Audio Configuration

You can configure several ways of using real time Audio.

• Ableton Link
• OS2L
• Direct Audio Detection.

For specific instructions for Rekordbox please click here

Audio Methods

If you enable Ableton Link, or OS2L it will disable all other methods.

We have successfully tested Ableton Link with VirtualDJ and djay Pro, however, Rekordbox will only transmit Ableton BPM on manual updates. Serrato DJ seems not to support outputting Ableton Link at all at this time.

OS2L is mainly supported by VirtualDJ at this time, but it does work very well.

Direct Audio Detection

You can also use Direct Audio Detection, usually via a Sound Input on your computer. You can use a Microphone, but the sound quality and noise will likely lead to significantly poorer results and we strongly recommend against it.

If you want to capture the Audio from the device on which you are running DMXDesktop, then you can do so, but usually you need to enable loopback audio.

On Windows:

Open the windows sound Settings, then enable the Stereo Mix Output. This device will playback the sound from the computer to a virtual output.

On MacOs:

You can accomplish this by installing a piece of software called Blackhole, from https://existential.audio/blackhole/

You can also install it using Brew:
"brew install blackhole-2ch"

Once installed you can create a virtual audio device which is a combo of multiple audio devices via the "Audio Midi Setup" app, usually found in Applications -> Utilities.

Once you have the output device active, Stereo Mix on windows or a Blackhole device on MacOS, you can simply select this device from the Audio Device list on the Audio Settings tab in DMXDesktop

The Direct Audio detection will run continuously and will adjust the BPM and listen for Kick Drum or heavy Bass Drum events, and automatically adjust the lighting effects and timing accordingly.

As of v1.0.27, you can use a combination of Direct Audio and Ableton Link or OS2L, so you can enable perfect beatmatched bpms via Ableton Link, or OS2L, whilst using Direct Audio to track energy and volumes which lets you use dark on silence features and auto strobing.

We always strongly reccomend using Ableton Link or OS2L as the primary beat tracker, as this is going to be the best way to get perfect sound to light sync, whilst the Direct Audio works, it can be affected by audio quality which will never happen with a direct beat input.

Auto Strobing

When Direct Audio Detection is enabled, the Strobing option will also be available. From here you can configure the global settings for the Strobe On Peaks function, which can be activated per effect cue.