So, even if you created an aggregate device using something like the built-in Audio/MIDI tools within OSX (which are also quite high latency), You still need a hardware or software mixer to bus them all into a single audio input for Skype to use. Unfortunately, you can’t solve the issue above with aggregation, because Skype will only let you select a single input source, and will still only pick the first channel from the device. “But what about creating an aggregate audio device?” I hear you ask.Additionally, I was also hoping to achieve a silent solution so I didn’t need to run my amplifiers at all, saving me from the wrath of my wife, so there’s also that to think about. Sure, I could try to use the same microphone for both instrument and voice, and mic up my amplifier cabinet instead of going direct, but that would introduce some annoying issues with the two levels of the sources, and would be hard to position correctly. As Skype only allows you to select a single input device, there was also no solution if I decided to use two microphones (one for instrument, and one for voice), as I would only be able to send on device at a time and would need to constantly switch the input from the Skype preferences. As I also wanted the ability to speak without changing input sources all the time, I needed a way to add a second input, perhaps for a desk microphone.With this configuration, I couldn’t send my signal across Skype even if I wanted to… as it was selecting the wrong channel, and I could not adjust that with my device OR in Skype. Skype, at the time of testing and writing, doesn’t offer any way to aggregate, mix, or select channels from multi-channel devices, and simply selects the first channel automatically as it’s obviously designed for a single microphone setup. Unfortunately, the primary 1/4″ TS guitar input appears as Channel 2 on the device, and a combination XLR/TS jack is channel 1.
The USB audio interface, that I use for my guitar, has multiple channels.
multiple microphones for a panel of guests) is a pretty dire shortcoming, but surely there’s a fix? At at least for the Mac side of things, there is: Audio Hijack. Skype has also become a favourite for broadcasters as a video communication tool, so why not try to make it work? Skype’s inability to use multiple inputs and channels at once (i.e.
Love it or hate it, it’s undeniable that Skype is immensely popular, offers great performance (bandwidth-adaptive, low-latency), and is available on every platform you could probably name.
We could have tried other VOIP solutions, but as we also wanted video, and both had Skype already installed and begging to be used. In my case, I wanted to ‘jam’ with a musician friend of mine, who lives 500km away – and we both needed to play instruments and hear each other, while having the ability to also talk. You see, Skype only let’s you connect one input as the “microphone/input”, and will only select the FIRST channel of a multi-channel device as well. While there Audio Hijack has many uses, I was specifically looking for one fix, for a rather annoying issue, that my friends and I have with Skype. You can even record all the audio heard on your Mac at once”, and this even works for instrument inputs and piping the results through Skype for some remote ‘jam’ action. Save audio from hardware devices like microphones and mixers as well. Rogue Amoeba s ‘ Audio Hijack‘ software allows you to “record any application’s audio, including VoIP calls from Skype, web streams from Safari, and much more. While this is a Mac solution, there are similar solutions for Windows, and I’ll look to post those soon (as many of us don’t own Apple hardware). The end result? Don’t waste your time, and just buy their stuff instead.
I’ve had my eye on software by Rogue Amoeba for a while, but thought I’d try to find free alternatives instead.