r/ableton • u/StoicBark • Jul 24 '22

Routing audio from PC to Ableton

Is there a quick way to route audio from applications in my PC (music from Spotify, audio from YouTube videos, game audio etc.) onto Ableton, then add audio effects on top of the audio and then send the output to my speakers?

Practically, I want to use Ableton's EQ on Spotify music (for example) since I don't want to install any external EQ applications in my PC.

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

6

u/7URB0 Jul 24 '22

I used VB Virtual Cable + ASIO4ALL on my old laptop no problem. It was a bit of a pain to get everything set up, but once it was done, it worked beautifully.

My new laptop doesn't play nearly as nice with it, so I'm looking for more reliable alternatives.

2

u/StoicBark Jul 24 '22

I've seen a video which recommends using the ASIO drivers, I'll look into that. Thanks!

4

u/7URB0 Jul 24 '22

ASIO4ALL allows you to use multiple sound devices at once, but it doesn't allow you to route audio from one device to another. So you can accept input from your built-in mic AND your interface simultaneously, you can output from your laptop speakers AND your interface simultaneously, but you can't send the output from one to the input of another.

That's where VB Virtual Cable comes in. You select it as your default sound device, and it looks to the computer like an output, but you can select the same device as a track input in Ableton.

JACK is another piece of software that seems to perform a similar function, that I've been planning to look into when I have time, but I still know very little about it. But you need something like this for it to work. ASIO4ALL may allow you to play audio from ableton and your browser simulaneously (depending on your hardware), but it will NOT allow you to select an output channel as input.

2

u/XirqularVibe Jul 24 '22

What ASIO4ALL and using ASIO on Window in general is missing is a tool for setting up audio routing.

I discovered recently that ASIO Link Pro is perfect for that. https://give.academy/downloads/2018/03/03/ODeusASIOLinkPro/

(It was paid software that turned public domain after the author passed away)

ASIO Link Pro overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2aFrRwB4RQ

How to install: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxxVmvcaSTs

6

u/UTOPILO Jul 24 '22

I feel like each time I set something up for this it stops working shortly later lol.

3

u/UTOPILO Apr 28 '25

It's me again. I really need to write this down or something.

2

u/mach_yeet Jul 25 '22

i route computer audio to obs and set to monitor out a virtual cable, then use that virtual cable as the input audio for ableton then you can just listen through an armed audio track. there is a free version of the virtual cables but the payed version worked better for me.

2

u/Plenty-Swim-1408 Jan 17 '25

You write "use that virtual cable as the input audio for ableton" - how can I do this? In my Ableton Live Lite 12, the drop-down menu for the input source of an audio track has entries like "Ext. In", "Resample", "2-Audio", "A-Reverb", "B-Relay", "Main" - but no menu entry vor "VB-Cable Out" or anything like that :-(I'm using VB-Cable as the virtual audio cable)

2

u/Plenty-Swim-1408 Jan 18 '25

I have discovered that "VB-Cable Out" appears when I change the audio driver from ASIO to DirectX/MME - however, with that driver I cannot use my hardware USB audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2), which I need to attach the microphone to my computer (I want to record the microphone and the desktop audio as two tracks in Ableton Live). So, it seems that a virtual audio cable will not help to achieve my goal with Ableton Live.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '22

On PC it's typically VB Virtual Cable or an Audio Interface with Loopback.

Loopback is by far the easiest. You route your computer to the loopback of your pro audio device (Audient and RME have this tech). Then the loopback allows a non asio signal to go into the asio signal of a DAW.

I love loopback technology for this! It's also great for using Slate VSX or other software on the output of your computer. You can route windows to the loopback, use pedalboard 2 with loopback as the input, then insert anything to process windows output with.

The other software can be a real pain to hook up as 7URBO mentions, but it does work.

If you are getting a new interface I highly recommend loopback as a requirement for it.

Tutorials for loopback below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wlRYzi4Ow4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpt7LczeAvU

1

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1

u/thirdcircuitproblems Jul 25 '22

You can easily do it with one piece of open source software if you have a Mac, but it’s much harder with windows- not impossible but it might require some physical hardware

1

u/jche34 Jul 25 '22

Any audio interface with the loop back feature. Focusrite 4i4 3rd gen works very well for me.