Voicemeeter Potato Setup to OBS – Single PC setup

This is a guide I put together to help route and split up your audio to use for your streams using Voicemeeter Potato and OBS. This is to setup for PC only. This will work with Voicemeeter Banana as well. Download and install Voicemeeter Potato Download and install VB-Aduio Virtual Cable Download and install Virtual Cable A & B *Optional (but this guide will use this) as this is donation ware as little as a nickle but I highly recommend as if you want to take your stream to the next level I would get the A & B virtual cables as well. Voicemeeter Banana Voicemeeter Potato *Optional (but this guide will be using potato, but banana will work also) Voicemeeter Potato also costs money but again it is worth it. Why: As a streamer I like to have full control over my video and audio settings. I can adjust volume independently as well as post editing I have separate audio tracks. Voicemeeter provides a way to do this using virtual cables. *Below is how I do it and how I was able to get it to work, every once in a while I run into some minor issues and I will address the issues that I have come across and how I was able to find and fix. This guide will assume you already have OBS Studio installed and working. This is not a guide on how to setup OBS, however, there will be some OBS settings added to the guide, but under the assumption you already have previous knowledge on how to do this. I will add a guide in the future on how to setup OBS Studio. ----CURRENT SETUP---- OS: Windows 10 Pro v. 1903 OBS Studio: v.23.2.1 Voicemeeter Potatoe: v. 3.0.0.7   Step 1. Download and install Voicemeeter Potato Step 2. Download and install Voicemeeter AB-Audio Cable Step 2A (Optional, but recommended). Purchase (donationware) additional Cables you get 2 more A & B Voicemeeter cables Step 2B. After installation reboot machine as it will be required, install everything first, then reboot. Step 2C. At this point you should have everything installed in steps 1-2B Step 4. Open up windows sound settings. Windows Start > type sound Step 5. The sound settings should be open on the top right you will see "Sound Control Panel"               There will be a popup that shows all your sound components Playback:                   In play back find "Voicemeeter Input VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO" > set to default go to the next tab called recording                   Look for "Voicemeeter Aux Output VB-Audio Voicemeeter AUX VAIO" > set to default *Note you will not hear any sounds at the moment, but we will fix that next Open up Voicemeeter Potato (banana) <-- which ever one you installed Start > type Voicemeeter > open The first thing you need to do when opening Voicemeeter (VM) is to make sure it starts on startup otherwise you will lose sound every time unless you launch VM manually To do this open VM and on the top left you will see menu > System Tray (Run at Statup)                   *Note if at any time you get weird sounds like gurgling or robotic (which may happen from time to time while using VM) you can also use this menu to manually restart Audio Engine                   You should have something similar to this (please know that yours may look a little different as you are probably in the default settings)           There are 4 sections that we will concern ourselves about. Hardware Input = Blue Virtual Input = Green Output to OBS = Red Output Locally = Pink           Pink = A1 > Headphones (or whatever device you want to hear the output)  In  my case I want to send all audio to my headphones so I can hear music, videos, discord, game sounds. You may have speakers setup so this will be on a case by case basis. Once this is selected you should start hearing sound again coming from your PC. *note you will see multiple instances of this device - WDM, MME, & KS. It is recommended that you use the WDM from the Voicemeeter documentation however, if you have issues with latency or sound issues you can switch to MME, stay away from KS. *From this point on I will be using WDM (unless otherwise noted)                   Blue = The hardware devices that you will be wanting to input like microphone and virtual cables (Windows will think these are hardware) I used the first input to put my mic in my setup it is the WDM: Microphone (USB Audio CODEC)                             You can also right click where I have "Mic" as yours will be defaulted to hardware input (I think) and rename it. The next hardware input I named Other Sounds (this will be used for DIscord/Skype/Teamviwer etc)                   Then Game Sounds                   Then Music/Videos                   What this does is it takes your input mic & virtual cables then assigns them as you want them to be routed. Green = this is where the "defaulted output is" remember when we setup the "playback" section at the beginning this is where this is located. You could have defaulted to anyone of these outputs and it would work, in this guide it was set to "Voicemeeter VAIO"                   I will explain in more detail later, but for now this routes it to the output and based on which output you select i.e. B1-B3 (in my case I am just using B1). This is your windows output to where you want it to go i.e. OBS, Discord or wherever. The Basics of what you need in VM should now be setup, I will go over now the sections and how I have it setup to route it.   Here in each section you will see all the buttons A1-B3, Mono, Solo, & Mute       These are correlate where you want your audio to go. A1-A5 (you will only have A1-A3 in Banana) are tied to these outputs locally. Remember when we told A1 to go to our headphones. So, everywhere you enable A1 you will get sound in your headphones.         B1-B3 (you will only have B1-B2 in Banana) - this is tied to the output of where you want it to go i.e. OBS So in other words; A1-A3 routes internally. B1-B3 routes externally (outside VM) Here is my current setup: Mic = B2 ===> sends it externally from VM to another source Other Voices = A1 & B1 ===> I have hear (A1 is in headphones remember) & B2 sends it externally from VM to another source Game Sounds = A1 & B1 ===> I have hear (A1 is in headphones) & B2 sends it externally from VM to another source Music/Video = = A1 & B1 ===> I have hear (A1 is in headphones) & B2 sends it externally from VM to another source *Note you can use any of these combinations, this is just how I have it setup. Voicemeeter VAIO = A1 & B1 Voicemeeter AUX = A1 & B1 I set my mic to a different external output (B1) separate from all the other output (B2) to keep on separate buses This should conclude setting up VM. Next we will set up OBS and also Windows. ==OBS== This is how I have OBS setup to allow for more control over my audio. Again, as already noted, this assumes previous knowledge of how to set up scenes & sources for OBS. Open OBS

1. File > settings > audio

              I set everything to disabled: Desktop Audio - Disabled Desktop Audio 2 - Disabled Mic/Auxiliary Audio - Disabled Mic/Auxiliary Audio 2 - Disabled Mic/Auxiliary Audio 3 - Disabled Mic/Auxiliary Audio 4 - Disabled Select > Apply > OK --CREATE SCENES & SOURCES--

1. in the scenes section hit the "+"
2. name the scene
   1. I created 4 scenes and named them the same as VM to keep consistent
      1. Music/Video > create source > Audio Output Capture > name music/video > Cable B
      2. Game Sound > create source > Audio Output Capture >game sound > Cable A
      3. Other Voices > create source > Audio Output Capture > other voices > Cable AB
      4. Microphone > create source > Audio Input Capture > mic > Voicemeeter Aux Output (VB-Audio Voicemeeter AUX VAIO)
   2. You will see each audio source in your mixer section.

--CREATE SCENE--           --CREATE SOURCE-- *note you cannot name scene/source same name, however, the work around I found is that they are case sensitive. What I did was Capitalize Scenes - all lowercase source --OBS MIXER--               *note mine looks different because I right clicked inside the mixer and chose "vertical layout" OBS is now setup with Audio. You will then add the sources to the various scenes where you need them. For example. I have 5 scenes for my stream.

1. Starting
2. Chat
3. Stream
4. BRB
5. End Stream

For "Start Scene" I only have music/video and play only music while I am starting stream, no microphone, game, or other sounds       For "Chat Scene" I only have music/video, mic For "Stream Scene" all my audio sources         I think you get the point. If you want your viewers to hear it then add it, if you do not, then do not add it. OBS is now setup let's move onto Windows. --WINDOWS-- This is Windows 10 specific as it has a built in audio router since the Media Anniversary Update If you have a older version of Windows you will have to get a 3rd party program like Audio Router I will not go into detail on how to install or use but the principles are the same. Open sound settings - windows key > type sound > select sound and you will be in the sound settings                   Scroll to the bottom and you will see Advanced sound options > select it       Next you will see something similar (will not be exactly the same)               *Note the item you are wanting to route may not show up, IT HAS TO BE LAUNCHED. So for example if you want to route your game to Cable-A it has to be launched in order for it to show up in the Advanced Sound Options. --This is my setup-- Chrome = Cable-B (I run YouTube music while I stream) this will route it through VM & OBS on music/video with we setup as Cable-B Apex Legends = (as example - replace with any game you want, remember it has to be running) - Cable-A will route through VM in Game Sounds with we setup as Cable-A Discord =Cable VB-Audio Virtual Cable - will route through Other Voices with we setup as VB-Cable Streamdeck - I have routed through Cable-B going through Music/Video *note you do this for anything specific you want routed  --Discord-- Open Discord got to settings > Audio & Video             You will see input/output Set input Device > VoiceMeeter Aux Output (VB-Audio) Set Output Device > Cable-A Input (VB-Audio Cable A) *note if you are using skype, teamsepeak, or other voice program the setup should be the same. One thing I did was lots of trial an error and there were some peaking and tweaking required. I found the best way is to run stream. Use another source like a smart phone or pc and listen to your audio. Do a mic check, play music, play game sounds, see if a friend can talk in chat program. Then adjust accordingly. --ISSUES-- For some reason at times the audio will just start acting funny (no real explanation) just decides to either sound funny or doesn't work in some capacity. Below are some examples that I have ran across and what I did to fix them or find a work around.

• While streaming or listening to music at times all the sudden my sound would gurgle or go robotic on me
  • fix: I would open VM and go to menu > restart sound engine. 99% of the time it would resolve
  • fix: reboot PC
• From time to time I have issues where my sound in one cable or the other (Cable-A or Cable-B) would just stop working. I could not get sound.
  • fix: I would just switch to same cable. For example is my game sound stopped (currently on Cable-A) I would switch to music/video (cable-B) This has to be done in Windows Sound setting > Advanced App Sound Settings
• Issue I am still trying to figure out is how to get console's sound to work in the same way. Once I figure this out I will update this guide.

Well that is it for this guide on how to setup single pc with voicemeeter, obs, discord for your audio in stream. There are some advanced features that can be setup, but that will have to be a more in-depth guide to VM as this is just how to setup the basics. In the future I hope to do a video walk through on this guide. If you find any issues or have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. Happy Streaming!