How do you get YouTube audio into Reason? (on a Mac)

[Pete B]

Hey Reason wizards,

I'm using Reason (10) and a Mac (OS Catalina). I want to get onscreen audio into Reason. I'm not too bothered about sound quality (that's sacrilege on here, I know!), but I just want to use things such as dialogue from films, etc.

Any help appreciated,

A non-wizard.

[EnochLight]

Hey Reason wizards,

I'm using Reason (10) and a Mac (OS Catalina). I want to get onscreen audio into Reason. I'm not too bothered about sound quality (that's sacrilege on here, I know!), but I just want to use things such as dialogue from films, etc.

Any help appreciated,

A non-wizard.

There's many ways... Here's a few:

You can just sample the video's audio while it's playing, seeing as how all of Reason's samplers can sample.

But if you just want to load the file into a sampler or Reason's sequencer, you need to download the entire YouTube video first and then pull the audio track out of the video file. On Mac, you should be able to do that with QuickTime (File, Export, Audio Only).

To download any YouTube video onto your Mac, try 4K Video Downloader (it's free): https://www.4kdownload.com/downloads

You can also just use 4K YouTube to MP3 on Mac as well (from that same site), and just skip the whole QuickTime audio extraction part.

[Pete B]

Thanks so much. I'm off to read the section of the manual on sampling right now. (I'm a guitarist first you see.)

Pete

[Proboscis]

I have used the software that the earlier fellow suggested, and it's pretty good. I like the option to download 'audio only' rather than the whole video file.

Sometimes the software throws out errors, and I think it's to do with a source video's duration, but overall, it's a good tool for what you want to do. Doesn't always work, but it mostly works.

I'm not too bothered about sound quality (that's sacrilege on here, I know!), but I just want to use things such as dialogue from films, etc.

Often I have used a stand-mounted condenser microphone, placed it in front of a monitor (usually aimed between the two cones), set some levels to record the input, turn down the monitoring [!Important!] and capture a take. For me, it's better I use headphones for this set-up, to avoid nasty feedback.

For spoken material, this method is a surprisingly acceptable capture for use in a project.

Although, the problem I have found when sampling film dialog, or YouTube content, is that there is sometimes an incidental music track that conflicts with the music I've created. That kind of kills the idea I might have been formulating to include 'some words 'n' stuff'.

To expand upon your question about recording film dialogue, how about if the source is from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, etc ?

I'm not sure if the 4K Video Downloader does Netflix etc, I haven't tried. But I highly doubt it, since streaming services are behind a paywall, whereas YouTube is public, for all to stream.

Which is where my mic to monitor suggestion might be a better overall solution, to cover more bases. Or at least something for you to ponder over, for your own needs. You can record dialogue straight into a Reason audio track, from the source monitor. No fuss, no converting file types, rendering, none of that.

Of course, you need a microphone and a mic stand to do this. Or if your monitors are desk-sized, you could secure a mic atop a few stacked books. Whatever it takes to get that mic into the area in front of the cones that has the best result. No 'room' is being recorded when the mic is that close. Just source material.

[Proboscis]

You can just sample the video's audio while it's playing, seeing as how all of Reason's samplers can sample.

Say What Now ?

I would not have expected that the audio drivers on my studio PC would allow those connection to be made, from a video (well audio from a video), to be captured by the sample function of NN-XT or NN-19.

But I think I need to test what you're suggesting. If it were that easy, then WOW, I would be impressed. That will be a project me to start in the next few minutes.

It should be stated that I've no time for all this 'virtual cable' BS. It's not something I can quite get my head around. But maybe that's an option. "Pipe the Audio of App A (Browser) to the Input of App B (Reason)"

[tobypearce]

I have the Setapp subscription. (Excellent for a variety of Mac apps.) It comes with two different video downloaders - both are great. They might allow someone to download a youtube video, and then open it in a standard audio editor and save out as an audio file.

[selig]

My Focusrite interface/software brings computer audio into Reason's 5/6 inputs, so I just patch it where I want. Simplest solution I've ever had, since it "just works" on any/all audio from the computer.

[paulred67]

My Roland Rubix 44 and Cakewalk UA25 EX have the function called "Loopback". When it's turned on, I can record the sound coming from my PC directly into my DAWs. No additional cables, mics - no hassle. Check your audio interface, if it has something like this.

[orthodox]

I use youtube-dl (a command-line utility), it supports a ton of sites: facebook, instagram, twitch, vimeo...

[pongasoft]

I personally use Audio Hijack. It is very powerful. It is not a free product but I think it is well worth the price. It has a free demo though if you want to try it.

This is the setup I use (see screenshot): Google Chrome -> Record to wav file -> output to my interface (so that I can hear as well).

Screen Shot 2020-04-04 at 07.00.53.png (224.61 KiB) Viewed 3330 times

Yan
PS: I have no affiliation with Rogue Amoeba whatsoever. I am just recommending it because I genuinely think it is a great product...

[EnochLight]

You can just sample the video's audio while it's playing, seeing as how all of Reason's samplers can sample.

Say What Now ?

I would not have expected that the audio drivers on my studio PC would allow those connection to be made, from a video (well audio from a video), to be captured by the sample function of NN-XT or NN-19.

But I think I need to test what you're suggesting. If it were that easy, then WOW, I would be impressed. That will be a project me to start in the next few minutes.

It should be stated that I've no time for all this 'virtual cable' BS. It's not something I can quite get my head around. But maybe that's an option. "Pipe the Audio of App A (Browser) to the Input of App B (Reason)"

Yes, it's really that easy (without virtual audio cables), assuming you have a proper audio interface that does audio loopback. But even if you don't, you can take a real audio cable and plug it into your headphones out on your PC, and run it into the line-in on your PC, and do a "hard cable audio loopback" to sample into any of Reason's samplers.

I think people often and easily forgot that literally every computer made in the last 30 years are literal hardware samplers when running the correct software (in this case, Reason). They all have line outs, they all have line ins. Buy 1 stereo audio cable. That's literally all you need. Even the cheapest of the cheap PC's usually have a line-in or mic-in, as well as headphones out.

[gregmarksimpson]

I personally use Audio Hijack. It is very powerful. It is not a free product but I think it is well worth the price. It has a free demo though if you want to try it.

This is the setup I use (see screenshot): Google Chrome -> Record to wav file -> output to my interface (so that I can hear as well).

PS: I have no affiliation with Rogue Amoeba whatsoever. I am just recommending it because I genuinely think it is a great product...

Even better than Audio Hijack for simple routing into Reason, is Rogue Amoeba's Loopback: https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/

[dmcghee]

On a Mac select the speaker icon at the top of the screen and select your audio interface and record to a track.

[nooomy]

https://ytmp3eu.eu/en3/
The highest audio quality is 320 mp3. This website rips the audio and turn it into a mp3 file very quick and easy. Faster than sampling for me

[Proboscis]

you can take a real audio cable and plug it into your headphones out on your PC, and run it into the line-in on your PC, and do a "hard cable audio loopback" to sample into any of Reason's samplers.

I soldered up a lead to specifically achieve this (headphone plug to 2x TS plugs), and for some reason it always sounds like ass.

I don't believe my audio interface has 'loop back'. But it would be handy for anyone who wants to sample audio from any other source, no doubt.

[Dosenhirn]

I like to use the audio out recording in reaper to get samples out of films and YouTube. Then I load them in grain to have fun.

[Bewlay]

I might be a little out of date with this but I use Soundflower. It's a free app that shows up as an input/ output in the Mac 'Sound' System Preferences. I've never used it with Reason though so it may not be compatible.

[Bewlay]

https://ytmp3eu.eu/en3/
The highest audio quality is 320 mp3. This website rips the audio and turn it into a mp3 file very quick and easy. Faster than sampling for me

That's great. Really handy, thanks for that

[EnochLight]

I soldered up a lead to specifically achieve this (headphone plug to 2x TS plugs), and for some reason it always sounds like ass.

Is that while using your motherboard’s integrated audio? If not, it’s possible you’ve got a bum cable or solder job. What in particular sounds bad about that method? Also, make sure when you're sampling using this method, you have "monitor" and "auto" set to off on Sampling Input, or you may get some weird phasing issues:

sample_monitoring.jpg (76.8 KiB) Viewed 3147 times

I don't believe my audio interface has 'loop back'. But it would be handy for anyone who wants to sample audio from any other source, no doubt.

There’s super affordable audio interfaces that come with an audio-loopback feature built-in. I realize doing virtual loopback cables that are available free on the Internet can be daunting. Still, manually hooking up a hardware cable seems the easiest and simplest route, assuming you can find out why your method is sounding like ass.

[Proboscis]

Is that while using your motherboard’s integrated audio?

No, that is from the interface's headphone output, back into itself via the line-in jacks

What in particular sounds bad about that method? Also, make sure when you're sampling using this method, you have "monitor" and "auto" set to off on Sampling Input, or you may get some weird phasing issues:

I think you have best described the problem - it's been a while since I've done it via the cable method, as I revert to just recording the speaker's output with a condensor microphone, and the results are good enough. From memory, when using the physical cable method, I have to keep the source audio quite low using the audio interface's headphone volume knob, or it will sound like ass, even though at a higher level it's not even clipping on the destination track. (I've tried this direct to an audio track, rather than into a sampler)

There's never been a need for me touch the Hardware Interface module in Reason, and therefore don't know how it works, but your suggestion might be the answer. Out of interest I'm going to try that later today. I will be pleasantly surprised if the solution is as simple as clicking a button on-screen.

There’s super affordable audio interfaces that come with an audio-loopback feature built-in.

No doubt. But since I rarely sample audio from other sources, and can't think of any other purposes to have loopback functionality, any amount of money spend is too much, on a feature that might only be used a few times a year. Regardless, it's some good information to know, for any readers in the market for a new interface.

[EnochLight]

I think you have best described the problem - it's been a while since I've done it via the cable method, as I revert to just recording the speaker's output with a condensor microphone, and the results are good enough. From memory, when using the physical cable method, I have to keep the source audio quite low using the audio interface's headphone volume knob, or it will sound like ass, even though at a higher level it's not even clipping on the destination track. (I've tried this direct to an audio track, rather than into a sampler)

There's never been a need for me touch the Hardware Interface module in Reason, and therefore don't know how it works, but your suggestion might be the answer. Out of interest I'm going to try that later today. I will be pleasantly surprised if the solution is as simple as clicking a button on-screen.

Cool - let us know if that helps! The last time I tried that method, that was my problem at least. Monitoring the sample during sampling just caused phasing issues, and sounded like ass on my end as well. Turned it off, and presto: crystal clear samples. I think I've even had that problem when doing audio-loopback via my RME Babyface Pro via the software mixer.

No doubt. But since I rarely sample audio from other sources, and can't think of any other purposes to have loopback functionality, any amount of money spend is too much, on a feature that might only be used a few times a year. Regardless, it's some good information to know, for any readers in the market for a new interface.

I hear you.

[Pete B]

Thanks all, you beautiful people!

I've just checked in again 24 hours later and there are 20 helpful responses/solutions. Brilliant. I'll go through them later.

Thank you all.

Pete