This is a note to myself for future reference. Sidenote: Future you, you’re looking good today!
I wanted to capture an audio stream which I couldn’t download. It was streaming only. I encounter a lot of these through Patreon or Substack pages of artists that I support. E.g. Dan Mangan who shares one audio file of a concert he performed.
For awhile I had a complicated system involving my laptop feeding into my mixing board recording to an SD card but I figured there must be an easier way.
The easier way is a concept called loopback where it loops your stereo output from your computer BACK into your digital audio workstation (in my case Logic Pro) as an input.
I was looking into software that could do this (Loopback, Jack Connection), but then I stumbled upon a video which explained that some audio interfaces already support this feature.
Sure enough, my Focusrite Clarett 4Pre supported this. In the manual it says that Inputs 11 & 12 are designated as loopback.
Here are the steps to enable this for future reference:
- Open Logic Pro and create a new audio track. Do NOT choose inputs 11/12 immediately. Choose something else.
- Mute the track. At first I was creating a massive feedback loop when I selected 11/12 because I hadn’t muted the track and it just kept feedback through my speakers.
- Once track is muted, selected inputs 11 & 12 as your inputs.
- Go into your browser click play on the stream.
- You should see the meters bouncing and you can click record.
- Once done, make sure the stream has stopped.
- Unmute the track. Note that if anything plays on your computer while unmuted will create a feedback loop.
- Play the track and it should work!