My newly installed Audacity on Windows 11 PC doesn’t playback to my Airport Extreme router on my home LAN (audio-plugged into my hifi). But iTunes on the PC plays through it, and so does my iPhone (using iTunes or Spotify).
To select the Airport on iTunes, or on my phone, the apps offer an icon allowing me to select from computer speakers, blue-tooth devices, LAN devices. Audacity doesn’t have this?
Windows ControlPanel > Sound (or Network) never shows the Airport, only bluetooth devices.
Windows Settings > Sound > VolumeMixer shows volume controls for iTunes and for Audacity, and says they are using “Default Device” rather than speakers or bluetooth.
My earlier version of Audacity (2.3.3) never offered to use the Airport, but would often automatically use it if I had recently played iTunes through the Airport before booting Audacity!
So let me start by saying I don’t have experience with networked audio devices. I know that some bluetooth devices can work intermittently or fail altogether depending on the driver.
Also note that Audacity scans for all available sound devices when it first starts up. If you add or remove a device while Audacity is running, Audacity won’t know it, unless you do Tranport > Rescan Audio Devices.
Generally speaking, devices that are available in the Windows Sound Control Panel are available to Audacity. There are many ways to get to this panel, and they differ between Windows 10 and Windows 11. One way that is fairly consistent: [Windows Key]-R, then “mmsys.cpl” (without the quotes).
I suppose that if you are able to set the Airport as your default playback device, then you might be able to access it in Audacity using MME - Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output or Direct Sound - Primary Sound Drive. Good luck!
Unfortunately Windows (any edition) mmsys.cpl appears not to show network sound devices - only hard-wired, plugged in, or bluetooth devices. Even when Audacity worked with my LAN device, and when iTunes plays on it now, it never shows in mmsys.cpl.
(It’s sometimes necessary to right-click the mmsys.cpl icon background and enable “Show Disconnected Devices” and “Show Disabled Devices” - I have done this already.)
This is odd because Windows file Explorer > Network (bottom of left panel) shows “Media Devices” including my Windows computers (but not my iPhone or my AirportExpress). I gather that both Windows and Apple devices are communicating media via the DLNA protocol?
Maybe there is somewhere to “turn on” communication between Windows and Apple devices?
