Soundflower folder. if you don’t have it, you can download it from the link above.
Also Read: How to Connect USB Mic to Smartphone for Video Recording
PLEASE READ BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO INTALL!
Note that the even though this Soundflower extension is signed, but the installer is not! You will have to hold the control key down to open the Soundflower.pkg installer for the first time.
Apple makes you jump through a few hoops. The first time you run the installer (Soundflower.pkg), it will ask for your admin password, and will FAIL! A security alert will appear, with a button to take you to System Preferences 'Security & Privacy - General' pane. Once there, there should be an 'Allow' button (**) that you will need to click on to give permission to use Soundflower (developer: MATT INGALLS). Then, RUN THE INSTALLER AGAIN. It should inform you installation was successful. If the 'Allow' button is disabled, you may need to click the lock icon in the bottom lower left corner first.
(**) If you see an 'Open Anyway' button in the Security Preferences, this is something different!!! Most likely because you tried (and failed) opening the installer by double clicking without holding down the control key. If so, click the 'Open Anyway' button which will display another window. Then click the 'Open' button in that window to launch the installer. Now you can follow the instructions above to get the 'Allow' button to appear in the Security Preferences.
NOTE: This is only the Soundflower kernel extension. The SoundflowerBed app is retired. A new replacement is in the works. In the meantime, you can take your chances with an older version of Soundflowerbed, but you can do a lot with a Multi-Output Aggregate Device. Here's an example:
Say i want to play some audio in iTunes, but record it in Quicktime while listening to it out of the built-in speakers. Here is how i would set it up:
*in iTunes:
start playing audio
Open Audio MIDI Setup: (found in /Applications/Utilities)
hit the '+' button in the bottom left corner and select 'Create Multi Output Device'
in the the panel that appears on the right, select 'Built-in Output' AND 'Soundflower (2ch)'
then hit the button with the gear icon bottom left and select 'use this device for sound output' (you should still be hearing your iTunes output -- it is now going to both Soundflower and the built-in speakers)
Then In Quicktime:
create a new audio recording
in the popup menu next to record button select 'Soundflower (2ch)' as the input
(you should now see record levels changing)
hit record!