Posted By Paul Kafasis on September 16th, 2019

Loopback 2.1 is here, and it includes some great enhancements to our powerful audio routing tool. Since its first release, Loopback has given podcasters, audio techs, and many others the power of a high-end studio mixing board, right from software. Now, the application is more refined than ever. Read on for more, or simply update to Loopback 2.1 by selecting “Check for Update” from the Loopback menu!

What’s New in Loopback 2.1?

For this update, we focused on perfecting many different aspects of the application to provide the best user experience yet. Loopback 2.1 includes a whole host of refinements, but it’s also got one very visible change. Let’s start there.

Loopback Goes Dark

The first thing many users will notice is that Loopback now offers an optional new Dark appearance, and it looks great:

Loopback’s new Dark Mode appearance

If you’re using Loopback in a dimly lit studio or other darkened space, this new theme will serve you well. You can adjust the application’s appearance right from the Preferences window. With the default “Match System” setting, Loopback will follow your OS-wide appearance.¹ If you prefer, you can force Loopback to use the “Light” or “Dark” theme, regardless of your system-wide settings.

Better Handling of Physical Audio Devices

Loopback’s virtual audio devices can pull audio from both applications and physical input devices like microphones. Unfortunately, many popular USB audio input devices incorrectly fail to contain unique identifying information. As a result, it was often necessary to tweak the settings of your Loopback device to re-select the desired inputs.

That’s all in the past now, however, thanks to improvements made in this release. Loopback now does yeoman’s work to keep track of your devices when they move between ports on your machine, as well as across restarts. With this update, you’ll have far fewer erroneous “Device Missing” errors.

Sometimes a device truly is missing, however, and we’ve improved how Loopback handles this as well. If a physical device isn’t currently connected to your Mac, you’ll see a warning like the image above. The improved indicators for missing inputs and monitors should help you diagnose and fix misconfigurations faster, and with less hassle.

Our hope is that you’ll barely notice these particular changes. Instead, Loopback will just keep things humming along for all your virtual devices.

Catalina, We’re Ready When You Are

Some time next month, Apple will be shipping the latest version of the Mac’s operating system, MacOS 10.15 (Catalina). At present, the release date has only been given as “October”. Fortunately, Loopback 2.1 is already compatible with Catalina, so whenever it arrives, you’ll be ready to go!

And So Much More

There’s a slew of other improvements to be found in Loopback 2.1, from CPU optimizations for our level meters to interface improvements on disabled and selected items. We’re better handling slow monitoring devices, so you don’t miss any audio, and made the app more resilient against breakage previously caused by “cleaner” utilities deleting important files. There’s a new Release Notes window so you can see what’s changed, an overhauled wizard for installing and updating the software, and advancements in our Help system. Heck, we even improved the About box to better show your current version information!

Loopback 2.1 is our best release yet, and we can’t wait for you to try it out.

Get Loopback 2.1 Today

Thousands of podcasters, live streamers, and audio techs swear by Loopback. Virtual audio devices give you control over how audio flows on your Mac, making it possible to do incredible things. If you’re already a Loopback 2 user, just select “Check for Update” from the Loopback menu to move up to version 2.1, or click “Free Download” below to download it directly.

If you’re new to Loopback, visit the product page to learn all about our powerful audio routing tool.

Loopback 2.1 works on MacOS 10.12 and higher. Our free, fully-functional trial allows you to explore all that Loopback offers, after which you can purchase through our online store for $99.

Footnotes:

1. The “Match System” option follows the General System Preference. On MacOS 10.14 and up, it follows the “Appearance” setting, while MacOS 10.13 and 10.12 use the older “Use dark menu bar and Dock” setting. ↩︎