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OMNIBUS 3.0 operates like a virtual patchbay with a huge routing matrix, helping you to get a grip on all audio sources on your Mac, and seamlessly route audio between different sources – be they physical hardware, virtual drivers, or application audio. You can also then route this audio in real-time to other machines on the same Wifi network, using two different network protocols.

With this setup you can harness all of the audio routing of a studio while minimizing your physical setup.

Below, we explore various use cases for OMNIBUS and provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to integrating this powerful tool into your audio projects.

New to OMNIBUS? You can also watch our how-to videos to get started on incorporating OMNIBUS into your workflow here.

1. Collaborating across different DAWs

Everyone has their own preference for the DAW they prefer to record or compose in, and the same goes for operating systems. While the vast majority of mixes end up in Pro Tools, they frequently start somewhere else, with many hip hop producers working in FL Studio in Windows, while others prefer Ableton Live or Logic Pro. OMNIBUS facilitates real-time audio exchange across different platforms and DAWs, dramatically speeding up the collaborative process
With OMNIBUS and the MINIBUS plugin, a producer on FL Studio (Windows) could work seamlessly with an engineer on Pro Tools (Mac), without ever needing to manually export or transfer files.

Steps:
1. Ensure both machines are connected to the same network.
2. Install MINIBUS plugin on the producer’s Windows machine and place it on the master bus after all processing.
3. Install OMNIBUS on the mix engineer’s Mac.
4. Click ‘Add’ in the OMNIBUS UI and find the producer’s MINIBUS device and add it to the routing matrix.
5. Create routing lines in the OMNIBUS matrix from the MINIBUS to a virtual device, such as OMNIBUS A.
6. Set that same virtual device as your input in the engineer’s DAW.
7. Load a track in the DAW to receive the incoming audio.
8. Begin collaborating in real-time, with changes made in one DAW instantly reflected in the other, fostering a truly dynamic production environment.
2. Improving audio quality on podcasts and conference calls

More and more business happens remotely now and this shows no signs of changing. Be it meetings on Zoom or Teams, podcast recordings, or even conference panels, increasingly people are participating in real-time remotely, regardless of the scale.
Noise cancellation on meeting apps like Zoom has improved a lot, but it can still leave a lot to be desired, especially if you find yourself in a boomy or less acoustically ideal environment. This is where OMNIBUS can come in. Using OMNIBUS 3.0, You can route the import audio from your microphone into a DAW, then have a channel with a compression and EQ applied, then back out into Zoom/teams for calls. Those meeting apps are good at noise cancellation, but if you’re in a boomy environment, this would be a great solution.

Steps:
1. Click ‘Add’ in the OMNIBUS UI and find the interface your mic is plugged into and add it to the routing matrix.
2. Create routing lines in the OMNIBUS matrix from the mic interface to a virtual device, such as OMNIBUS A.
3. Set that same virtual device as your input in the DAW.
4. Load a track in the DAW to receive the incoming audio.
5. Apply compression and EQ as desired to the incoming signal.
6. Set your DAW’s output in the playback engine to an OMNIBUS virtual driver.
7. Set that virtual driver as the microphone in your meetings app e.g. Zoom or Teams.
3. Instant Audio Stem Sharing

In situations where quick turnarounds are crucial, such as during a tight editing session, or when you don’t want to lose the creative thread collaborating, the traditional method of transferring stems via uploads and downloads can be disruptive to the flow of a session.
OMNIBUS streamlines this by enabling direct audio stem sharing over local networks using AVB or NDI protocols, by streaming your audio in real-time and with all channels.

Steps:

Setup your network for AVB or NDI and connect the workstations through OMNIBUS. If using AVB, you will need ethernet cables and Thunderbolt AVB adapters. If using NDI, this can be done wirelessly as long as both computers are on the same network. Learn more here – OMNIBUS 3 | Connecting Macs with AVB and NDI | Audiomovers.

Configure each computer to send and receive audio streams, ensuring that OMNIBUS is selected as the audio driver in your DAWs, and you route channels in the DAW to the same channels in a virtual device in OMNIBUS, e.g. a stereo track is routed to channels 1 and 2 of OMNIBUS A, and the next stereo track is routed to or from channels 3 and 4 of OMNIBUS A.

Exchange audio stems instantly, allowing for immediate revisions and feedback without breaking the creative momentum.

4. Direct Sampling from YouTube into Your DAW

Sampling audio from platforms like YouTube usually requires additional hardware loopback setups or using buggy software, or worse, websites that attempt to rip audio from YouTube.

With OMNIBUS, this process becomes straightforward and digital, providing a cleaner and more efficient workflow for sampling from creative commons or licensed sources on YouTube.

Steps:
1. Select an OMNIBUS virtual driver (e.g. ‘OMNIBUS A’) as your Mac’s audio output device to capture the audio you want to sample.
2. Click ‘Add’ in the OMNIBUS UI and find your web browser in the list and add it to the routing matrix.
3. Route your browser to a virtual device output.
4. Set the same OMNIBUS virtual driver as your DAW’s input device.
5. Play the YouTube video and route the audio directly into an audio track in your DAW via OMNIBUS.
6. Record the stream seamlessly into your project, ensuring high-quality samples are ready for manipulation and integration into your tracks.
5. Efficient A/Bing or Mix Referencing with Commercial Tracks

Accurately comparing your mix to commercial tracks is a great tool for leveling up your mixing and mastering. Even the most experienced and celebrated engineers will frequently A/B with tracks they love sonically.
OMNIBUS simplifies this A/Bing by allowing you to quickly toggle between your current mix or master and tracks played on streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.

Steps:
1. Setup separate snapshots in OMNIBUS for your DAW and DSP audio like so: Create one snapshot with just your DAW routed to your monitors, then another with just the streaming service routed to your monitors.
2. Play both the mix and the reference track simultaneously, using OMNIBUS snapshots to switch between setups.
3. Compare and adjust your mix on the fly, ensuring your track stands up to commercial quality standards.
6. Simplified Audio Management for Live Streaming

Live streaming setups often require managing multiple audio sources, which can quickly become very complex. OBS is pretty standard now for Twitch streamers and so on, but the audio routing options are pretty limited, especially if you are managing multiple audio sources.
OMNIBUS provides a streamlined solution by consolidating all audio feeds into a single manageable output, which you can set as your input in OBS.
You can watch a visual guide on how to do exactly this with Mirek Stiles here: Audio routing for how-to videos, Twitch streaming and with OBS.

Steps:
1. Connect all audio sources (DAW, mic, system sounds) to OMNIBUS.
2. Route each source to a dedicated virtual bus within OMNIBUS.
3. Set OMNIBUS as your audio input in OBS.
4. Combine and manage outputs for a clear, consistent live stream, easily adjusting settings to suit different streaming scenarios.
7. Streamlined Orchestral Composing

Contemporary composers typically have huge libraries of samples and instruments, as well as huge projects, especially if they are working in film or TV. As a result, many work with multiple ‘rigs’ or computers, with some handling sessions, while others are used to store and recall libraries.

Omnibus makes these kinds of multi-machine setups much easier to manage, allowing composers to focus more on creativity and less on technical logistics.

Steps:
- Setup your network for AVB or NDI and connect the workstations through OMNIBUS. If using AVB, you will need ethernet cables and Thunderbolt AVB adapters. If using NDI, this can be done wirelessly as long as both computers are on the same network. Learn more here – OMNIBUS 3 | Connecting Macs with AVB and NDI | Audiomovers
- Configure each computer to send and receive audio via OMNIBUS, by ensuring that OMNIBUS is selected as the audio driver in your DAWs, and you route channels in the DAW to the same channels in a virtual device in OMNIBUS, e.g. a stereo track is routed to channels 1 and 2 of OMNIBUS A, and the next stereo track is routed to or from channels 3 and 4 of OMNIBUS A, and so on.
- Link the different composing workstations via OMNIBUS, by creating either AVB or NDI devices within OMNIBUS on both systems. The two machines will now ‘appear’ as selectable devices to drag into the routing matrix to send audio to or from.
- Set up OMNIBUS to synchronize audio across the systems, regardless of differing sample rates.
- Manage large templates efficiently, with OMNIBUS handling up to 256 audio channels, keeping your session organized and synchronized.
8. Enhanced Audio Teaching Tools

As more and more education happens either fully remote or hybrid, educators need flexible tools for demonstrating audio techniques effectively, whether in-person or online. As we have seen, OMNIBUS enables the routing of multiple audio sources into a single feed, so they can be more easily shared with students.

Steps:
1. Setup OMNIBUS to capture and route audio from various sources like browsers, DAWs, and libraries.
2. Route each source to a distinct virtual driver (or bus) and merge them into one output for ease of demonstration.
3. Broadcast the combined feed to classroom monitors and remote platforms, ensuring all students receive a clear and unified audio experience.
9. Monitoring Dolby Atmos Mixes on different headphones and setups

Mixing immersive audio such as Dolby Atmos adds new layers of complexity for engineers used to working in stereo when trying to monitor mixes to ensure they will sound up to scratch on different setups and different DSPs. You will need to listen on stereo loudspeakers, on an Atmos speaker setup (and then you have considerations – 9.1.6 or 7.1.4 or both!), in headphones for Apple Music, and on headphones on TIDAL and Amazon. There are audible differences on the same mix on all of the following possible listening setups as defined by Nathaniel Reichman for Production Expert:

• Conventional stereo mix on loudspeakers.
• Conventional stereo mix on headphones.
• Dolby Atmos DD+JOC mix on loudspeakers.
• Dolby Atmos AC-4 binaural mix on headphones.
• Apple Spatial Audio binaural mix on headphones.
• Apple Personalized Spatial Audio binaural mix on headphones.

Using snapshots in OMNIBUS to handle your audio routing outside of your DAW, and in conjunction with Binaural Render for Apple Music (for Apple Spatial rendering) you can seamlessly A/B/C/D between different monitoring setups while still working on an Atmos mix. OMNIBUS also provides a solution for the known issue between Pro Tools and AirPods, where each AirPod shows up as a separate audio device in the Playback Engine, preventing audio from being sent to both AirPods simultaneously.

Steps:
1. Connect the Dolby Atmos Renderer outputs to OMNIBUS.
2. Configure virtual buses/routing configurations for different Atmos formats (7.1.4, 5.1, stereo), as well as routing where your AirPods are an output device.
3. Use Hot Snapshots for rapid switching between formats, facilitating a more dynamic and responsive mixing process.
Let us know how you progress, and how you use OMNIBUS. We hope that OMNIBUS can become an integral part of your toolkit, speeding up workflows and unlocking new creative opportunities.

Get a free demo of OMNIBUS here.
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Julian Rodgers – Editor of Production Expert – explores five use cases he discovered in his studio for OMNIBUS 3.0.

For a tool to truly catch my attention, it needs to solve a significant problem I encounter in my daily workflow more effectively than alternative solutions. Tools that focus on a single problem have an edge—if they solve a need I have, they can demonstrate their value to me quickly. And if that tool tackles a task I don’t enjoy or removes a barrier to something I do enjoy, all the better.

Omnibus 3.0 is an extremely flexible tool, but at first glance, its full potential might not be immediately obvious. It wasn’t until it solved a simple but recurring problem for me that I realised just how useful it could be across my entire workflow. Let me explain.

I’d read about how powerful the latest version of Audiomovers’ Mac-only audio routing software was. How it could route hundreds of channels between multiple sources and share them between multiple users on multiple computers. It’s impressive. But like the majority of people, I work on my own in my studio, principally on a single computer and with only occasional in-person visits from collaborators and clients. Routing 256 channels of audio over a local network to multiple workstations isn’t something I need to do. But that doesn’t mean Omnibus 3 doesn’t do things I do need.

Omnibus 3 can route to and from almost any device, whether hardware or software. You can use it to split signals out from one source to multiple destinations and you can also use it to combine multiple sources and sum them to a single destination. And importantly it does all to this independently of sample rate because it handles all the sample rate conversion in the background. That makes it something which can make many of the issues associated with routing digital audio around a system disappear.

Routing Pro Tools To AirPods

The first problem Omnibus 3 solved for me was simple, yet frustrating – I can now route audio from Pro Tools to my AirPods.

While this may sound trivial, it wasn’t something I could do before. Once I realised Omnibus 3 could fix this issue, I quickly began exploring other potential uses for the software. Why is this so difficult? When using my MacBook Pro, each AirPod shows up as a separate audio device in the Pro Tools Playback Engine. Because Pro Tools only allows the selection of one device at a time, this prevents audio from being sent to both AirPods simultaneously. As a result, I used to carry wired headphones exclusively for working in Pro Tools while travelling.

Using AirPods with Pro Tools becomes effortless with Omnibus 3. I simply select the Omnibus virtual bus as the Playback Engine in Pro Tools, select AirPods as the output device, and route both channels to my AirPods, with sample rate conversion happening invisibly in the background.

The problem with using AirPods with Pro Tools

Routing audio from Pro Tools to AirPods

The ability to route Pro Tools to my AirPods was the “killer application” that drew me into Omnibus 3. After solving this issue, I began exploring what other common workflow hurdles it could help me overcome.

Loopback

One of these was audio loopback. Loopback is essential for a range of tasks, from recording podcast guests to routing audio for screen recording software. While I typically rely on hardware for reliability, Omnibus 3’s loopback functionality has proven just as dependable.

Routing my podcast guests from a call on Zoom into my DAW to capture with my own mic for podcast production couldn’t be simpler. Likewise for screen capture when using my DAW routing DAW audio to screen capture software or to Zoom or similar video software is simple and because of the sample rate conversion I don’t have to match the sample rates between applications and hardware, so its actually easier than using my hardware interface for loopback.

A/B DAW Mixes Against References

Referencing mixes against records you aspire to sound like is a well known strategy. But I’ll be the first to say it’s not super-convenient. I’ve tried the dedicated plugins, which has to be said do a great job. But my favoured technique is to route my streaming service of choice via a separate audio interface and into the B input of my monitor controller, allowing me a convenient way to A/B between the mix and reference at the touch of a button. Omnibus offers an alternative to this hardware based approach and it’s beautifully simple and effective.

I’ve already referred to using the Omnibus virtual bus. There is a fixed two-channel bus which is always present in Omnibus but there are three additional busses which can be added, at widths from 2 channels up to 256 channels. A/Bing between a DAW mix and a reference track relies on using two virtual busses in conjunction with the snapshot feature in Omnibus. If more flexibility is needed—for example monitoring multiple sources such as browser audio and Spotify at the same time and to different destinations—then this is straightforward, and the four Omnibus busses are always there to accommodate these scenarios.

Multiple Snapshots of routing schemes can be saved in Omnibus. They can be recalled using a keystroke and if they are also saved as Hot Snapshots they can be recalled instantly from the Hot Snapshots Panel in the Omnibus UI. If you have a Streamdeck they can of course be recalled literally with the touch of a button. If you use references but you prefer the open endedness of using your streaming service ‘live’ rather than importing files of reference tracks, this is ideal.

The way the routing works is that you route your DAW to Omnibus A and the system sound on your Mac to Omnibus B (or vice-versa) and use the routing snapshots to AB between them. It’s simple and flexible. One tip is that while there are volume controls for the busses in the device list in Omnibus, these settings are saved with the snapshot so unless you are prepared to constantly update your snapshots you’re better off matching the levels at source in the streaming software and the DAW.

A Better ‘Aux Cord’

What about other simple yet common issues in the studio? For example letting someone play audio from their computer through the studio monitors? The dreaded ‘Aux Cord’. There’s nothing wrong with having a 3.5mm jack lead dangling in the studio ready to pipe analogue audio into a pair of inputs on the interface or monitor controller. But if it’s a Mac and you have an Ethernet to Thunderbolt adaptor it’s incredibly simple to use an AVB connection instead. First set up the guest machine in the Omnibus AVB configurator, set the output in the guest machine to ‘Omnibus AVB: 2’ and route from that to your desired output, in this Aux Cord replacement application it would involve two channels but an AVB connection into Omnibus can be up to 256 channels if you need them.

Crucially Omnibus 3 doesn’t have to be installed on the guest Mac. No conversion and vanishingly low latency courtesy of AVB, which is built into MacOS. Do be aware that Ethernet switches need to be AVB compatible so direct machine to machine connection is the safest bet. Your off the shelf switch might not support AVB. Best of all, this AVB Aux Cord can be left live, ready to go all the time. You can’t do that with an analogue lead, buzzing away and making loud noises when it’s touched or plugged in!

Instant Recall of Dolby Atmos Live Re-renders

I don’t currently mix Dolby Atmos but like many people I’m feeling more and more reasons to do so, and Omnibus can be very useful as a way to store and recall live re-renders. Many Atmos-equipped Pro Tools studios use a combination of Avid hardware such as the Matrix Studio together with the DADman monitor control software and a DAD MOM controller to manage the monitoring of live re-renders. This is a great way of working, though not inexpensive, giving the freedom to check a mix at multiple channel widths, from 7.1.4 or higher all the way through surround formats down to stereo. Once properly set up Omnibus 3 can be used in a similar way to switch between various live re-renders.

This is possible precisely because Omnibus 3 does such a great job of managing inter-application routing. When running an Atmos session in Pro Tools, rather than using the internal renderer, I could use the Dolby Audio Bridge to send audio to the external Dolby Atmos Renderer application, and then use Omnibus 3 to store and recall the audio routing of the re-renders to my monitoring system.

From here you can use the Hot Snapshots feature controlled from the Mac’s keyboard or from an Elgato Stream Deck so you can very neatly toggle between monitoring formats, achieving in software something which otherwise requires a significant investment in hardware. When the time comes to invest in Atmos monitoring, Omnibus might be a crucial part of that move.

If there is a takeaway here it’s that the idea of software which can be used to route audio between applications and hardware isn’t new and I’ve had experience of other software which does the same thing. But this feels both easy and complete. I’ve tried others but they haven’t worked for me and I’ve always gone back to hardware. This one fixes the problems I actually have and the longer I’ve been using the more reasons I’ve uncovered for keeping it as part of how my studio works. It’s important to point out that the sheer flexibility and scalability of Omnibus 3 might not seem relevant to someone working alone in their studio, but there is no downside to this capability. The examples in this article are modest in scale, but as your needs grow the same tool which can solve these simple issues can also solve the biggest and most complex of projects.

So those are five specific uses I’ve found for OmniBus 3 in my studio. There are many, many more but these were the ones which were most relevant to me. What problems with routing do you have in your studio? You probably have ways to get around them but ask yourself, would a single solution to all of your routing issues be a good thing? Omnibus 3 could be the solution you didn’t know you needed. Why not give it a try and see how it can simplify your workflow.
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