---
title: 'How to Setup VoiceMeeter Banana for OBS or XSplit & Streaming to Twitch / Beam + Discord'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=EdAhR_CdjLc'
video_id: 'EdAhR_CdjLc'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# How to Setup VoiceMeeter Banana for OBS or XSplit & Streaming to Twitch / Beam + Discord

> Source: [How to Setup VoiceMeeter Banana for OBS or XSplit & Streaming to Twitch / Beam + Discord](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EdAhR_CdjLc)

## Summary

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to setting up VoiceMeeter Banana for advanced audio routing in streaming and recording setups. It covers installation, Windows configuration, microphone and headphone selection, and understanding the routing buttons (A1, A2, A3 vs B1, B2). The video also demonstrates how to integrate Discord using Virtual Audio Cable and configure OBS and XSplit to receive the mixed audio stream.

### Key Points

- **Windows Audio Setup** [1:02] — Set Windows default playback device to 'VoiceMeeter Input' to route all system audio into VoiceMeeter.
- **Microphone Driver Selection** [2:14] — Use WDM driver for lower latency; switch to MME if crackling occurs.
- **Understanding A1/A2/A3 vs B1/B2** [4:19] — A1/A2/A3 send audio to physical outputs (headphones, speakers). B1/B2 send audio to virtual outputs (for streaming software).
- **Routing System Audio to Headphones** [6:05] — Enable A1 on VoiceMeeter VAIO input to hear system audio (YouTube, games) in headphones.
- **Integrating Discord with Virtual Audio Cable** [9:09] — Set Discord's output device to 'Cable Input' (Virtual Audio Cable) and select 'Cable Output' under Hardware Input 2 in VoiceMeeter.
- **Configuring OBS** [11:37] — In OBS, set Mic/Auxiliary Audio to 'VoiceMeeter Aux Output' to receive the mixed stream.
- **Resetting Volume Sliders** [15:03] — Double-click any slider to reset it exactly to zero.

## Transcript

What's up guys?
This is going to be an in-depth tutorial on
how to use VoiceMeeter Banana.
I struggled to learn how to use this program.
I had to watch about ten different YouTube
videos until it finally clicked.
The things I know now, if they would have
been explained to me at the beginning, would
have made this entire process much easier.
By the time we're done with this, you'll be
able to setup all of these programs exactly
how you want.
From XSplit to OBS Studio, to Discord or Skype.
To getting certain audio to your Twitch stream
versus your headphones.
You're going to be able to do all of it and
it's going to be easier than it might seem.
Remember that you can pause between each of
these steps.
I'm going to try and make them short and sweet.
Step 1, download and install VoiceMeeter Banana.
Step 2, download and install Virtual Audio
Cable.
There's a link in the description as well,
it's right on the VoiceMeeter website.
Step 3, before we can make changes to VoiceMeeter
Banana's settings, we need to make sure that
Windows is properly set.
It's playback device must be set for VoiceMeeter
Banana.
Find your speaker icon in the bottom menu.
Right click it, click on audio devices, and
then at the top of the sound menu you're going
to see playback, recording, sounds, and communications.
Select playback.
You'll notice that my current headset is set
as our default audio device.
Scroll down and change this to VoiceMeeter
input.
Click on it and click set default.
You'll notice it gets the green check mark.
Hit okay, you can now close that down.
Step 4, the first thing that we want to do
is select our microphone.
Under hardware input 1, click on select input
device.
This is going to bring up a list of pieces
of hardware that are available on your computer.
You'll notice that there are repeats.
WDM, KS, and MME all represent the same devices.
They are just different drivers that you can
use for the same devices.
In our case, because it's guaranteed to work,
we're going to choose either WDM or MME.
This difference between the two of them is
that one known to have much lower latency
levels than the other.
You'll experience less lag with WDM than you
will with MME.
However, if you notice any crackling or any
issues, popping sounds, switch to the other
driver and that usually fixes the problem.
We're going to select in our case WDM because it is a better and more fast option for our microphone.
You're microphone will appear as a different
name than mine.
I'm using a Focusrite amplifier with a microphone
hooked to it.
We're going to select Focusrite USB.
However, you're microphone is going to be
the name of whatever microphone you are using.
If it's a USB microphone it's likely to show
up right in this list.
If it's hooked to an amplifier or sound card
or anything else, then it's very likely going
to show up as the name of that device.
I'm assuming that you know which one of these
represents your microphone.
Click on the one that does, start with WDM
first if it's available.
If WDM is not available, choose MME.
Step 5, we now need to tell VoiceMeeter Banana
where to send our audio so that we can listen
to it.
We are going to select our first hardware
out.
Under A1, locate the device that you use to
listen to audio.
In our case, it's a headset.
Use the driver that matches the previous driver
you used for the microphone.
In our case we used WDM for our microphone,
so we're going to select our WDM version of
our headset, earphone Hyper X 7.1.
In your case it could be desktop speakers.
It could be a headset, or it could be some
other type of device.
Whichever one you are selecting is going to
be the one that you previously used in playback
for Windows.
Step 6, now that we have our microphone and
our headset hooked up and our microphone can
record, we now need understand a little bit
more about the buttons you see in each of
these inputs and what they do.
You'll notice at the top we have A1, A2, and
A3.
You'll see an A1, and A2, and an A3 in each
of these sections.
For right now we're going to turn everything
off.
When I show you what each one does you'll
know exactly how they're associated.
Currently, if we were to try and watch anything
on YouTube, for instance, like this random
video by PewDiePie, I can't hear anything
in my headphones.
And you watching at home, wherever you have
your audio routed to, you also could not hear
this video currently with all of these buttons
deselected.
So, how do we get our headphones hooked to
this YouTube video?
Well, which one of these inputs is YouTube
coming through?
It's coming through this one right here.
Notice that we have VoiceMeeter VAIO and VoiceMeeter
auxiliary.
If you remember back when we set our playback
device earlier, we set it for VoiceMeeter
input.
We also have the other option to set it for
auxiliary.
So, as A1 and A2 and A3 correspond to A1,
A2, and A3, B1 and B2 correspond to B1 and
B2.
So you'll notice that this, because it's set
as the default audio device in Windows,is
responsible for catching all of the audio
from Windows.
That would include a YouTube video, the audio
from a game if it was running, or any system
sounds.
Anything that can play through Windows, which
is essentially everything.
All we have to do to get our sound hooked
to our headphones again is to tell B1, which
is currently capturing YouTube, to send the
audio to our headphones.
You might have guessed it, all we have to
do is click A1, then suddenly I can hear PewDiePie.
If I didn't have a YouTube video on and I
had a game playing, the same thing would be
true.
I would turn A1 on and it would go to my headphones.
I do have a secondary set of speakers and
although you might not at home, I'm going
to demonstrate this to you to give you an
idea of how this works.
I'm going to click A2 and I'm going to select
my desktop speakers.
I have my headphones in A1 and my desktop
speakers in A2.
So now if I was to send the Windows audio
to my headphones by clicking A1, I could also
send it to my speakers by clicking A2.
Now if I go back to YouTube and play that
PewDiePie video, the audio is going to be
coming through my headphones as well as coming
through the speakers on my desktop.
If I turn off A1, it is now only coming through
the speakers on my desktop and you can probably
hear that being picked up through my microphone.
Notice that if I turn A2 back off, the video
is still playing, B2 is still picking up the
audio from Windows, the video on YouTube is
still playing but I just can't hear it.
This works for all of these inputs.
For instance, hardware input 1 can be sent
to my speakers or to the headphones.
In our case, we are going to send hardware
input 1 over to B1.
That way it can be mixed with the audio from
windows from your games, or from anything
else you have, and sent as one audio stream
directly to our recording software OBS or
XSplit.
So here we go.
I'm going to send it over B1.
I'm also going to send it over to B2.
Remember, this is B1 and this is B2.
They are identical.
They are copies of each other.
The reason that there's two is to give us
more control.
B1 can be used to manage our headphones and
the audio that we hear locally.
And B2 can be connected to OBS or XSplit and
a different set of audio can be sent to your
recording, or more importantly, out to your
stream on XSplit or OBS.
Step 7, now we just need to add Discord to
the mix so that your Discord chat can be routed
directly to your headphones or to your stream,
or both, in the way that you would like so
that your setup is complete.
This is where we are going to use the virtual
audio cable that we installed earlier.
We're going to setup Discord under hardware
input 2.
Hit select input device and select cable output.
Notice that we're choosing the cable output
option that also matches our microphone cable
output option under WDM.
Next, open up Skype or Discord or whatever
other chat program that you use.
The setup for each of these is going to be
very similar.
Now navigate to the section of Discord with
user settings.
Find the section that says voice, and look
for your input device.
Set your input device to the same device that
you set under hardware input 1.
In our case it's the Focusrite USB amplifier.
Now we set the output device to match hardware
input 2.
VoiceMeeter Banana is looking for this new
source of audio.
It's going to think that Discord is an actual
piece of hardware.
In reality it's just a piece of software but
the computer doesn't know any better.
Setting output device to cable input allows
us to send any of the audio from Discord directly
into VoiceMeeter, where it then can be mixed
into the stream and then sent out either to
XSplit or OBS for your live streams or recordings,
or specifically just sent out to your headphones.
Now we just need to tell VoiceMeeter Banana
what to do with the Discord audio.
In this case I'd like to have it in my headphones,
but not going out to my stream.
That will be how I'll show you to set it up
in a second.
What we're going to do is come to hardware
input 2 and select A1.
A1 is our headphones.
Anything that's said in Discord is going to
come into here and go directly to our headphones
for us to hear, but our stream will be unable
to.
If you wanted the stream to hear it, what
you could do is select B2, which would take
this audio and send it over to B2, which is
what our OBS and Xsplit will be connected
to, and then the entire thing will be mixed
in.
Step 8, lastly I'm going to open up OBS and
take a look at the settings to show you how
to connect these two together.
The same will be similar for XSplit (coming
later).
Go to the settings button inside of OBS.
Open up the audio section.
You'll notice we have five audio inputs.
Disable all of them.
Because the audio is coming through on a single
stream and recorded by the microphone, we
will set the primary microphone device to
the auxiliary output B2 in VoiceMeeter Banana.
And not VoiceMeeter VAIO by mistake.
Hit apply and then hit OK.
Now you'll notice in OBS that as we're talking
the microphone is coming from here, going
all the way over to VoiceMeeter Aux, mixing
with the audio from the desktop and the game,
then being sent out all the way to OBS where
it's now being picked up right here.
When you change the volume level here you're
not just changing the volume level of the
microphone in OBS, you're changing the volume
level of the entire thing.
When it comes time to adjust how loud each
thing is, you do it individually using these
meters.
I would suggest to have your microphone always
lowered about one decibel just so it's not
at max level.
Set your Discord appropriately, you'll have
to do some testing, as well as the desktop
and game audio.
Keep in mind, inside of the game you are able
to change the volume of the music, so you
can always do it there.
You can change the volume of the sounds effects.
Do some local recordings, see how everything
sounds, adjust and tinker with it until you
have it how you like it.
Maybe even have some friends come into your
Discord channel and talk so that you can get
that mixed in as well, or see how loud that
is in your headphones.
Get everything setup, and then once it's setup
to your liking, you can go live, do a little
bit more tweaking from there, and that's is
pretty much it.
When it comes to getting this to work with
XSplit, the process is almost identical.
Open up XSplit.
Open the audio settings button.
Set system sounds to none, that way it isn't
picking up the same audio steam twice.
Set your microphone to the same exact thing,
VoiceMeeter auxiliary.
Hit apply, hit OK.
Now we have an identical setup.
To go over it one last time before we end
this video, and hopefully this has help you
guys understand this a little bit more, whatever
you have set here is what you're going to
be listening to physically where you are at.
Speakers headphones.
Our microphone is set here.
Our microphone can be sent to our headphones
if we want, or it's sent directly to our virtual
inputs, B1 and B2.
Our Discord can be sent to our headphones,
turned on and off right here, or sent to our
stream, turned on and off right here.
This can be adjusted for volume without actually
effecting the in game volume in OBS or XSplit,
just inside of our headphones.
These volume controls allow you to independently
adjust volume also without affecting the stream
you are sending out.
Lastly, if you ever mess with one of these
bars and you want to get it exactly back to
zero, double clicking it will get it precisely
back to zero.
Play around with this a little bit more.
The possibilities to add other things to this
are pretty much limitless.
You're able to add in compression and a noise
gate using these dials on your microphone.
You're even able to change how your microphone
behaves and sounds with echo, lower or higher
effects, and again double click here to get
it specifically back to its starting point.
Hopefully this made this a little bit easier
for you guys.
This turned out be kind of a long video, but
I think if you watch the entire thing form
start to finish you'll have a pretty good
idea of how this works.
When it comes time to add in new things, such
as YouTube or Spotify, you won't have a hard
time figuring it out.
Thanks for watching.
If you like the video leave a thumbs up and
a comment and subscribe to the channel.
Thanks and I'll catch you next time.