soundflower kernel extension (SOLVED)

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rockhammer
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soundflower kernel extension (SOLVED)

Post by rockhammer » Wed Nov 20, 2013 11:45 am

I am aware audacity can use soundflower for recording purposes. But does the installation of audacity install also the soundflower kernel extension automatically? Or is audacity otherwise dependent on this soundflower kernel extension to work? I just noticed I have a soundflower kernel extension installed but not the soundflower app itself. thanks
Last edited by rockhammer on Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: marked as SOLVED and locked thread

billw58
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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by billw58 » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:00 pm

rockhammer wrote:I am aware audacity can use soundflower for recording purposes. But does the installation of audacity install also the soundflower kernel extension automatically?
No. Audacity does not use an "installer" and does not put anything on your hard drive that you do not explicitly copy there from the DMG.
-- Bill

Gale Andrews
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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by Gale Andrews » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:34 pm

The DMG (and the zip) do of course create application support files in ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ but as Bill says this does not install any other applications.


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rockhammer
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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by rockhammer » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:40 pm

Thanks, Bill & Gale. So just to confirm. If I removed the soundflower kernel extension (com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower), my audacity app should NOT be impacted in any way?

Thanks.

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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by rockhammer » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:44 pm

Just to add, like many people apparently who have upgraded to mavericks, I am also trying to solve mysterious performance issues. Luckily for me my audacity is still working after moving mavericks. however I've been recommended to remove soundflower kernel extension (I don't actually have the app, just the extension). I just want to make sure I'm not going to screw up my audacity which I use daily. thanks

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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by Gale Andrews » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:56 pm

rockhammer wrote:Thanks, Bill & Gale. So just to confirm. If I removed the soundflower kernel extension (com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower), my audacity app should NOT be impacted in any way?
Soundflower provides a system recording device with which you can capture audio playing on the computer. Many people find it useful. Do you see it as an input device in Device Toolbar in Audacity?

If you had installed Soundflower then there should be a Soundflower folder in /Applications that contains an uninstall script. You would double-click the uninstall script to uninstall Soundflower properly. I would be inclined to install Soundflower then uninstall it using the script to be sure I had got rid of it.

What are the performance issues? Some people say reinstalling Mavericks helps when you have installed it over previous Mac OS X. What I see is frequent but brief beach balls when I do just about anything, but Mountain Lion (over which I installed Mavericks) never did that .


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rockhammer
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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by rockhammer » Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:10 pm

I never installed it myself and I'm trying to figure out which app is using it. I don't have the app in the apps folder but it shows up in my kernel extensions.

my mac sometimes refuses to wake up and can only be rebooted by holding the power button

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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by Gale Andrews » Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:55 pm

rockhammer wrote:my mac sometimes refuses to wake up and can only be rebooted by holding the power button
I assume this is your topic http://tinyurl.com/oa4p47q so I would take the advice there and put it down to a Mavericks bug.

In spite of what is said in that topic, please be assured that Audacity does not install Soundflower or "modify OS X's native audio functions" (I posted there to correct that).



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renowden
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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by renowden » Mon Dec 16, 2013 6:47 pm

There is something odd with Soundflower 1.6.6b, Mavericks and Audacity.

The symptoms I am getting are.

With Audacity 2.0.2 all is ok.
With Audacity 2.0.5 and playback via Soundflower the output stutters.
Changing the playback to direct to Line Out all is OK again.
I hadn't tried Audacity 2.0.5 prior to upgrading to Mavericks so can't comment on that.

I am aware that Soundflower is no longer supported, but this is the only situation i have observed that gives me any problems.

This is on an Early 2008 Mac Pro and playing independently recorded 44.1K and 48K 16 bit WAV files.

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Re: soundflower kernel extension

Post by Gale Andrews » Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:37 pm

renowden wrote:There is something odd with Soundflower 1.6.6b, Mavericks and Audacity.

The symptoms I am getting are.

With Audacity 2.0.2 all is ok.
With Audacity 2.0.5 and playback via Soundflower the output stutters.
Playback to Soundflower should be inaudible. Soundflower output is meant for routing to a recording application.

What are you trying to do?


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