Setting up Ultraschall Hub

Brain Dump
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Ultraschall Hub is a virtual audio device, four virtual audio devices actually, that help route audio between applications.

Install Ultraschall Hub

  1. Download the Ultraschall Installer:
    Step 2 on the website (German) or use direct link to Ultraschall 4 installer
  2. Run installer and open the utilities folder
    Ultraschall Installer
    Ultraschall Installer691×380 40.5 KB
    • if you currently have Soundflower installed it is recommended to execute Remove legacy audio devices.command
    • otherwise run Ultraschall Hub.pkg and install the software
  4. Confirm that the installation was successful by clicking on the volume :loud_sound: icon in the menu bar or opening the Audio MIDI Setup app (it’s in the Utilities folder on the Launchpad, or search for it by pressing cmd ⌘+space). You should see four new audio devices.
    Audio Devices
    Audio Devices743×534 91 KB

    If this window doesn’t appear automatically, open it by clicking on Window > Show Audio Devices.

Test Ultraschall Hub

The virtual devices have different names (and unfortunately it seems like you can’t rename them), but their functionality is identical. But just as an obvious example, you could configure Skype to use Skype Speakers as its output and then configure your recording software (DAW) to use Skype Speakers as an input. This is what it looks like in Skype:
Skype Settings
Note: You won’t hear any audio coming from Skype, because it’s going to the virtual device and then to your DAW. Make sure to configure your DAW so that you can monitor the recorded signal. More info on this: Using virtual audio devices.

Likewise, if you want to route audio other than your microphone to Skype, use Skype Microphone or Aux as the output of, say, Hindenburg, and configure the same device as the input device in Skype (or Facetime, or Zoom, or…), which enables you to play your Hindenburg session to a Skype audience.

Pro Tip

Check Audio MIDI Setup again and you’ll see that the virtual devices are configured to use a sample rate of 48 kHz. Ideally, use the same sample rate with all your devices and software, so you might want to adjust this if you’re a 44.1 kHz person.

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For those who would rather save on money and instead use their time tweaking, blackhole is a replacement for soundflower: https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole

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That looks great! The described Ultraschall Hub is free and open source as well though. If you’d like to post a similar guide to Blackhole, that’d be awesome.