OSx - options for routing sound between xDAX, WSJT-X and FLDIGI

W8QB

As a Mac user I've been experimenting with several alternatives for routing audio between xDAX and digital applications including WSJT-X and FLDIGI.  For this purpose, Loopback does a superb job and is very easy to configure; but at $99, Loopback is more than double the price of the competing product Sound Siphon, only $49.

In the past, George KF2T produced an excellent guide explaining how to configure Sound Siphon V2 to play nicely with digital apps.  Sound Siphon is now at Version 3; this new version includes some changes to the user interface not found in the older V2 software.  This perhaps explains why I've been unable to get Sound Siphon V3 to work properly with digital apps.  Also, development of (open source) "Soundflower" apparently has been discontinued, so I'm not sure how to proceed.

On a related note, I found an interesting article at https://aud-ios.com/2018/02/10/free-mac-audio-routing-tools-apples-aunetsend-receive/ titled "Free Mac Audio Routing Tools – Apple’s AUNetSend & Receive".  Located just below the article is a comment by one particular fellow; this individual's remarks indicate that (named) functionality integral to the OSx "MIDI setup" utility can perhaps be leveraged for the purpose of routing audio between xDAX and digital apps.  What do others on this forum say?  Is MIDI setup a viable solution and if so, what would be the procedure for using MIDI setup to pass audio between xDAX and digital apps?  

W1MSG

I am in the same boat. Purchased Sound Siphon and it doesnt work. There must be some settings to get it working. I can do digital no problem with the windows version with VMWare. xDAX doesnt have built in sound support so ???? Curious if you made any progress ..

Ted VE3TRQ

I was never able to get Sound Siphon to work satisfactorily - always got some noise in the stream. On the other hand, Loopback was trivial to set up with xDax. I'm sure others have had success with Sound Siphon, but I gave up on it as there was an alternative.

W1MSG

I have the trail version for Loopback, but cant figure out how to set it up. I create the virtual sound card and can get the audio, do I need to create a second one for sending the audio out ?

Ted VE3TRQ

You need to create two audio devices, one for input and one for output. Name them appropriately and connect xDax input to the correctly named one, and xDax output to the other. Then connect your digital apps to the named input and output devices.

Ted VE3TRQ

[Tried to edit comment, could not] In my case, I created "DaxIn" and "DaxOut" virtual devices, then connected xDax "Tx1" to DaxOut and xDax "Rx1" to DaxIn. That enabled me to see DaxIn and DaxOut as audio devices in digital apps, and the meaning of what is what was clear. I did not try to use a single device for both, don't know if that would work. I created both TCP and RigCtlD ports in xCat, so I could use either, depending on the digital app. If you set up more than one slice, be sure to check the box to set the TX slice to the right one.