Do you want an advanced audio setup for your OBS Studio? You get enough to switch between softwares or you need to change the volume directly in OBS? Maybe you don’t want to hear the specific program sound, but you want to send it to OBS? Then our article about setup virtual audio cable for OBS will get you.
In this article we going through how you can install Virtual Audio Cable, and specify for OBS. How to define programs to use the virtual cable, and how you can use it in OBS.
How To Setup Virtual Audio Cable for OBS?
To setup Virtual Audio Cable you don’t need to make hard changes on your system, but you need to go through some crucial step. Let’s get into it.
1. Install Virtual Audio Cable
The first step is to go ahead and download Virtual Audio Cable from the original website. It’s a small software, that creates virtual audio inputs and outputs for your computer. The free version contains only one input and one outpot, however, you can donate to VB-Audio and download the two input-output version for about $5. It works both on Windows 10, 11, and on MacOS devices as well. However the website looks senior, do not daunt you. Pick your operation system, and click on the download button.
After the download, you get a zip file, that you need to extract. Inside the folder you will find the installation software. Pick x64 version If your Win 10 is 64-bit, or you are using Win 11. Open the program, and choose Install Driver. Make sure, that you’re running in Administrator mode, the software, otherwise It won’t be able to install the virtual device and you will face with an error.
After the installation, you should do a reboot, to make sure It’s properly installed.
2. Setup input device
You won’t find any software or program under the name of Audio Virtual Cable, because you don’t need that. The first step after installation is to define which program should use the virtual cable input. And we can do everything from the Settings in Windows. So let’s go and open it, and select Sound.
Instantly you will see the new devices which called CABLE Output and Input. You will use the output option, where you will send a specific program sounds, then use input in OBS to use it. See how it works in action.
Scroll down to the Advanced part, and select Volume Mixer option.
After that you will find yourself in a place, where you can define the audio inputs and outputs, for the default devices, but for apps and softwares as well. What we need right know.
Select your preferred program, in our case It will be Chrome. Then under the software, in the Output device setting, select CABLE Input option.
Right now you may not hear the software sound, because we changed from the original output to the virtual one. We will cover later how you can change this setting, but now, next to OBS Studio.
3. Use the output in OBS
After you changed this setting you’re Virtual Cable setting is working. To able to use it in OBS, go to the File, Settings option, and under the Audio tab, pick one of the audio devices, that you’re not using and select Audio Virtual Cable. You may want to fine tune the Audio settings, for that follow our OBS setup guide. Therefore OBS will know, this is a real and active device. If you’re done, hit OK.
After these steps you should see the new device, where you set up CABLE Output, also you should see, If some sounds coming from the software, that the meter is working. To don’t forget what this sounds about, you should rename it.
And you’re ready to go. Keep in mind, that If you changing the volume in OBS, that will not set the volume globally, for example in your software, or in Windows.
Of course you can use this guide in Streamlabs OBS as well, or other streaming softwares or platforms.
How to get feedback from Audio Virtual Cable?
By default, you will not hear the sounds coming from the device, because It’s a virtual one. But we can make changes in the options, to get feedback. For that go ahead and open Settings, then Audio. Scroll down, and at the Advanced options, select More sound settings.
After that a popup will appear, where you should see the CABLE Input device under the Recording tab, next to your real devices. With a right click on the device, select the Properties option.
Then all you need to do, is to enable “Listen to this device” under the Listen tab and click OK.
In the end you should be able to hear the software, where you choose to use Audio Virtual Cable.
Listen the device in monitor only (and not in Desktop Audio)
The above step is allows you to hear the device, but in globally, so if you’re using the desktop audio or the default device, OBS will record also. But you can monitor the different devices in OBS too. If you choose this option, only you will hear the specific device, but the viewers or the recording will not catch it.
Open up OBS Studio, and at the dashboard screen, under the Audio Mixer window, click on the gear icons. This will open the advanced audio settings.
You will see the different audio devices, your desktop audio, microphone and also the Audio Virtual Cable. Here you can change settings like, volume, balance, sync, and which tracks you want to use when recording the content. But we interested in the Audio Monitoring settings. Here you can define one by one, that if you want to monitor, or not, but you can select Monitor and Output option too.
How to send OBS audio to Zoom?
However Virtual Audio Cable made for other softwares that does not have direct settings for audio, but you can use it for Zoom as well. With the following setup you will able to send specifically OBS Studio sound to Zoom. You can select your mic, game, music in OBS, then use as one source in Zoom.
For that the first step is to go to the Settings in Windows, and again after Sound select Volume mixer after Advanced window. Here now we will pick OBS Studio, and change the Output device to CABLE input.
If you made the adjustment you will not hear anything from OBS, if you want to, then you should enable listen option as we wrote above.
Still your partners won’t be able to hear anything from OBS, because It’s still not broadcast any sound. For that we should change the audio device settings in OBS Audio Mixer to Monitor and Output option. (You can select Monitor Only, If you’re not recording, But if you, then the saved video won’t contain any sound.)
Open up Advanced Settings in Audio Mixer and change the settings.
In the end, we will have only one task left to do, to change the audio settings in Zoom. So let’s open it up, go to the Settings, and select Audio tab. Next is to change the microphone settings, to CABLE Output, and you’re done.
How to do use OBS audio in Discord?
Discord is currently the best chat software in the space of stream, game and crypto. It has many features that you can read about, that involves desktop sharing as well. But If you want to use the OBS audio basically you need to make the same steps as in Zoom.
The first step is to change the Windows audio settings, then select audio monitor setting in OBS. After you done with these settings, open Discord. Go ahead to the Settings next to your profile picture and select Voice & Video tab.
You don’t need to do anything else, but change the input device option to CABLE Output and the settings is done. Now you’re chat partners, or the room will hear the output from OBS.
Where else you can use Audio Virtual Cable?
There are tons of opportunities in Audio Virtual Cable, for example you can use a third party voice changing software with your mic, or also with a software. Change the frequency, add some filter and plug it in to the OBS. How do you using Audio Virtual Cable? Give us a hint in the comment section.
