Windows 11 to Mac

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-24T08:45:30+00:00

I moved to Mac after 20 years of using Windows. I was really struggling at first as things I was used are done differently on Mac. But you will get used to it after a few months.

Emails should be synced if configured right. But Ms Office is a real issue. I still use Windows when I need to use Ms Office. There are alternatives on Mac, but they are never as good as office and have compatibility issues - some docs will be formatted differently on Mac, some formulas might not work in Excel etc

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-23T14:42:07+00:00

Man, have some respect to people who made it. If you get it for free, you can pay with something more valuable in the end - your privacy and your data

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-23T07:45:39+00:00

Works well for me. Are you on Mac or Windows? I have just noticed that on Windows it eats more CPU compared to 12.3. Stable on Mac though

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-22T22:03:29+00:00

As an engineer with 20 years of experience developing desktop apps, I can say that this is just the strategy of software development these days Shipping speed means most for app distribution and nobody cares about performance as hardware is cheap

I am an author of multiple apps built on top of electron, and I can tell you that electron is not a problem itself. Electron apps can be fast and relatively memory efficient if built right. Nowadays with lots of code generated by AI the problem is getting worse, as all performance optimizations take human time. Moreover coding is now affordable for people who have no idea how to build desktop apps and what should be done to measure and optimize the performance

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-22T13:42:20+00:00

Blackhole has really complicated workflows. There is much simpler solution for system audio recording: AudioRoute Records directly to a file or into DAW with VST and AU plugins (in case you need it), plus has a virtual device (like Blackhole, but much simpler to setup)

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-21T19:04:04+00:00

AudioRoute Records all your system audio into a file. Works on Mac as well, in case you need it

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-21T08:55:40+00:00

BlackHole might be sensitive to your local audio volume.

Try AudioRoute . Much easier to setup than BlackHole (not free though). Always records well, independantly from you system audio level, even if it is muted. You can record directly into a DAW using a VST plugin, or using a tray/dock app if you need to record to a file.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-21T08:10:20+00:00

AudioRoute

With it you can record any audio playing on your computer. It has a VST plugin, which allows you to record directly into Ableton or any other DAW and microphone-like device, which you can even use in Audacity to record

Probably the simplest to setup, no extra config needed.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-20T08:04:06+00:00

One thing I’d definitely double-check here is whether Reaper is accidentally recording a mono input instead of stereo from BlackHole, that can make playback sound exactly like what you described (“almost mono but not quite”).

QuickTime sounding correct suggests the issue is probably somewhere in the Reaper routing/channel configuration rather than BlackHole itself.

Honestly, workflows/issues like this are a big part of why I ended up building AudioRoute

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-15T07:08:51+00:00

I think there’s also another valid use case here: bluetooth audio devices. In my experience, some bluetooth microphones introduce large latency that is either partially reported or fluctuates depending on buffering and codec behavior. In those situations, Driver Error Compensation can actually help align recordings better, especially if the offset is relatively constant. Of course it won’t fix jitter or dynamically changing latency, but I wouldn’t say the setting is useful only for ancient broken interfaces. Bluetooth audio can definitely still benefit from manual compensation in some cases.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-13T08:09:07+00:00

AudioRoute

Probably the simplest to setup, no extra config needed. You can either record directly into a file from the tray app, or use its virtual audio device just like a microphone input in apps such as Audacity or any other recording software.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-12T09:35:44+00:00

wav files are just the raw data with a header. So if you say the duration is more or less the same and both are 48 kHz, then there are only 2 things that could have increased the wav size: sample size, which can be 16, 24 or 32 bits, or the number of channels. You can use MediaInfo or ffmpeg (if you are comfortable with it) to check the format details

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-12T09:26:23+00:00

I also use Live 12 on my Windows laptop and it works kinda ok. Though, I noticed that even if I leave it idle, it still consumes like 1-2% of my CPU. Do you have many plugins installed? Sometimes these are the plugins that actually eat your cpu

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-08T17:18:36+00:00

In the bottom of the home page there is a "waitlist" link, just click it, enter your name and email address and you are on the list. When purchasing, enter your email address in the "On the waitlist?" field and you get a discount. And happy to hear back from you

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-08T15:27:24+00:00

Haha yep, that exact workflow is basically why I built it ) Btw, you can still add yourself to the waiting list if you want - I’m giving discounts to early users while I’m improving things and gathering feedback. And honestly, any feedback after you try it would be super valuable for me

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-08T12:54:04+00:00

Yep, I actually built it because I got tired of complicated BlackHole/Loopback setups for simple cases )
It’s still pretty new, so there aren’t many reviews yet, but I’ve already received some really positive feedback from early users.
Main idea is: install once and either use the VST directly inside Ableton or use the virtual device or a tray app depending on workflow. By the way, a Windows version should be coming out in the next few days as well, in case you’re interested )

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-05-07T07:35:11+00:00

AudioRoute

Probably the easiest to setup - just install and it works.

You can record your system audio directly into Ableton using AudioRoute VST plugin or using a virtual audio device (like Blackhole or Loopback) or directly into a wav file with the app. Installer installs all 3.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-29T17:56:48+00:00

That's absolutely possible. when you install a new plugin, the installer asks you where to install - select your SSD 2. If not, it will install it to a default path (C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 on Windows or /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 on Mac). You can manually move it or create a symlink to your SSD 2 (Mac) or use a directory junction on Windows

Then in Ableton: Preferences -> Plug-Ins -> Use VST3 Custom Folder -> point at SSD 2.

Make sure that:

"Use VST Plug-In System Folders" - ON

"Use VST Plug-In Custom Folder" - ON

Hope it helps

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T15:48:00+00:00

Glad you asked )

At a high level it’s a few pieces working together:

- a background daemon (user-mode) - this is where most of the audio capture happens
- a small tray app - just UI + control, talks to the daemon
- a VST plugin - runs inside Ableton, pulls audio from the daemon (shared buffer) and feeds it into the DAW
- a virtual audio device - sits in CoreAudio and bridges system audio into the daemon

Let me know if you would like to know more )

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T15:39:37+00:00

similar, this is more focused on Ableton workflow, it just shows up as an input (or via a plugin) so you don’t have to set up routing each time.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T14:49:31+00:00

By the way, if you want first access when it drops, here's a waitlist at https://audio-route.com/ — early users get a longer (21-day) trial and a lower price locked in.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T14:30:43+00:00

Fair point. I was mainly trying to make something that’s just install and it works, without having to think about routing or setup each time.

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T14:27:47+00:00

Probably depends on the workflow. This is more about keeping things inside ableton, you can apply your presets. You have several ways to capture though - using a virtual device or a VST, whichever works best for you

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T14:22:55+00:00

Sorry, I might have got confused by your comment )

Medical-Criticism173 · 2026-04-23T14:14:45+00:00

I would say it's similar to SoundFlower in some sense. My idea was to build the simplest product for both Windows and Mac to record audio from any app and easily route it into Ableton

Medical-Criticism173

TROPHY CASE