---
title: 'UAD + Voicemeeter Audio Routing Explained | DAW & Windows Setup Tutorial for Streaming'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=iwBKjZJ7tgw'
video_id: 'iwBKjZJ7tgw'
date: 2026-06-16
duration_sec: 899
---

# UAD + Voicemeeter Audio Routing Explained | DAW & Windows Setup Tutorial for Streaming

> Source: [UAD + Voicemeeter Audio Routing Explained | DAW & Windows Setup Tutorial for Streaming](https://youtube.com/watch?v=iwBKjZJ7tgw)

## Summary

This tutorial explains how to route DAW audio (using Ableton Live) through Streamlabs OBS for streaming, specifically for users of older Universal Audio Apollo interfaces on Windows that lack a built-in loopback feature. The solution involves using Voicemeeter as a virtual audio mixer to bridge the DAW output to Streamlabs.

### Key Points

- **UAD Console Version Limitation** [1:00] — Older UAD interfaces (non-X models) use Console 1, which lacks a loopback feature, requiring a workaround to route DAW audio to streaming software.
- **Routing DAW to Virtual Channels** [4:00] — Send DAW audio to UAD virtual channels by changing the output config in Ableton to outputs 3 and 4 (or the pair that corresponds to virtual channels).
- **Voicemeeter as Bridge** [6:58] — Voicemeeter (Banana or Potato) is a free virtual audio mixer that can receive audio from the UAD interface and make it accessible to Streamlabs.
- **Voicemeeter ASIO Configuration** [8:54] — In Voicemeeter, set the hardware output (A1) to the UAD interface's ASIO driver and assign ASIO inputs so that virtual channels appear as hardware inputs.
- **ASIO Channel Mapping** [10:30] — On the Apollo Solo USB, ASIO 5 and 6 correspond to the virtual channels.
- **Routing to Virtual Output** [11:49] — Send the DAW audio channel in Voicemeeter to a virtual output (e.g., B2) by clicking the corresponding button, then add that virtual output as an audio source in Streamlabs.
- **Adding to Streamlabs** [12:44] — In Streamlabs, add an Audio Input Capture source and select 'VoiceMeeter Aux Output' (or the appropriate virtual output) to receive the DAW audio.

## Transcript

What's up, guys? How's it going? My name
is Brett. Um, I want to make this video
today to talk about how to route your
DAW audio through to Streamlabs for
streaming. I'm going to be working with
Ableton. Um, I'm going to be using
Ableton, Voice Meter, and uh,
Streamlabs, but these kind of same
principles apply um, if you're using a
different um, DAW or if you're using OBS
instead of Streamlabs OBS. This guide is
specifically for Universal Audio
hardware owners um that are on PC. So,
it's going to be pretty tailored to
that. And uh yeah, let's get into it.
Okay, so first I just wanted to show you
guys what interface I'm using. Um so I'm
using the Universal Audio Apollo Solo
USB. So we got a Solo USB connection
plugged straight into my Windows PC. The
problem with these is that they are
still running uh older software uh
compared to the new Universal Audio
stuff. So the new Apollo X's
um and some of the bigger rack mounted
Apollos are using console 2. Um so if
you're using this one or any of the ones
I think aren't X um you're still using
console one software. Um, why that's
important, if you're using console 2,
there's a loop back feature, so you can
do the DAW straight to OBS. Um, a little
easier if you have UAD console 2. Um,
but for the rest of us who've got older
stuff um, and are stuck on console one,
we kind of have to get creative about
how we're routing that DAW audio. So,
I'm going to pull up my console here
real quick. Okay. So, I've got my
console here, my UAD console. And if I
go to about console, it'll tell you the
version. So, like I was saying, we are
on version one still. So, there's no
loop back feature. So, in a nutshell, I
can kind of go over what we're going to
do. We're going to send our DAW audio to
our virtual channel right here. Um, so
depending on which Apollo you have, you
could have multiple virtual channels.
So, the one I have, the smallest one, it
only has uh two virtual channels. Um,
and they were split mono, so you might
need to uh click link or unlink. So,
there you go. They're mono again. You
click link to make them linked. Um, and
basically, we're going to route our DAW
audio to this virtual channel using um
kind of the hardware outputs on the uh
Apollo. And we'll kind of go over that
in a sec. So if we But that's in a
nutshell what we're trying to do. So if
we open up Ableton, let me work on
opening that up real quick. Okay. So I
have Ableton loaded up here. I'm just
going to try to uh
throw in maybe Oliver Tools um
loop or something. Yeah. Okay. Here's a
drum loop. I'll just do like a kick and
snare
drum loop
loop this. So, if I play this
um you guys can't hear anything because
it's not routed through uh Streamlabs.
So, that's kind of what we're trying to
figure out here. So, if we go to
console, you know what? I'm just going
to keep this drum loop looping. Okay,
I'm going to go back to console. Right?
Nothing's popping up on here. Okay.
So, how do you get this audio to the
virtual channels? So, if you go to it's
going to be options.
All right. I'm going pull up the
settings tab. You can see that we're
synced up to our universal audio
interface. Uh we're going to go to
output config.
So what's happening here is normally
you're sending your main signal out
through outputs one and two right here.
Those are your main outputs on the
Apollo.
If you send them out to three and four,
that will actually send them to the
virtual channels. And it it may depend
on uh depending on which uh Apollo you
have, but you can kind of just uh test
the different outputs. So, I'm going to
say yes. So, we're sending everything
out through three and four. So, you can
see here, I'm going to set this to main
through three and four. So, when I play
this now, I still hear it coming out of
my speakers, but I also see it here
visually on um on the DAW audio thing
here. And you guys are already hearing
it because I've I've already got it
routed correctly, but um so that's kind
of what we wanted. Um, this virtual
channel also feeds the monitor. So, if
you didn't want it to do that, you could
mute there. Um, you can see like I have
my mic muted right now just so I don't
like hear it coming out of the speakers
as I'm recording it. Um, so yeah, so
that's the first step is you want to
figure out how uh what output aligns
with the virtual channel. Um, so since
we figured out that it's three and four
for my situation,
the next thing we want to do is get that
working in Streamlabs.
Okay, so let's go over the problem we're
trying to solve here. Um, our end goal
is to get our DAW into Streamlabs OBS.
So here's my Streamlabs OBS. Um, you can
see I only have two things right now. I
have my desktop audio and I have my
microphone. So, what we normally do in
this instance, if we go to source,
we can go to audio input capture. This
is how we normally add audio inputs. Um,
just kind of ignore everything I've got
there. We're going to click on add a new
source. And I'm just going to I'm just
going to leave it. We can call this
Ableton output. Okay.
Now, here we are on our Ableton output
um audio source. And if you look at our
device,
we don't have an output straight from
Ableton, right? Like that's not a real
option. It's not optimized to do that.
Um and so what we need to do is we need
to route that DAW audio through voice
meter cuz voice meter uh is something we
can access in OBS. So, that's kind of
like the whole goal of of what we're
trying to do. So, here it is. VB Audio
Voice Meter. Um, it's completely free.
So, you can get Banana for free.
And then potato. I have potato. These
are like the weirdest names. It's just
like more complicated, honestly. I think
banana is like totally fine. And so,
let's open this up and I'll kind of show
you what the next steps are here. Let us
look at voice meter real quick. Um, I
know this is pretty intimidating the
first time you look at it. Um, banana is
a little simpler, but it's uh kind of
the same concepts here. So, we'll just
start here.
Pretty much this whole section, these
are hardware inputs. Um, so the things I
have connected right now are my
universal audio inputs, like all the
channels that the Universal Audio has
access to and uh my capture card here.
Um, if I look at other input devices,
um, I could also add kind of like my
webcam uh, also has a microphone, so I
could add that. So, these are things
that are like physically plugged into
your computer um that you can access
over here. This is kind of a
a pretty confusing section. These are
virtual channels. These are channels
that Streamlabs OBS can directly access.
Um and other apps can directly access
them too. So, it's really good for um
routing signals through to other apps.
There is also
kind of a mixer section over here on the
right. You can see that again these are
our five hardware channels that we
talked about. These are our three
virtual channels.
So when you're setting this up for the
first time with your universal audio
interface, what you're going to want to
do is you're going to want to click this
A1. This is your main out.
Um, and you want to click ASIO and
whichever universal audio um, interface
applies to you. So for me, that's the
USB right here. Right. So I can click
that. The next thing you're going to
want to do, you're going to want to
assign the ASIO inputs over here. Um,
I'll link a video below that uh talks
about how to do that really well. But
if you go to
if you go to your system settings here,
basically you can patch in
which ASIO
um inputs you want where um into your
five hardware channels. Um,
so my interface only has six channels
total. Um, because it's like the
smallest universal audio one, but I just
have it like the hardware channel one is
one and two, then three and four, and
then five and six. So I have it just
kind of easy. So over here you can see
ASIO 1 and two, three and four, five and
six. Um, and I went ahead and made a
little cheat sheet of what those
correspond to on my interface. So, the
ASI inputs one and two, those are your
uh mic inputs. So, I really only have
two inputs on this thing. So, it's
either mic or line, whichever one you're
in, or the high Z if you're in the uh
front port.
Three and four is actually your
monitors. So, it's the two channels out.
Five and six, these are the virtual
channels. So this is what we assigned in
the console earlier. Um so we're already
routing our DAW audio here to virtuals 1
and 2. So if we go back here,
you can see that I've named this already
DAW audio. Um and you can rename it like
if you wanted to call this, you know,
Ableton audio, you can rename it by
right clicking it. Okay. So, the next
thing that's really important is we need
a way for Streamlabs OBS to access this
DAW audio, right? Um, and the way we do
that is by using voice meters virtual
channels.
So, one thing,
if you look over here, you notice it
says B1, B2, B3. Um, that's what these
correspond to right here. I'm actually
going to rename these real quick just to
be super clear. This is B1.
This is B2.
This is B3. Okay.
So,
the whole goal is I've got our Ableton
audio routed here. I can send this to
whichever virtual channel I want. B1, I
can set it to B2. I could send it to B3
and then I could tap into that virtual
channel from Streamlabs. So, for
instance, I'm going to send this to B2
right now. And that's going to
correspond with this channel right here,
the one in the middle. And when we send
audio through that, we're going to be
able to see the audio here, the DAW
audio. We're also going to be going to
be able to see it on this other mixer
right here for B2. And the way we access
this, access this in Streamlabs is we're
going to grab a channel called Voice
Meter AX. Okay. So, if I go back to my
Streamlabs,
right? Okay. So, I'm going to go to
sources again. Audio input capture.
I already created this earlier. So,
let's add that
under this Ableton output portion under
device.
You could see that there's one called
voice meter ox output. Okay. So that
directly corresponds to that B2 virtual
channel. If I select this, that's how
I'm going to be able to access our
Ableton output uh in Streamlabs. So once
I've done that, I can play audio through
Ableton. And you can kind of check the
chain. You could check your console,
make sure you're getting levels there.
Um, check your voice meter. Make sure
you're getting levels there for your
DAW. And then you can check Streamlabs,
make your make sure you're seeing a
level here. I'll show a demo of that
real quick. So, I'm going to play some
of this Ableton audio again here. So,
you can see it here. It's playing. I can
hear it coming out of speakers. If I go
to console, I can see it going into DAW
audio, the virtual channel.
And I can also see it here on voice
meter. I can see my mic and I can see uh
the drum loop playing.
Turn this off for a sec. All right. So,
hopefully you guys can hear my audio. Uh
you can hear the drum loop coming
through the DAW. So, that's this channel
right here. You can go ahead and mix
here. You can like lower the volume,
raise it, you can mute it if you're in
the middle of the stream or something,
whatever you need to do. Um, so yeah,
just remember that uh we didn't have to
use B2. We could also have used uh B1.
That's where my mic's on right now. You
can use B3. You can also route like
Discord uh through B3. You could route
capture cards through virtual channels.
Um, you know, anything that Streamlabs
is not picking up, you can route through
a virtual channel. Um, yeah. So, I hope
this video was helpful. Um, definitely
reach out if you have any questions.
It's a bit of a complicated topic doing
all this routing and uh, voice meter can
get a little weird. I definitely
recommend saving uh, like a template
once you get uh, something that works
for you. But uh yeah, thanks for
watching.