Separate Game Audio, Discord, Music in OBS! (A Voicemeeter Tutorial For Beginners)

[00:00] how many of you guys were told about a

[00:01] program called voice meter

[00:03] and you look up a tutorial and the first

[00:05] thing you see

[00:06] is this thing you're like what the hell

[00:08] does any of this mean man who am i a

[00:10] scientist

[00:10] i get it it looks complicated and scary

[00:12] but trust me once you get the hang of it

[00:14] it's actually really intuitive to use

[00:16] and probably the best free audio

[00:18] software

[00:19] that you're ever going to come across

[00:20] for streaming you've never heard about

[00:21] voicemeeter before it's basically like a

[00:23] free digital mixer

[00:24] that you can use to separate audio like

[00:27] your game audio

[00:28] discord or spotify let's say for example

[00:31] you're playing a game and you're

[00:33] listening to music in your headphones

[00:35] but you don't want your stream to hear

[00:37] that music because i don't know maybe

[00:38] you're listening to michelle branch or

[00:40] something and you're really embarrassed

[00:41] about it

[00:42] you can mute the music just for your

[00:44] stream but still have the game audio

[00:46] go out to all your viewers you can also

[00:48] use voice meter to process your mic's

[00:50] audio so it sounds really good for your

[00:52] stream

[00:53] however i don't recommend that because

[00:55] frankly i think there are better

[00:56] solutions for processing your audio

[00:58] which i've already done in another video

[00:59] so we won't be covering any of the audio

[01:01] processing in this video

[01:03] but we will break down voicemeeter so

[01:04] that it's very easy to understand

[01:06] and show you how you can use it to have

[01:08] complete control of your audio

[01:10] for your stream

[01:12] [Music]

[01:14] what's up guys it's nutty so let's put

[01:16] aside actually installing voicemeeter

[01:19] because

[01:19] it's really important that you have a

[01:21] really clear picture about what

[01:23] voicemeeter actually does

[01:24] so that you understand how to actually

[01:27] use it

[01:28] for controlling your stream's audio

[01:30] let's start with how most people's audio

[01:31] is set up

[01:32] you basically have obs sending a single

[01:35] audio track

[01:36] to twitch which is eventually what your

[01:38] viewers hear your typical obs setup will

[01:40] have

[01:40] two main audio sources your microphone

[01:43] is pretty self-explanatory it's

[01:44] basically

[01:45] the thing that you make noises with your

[01:47] mouth into and then you have this thing

[01:49] called desktop audio and the way you can

[01:51] think of this is basically if you hear

[01:53] this

[01:54] in your headphones or your speakers this

[01:56] is exactly what's going to be captured

[01:58] by

[01:58] desktop audio in most cases this is

[02:01] going to be the audio from all your

[02:02] programs so from all the games that

[02:04] you're playing

[02:05] discord spotify or anything you listen

[02:07] to music out of

[02:08] all of those programs get combined down

[02:10] into a single audio source

[02:12] which as you can tell is a problem

[02:14] because you as the streamer

[02:16] want to control what your viewers hear

[02:18] and what you hear

[02:19] individually so we're going to scrap

[02:21] this whole setup and replace it with

[02:22] something else

[02:23] imagine a big box and this box has a

[02:26] bunch of inputs

[02:28] and a bunch of outputs you can think of

[02:30] your inputs as

[02:31] things that you can plug into this box

[02:33] and those could be physical things like

[02:35] a microphone

[02:36] or they can be programs on your computer

[02:39] like spotify or discord those physical

[02:41] things are what's known as hardware

[02:43] input devices

[02:44] and those programs are what's known as

[02:46] virtual input devices

[02:48] and this box happens to have three

[02:50] hardware inputs

[02:51] and two virtual inputs now the outputs

[02:53] on this box

[02:54] are things that hear audio so again

[02:57] these could be physical things like

[02:59] speakers or headphones that sound

[03:01] actually comes out of or

[03:03] these could be programs that listen to

[03:05] audio such as

[03:06] obs now this box has a bunch of buttons

[03:09] on them which can control

[03:10] which inputs go to which outputs for

[03:13] example

[03:14] i can plug in my game audio into one of

[03:16] these virtual inputs

[03:18] then use this box and tell it to output

[03:21] the audio

[03:22] to my headphones and to obs but if i'm

[03:25] listening to music

[03:26] i can plug in spotify into another

[03:28] virtual input

[03:30] and then tell the box to only output

[03:32] that audio to my headphones

[03:34] and not output to obs so basically

[03:37] the box that allows us to do all this

[03:40] stuff

[03:41] this is what voice meter is all it is is

[03:43] software that you can

[03:44] plug audio devices into and then route

[03:47] it

[03:48] to other devices that will receive that

[03:50] audio so does that give you guys a

[03:52] clearer picture of what voice meter does

[03:55] just say yes gavin okay because i never

[03:57] want to do diagrams like that ever again

[03:58] in my entire life

[04:00] so let's actually get into installing

[04:01] voicemeeter so i've left a link in

[04:03] description box down below for where you

[04:04] can actually find the install

[04:06] you'll notice that there's three

[04:07] different variants of voicemeeter

[04:08] there's voicemeeter regular voicemeeter

[04:10] banana and voicemeeter potato and

[04:13] they're basically all the same the main

[04:14] difference is that they just have a

[04:16] different number of inputs and outputs

[04:18] we're gonna go with voicemeeter banana

[04:20] because voicemeeter potato has the most

[04:22] inputs and outputs but it also costs

[04:25] money you're also gonna wanna install

[04:27] vb cable virtual audio device i haven't

[04:29] told you what this is for yet but this

[04:31] is going to make sense in a little bit

[04:32] by the way i should have mentioned at

[04:34] the start of this video that this video

[04:35] is for windows only

[04:37] so if you're using a mac you just got

[04:40] prank son

[04:41] after you've installed everything it's

[04:43] gonna make you restart your computer so

[04:44] when it restarts just open up

[04:45] voicemeeter banana this is what it's

[04:47] gonna look like when you open it for the

[04:48] first time

[04:49] now like i said i know it looks scary

[04:51] and complicated so let me simplify this

[04:53] for you remember how i said earlier that

[04:55] we're not going to be

[04:56] processing our mic at all in this video

[04:58] well that means we can just ignore

[04:59] all of these controls because all these

[05:01] controls are for

[05:03] controlling how your audio sounds so

[05:06] we're not even going to touch any of

[05:07] these we're also not going to be doing

[05:08] any recording in voice meter so

[05:10] this tape recorder thing in the corner

[05:13] which

[05:13] by the way it's 20 20 man we don't use

[05:16] tape recorders anymore so just get that

[05:17] out of here

[05:18] also just a little pre-setup go into the

[05:20] menu and make sure

[05:21] auto restart audio engine is checked and

[05:24] run

[05:24] in system menu at startup this will just

[05:26] make sure that voicemeeter starts

[05:28] every time you restart windows so now

[05:30] we're just left with a bunch of columns

[05:32] which are

[05:33] our inputs and our outputs the five

[05:35] columns on the left are the three

[05:36] hardware inputs and the two virtual

[05:38] inputs from the diagram i showed you

[05:40] earlier

[05:40] and the five on the right are the three

[05:42] hardware outputs and two virtual outputs

[05:44] we're gonna set up our hardware output

[05:46] first so we can actually hear something

[05:48] so just click on a1 and then a drop down

[05:50] will appear and just select whatever

[05:52] your headphones or your speakers are

[05:54] you're gonna see each audio device

[05:55] listed multiple times but

[05:57] with the prefix wdm or ks or mme

[06:00] they're basically all the same audio

[06:02] devices they just use different drivers

[06:04] we're gonna choose the wdm version of

[06:06] our speakers if you want to set up a

[06:08] second device

[06:09] like headphones you can set that in the

[06:11] a2 column exactly the same way

[06:13] next we need to tell windows to pass

[06:15] audio into voicemeeter because right now

[06:18] audio is still getting passed directly

[06:20] to your speakers or directly to your

[06:22] headphones to do that

[06:23] go into your control panel and then

[06:25] search for change system

[06:27] sounds and then this window should pop

[06:29] up in the playback tab you'll see a list

[06:31] of devices and one of the devices is

[06:33] gonna have a green

[06:34] check mark in it which is probably gonna

[06:35] be your speakers or your headphones

[06:37] this is the device that windows is

[06:39] routing all of your audio into and we

[06:41] don't want that

[06:42] we want our audio to be routed through

[06:44] voice meter if you scroll to the bottom

[06:46] of that list

[06:47] you're gonna see two devices that say

[06:48] voice meter input

[06:50] and voice meter aux input the naming is

[06:53] really confusing this but basically

[06:54] voice meter input corresponds to that

[06:57] first virtual input

[06:58] in voice meter and aux input corresponds

[07:01] to the

[07:02] second virtual input in voice meter

[07:04] we're going to choose voice meter input

[07:06] and select

[07:06] set default and if you've done it right

[07:08] you can start playing any audio it could

[07:10] be of youtube video it could be music

[07:13] your favorite hentai i don't care

[07:14] whatever you want you should see the

[07:16] meter for the first virtual input

[07:18] moving up and down and you should also

[07:21] hear the audio

[07:22] coming out of whatever device you set as

[07:24] your a1

[07:25] hardware output now if you have two

[07:27] hardware devices set up like i have the

[07:29] first being your speakers the second

[07:30] being your headphones

[07:32] you'll notice that the audio is only

[07:34] coming out of your speakers

[07:35] and not your headphones and the reason

[07:37] for that is because if you look at the

[07:39] first virtual input you'll see these

[07:41] buttons that say a1

[07:42] a2 a3 b1 b2 you'll see that we've only

[07:46] selected

[07:46] a1 so these buttons tell you where to

[07:50] route the audio

[07:51] okay so far this setup

[07:54] not very useful all of our audio is

[07:57] still being sent

[07:58] to this one virtual input so all of our

[08:01] audio discord music

[08:03] it's still going through this one

[08:04] channel so now we're gonna start to

[08:06] separate our audio out

[08:08] we'll start easy we're gonna pull out

[08:10] discord's audio

[08:11] from the rest of our audio because right

[08:13] now discord is still pointing at the

[08:15] same

[08:15] virtual input device that all of our

[08:17] audio is pointing to

[08:19] so all we're going to do is we're going

[08:20] to go into our discord settings

[08:22] go to voice and video and then change

[08:24] our

[08:25] output device to voicemeeter aux input

[08:28] remember that the aux input corresponds

[08:30] to the second

[08:31] virtual input in voicemeeter so now if

[08:34] you do a mic

[08:34] check in discord and start talking to

[08:37] your mic you should see the second meter

[08:39] in voice meter move up and down then you

[08:41] can use the a and the b

[08:42] buttons to choose which audio devices

[08:44] you want your discord audio to come out

[08:46] of so in my case i want my discord audio

[08:49] to come out of

[08:49] both my speakers and my headphones so

[08:52] i'm gonna choose a1

[08:53] and a2 so now your discord audio is

[08:56] completely decoupled from the rest of

[08:57] your audio

[08:58] but you're still going to hear your

[08:59] teammates you know like calling you

[09:01] names because you're a terrible teammate

[09:02] in apex and then you're going to be like

[09:04] crying because they're all bullying you

[09:05] and stuff but nobody in your stream

[09:08] is going to be able to hear that because

[09:09] they can't hear the discord audio now

[09:11] that may be how you want it set up

[09:13] not the crying part but you might want

[09:16] it set up so that you can hear your

[09:17] discord and your stream can't

[09:19] but chances are you probably do want

[09:21] your stream to hear the discord audio

[09:23] so how do we do that you're going to go

[09:25] into obs go into your sources

[09:27] right click and add an audio capture

[09:29] device and you're going to set the

[09:30] device to your voicemeeter aux

[09:33] input so this is basically going to

[09:35] capture all the audio that's being fed

[09:37] into that second virtual input device

[09:39] then just make sure that you've added

[09:41] this

[09:41] audio output capture source into every

[09:44] single scene that you want your discord

[09:47] audio to be heard

[09:48] so this is a good setup so every time

[09:50] you just want to mute your discord audio

[09:52] so that your stream can't hear it

[09:54] you just mute that audio source in obs

[09:57] and that'll just mute just your discord

[09:59] but leave the rest of your audio

[10:01] completely untouched but let's say we

[10:03] wanted to add another layer of

[10:05] complexity to this

[10:06] and we wanted to add music to our stream

[10:08] and let's say our music

[10:09] is coming in through youtube in a chrome

[10:11] browser and we want all that audio

[10:14] to come in yet another audio source in

[10:16] obs this is a bit complicated because

[10:18] you'll notice in voicemeeter

[10:20] we don't have any more virtual inputs

[10:22] anymore so

[10:23] what are we going to do we're just going

[10:25] to pull a virtual input out of thin air

[10:27] uh yeah kind of remember how we

[10:29] installed vb

[10:30] cable basically what vb cable does is it

[10:33] allows us to turn one of our hardware

[10:35] inputs

[10:36] into another virtual input remember that

[10:38] these hardware inputs can only be used

[10:40] for things like a physical microphone

[10:43] but by installing vb cable we can plug

[10:46] another program like youtube into one of

[10:50] the hardware inputs

[10:51] to do that we're going to select input

[10:52] on our hardware input 1

[10:54] and then we're going to scroll down to

[10:56] where it says cable output

[10:58] then we just have to tell youtube to

[10:59] point all of its audio

[11:01] to that vb cable output because right

[11:03] now all of youtube's audio is still

[11:05] going through the default windows

[11:07] audio device which is that virtual input

[11:10] device that we set

[11:11] earlier how do we tell youtube where to

[11:13] output its audio

[11:15] if you go into your pc settings go into

[11:17] sound settings and at the bottom it

[11:19] should say

[11:20] app volume and device preferences you

[11:22] can see a list of all the programs

[11:24] playing audio on your pc and you can

[11:27] change the output

[11:28] device for each program so if you're

[11:30] playing your music off

[11:31] spotify or chrome or whatever

[11:35] people play music off nowadays you just

[11:37] need to change the output for that

[11:39] program

[11:40] to cable input if you've done it

[11:42] correctly the first hardware input

[11:44] in voice meter should now be moving up

[11:46] and down when you're playing music

[11:48] or any audio from that program again you

[11:51] can use the a and the b buttons again to

[11:53] decide

[11:53] which devices that audio comes out of so

[11:56] again i'm going to set

[11:57] a1 and a2 on because i want to hear the

[12:00] music

[12:00] in my headphones and in my speakers then

[12:03] an obs we can do exactly like we did for

[12:05] discord we just add another audio output

[12:07] capture device

[12:08] select cable input as our device and

[12:11] then now we have a third channel that we

[12:13] can route audio to

[12:14] by now you should have three audio

[12:16] devices in obs

[12:17] plus your microphone which you can all

[12:19] independently control

[12:21] without affecting each other which will

[12:23] allow you to mute your discord in your

[12:25] stream but still hear it in your

[12:26] headphones

[12:27] or even allow you to mute your music in

[12:29] your headphones

[12:30] and still come out in your stream you

[12:32] just have complete control over your

[12:34] audio now but let's just say you wanted

[12:36] to go even crazier and add even

[12:38] more programs as separate channels at

[12:40] obs because you know

[12:41] you're greedy and three just isn't

[12:43] enough for you you can download up to

[12:45] two more of those vb cables they're

[12:47] called vb cable a

[12:48] and vb cable b by the way all the naming

[12:52] for all of these different channels

[12:53] really sucks for voice meter it's really

[12:55] confusing anyway vb cable a

[12:57] and b are pretty much exactly the same

[13:00] thing as vb cable

[13:02] it's just you get two more of them but

[13:04] you do have to pay for them but they do

[13:06] function exactly the same as vb cable so

[13:08] if you want to turn your

[13:09] other two hardware inputs into virtual

[13:12] inputs

[13:12] well then you can pay to download vb

[13:14] cable a and b but that's gonna do it for

[13:16] this voice meter tutorial guys i know

[13:18] this video was not

[13:20] funny okay i could i could only fit like

[13:22] five jokes into that video which is like

[13:25] way less than the number of jokes that i

[13:27] usually fit into videos i even wore like

[13:29] an elmo shirt today so i can like make

[13:31] you guys

[13:32] laugh and i didn't even you didn't even

[13:33] see it for the whole video

[13:35] but if you'd like to laugh at my crappy

[13:37] jokes come watch me on twitch.tv

[13:39] nutty i actually changed my name this

[13:41] week so

[13:43] nutella forever he's dead now we're

[13:45] twitch.tv

[13:46] nutty also if you want more help for

[13:48] setting up your stream we're setting up

[13:49] voice meter because you couldn't figure

[13:51] it out

[13:52] through my crappy video make sure to

[13:54] join the discord link in description box

[13:56] down below other than that this video is

[13:58] done

[13:59] class dismissed i'll see you next time

[14:05] [Music]