VO Tech Tip: Loopback is not (necessarily) Playback

“Virtual” routing remains one of the most difficult things to conceptualize in our home voiceover studios. One of the benefits of learning studio craft on hardware devices is that tactile sense of a cable coming out of one device, sending audio into another device. Back in the day, even home stereo components got connected in this manner as well. Many learned about Inputs and Outputs (I/O) courtesy of confusing “TAPE IN” and “TAPE OUT” labels on the back of our units. TAPE OUT had to be plugged into the TAPE IN to get any sound from our cassette deck to our receiver.

The saving grace was that you could trace the signal pathway from one piece of gear to the other. That usually allowed you to untangle things when signal didn’t show up where you expected. Now, we did have to get creative or find other hardware workarounds when we wanted to do weird stuff. That’s where matrix patch bays, multipliers, and more complex mixers did the heavy lifting. You had devices with multiple outputs, and you could direct specific audio to go there. You could flip a switch or plug something in a different spot, and the signal would flow where you wanted it to go. It was clunky at times, but you could usually get things set up correctly.

Current interfaces and computer software have streamlined the way we connect devices. However, they’ve also limited the flexibility in a particular way – it can sometimes be relatively tricky to play back audio to someone who is not in the room with you.

In online sessions, voice actors are sometimes asked to play audio back from a take they’ve recorded. This simple request can be difficult to meet. Getting playback to a client is controlled by “virtual” routing which occurs inside of your computer, as well as the hardware functionality under the hood of your audio interface. If the device and software are not set up to achieve it, things can get a little frustrating. That’s why many VO’s look for audio interfaces with “Loopback”.

Unfortunately, “loopback” doesn’t necessarily mean that we can play audio back for someone listening on the other side of the internet connection. Particularly in the last couple of years, the meaning of the term “loopback” has shifted significantly. Loopback now generally refers to rerouting audio back into the interface to be used in other apps. It allows recording or streaming apps to “hear” the audio inside the computer. It does not typically let you send that audio back out to your connected session partner. In other words, it does not allow playback of your recordings down the line to another person.

In other words, just because an interface says it has “loopback” does not mean you can provide “playback” needed in some VO sessions. I think it’s time to give up this specific term “loopback”. Almost everyone else is using it differently. What we want is “playback.”

There are only a couple of common audio interfaces which achieve this in hardware – the Yamaha AG series and the Steinberg come to mind (and of course the CEntrance PASPort VO when it arrives).

We need to acknowledge that our needs in a VO setup are different than streamers or podcasters. As the newer hardware arrives, much of it is geared toward that part of the market. The loopback you get might not be the playback you need.

Do we actually need to worry about playback?
While playback is definitely a service we might be asked to provide, the two most common connection methods actually solve things pretty directly, without needing specific hardware. In a Source-Connect session, the audio files should be resident on the far-end of the recording. That’s the whole reason for using that service. Any playback requirements should fall to the studio doing the recording – not to the voice actor standing behind a microphone. If you are being directed over Zoom, there’s an audio sharing tool inside that application which can easily solve that request.

Granted, things can get a bit tricky over many browser-based connections. Google Meet, Bodalgocall, Source-Connect Now all run through a Chrome browser. That’s when you may need to get a little creative (such as this routing hack I shared for playing back in Google Meet). In the worst case scenario, you can always hold your headphones up near the microphone and hit play. Though a bit crude, this may suffice.

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