I just figured out how to use voicemeeter for multi IO and recording desktop audio. I used to use asio4all for this but it didn't work quite right which resulted in some audio glitches etc.
My usecase for this is as following: I use an SP404mk2 in combination with FL Studio. I use an audio interface to record some external audio (guitar/mic) too. I wanted to make it easy to share audio from one device to another without much hassle. My approach enables
- Sampling audio from desktop to both FL Studio and SP404 (or other device)
- Playing/Recording sounds live from SP404 --> FL Studio and vice versa. Useful for sampling or to use effects
- Routing sounds played with midi devices and VST plugins to SP404
- Routing live recorded sounds (like mic inputs) to SP404. With effects!
- With only a few button clicks! (after initial setup haha)
Let me know if this is helpful or if you have any questions. If it's useful i might edit this into a proper guide.
Guide
1 Download and install VB audio voicemeeter (It's free! Just look for the right download button and make sure you are on the right website). I recommend Potato for this guide, but any one should work. Boot it up after.
2 set A1 as your audio interface asio driver
3 Setup windows to use voicemeeter as main audio device (in and out, i use just normal vaio out and in)
Note: windows output should be set to voicemeeter input and vice versa
Note 2: the type of input you use determines where in voicemeeter the audio will end up. AUX will end up in aux, vaio will end up in vaio. Useful for splitting audio maybe?
4 Setup your ASIO in the system settings. Find the text PATCH ASIO inputs to strips. Click on the boxes to set the numbers correctly.
IN X stands for the mixer channel in voicemeeter where you are routing the audio. The two boxes after IN X stand for the ports on your audio interface that will be routed to that mixer.
See the following example:
I have two Mono inputs in my audio interface. In voicemeeter i want two mixer channels that correspond to the inputs on my audio interface. Since my inputs are mono, but the voicemeeter mixers take two inputs, in order to make them mono i have to set both boxes for IN 1 to 1, and both boxes for IN 2 to 2.
The end result wil look like: IN 1 [1] [1], IN 2 [2] [2]
Example 2: lets say you are routing a stereo signal to two inputs on your audio interface (for example sp404 out 1 (Left) and 2 (Right). In this case, if you want the signal to end up in the same mixer track in voicemeeter, set the boxes for IN 1 to [1] [2].
sp404 left --> audio interface port 1 --> mixerchannel left.
sp404 right --> audio interface port 2 --> mixerchannel right.
5 set up the other audio devices. E.g. im using a sp404mk2 over usb-c which shows up as normal windows device.
6 set up your DAW (FL Studio in my case )to use the Voicemeeter as ASIO device. There are multiple ones, but for me, the correct one was "Voicemeeter Potato Insert Virtual ASIO". It might be "Voicemeeter Insert Virtual ASIO" for you, not sure about the specifics.
7 you can now recieve audio from voicemeeter --> DAW by routing the inputs. In FL studio you can do this in the mixer, just like you would do with normal inputs. Use the stereo ones. IN#1 Left - IN#1 Right corresponds to the first mixer in voicemeeter etc.
Note: In#6, IN#7, IN#8 are the virtual inputs AKA windows audio. Route them if you want to record internal audio.
8 At this point you should be able to play sounds through voicemeeter and see the meters in the DAW going up. But if you play any audio in your DAW you won't get any output. Lets fix that.
9 For the following step, you need at least one mixer that isn't used. I think this can also be the virtual one, not sure about that. Route the output of your Master mixer track to the free mixer that was unused in voicemeeter. For me this is IN#4.
10 Now in voicemeeter, go back to the settings. All the way in the bottom, you have a section called Patch inserts. Click on the free mixer track that you set your master output to (again for me, IN#4).
11 Finally: if you want to send audio from your DAW to external devices (my sp404 for example) you have to set that up too. I can set my sp404 as a second audio device by selecting it when clicking on A2 in the hardware out section.
12 I then have to route my FL studio track to my sp404. Routing in voicemeeter works as follows: each mixer has knobs from a1 --> a5 and some others.
We'll focus on the a buttons for now. A1 stands for hardware out 1 --> our audio interface. If you click on A1, the button turns of and the audio from that mixer will not be sent to A1 (audio interface).
If you want to send a certain sound to the second device (SP404 in hardware out A2) you route it by clicking the A2 button to make it light up. Make sure to prevent feedback loops by turning off the input of that same device.
For example when i want to record audio from FL Studio to my SP404, i first turn off A1 from my sp404 hardware input mixer so no sound is recorded from the sp404 anymore. I then activate A2 on my FL Studio mixer to send the audio from FL studio to SP404.
I could also send PC audio to SP404 by activating A2 on the voicemeeter vaio channel (which i've renamed to 'Desktop' by rightclicking on the top of the track)
11 Done! Make sure to start voicemeeter on startup to avoid not having audio when rebooting. You can do that from the menu.
However there is one slight issue with this method. When playing sounds through both fl studio and voicemeeter you get double sound which might be annoying. There are two ways to fix this:
1 muting the track in that is recording the audio in DAW. Pro: fast; Con: cannot hear any effects on that track. The DAW will still record the track though (in FL studio atleast).
2 Muting the track output in voicemeeter. This is done by deselecting A1 for the mixer track you are experiencing the doubling effect from. Pro: can use effects; Con: you need to alt-tab in order to do so. Also need to remember to undo it on when turning off FL studio, else you won't hear the audio for that track anymore.