Patch Cable

macOS sends all of an app’s sound to one output and gives you no way to split it up. Patch Cable adds virtual audio cables: audio devices that exist only in software. Anything played into a Patch Cable device comes straight back out of its input, ready for another app to record, stream or process. Patch Cable can also reach into individual apps and pull out their sound, without touching their settings.

How it works

Each device appears in Sound settings and in every audio app’s device list. Choose a device as an app’s output (Pass-Thru), or add sources in Patch Cable: a single app, all system audio, or a microphone or interface input. Drag wires from source channels to device channels, add a monitor if you want to listen, and pick the device as the input wherever you need the audio.

What’s inside

• Virtual devices: create as many as you like, from 1 to 64 channels at 44.1–192 kHz. Rename them, switch them off or delete them, and DAW and app device selections still work after updates.
• Per-app capture using Core Audio process taps, helper processes included (browsers play audio from those). Mute Original silences the app’s normal output, so its sound goes only where you route it.
• System audio and inputs: capture everything your Mac plays, or any microphone or interface input.
• Per-source control: volume (−∞ to +3.5 dB), mute and per-channel level meters, with a colour for each source.
• Drag-and-drop wiring: connect any source channel to any device channel, and click a wire to remove it. Mono mics are centred automatically.
• Monitors: send a device’s channels to speakers or headphones to hear what you’re routing.
• Menu bar: routing keeps running with the window closed, devices can be switched on and off from the menu bar, and Patch Cable can launch at login.

Made for

• Streaming: a browser, game or music player into OBS on its own channels
• Podcasts and video calls: Zoom, Teams or a browser call recorded into your DAW, with your microphone on a separate track
• Getting audio from an app with no output selector into a DAW, recorder or analyser
• Multichannel buses that several apps feed at once

Requirements and privacy

macOS 14.4 (Sonoma) or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel. One signed and notarized installer adds the app and its audio driver. Your audio never leaves your Mac. Patch Cable checks GitHub once a day for new versions, which you can turn off, and nothing else is sent anywhere.

Download Patch Cable 1.1.1 · User Manual (PDF) · Release notes on GitHub

Free, with other ways to support

Patch Cable is free to download, with the full app, no locked features and no licence key. You may share the unmodified installer with anyone. If you’d like to support The WAV Lab, you can buy one of our sample library collections or Bandcamp albums, or subscribe to the newsletter for update announcements and future releases.

Patch Cable is in public beta. Please don’t rely on it for work you can’t redo, and send problems or ideas to info@thewavlab.com, or choose Send Feedback… in the app.