There are a variety of reasons you might want to use your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) on stream. Whether you're an artist, producer, or even a podcaster; a DAW can help you organize your audio tracks, function as an instrument, add effects to audio; just to name a few uses.
In this guide we will go over:
What You'll Need
In order to connect the audio of your DAW to OBS, you'll need a few things.
- A Multi-Output Device or Aggregate Device (check out our guide here)
- A DAW
- OBS
Note: Keep your software updated to ensure compatibility between applications
Note: The rest of this guide we will be referencing using the Multi-Output Device, as it is more commonly applicable compared to the Aggregate Device. Aggregate Devices become applicable when a DAW (e.g. Pro Tools) only has one I/O (Input/Output) device or when using multiple audio interfaces.
Routing DAW Outputs
Now that our applications and devices are ready, let's route the output of your DAW to the Multi-Output Device. We'll show where to do this on some common DAWs, but the process will be the same.
- Open up your DAW audio preferences, where you can select your Input/Output devices
- Set your Output Device as the Multi-Output Device
GarageBand: From the Menu Bar, select Garage Band > Preferences
- Select the Audio tab. Set the Output Device to the Multi-Output Device.
Logic Pro: From the Menu Bar, select Logic Pro > Preferences > Audio.
- Select the Audio tab. Set the Output Device to the Multi-Output Device.
Ableton Live: From the Menu Bar, select Live > Preferences.
- Select the Audio tab. Set the Audio Output Device to the Multi-Output Device
Pro Tools: From the Menu Bar, select Setup > Playback Engine
- In the Device section, select the Playback Engine dropdown and choose the Multi-Output Device
- Note: If you want to run your input signal(s) (e.g. microphone) through Pro Tools, you will need to use an Aggregate Device in order to include your inputs in the Playback Engine. Check out our guide here for more information.
Adding Audio Source to OBS
Now that we've routed our DAW outputs to our Multi-Output Device, let's complete the process by adding an Audio Source in OBS.
- In OBS, add an Audio Input Capture Source in the Sources section.
- In the Device dropdown, select the audio routing software that is tied to your Multi-Output Device. In this case, our Multi-Output Device uses BlackHole 2ch. If you need to change this, simply select the source and select the device dropdown above.
- Our Audio Input Source will populate the Sources and Audio Mixer Section
- Play some audio in your DAW to verify the signal is coming through OBS
Troubleshooting
If you are not seeing signal:
-
- Check that you followed the steps above
- You may have to restart OBS or your DAW in order for the connection to appear.
- Check that you have the correct Multi-Output Device selected
- Check that you have properly configured your Multi-Output Device
- If you are using an Aggregate Device, make sure your audio routing software is set as the Output Channels 1 and 2 (found in the Audio MIDI Setup).
Further Resources
