CoreAudio Process Tap on macOS: Per-App Audio Routing Without Virtual Drivers

For over a decade, capturing audio from a specific Mac app required installing third-party kernel extensions (kext) or virtual audio drivers (such as Soundflower or BlackHole).

Those workarounds brought everyday headaches:

• They hijacked your default macOS output device, often disabling hardware volume keys on your keyboard.
• If the helper daemon crashed or an OS update broke it, audio or microphones in calls could stop working cleanly.
• They kept background virtual audio graphs awake, costing battery life on Apple Silicon.

The AudioHardwareCreateProcessTap Breakthrough

With macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple introduced a clean native API inside CoreAudio: Process Taps (CATapDescription).

Consort builds directly on this official Apple framework:

• Surgical Per-App Isolation: Stream only Spotify to your AirPlay stereo pair while Safari videos, system alerts, or Teams/Zoom calls stay on your MacBook Pro speakers or headphones.
• Single-Source or Multi-Source Workflows: Combine multiple apps with toggle switches, or switch to Single Audio Source mode (radio buttons) to hop between players with one click.
• Zero System Footprint: Nothing is ever written to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL. Quit Consort and drag it to Trash to uninstall completely.