Aggregate multiple audio devices

Speaker vs. Headphone

Did you ever plug in a headphone? Then the same happens like on the iPhone: The Computer is muted and the headphone makes the music. I hate that! Why? Because I am so fussy and want to spare my hardware. Especially jacks are sensitive and easily getting loose. So it would be so much better having a headphone connected, put it aside and still enjoy the iMac’s speaker sound as well. There is no option anywhere in the preferences, so I have to accept this. The only solution I know is getting an external sound card.

Phase change

So I did, and I am the proud owner of the external Terratec Phase X24 Firewire audio card. Really great device, and you know what? I can connect a headphone with still having sound everywhere. YES!

Record

I love making music and hopefully you have subscribed my audio podcast. To create my sounds I mainly use software like Record in combination with Reason. Record is so great in connecting audio hardware with multiple inputs and outputs.

Combine in, combine out

For my latest song I needed to record my voice while playing the music inside Record. That masterpiece software is able to do that, but my USB microphone was not in there. Checking out all the devices, I noticed for the first time, that Record combines audio devices with inputs and outputs.

Shit happens, my PhaseX24 and the Samson GoMic was not listed up in combination.

Got a Mac? Do it yourself!

Damn, yeah! I am a Mac user, so that’s no big deal. I will create my own device!

I have just opened the Audio and MIDI settings, and voila, there is the add button. Give it a name and click all devices I want to have in there. Made a check on PhaseX24 and one Samson USB GoMic, that’s it! Restarting Record, running to preferences and there it is: my PhaseX24+GoMic device.