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Output Routing

Orbit Lite lets you choose your output device and route channels to it. Device selection lives in Preferences ▸ Audio & Output; speaker layouts and the routing matrix live in Preferences ▸ Speaker Layout & Routing.

Output device

Pick your interface or output in the Output Device menu, and use Refresh to pick up a newly-connected device. The pane also shows the Device and File sample rates side by side, so you can spot a mismatch at a glance (see Sample rate below).

The Audio & Output preferences pane — Output Device picker with Refresh, the Device/File sample-rate readout, and the Stereo / Binaural output channels

The routing matrix

Orbit Lite now includes the same routing matrix as the full Orbit app. Patch each speaker to a device output by tapping cells in the matrix — route channels individually, or ⌥-click to ripple-route a diagonal. See Output Routing for the full matrix controls.

Orbit Lite's Speaker Layout & Routing preferences — a Speaker Layout picker with Load .osls and custom layouts, above the Output Routing Matrix

Stereo output

When using binaural, Apple Spatial Audio, or stereo monitoring, map the left and right channels to your device outputs.

7.1.4 output

When using 7.1.4 monitoring, map all 12 channels to your speaker array:

  • L / R — Front left and right
  • C — Centre
  • LFE — Low-frequency effects
  • Ls / Rs — Side surrounds
  • Lrs / Rrs — Rear surrounds
  • Ltf / Rtf — Top front left and right
  • Ltr / Rtr — Top rear left and right

Orbit Lite will show a conflict indicator if two channels are assigned to the same device output.

Speaker layouts

Orbit Lite ships with a set of ready-made layouts:

LayoutChannelsLayoutChannels
Mono17.18
Stereo (2.0)25.1.410
Quad (4.0)47.1.210
Quad (classic corner square)47.1.412
5.167.1.614
3.1.269.1.414
5.1.289.1.6 (wide)16

Custom layouts

Beyond the built-in set, Orbit Lite supports custom speaker layouts through OSLS (the Orbit Speaker Layout System) — describe your rig in an .osls file and Orbit Lite will output to it. Custom layouts in Orbit Lite are capped at 24 channels; the full Orbit app supports up to 64.

Sample rate

The routing sheet shows the live device sample rate alongside the file's sample rate, so you can spot a mismatch at a glance. When the two differ, a banner also appears at the top of the main window with a one-click Match device to file button — see Sample-rate matching.

Refreshing devices

If you connect a new audio device (like an interface or AirPods), use Refresh Devices to pick it up.

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