Question / Help No sound - Using DJ Controller on Mac

[Ljay]

Hi,

I am trying to stream using OBS with a MacBook Air Catalina and a Pioneer DDJ 400 USB DJ Controller.

I have installed Soundflower and followed some guides to configure but I cannot get any sound to register through OBS.
The Mac doesn’t recognise the USB controller but there was a guide I followed to use the Soundflower tool to work around this, but no matter what I try obs won’t process it.

When I look at the sound flower Input on Mac I can see the sound bar moving and it’s recognising the input. However when I select it in OBS the sound just doesn’t work, the level doesn’t move and just looks like no sound is coming through.

can someone confirm if it’s even possible to do what I am trying to achieve on a Mac with a controller and obs?

thanks

Louis

 

[Narcogen]

Soundflower is for capturing system default audio, got nothing to do with audio from external audio interfaces.

If there's no Mac driver for that device, there won't be anything OBS can do with it. If it does, you shouldn't need Soundflower or anything else to get audio from it.

As far as I can tell, they made this unit to interface with their rekordbox software. I don't see anything about it behaving as a standard USB audio device; it seems to assume you use this device to take audio files from the computer, and send them to the controller, with audio output coming directly from the controller to an amplifier.

Manual indicates this device accepts audio from the computer via USB. Nothing about it providing audio TO the computer via USB:

I read the above "output channels" as meaning you can send audio from the Mac to the controller, but no input.

 

[Ljay]

Soundflower is for capturing system default audio, got nothing to do with audio from external audio interfaces.

If there's no Mac driver for that device, there won't be anything OBS can do with it. If it does, you shouldn't need Soundflower or anything else to get audio from it.

As far as I can tell, they made this unit to interface with their rekordbox software. I don't see anything about it behaving as a standard USB audio device; it seems to assume you use this device to take audio files from the computer, and send them to the controller, with audio output coming directly from the controller to an amplifier.

Manual indicates this device accepts audio from the computer via USB. Nothing about it providing audio TO the computer via USB:

View attachment 51358

I read the above "output channels" as meaning you can send audio from the Mac to the controller, but no input.

Thanks for taking time to reply. I actually followed the official guide from Pioneer to set this up with OBS. Are you saying this will just never work? I posted the link to the guide below?

Streaming with OBS + DDJ-1000 (Mac)

This guide is a how-to for streaming using a 3rd party software such as OBS, and many of these instructions may also be applied to other software. The instructions provided herein are based around ...

forums.pioneerdj.com

As said above the Soundflower I put on my Mac shows that audio is being sent toit but I can’t can’t see anythint coming through to OBS on the source.

Also with regards to the controller sending nothing to the Mac it’s worth mentioning the music is played through rekordbox the controller just controls the software. I can hear the music on my Mac speakers if I wish to.

 

[Ljay]

Failing this, can someone tell me what I need too be able to get sound through OBS? I followed the guides from Pioneer and can even hear sound being played on the MacBook. There must be a way? There have to be many Dj's with similar setups? MacBook Airs with Dj Controllers wanting to stream via OBS?

 

[Narcogen]

If you follow the SoundFlower guide, does sound made by your Mac (music from itunes, sound from youtube videos, Finder GUI alert noises) come into OBS or not?

Include a log file if you have a problem: here's how

Reading that guide it seems like they are setting up a virtual device that sends audio to two places: 1) the controller and 2) the SoundFlower virtual device.

As far as that goes, that's a fairly standard setup for OBS on MacOS; you need a virtual output OBS can capture, but you also need output to go to your external device.

But as far as I can tell, that audio's being sent by the rekordbox software to the SoundFlower device. That software's sound is affected by the controller device, but that audio is coming from the Mac. So if you don't have desktop audio capture working, you won't get anything-- OBS isn't seeing the controller as a standard audio device because as far as I can tell, it isn't one. The docs consider it an output, not an input.

If you set SoundFlower as your default audio output, and set that up as a capture in OBS, does it work?

 

[Ljay]

If you follow the SoundFlower guide, does sound made by your Mac (music from itunes, sound from youtube videos, Finder GUI alert noises) come into OBS or not?

Include a log file if you have a problem: here's how

Reading that guide it seems like they are setting up a virtual device that sends audio to two places: 1) the controller and 2) the SoundFlower virtual device.

As far as that goes, that's a fairly standard setup for OBS on MacOS; you need a virtual output OBS can capture, but you also need output to go to your external device.

But as far as I can tell, that audio's being sent by the rekordbox software to the SoundFlower device. That software's sound is affected by the controller device, but that audio is coming from the Mac. So if you don't have desktop audio capture working, you won't get anything-- OBS isn't seeing the controller as a standard audio device because as far as I can tell, it isn't one. The docs consider it an output, not an input.

If you set SoundFlower as your default audio output, and set that up as a capture in OBS, does it work?

No so if I try to listen to tunes through SoundFlower as default nothing comes through the speakers nor OBS levels, only hear tunes if I switch too MacBook Speakers in the sound options. However even if I am playing tunes through MacBook Air Speakers there appears to be no option for OBS to capture this either?

So the controller is a MIDI device that controls the rekordbox software, the actual song is played within the application, I can even select an option in rekordbox to play through laptop as well as speakers.
I have even tried disconnecting the controller playing a tune through the laptop and streaming and it doesn't recognise any sounds within OBS.

There must be something I can follow to get this to work properly?

Logile below:-

https://obsproject.com/logs/LXYTe9r7gZINLIO5

 

[Narcogen]

No so if I try to listen to tunes through SoundFlower as default nothing comes through the speakers nor OBS levels, only hear tunes if I switch too MacBook Speakers in the sound options. However even if I am playing tunes through MacBook Air Speakers there appears to be no option for OBS to capture this either?

No. The only way you can capture desktop audio on MacOS is through a solution that adds a virtual device, and making that device your default output device. (Or making an aggregate device that includes a hardware output AND a virtual output, and making THAT your default device-- that's what the tutorial you posted describes.

You need that part working first. The options for it are SoundFlower, iShowU, and Rogue Amoeba's LoopBack (not free).

Common mistakes are adding the device to OBS as the wrong type, or OBS lacking permissions to capture audio and video.

Question / Help - Mojave Beta + OBS = No Access to webcam/camera

Preface: I am not illiterate to OSX or OBS. I know video capture device not display. I know how to access where this is in system preferences in the os. To those of you not on the Mojave beta basically OSX requires a system prompt in order for specific applications to use your...

obsproject.com

So the controller is a MIDI device that controls the rekordbox software, the actual song is played within the application, I can even select an option in rekordbox to play through laptop as well as speakers.
I have even tried disconnecting the controller playing a tune through the laptop and streaming and it doesn't recognise any sounds within OBS.

As far as I can tell from the documentation, yes. The controller changes what the rekordbox program plays, and its output can be sent to the controller if you have speakers connected to it, but it's not an input device like a capture card, so OBS does not see it the way it would see a capture card, a camera, or a microphone as a direct input device for capture.

There must be something I can follow to get this to work properly?

Logile below:-

https://obsproject.com/logs/LXYTe9r7gZINLIO5

9:57:06.995: coreaudio: device 'Soundflower (2ch)' initialized
19:57:07.202: Video Capture Device: Could not initialize device with unique ID '0x14120000046d0892'

The log says you've got Soundflower audio, but I can't tell from the log whether it's actually your system output, or if you've flagged this as input or output (virtual devices do both).

You may wish to not configure it in Settings > Audio, but rather add it as a source in your scene; add as many variations of soundflower as you can see, as either Audio Input or Audio Output sources until you find one that works, and then leave that one in and delete the others.

You've also got a camera OBS says it can't access, which may mean there is a permissions issue. You can check this thread for all current known issues/solutions for problems related to running OBS on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

macOS 10.15 Catalina Support Status

 

[Ljay]

No. The only way you can capture desktop audio on MacOS is through a solution that adds a virtual device, and making that device your default output device. (Or making an aggregate device that includes a hardware output AND a virtual output, and making THAT your default device-- that's what the tutorial you posted describes.

You need that part working first. The options for it are SoundFlower, iShowU, and Rogue Amoeba's LoopBack (not free).

Common mistakes are adding the device to OBS as the wrong type, or OBS lacking permissions to capture audio and video.

Question / Help - Mojave Beta + OBS = No Access to webcam/camera

Preface: I am not illiterate to OSX or OBS. I know video capture device not display. I know how to access where this is in system preferences in the os. To those of you not on the Mojave beta basically OSX requires a system prompt in order for specific applications to use your...

obsproject.com

As far as I can tell from the documentation, yes. The controller changes what the rekordbox program plays, and its output can be sent to the controller if you have speakers connected to it, but it's not an input device like a capture card, so OBS does not see it the way it would see a capture card, a camera, or a microphone as a direct input device for capture.



9:57:06.995: coreaudio: device 'Soundflower (2ch)' initialized
19:57:07.202: Video Capture Device: Could not initialize device with unique ID '0x14120000046d0892'

The log says you've got Soundflower audio, but I can't tell from the log whether it's actually your system output, or if you've flagged this as input or output (virtual devices do both).

You may wish to not configure it in Settings > Audio, but rather add it as a source in your scene; add as many variations of soundflower as you can see, as either Audio Input or Audio Output sources until you find one that works, and then leave that one in and delete the others.

You've also got a camera OBS says it can't access, which may mean there is a permissions issue. You can check this thread for all current known issues/solutions for problems related to running OBS on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

macOS 10.15 Catalina Support Status

O.K so first thing is to try and get any sound into OBS using say the MacBook Speakers via SoundFlower, please see screenshot below:-

Configured as device :-

Played a song in iTunes and checked levels were playing through SoundFlower:-

But still no sound in OBS:-

Either I am doing something wrong but it seems exactly the same issue as when I introduce the controller.

 

[Narcogen]

Played a song in iTunes and checked levels were playing through SoundFlower:-

That screenshot is showing input, not output. You're not getting any input from SoundFlower into the mac. You're using SoundFlower as a method of output from MacOS, and INPUT to OBS. If you have this set this way, it's likely that when you get capture working into OBS, you'll get echo, as you've set the Mac to send its output to SoundFlower, and also told your Mac to get it's input FROM SoundFlower.

Your OBS screenshot shows an audio OUTPUT capture when it should be an Audio INPUT capture.

 

[Ljay]

That screenshot is showing input, not output. You're not getting any input from SoundFlower into the mac. You're using SoundFlower as a method of output from MacOS, and INPUT to OBS.

Your OBS screenshot shows an audio OUTPUT capture when it should be an Audio INPUT capture.

If I select output on the sound screen and select sunflower the music just stops....this action switches the default to sound flower ...so the question is why when configured as multi output device does it stop playing sound when selecting sound flower on the output screen

 

[Narcogen]

If you select only SoundFlower you would expect it to stop, and for OBS to be able to see that output (you would see the VU meters in the Mixer section move when audio is output).

The next problem AFTER making sure audio is getting into OBS is making sure you can also hear it. That can be accomplished by:

1) Making an aggregate device (as you did before, combining SoundFlower and your speakers) and setting THAT as your default output instead, meaning you should be able to hear AND get audio into OBS

OR

2) In OBS, under Settings > Audio, choose your speakers as a monitoring device, and in Edit > Advanced Audio Properties, set monitoring ON for your desktop audio (note: this may cause some small delay)

OR

3) Use another piece of 3rd party software, LineIn, to forward audio from SoundFlower to your speakers.

Legacy Software

Rogue Amoeba is home to fantastic MacOS audio products for consumers and professionals alike. Rogue Amoeba - Strange Name. Great Software.

rogueamoeba.com

LoopBack, a commercial program, combines the features of SoundFlower and LineIn plus others, but it is not free.