I think it’d be really rad if we could select a layer as an audio source in fx like analyze audio. To my knowledge this is not currently possible?
Not currently possible, but this is somewhere on the to do list.
Right now this is commonly done using SoundFlower, but that is certainly less than ideal when you want to work with multiple layers.
Right. Soundflower seems like its no longer supported either though. Last time I tried to use it I ran into some pretty horrible bugs. No code updates in the public repo either for the last 5 years.
Rouge Amoeba points here https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower which is neglected and it seems lots of bugs are still getting reported on their repo for some reason https://github.com/RogueAmoeba/Soundflower-Original. 
Could just be me though, it does seem like some people are still getting it to work ok
I have been using Sound Siphon instead of Soundflower. it works great with the Audio Analysis plugin.
Have you ever thought of creating a unique Audio Bin plugin; just for audio loops or audio files? Where you can import various audio formats like AIFF, WAV, AAC, and CAF?
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Oh wow, how was Sound Siphon not on my radar? Looks pretty rad.
I think https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower is the current proper repository for Sound Flower; that project definitely could use some updating, but I last I’ve checked it does seem to still work.
We’ve discussed a lot of possible ideas for audio, including something like an audio playlist; I’m not sure how far we’ll push things within VDMX5 vs planning to do more in the next major rewrite…
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On the topic of alternatives to sound flower… anyone try this out yet?
Not sure if there’s a more recent solution to this, but my workaround (without Soundflower or Loopback):
- Download/Install a set of VB-Audio cables (https://vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm).
- Open MacOS AudioMidiSetup.app, create a Multi-Output Device that is both VB-Cable A and External Headphones…I called mine “VB-A & Headphones”.
- In VDMX: Set the Movie Recorder Audio Source to VB-Cable A.
- In VDMX Layer Source panel: set the Audio Output to the new Multi-Output device you just created.
Now the video recording will capture the audio from the layer, and you can monitor the audio in your headphones.
I switched to Sound Siphon a long time ago, I think its the best of the bunch and really solid, just install and forget. Some would say its expensive at $49 but it just works . Only tip I would have is to use anything but Chrome for an audio source (use Safari, Firefox), I’m convinced Chrome clogs things up when run with VDMX.
Chrome clogs up everything in general with background processes and continuous connection attempts (even when app is not running), it’s one of the things I absolutely never install on my media server configured machines, along with Adobe products which are even worse.
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An update on Sound Siphon and macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. Currently macOS reports Sound Siphon is “Running on Unsupported Version of macOS” and the trial download has already timed out on installation. But this only applies to new installs, if you upgrade macOS and it’s already installed you should be ok. Hopefully the developer will provide a fix.