In this quick guide, we'll walk you through how to route audio from your computer and microphone to Zoom simultaneously, without sharing your screen. Here are some reasons that you might want to do this:
- You want to participate in one of our eKaraoke events and want to make sure your performance is broadcasted to your friends/office-mates/enemies in the highest of quality.
- You want to participate in one of our eKaraoke events and don't really care about quality, but you'd rather not have to blast the music through your computer speakers, and want to hear it in your headphones instead.
- You have absolutely no interest in karaoke, but you want to play the Twin Peaks music very quietly behind your voice during a Zoom call.
To do this, you need to do a few things: (1) install two pieces of free software and (2) mess around with your audio settings. This won't require anything more advanced than checking some boxes, no software expertise needed.
Mac
First, we'll install Soundflower. Soundflower is a free, open source piece of software currently developed by Matt Ingalls that lets you capture your computer's audio output as audio input for recording or streaming. If you feel iffy about downloading something from a stranger's Github, you can see praise for Soundflower and evidence of its widespread use here, here, and here.
- Go to https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/tag/2.0b2, scroll to Assets, and download Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg.
- Once it has downloaded, click the disk image to mount it, right-click Soundflower.pkg, and select "Open".
- Your computer will warn you that the file comes from an unknown developer, but select "Open" again and the installer will run.
Soundflower is basically a digital audio cable that you can use to send audio from any output on your computer to any input. Next, let's feed some output to it, by adjusting your computer's audio settings.
- Open Spotlight, and search for the Audio MIDI Setup utility. It should have a small keyboard icon. Alternately, you can browse to its location in /Applications/Other/. Open it.
- A window named Audio Devices should appear. (If not, in the top bar, select Window > Show Audio Devices.) On the left side are a list of audio devices available on your computer, including the default choices, "Built-in Microphone" and "Built-in Output". You should see that Soundflower has added "Soundflower (2ch)" and "Soundflower (64ch)".
- Click on the plus in the lower left of this window, and select "Create Multi-Ouput Device".
- An object called Multi-Output Device will pop into your list. Click on the name to change it to something meaningful, let's call it "Output + Capture".
- Now with Output + Capture selected in the left panel, in the right panel, check Built-in output and Soundflower (2ch).
- Now right click on "Output + Capture" again on the left, and select "Use this device for Sound Output". You're now feeding all of your computer sound into two places simultaneously: your usual output (speakers, headphones) so you can listen as normal, and as input to Soundflower, which will send it somewhere we will set in a bit.
Take note: With these settings, unfortunately, you can't use your usual volume controls to adjust the volume of your computer audio. To adjust audio volumes, go to System Preferences > Sound > Output, scroll to the top selection, which will be something like Headphones or Speakers, and adjust the "Output volume" slider in the bottom of the window.
If you find this convoluted and annoying (we do), there's a solution, download another small app called Soundflowerbed here. Once it downloads, drag it to your Applications folder, right-click, select Open, and in the pop-up, Open again. A little flower icon will pop up at the right of your menu bar at the top of the screen. Back in Audio MIDI set-up, right click on Soundflower (2ch) on the left, and select "Use this device for Sound Output". Now, click on the flower at the top of your screen, and under "Soundflower (2ch)", select "Built-in Output". You are now again funneling audio to both Soundflower and your usual outputs, but you can use your usual volume controls. One note: If you use Soundflowerbed, you must have Soundflowerbed running to hear anything. When in doubt, you can revert to normal settings by clicking the volume icon in your top bar, and selecting your usual output (e.g. Headphones).
Next, we'll download one last piece of free software from the App Store, LadioCast, and set it up to condense our microphone and the computer audio Soundflower is capturing into a single stereo input which Zoom can understand.
- Go to https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ladiocast/id411213048 and download the LadioCast app, then run the installer.
- When you open the program, you will be greeted by a Mixer window, with four inputs on the left side, and four outputs on the right side.
- Set Input 1 to Built-in Microphone. Make sure, underneath this, "Main" is highlighted.
- Set Input 2 to Soundflower (2ch). Again, make sure underneath this, "Main" is highlighted.
- On the right, set Main Output to Soundflower (64ch). Make sure it's the 64ch device and not the 2ch device, you'll get feedback if you are sending a device's output back to it.
- Now, find a quick karaoke video on Youtube, play it to yourself from your computer through headphones, and sing along into your computer/headphone microphone. You should see green bars indicating sound levels in Input 1, Input 2, and Main Output.
- We recommend setting the volume sliders so your Microphone volume is one notch from the top, and Soundflower is one notch above the middle. You can play with this if you'd rather your voice be quieter compared to the music.
That's it! If you would like to test whether this works, open Quicktime Player, and in the top bar go to File > New Audio Recording. In the window that pops up, click the menu next to the big red button and select Soundflower (64ch) as your input. Play some music from your computer through your headphones, and sing along into your mic. When you listen back, you should be able to hear both sources clearly! This is also a good way to check volume levels.
Now, when your in your Zoom call, you need to do two things to ensure you use this new power. In the menu next to the microphone button in your call, under "Select a Microphone", choose Soundflower (64ch). Next, in the same menu, go to "Audio Settings...". At the bottom of the menu pop-up, select "Advanced", and set "Suppress Persistent Background Noise" and "Suppress Intermittent Background Noise" to "Disable". Your partners on the call should hear your voice and your backing music crystal clear!