Sound Mixing and Non Exclusive ASIO output: An MS Paint Odyssey

[baronvonthinmints]

Greetings. I've been playing around with a neat little piece of software lately, and made the happy little discovery that through a little bit of configuration, Musicbee is able to play using the ASIO output method, all while still being able to hear your regular desktop sounds. Furthermore, this does not require the use of ASIO4all.


Also, let me just say, I am trying to convey a LOT of information. If you are unsure, please feel free to ask questions.

I've used angry faces to call out specific settings that you may need to troubleshoot during the process.



Part the First: Voicemeeter Banana

Voicemeeter Banana is a free (donation based) software audio mixer for Windows. It is not available for other platforms. Sorry Mac and Linux.

I am not affiliated with the creators in any way shape or form

For more information and to download, click here

By default, not much is configured in Voicemeeter Banana. That's because every system is going to be a little bit different based on hardware are user needs and preference. I am going to be walking you through configuring and understanding several parts of Voicemeeter




I've used MS Paint to arrange some screenshots and diagram as much as I know to convey on what is happening as a visual reference aid.

Step 1: Configure Voicemeeter Hardware Output
The first time you launch Voicemeeter Banana, not a whole lot of anything will be happening. And by not a lot, I mean literally nothing. In fact, we are going to make it do less.
Click every A1 A2 A3 B1 or B2 button such that they are no longer lit.

You need to look in the UPPER RIGHT of Voicemeeter at the flashing text that says Select Main Output Device. Select A1 and choose your speakers or headphones with the WDM Codec. The codec is somewhat system dependent. As a rule of thumb going forward, try using WDM first. If that does not work, try MME.


Optional:
Voicemeeter allows for up to three separate Hardware Outputs. Feel free to select anything else you use for A2 and A3.


Step 2: Configure Windows Playback
RIGHT click the speaker icon in your system tray and select Playback Devices. Scroll down until you see VoiceMeeter Input. Select this and set it as your default playback device.

Step 3: Configure Voicemeeter VAIO output
Slightly right of the center of Voicemeeter the panel you will see will be Voicemeeter VAIO and Voicemeeter AUX. On the VAIO panel click A1 so that it is lit up.

Congratulations, Voicemeeter is now your sound mixer! If you had any program playing music, you will likely need to stop / pause them, and press play again. You should now be hearing sound coming out of them.

 If no sound is playing, make sure the A1 button is lit up in the Voicemeeter Vaio panel roughly in the middle, and that your hardware output is selected in the A1 dropdown from the top right. Also make sure your headphones or speakers are plugged in, turned on, and not muted.

Understanding
If you follow along the picture, Windows is now passing any system sounds to the Voicemeeter VAIO input. This is the input roughly in the middle of the Voicemeeter panel. Because the A1 button is lit up, all signal that is routed into Voicemeeter VAIO is being routed to the A1 Output. In this case, this should be your speakers or headphones.


Step 4: Start Voicemeeter on boot
To get Voicemeeter to launch after booting, click the Menu button in the top right and select System Tray (Run At Startup)




Part the Second: MusicBee ASIO output




Step 1:
Thankfully, this part is much less complicated. Fire up MusicBee and go into the Player preferences. Change the output to ASIO and the device to Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO. You can alternatively select Voicemeeter Aux Virtual ASIO, but keep in mind you may need to double check that the VAIO Aux channel is sending its audio stream to the A1 hardware output.

Try playing some music from Musicbee, and at the same time, play a video from your favorite video hosting website.

If no audio is playing, go back to Voicemeeter and make sure that Vaio and / or Aux are being routed to your A1 hardware output.

Optional:
Although tecnically it is not hurting anything, I would configure the output such that you are only sending the Front Left and Front Right signal. Unless you have 5.1 audio, select None for all other channels.

Understanding:
We are already sending the audio stream from Windows to the Voicemeeter VAIO input. There is nothing wrong with sending MusicBee's audio stream to this same input, but if you want to have some finer control, you can have Musicbee's audio stream go to the VAIO Aux input.



*** BONUS CONTENT ***

If you have a microphone and want to take advantage of some of the features of Voicemeeter, select it as one of the Hardware Inputs in Voicemeeter. Route the microphone audio stream to B1.

RIGHT click the speaker icon in the system tray in windows, and select Recording devices. Scroll down and choose Voicemeeter Output.

Voicemeeter Output = B1
Voicemeeter Aux Output = B2

Now in whatever software you use (say, a gaming communication program) make sure to select your microphone device as Voicemeeter Output.


In Closing
Voicemeeter Banana is a ridiculously feature-rich program. I have barely scratched the tip of the iceberg of everything this program can do. A good resource on the program is Youtube.

[matts19]

Thank you so much for your post. I love the sound quality coming out of ASIO, so I was looking for a way to use ASIO + Peace EQ. This is another great application for Voicemeeter!

What worked for me was to use "Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO" as the output device from my music player. For some reason, the AUX version wouldn't work for me. Anyway, I installed the APO for "Output A1" connector in Equalizer APO's Configurator available from Peace EQ settings. And then I would have the input and output set in Voicemeeter as below.



Last but not least, I had to explicitly set the default device for Playback and Recording to "Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO", as you suggested, otherwise it would not work.