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.
ASIO low-latency input (Windows)
New in v1.0.51
On Windows you can capture audio through an ASIO driver for low-latency input from a professional audio interface, or from a loopback driver such as ASIO4ALL, FlexASIO or Voicemeeter. Install an ASIO driver first, then in Settings → Audio open the Audio Device list and pick your device from the ASIO section.
For ASIO devices a Configure ASIO… button appears, which opens the driver's own control panel where you set the buffer size and channels. Input gain is handled by the driver, so the volume slider is disabled and the loopback option doesn't apply. If the device is already in use elsewhere, DMXDesktop lets you know so you can free it up first.
macOS system audio capture (macOS 14.2+)
New in v1.0.51
On macOS 14.2 and later, DMXDesktop can listen to your Mac's system audio directly - no third-party loopback tool such as BlackHole required. Choose your normal output device in Settings → Audio and DMXDesktop captures what's playing, while your audio stays audible as usual.
The first time you use it, macOS asks for permission to capture audio (and microphone access); grant these once and you're set. Only real output hardware is offered - virtual and aggregate devices are filtered out. On older macOS versions you can still use BlackHole as described above.
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.
