Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

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stubbsonic
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Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by stubbsonic »

I thought this warranted its own thread.

Soundflower and Jack are the two products that gave us some ability to route audio through a kind of virtual "softbus". This is useful for AV communications, screen capture, streaming processes, and other complex multi-app things we may want to do.

Soundflower was at some point developed and supported at Cycling 74. Currently it is at Github and is kind of an open-source thing. Not sure what is happening with it.

I don't know the current state of Jack. I don't think there's been a new version in a while. I tried using it a couple years ago, and it was tricky to use and glitchy.

Enter Rogue Amoeba which has a few inter-app audio products. I have Audio Hijack 3 which provides very nice features for routing audio into and out of the app and great recording features. I have Airfoil which takes audio and sends it to your Airport. And I use their Fission App almost daily, which is an MP3 editor (and more).

It was a smart move for RA to develop the replacement for Soundflower.

I can grumble a little bit about the price, since this will in some ways replace the function of Audio Hijack and Airfoil. I had kind of hoped RA would offer a little bundle sweetener to the price. But alas. It seems pretty dang useful.

Read more here:

https://www.rogueamoeba.com/loopback/
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Michael Canavan
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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by Michael Canavan »

stubbsonic wrote: It was a smart move for RA to develop the replacement for Soundflower.

I can grumble a little bit about the price, since this will in some ways replace the function of Audio Hijack and Airfoil. I had kind of hoped RA would offer a little bundle sweetener to the price. But alas. It seems pretty dang useful.
They took over stewardship for Soundflower, abandoned it, then released Loopback. I emailed them, I like the company, but I just thought the price was pretty high, and the circumstances made it look bad.
They swear they used no code from Soundflower, but I still thing $100 with a $75 intro price is high when what you're replacing was a free app. They're really cordial, but I still think marketing a previousy
free app at that price is going to cost them sales.

Jack OSX is still being developed anyway, and yeah, Rogue would benefit from offering discounts to existing customers etc.
M2 Studio Ultra, RME Babyface FS, Slate Raven Mti2, NI SL88 MKII, Linnstrument, MPC Live II, Launchpad MK3. Hundreds of plug ins.
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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by stubbsonic »

I sent them an email about it, too. Since I've bought most of their apps, including major updates.

Rogue Amoeba is a very responsive and responsible developer, so I'm quite glad for them to offer this. And if they say it is an entirely different code, I believe them. There are probably pretty compelling reasons to start from scratch. The idea of having this hyper-routing item appear as its own audio device is a very elegant way to approach this.

If Audio Hijack 3 is any indication of the design & quality, it will be a very full-featured app. I'd even say it will be worth the $99 for people who would be using it as part of their daily operations. It might even be a pretty developer intensive product if every OS release breaks it.

It is hard to tell (just from a glance) what is happening with the Jack app. I'm glad to hear it is still being developed.
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.

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bayswater
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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by bayswater »

stubbsonic wrote:Soundflower was at some point developed and supported at Cycling 74. Currently it is at Github and is kind of an open-source thing. Not sure what is happening with it.
Rogue Amoeba took it on.

https://rogueamoeba.com/freebies/soundflower/
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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by nk_e »

Loopback's ease of use is fantastic.

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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Given the quality of their work and history of free updates on AudioHijack $75 ain't a lot to pay for good software you can use. I'll have to try the demo but don't see much need in my work. I can hijack audio when I need to and a direct feed to any app is not necessary. Still, I tend to buy stuff like this if the company has displayed great products and service, so if the demo looks great: there goes the egg money.
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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by nk_e »

Your avatar is great. It always makes me laugh.

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Re: Loopback from Rogue Amoeba (the new soundflower?)

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

;)
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