Field Guide

Having trouble using the Built-In Speakers on your Mac? We’ve got the fix.

Audio routing should be a simple thing, in effect we’re just marshaling data from one device to another, but introducing a sound card may cause some complications. You’re probably used to setting up the mic audio as input and the built-in speakers as output, or more likely you plug in some headphones and then use the headphone mic and speakers for input and output. However, when using AmpStamp or similar apps that require input from a sound card, i.e. a device that accepts input from your guitar, this usually means that a third party driver takes over input and output routing. As such, you may experience problems when attempting to use your sound card input for your guitar while trying to route audio to the built-in speakers on your Mac.

If so, here’s the fix. Luckily, it’s simple. But it does require digging into the Audio/MIDI Routing app, a program you might not have even known was there! Kudos to you if you have previous experience with this app. Follow the simple four step process below and you should be up and running in no time.

1. Open the Audio/MIDI Setup app on your Mac, you can find this under the Applications > Utilities folder, or just search for it.
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2. Click the plus button (+) to add a new device, and select Aggregate Device.
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3. By default, the Aggregate Device is empty, select the two devices that you’ll be using for input and output, typically your sound card and Built-In Speakers.
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4. Navigate back to AmpStamp* and open the Audio Menu, you can find this on the top left corner, select your new Aggregate Device for both Input and Output. You should be able to hear your guitar within a few seconds of changing these settings.
   
   *Note, this guide assumes you’re running AmpStamp as a standalone application, if you’re using AmpStamp as a plugin within GarageBand or another DAW, please follow their instructions for selecting audio I/O.

And that’s it! We tested this with AmpStamp version 1.8.2, running MacOS 13.6.1, let us know if this works for you too!

Having trouble loading AmpStamp in GarageBand on Mac? We’ve got the fix.

GarageBand, unlike Logic Pro, does not necessarily make audio routing as clear when instantiating new tracks. It makes sense since GarageBand is meant to be more of an introduction to digital recording, providing a quick, easy to use interface to get up and running and making some music. That being said, it can also lead to confusion if you want to dig deeper in knowledge, not in your wallet for Logic Pro, to get more out of GarageBand.

So we need to address an important issue with regards to AmpStamp. AmpStamp is meant for guitar, but can be used on other instruments, and expects mono input. AmpStamp supports stereo output, so in total you can run AmpStamp as either:

• 1-in-1-out, or
• 1-in-2-out

It sounds simple, but that’s not how audio tracks are created by default in GarageBand. In order to get GarageBand to expose plugins that require mono input, follow these steps:

1. Create a new audio track in GarageBand
2. Leave the Channel EQ engaged in slot two, do not modify/remove existing default plugins
3. Toggle the input from mono to stereo and back to mono
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4. You can now replace the default Compressor plugin with any mono-compatible plugin that you have installed

And that’s it! We tested this with GarageBand version 10.4.6, let us know if this works for you too!