Thanks to a few handy bits of software, Mac users can broadcast their computer's audio. That could be all the audio their mac is playing, or the audio from one particular application.
What This Guide Covers
This guide covers how to broadcast your Mac audio all-in-one. For broadcasting the audio from multiple apps, please use this Audio Hijack guide.
If you have a Windows or Linux machine then contact support for advice.
With this method, whatever is audibly playing through your Mac (i.e. not muted) will be broadcast. This is most suitable when you only want to broadcast from one application, like DJ software.
If you want to add in a microphone or broadcast audio from multiple apps, then follow the instructions in the Audio Hijack guide.
What You Need
BUTT (broadcasting software)
This is the software that can encode and stream live audio from your computer and out to your online radio station.A virtual audio cable
This is essentially a bit of software that routes your audio from one place to another. Like how a physical cable can transfer audio from one device (e.g. microphone, turntable, guitar) to another (computer, amplifier, speaker). A virtual audio cable does the same for apps and computer programmes.
We'll use a virtual audio cable to send your Mac audio to your broadcasting software, BUTT. BUTT encodes your audio and broadcasts it to your Radio.co station.
How to Get Setup
Sending audio from your computer and to your station can be broken down into 4 steps.
1. Create a multi-output device
After downloading a virtual audio cable, you'll need to create a multi-output device.
This sounds complicated, but really, a multi-output device just ensures our audio is sent to all the places we need. One output is for your stream to broadcast. And another output is to send your audio to your headphones.
Without this extra output, you won't be able to hear your audio.
To create a multi-output device, open up Audio MIDI Setup by searching for it in spotlight (command + spacebar).
The audio devices window will be opened. Any audio hardware you have connected to your computer, like a microphone or an audio interface will show here. Nonetheless, we should at least see devices like your built-in output or built-in speakers and your built-in microphone.
Double check the virtual audio cable is listed on the left-hand side. If not, you'll need to install it correctly.
Click the + button in the bottom lefthand corner and select Create Multi-Output Device and complete the following settings:
The master device: Built-in Output, Built-In Speakers or External Headphones.
Sample rate: 44.1 kHz
Then select Built-in Output/Built-in Speakers/External Headphones followed by virtual audio cable (VB-cable) for your audio devices. It should look like below:
Now our virtual audio cable has been bundled together with our headphones or speakers, so we now have the correct outputs.
2. Change Your Sound Preferences
The next step is to open up the sound settings by going to System Preferences, then Sound.
In Input, select your virtual audio cable (VB-cable). This means any audio played through your Mac, will be routed to your virtual audio cable.
In Output select the new output device you created; the default name is Multi-Output Device.
Remember this is the virtual audio cable bundled with your headphones/speakers.
Your computer's audio is now bundled together. Anything you play, whether that's in a media player, browser, or any other application, is going to pass through your virtual audio cable.
All we need to do now is set up our broadcasting software, BUTT and set it to use the virtual audio cable as its input.
3. Setup BUTT
If you haven't done so already, download BUTT and open up the application.
Choose Settings (1) and in the Main tab (2) under Server Settings click Add (3).
Connect BUTT to your Radio.co station by clicking Radio.co (4) under Type. Then click Get stations (5) and OK.
This will redirect you to Studio to log in. Once logged in, a window will pop up saying BUTT wants to connect your Radio.co station. Click allow (6).
You can close your browser/tab, and go back to BUTT.
In the Audio tab (7) within BUTT's settings, click the Audio Device drop-down and select VB-Cable (8). Leave all other settings as default.
Ensure the volume is up on both your Mac and the app(s) you're using to ensure the signal comes through to BUTT.
When you play audio, you'll know you have an audio signal if the lights on BUTT are flashing up.
4. Go Live
NB: Make sure you have either Live anytime enabled or a live event scheduled in Radio.co Studio before attempting to broadcast.
To go live, press the play button within BUTT.
You can adjust the gain of your signal in BUTT, to ensure it's strong enough, but not peaking.
This will send your Mac audio out to your online radio station. Once connected it will state the stream time and your station's details.
When Live...
As audio is grabbed from multiple channels the metadata isn't sent correctly. Update the metadata in BUTT within the Stream tab under Update Song Name Manually, then click OK.
Audio isn't controlled by a master channel, instead, you need to adjust audio from within the application(s) you're using.
Be sure to mute any other applications or programmes you're not using, unless you want the audio from them to be broadcast too.