Sampling audio from your browser to use in your DAW can be a bit of a headache. Previously, programs like Blackhole (formerly Soundflower) have enabled you to route audio from one app to another, but this involves messing around in your System Preferences and still isn't as quick and easy as we'd like.
A new macOS app called SoundPaste promises to streamline the process even further, making it possible to effectively copy and paste sound from any application and drop it directly into your DAW.
Once SoundPaste is installed, it sits in the background as a menu bar app. When you want to sample something, you can begin recording audio from applications like Safari or Spotify with a single keyboard shortcut. Once you've stopped recording using the same shortcut, simply open up your DAW and use another shortcut to 'paste' the sample to your DAW's timeline.
This could be a time-saving game-changer for those who like to sample audio from social media platforms or sites like YouTube and Soundcloud, making a speedy alternative to the somewhat laborious process of copying a link to an MP3 conversion site, downloading the resulting file and opening it up in your DAW.
Samples recorded using SoundPaste can also be accessed via a menu screen which also offers the function to manually hit record or specify an additional input source such as your computer microphone. Here you can specify where your recordings will be stored and customize your keyboard shortcuts.
Priced at $9.99, KLOYTools SoundPaste is available now on the App Store.
