Loopback 2.5.0 — Mac version

You're recording a podcast. Your guest is on a video call, and you want to pull their voice, your microphone, and a soundboard app together so your recording software hears it all as one source. That's where Loopback steps in.

What does the new version add?

Loopback 2.5.0 brings full support for macOS 27. The nagging launch warning that used to appear on the new system is gone, and the ARK audio plugin underneath was updated to version 13.5 to keep everything solid.

Send audio from Audio Hijack into Loopback

You can set Loopback up as an output device inside Audio Hijack, which makes it a handy link in a longer audio-capture chain. It also pairs well with Elgato Game Capture hardware when you need to record your mic and game audio as one clean track.

What's stayed the same?

The core job hasn't changed. You still combine audio from apps and input devices — like a USB mic and a music app — into a single virtual input. Any app that can listen to a microphone can then pick it up.

System requirements

A full routing job, start to finish

Say you're putting together a screen recording with a voiceover. You want your mic, the system alert sounds from the app you're demoing, and a little background music from a player. Here's how I'd set that up.

1. Open Loopback and click the plus button to create a new virtual device. Name it something obvious like Recording Mix.
2. Add three sources: your USB microphone, the app you're demoing, and your music player. Drag the music player's volume down a touch so it sits under your voice.
3. Turn on the monitor button next to your mic source so you can hear yourself through headphones. Not too loud, or you'll start talking oddly.
4. Open your screen recorder and pick Recording Mix as the microphone input.
5. Do a ten-second test recording. Play it back, check the levels, then adjust the sliders in Loopback if the music is crowding you out.

Once you've got it right, that virtual device stays saved. Next time you record, everything's already wired up.

Barely touches your CPU after setup

Loopback is one of those tools that just sits there quietly after you've set it up. On my old Intel Mac and a newer Apple Silicon one, it barely registers in Activity Monitor. A few percent CPU when audio is moving, and memory use stays modest.

Stability has been good for me. I've left a routing setup running all afternoon while recording interviews and editing, and it didn't flinch. The only time I've had to restart the app was after a macOS update, which is normal for anything touching the audio system this deeply.

Latency is low enough that I don't notice a delay when monitoring my own mic. If you're doing music work where every millisecond counts, you might feel differently, but for podcasts, streams and screen recordings it's a non-issue.

Guests hear themselves twice when mono is unchecked

The most common mistake I see at the repair café is people adding a source but forgetting to tick mono or mute when not in use. Then they wonder why their guest hears themselves twice, or why dead air hisses into the recording.

Another classic: creating the virtual device and then picking the wrong input in the target app. Loopback names itself clearly, but if you have three virtual devices from different experiments, it's easy to grab the wrong one. Name them properly and delete the ones you don't need.

The third one is volume stacking. People set the source slider high, then the app's own volume high, then the recording level high. That's how you get clipping. Start with every slider at 70% and work up gently.

Option-drag to duplicate a source instantly

• Double-click a source to rename it. Sounds small, but "Blue Yeti" beats "USB Audio Device" when you're scanning a list at speed.
• Option-drag a source to duplicate it with the same settings. Handy when you want the same app in two different virtual devices.
• The pass-thru button on a virtual device sends audio to your normal output too, so you don't have to wear headphones just to check routing.
• You can drag sources to reorder them. It doesn't change the audio, but it keeps the window tidy when you have five or six things connected.

If you're weighing up a download, Loopback for Mac is one of the few routing tools that never made me want to throw the machine out of the window. The wired-style interface takes a minute to learn, but after that it's just plugging cables in your head.

It runs on Intel and Apple Silicon machines from macOS 11 upwards. If your Mac is on version 14.5 through to 27, you're covered.

• Added support for macOS 27
• Launch warning no longer shows on macOS 27
• ARK audio plugin updated to version 13.5

• macOS 11 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac