Surround Up-mix Solution for Apple Music / iTunes on a Mac

[pti]

I have a lot of true multichannel audio available on my Mac, but occasionally listen to stereo audio from my iTunes/Music collection. I've wanted to up mix, but since apps like Audio Hijack and Hosting AU only support stereo output, I couldn't get them to use the Waves UM226 AU I have that does upmixing. Today, I realized I can just use Logic Pro as the AU host for that plugin.

The chain is:

Music app ->
Rogue Amoeba Loopback (virtual audio input from the Music app output) ->
Logic stereo channel from from the Loopback source->
UM226 AU ->
Logic Surround output ->
Focusrite 18i20 (configured for 5.1 in Audio/MIDI Setup) ->
5.1 studio monitors.

I've attached a screenshot, which should make it clearer what I am doing.

It's not cheap. Logic is $299, Loopback is $99, and Waves UM226 is $30 (on sale right now). I had Logic and Loopback for other reasons, though, so the incremental cost for me was low.

Let me know if you try it.

 

[zeerround]

Requires an iLok?

Requires graphics card that supports ‘Metal’?

 

[pti]

Requires an iLok?

Requires graphics card that supports ‘Metal’?

Neither, as far as I know. I am doing it on a 2015 iMac 5K.