How to Use Playback with Your Sound System

Learn how to send the Tracks and Click Track from Playback to your sound system

Trevor avatar
Written by Trevor
Updated over a week ago

Wanting to connect Playback to your Sound System?

There are two recommended ways to connect your device to your sound system.


Easy Setup: Send 2 outputs from the built-in headphone port

If your device has a headphone aux port, Playback's Auto-Pan feature will automatically separate the Click Track and Guide Cue out the Left channel, and all tracks out the Right channel of the aux port.

Sending the Left and Right channels from the aux port to your sound system requires 3 pieces of gear:

  1. 1/8" TRS to dual 1/4" TS audio cable

  2. One Stereo direct box or two mono direct boxes that converts 1/4" to XLR

  3. XLR cable into stage box/sound system.

If your device does not have a headphone jack, you will need


Advanced Setup: Send 3 or more outputs using a supported audio interface

Visit our full guide here on connecting Playback to an audio interface. While we do have a recommended list of supported USB-interfaces, most USB class compliant interfaces will work well with Playback.

If your device has a lightning connector, these are the things you will need:

  • Powered USB Hub*
    *If your audio interface does not come with/have an external power supply and/or is bus-powered, you will need to power the interface with a powered USB Hub.

  • Direct Boxes or line-level inputs to connect the outputs on your audio interface, to your sound system.

If your device is USB-C you will need the above but in place of the lightning digital A/V adapter, you will need


In-Ear Monitoring

Most of our songs' products used in Playback include a 'click and guide' track to help keep you and your team on-tempo and in-time with the backing tracks.*

Some type of in-ear monitoring solution is recommended when using click and guide tracks so these do not become a distraction in your worship service. There are a lot of great guides on YouTube for getting started with in-ear monitoring or even people in our Official FaceBook Group that would be glad to help you out. If you're in the US, you can also reach out to a Sweetwater Sales Engineer to get specific advice for your setup.

*Accompaniment tracks do not include click and guide tracks.

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