VO Weekly Workflow: Loopback In Action (Part 1)

It’s always interesting to discover a new trick in old software. Back when I first began taking VO classes, Audacity was actually the first recording software that I messed with. It was quite tempermental on the computer hardware I had at the time, but at least it failed in fairly consistent ways. Though I did move on to other recording software fairly quickly, I’ve kept current with Audacity in order to assist other voice actors who choose it for their workflow.

Routing audio in Audacity

While all software contains tradeoffs and biases, Audacity continues to use rudimentary “I/O” routing. I/O routing controls the way the software handles audio “Inputs” and “Outputs.” In Audacity, choosing the “Recording Device” (Input) and “Playback Device” (Output) directs where the audio flows.

That routing is pretty straight forward for most VO tasks. Audio goes in from our microphone and gets recorded in a single track. Then we play from that track back out to our headphones. If we’re using an audio interface, we simply choose that device for input and output.

While playing with some Audacity setups recently, I realized there was a feature that can be helpful in remotely directed sessions. Even better, it’s not limited to that app alone, and can be replicated in Twisted Wave if you want to venture out past the documented features.

Getting audio where you need it

With the right recording hardware, you can capture audio from a remote source into separate tracks while recording your local performance. That means that you can capture both sides of a coaching session, or record the direction you received during a locally recorded live session. Since it’s in a separate track, your local recording just contains the sounds that the mic picked up.

Recording “both sides” of a session can be particularly tricky on the MacOS side of things because Apple’s Core Audio does not like to share audio between applications. Since most of us don’t generally need this functionality, it’s not usually an issue. However, a question and discussion in the Voice One Discord got me thinking through various ways to capture that audio.

Loopback to the rescue

I’ve written before about the idea of “loopback” and how it means different things in different instances. Voice actors started using the term “Loopback” to describe the way of providing audio playback to a remote director. My guess is that this occurred because a specific audio interface – the Yamaha AG03/06 – labeled a playback function with this term. On that piece of studio hardware, when you pushed a button and turned that knob, it sent computer playback “down the line” so that someone on the other end of a remote connection could hear it. Technically, this is a “Mix-Minus” feed, where the other party hears the “audio mix”, “minus” their own voice.

A number of current interfaces provide a “loopback” feature which differs from this. This type of loopback shows up as another local input into the recording software. When the SSL2 or the Scarlett 2i2 appears in most recording software, it will show inputs for Channel 1 (our mic), Channel 2 (the “other” mic input) and then Loopback 1 and Loopback 2.

Loopback 1 and 2 are essentially what you hear in your headphone when you aren’t speaking. That means when someone is speaking to you over Zoom or another connection method, it can be recorded in an additional track. Any software that supports multiple inputs into multiple tracks should be able to capture both your local recordings and the voice of someone providing commentary or feedback to you. It can even be done in Twisted Wave by adding extra tracks.

I’ll go through more details of this setup and its use in next week’s post.

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

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