explaingit

existentialaudio/blackhole

★ 19,012CAudience · vibe coderComplexity · 2/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · hard

TLDR

Virtual audio cable for macOS that lets you route sound between apps, send Logic Pro to Zoom, record system audio, or connect any two programs.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((BlackHole))
    What it does
      Virtual audio device
      Routes audio between apps
      Zero latency
    Use cases
      Stream music to video calls
      Record system audio
      Connect DAWs to streaming
    Who uses it
      Podcasters
      Musicians
      Streamers
    Tech details
      macOS driver
      256 channels support
      Intel and Apple Silicon

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Stream your music production software (Logic Pro, GarageBand) into Zoom or Google Meet for remote collaboration.

USE CASE 2

Record your computer's system audio output directly into a DAW or recording app without external hardware.

USE CASE 3

Route podcast editing software into streaming platforms while keeping your microphone input separate.

Tech stack

CmacOSAudio driverHomebrew

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Requires building a macOS audio driver from source and kernel extension installation, which needs code signing and system security configuration.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

BlackHole solves a problem that macOS users constantly run into: there is no built-in way to take audio playing on your computer and send it to another app. For example, if you want to stream your Logic Pro session through Zoom, or record your system's audio output in GarageBand, the sound has nowhere to go, macOS doesn't provide a "cable" to connect apps together. BlackHole is that cable. It works by installing a virtual audio device driver on your Mac. Once installed, BlackHole appears in your system's audio settings just like a real microphone or speaker. You set one app to output audio to BlackHole, and another app to take its input from BlackHole. Audio flows between them with no added delay. It supports up to 256 channels and a wide range of sample rates, works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 10.10 and newer), and requires no changes to your system's security settings. Podcasters, musicians, streamers, and anyone doing remote recording would use this to route audio from professional tools like Logic Pro X, GarageBand, Audacity, or Reaper into video call software like Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet. It is written in C and available via installer or Homebrew.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I install BlackHole on my Mac and set it up to route audio from Logic Pro to Zoom?
Prompt 2
Show me how to use BlackHole to record my system audio in GarageBand while keeping my microphone input separate.
Prompt 3
I want to stream my Reaper session through OBS using BlackHole, what are the steps to configure it?
Prompt 4
Can BlackHole route audio from multiple apps at once, and how do I manage 256 channels?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.