VoiceMeeter / Documentation / Routing
Audio routing
VoiceMeeter routing is one idea repeated: a strip collects audio, a bus decides where it goes. Learn the strips, learn the buses, and the patchbay stops being intimidating.
The signal path
hardware inputs strips buses outputs
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ microphone │──WDM/KS/MME─▶│ strip 1 │──A1────▶ │ A1 bus │──────▶ │ speakers │
│ line in │ │ gain/EQ/gate │──A2────▶ │ A2 bus │──────▶ │ headset │
│ interface │ │ compressor │──B1────▶ │ B1 bus │──────▶ │ VoiceMeeter │
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └────────────┘ │ Output (app) │
└──────────────┘
┌────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ VoiceMeeter Input │───▶│ VAIO strip │──A1 / B1 / ...
│ (what Windows plays) │ └──────────────┘
└────────────────────────┘
A strip is a channel: a physical input device, or a virtual device Windows feeds. A bus is a destination. The small A1…B3 buttons on each strip are the routing matrix; a lit button means that strip is audible on that bus.
A buses and B buses
| Bus type | Count | Endpoint | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1…A5 | 2 in Standard, 3 in Banana, 5 in Potato | A real hardware device: speakers, headset, interface, capture card | Monitoring. What you hear. |
| B1…B3 | 1 in Standard, 2 in Banana, 3 in Potato | A virtual recording device Windows exposes to applications | Sending audio to a call, a stream or a recorder. |
B1 appears in Windows as VoiceMeeter Output, B2 as VoiceMeeter AUX Output, B3 as VoiceMeeter VAIO3 Output. An application that asks for a "microphone" and is pointed at one of these receives whatever you routed to that bus — microphone, music, game audio, or all three.
The separation trick. Keep B1 for "everything the audience should hear" and B2 for "what the call needs". Route the microphone to both, the music to B1 only. One button press then mutes music from the call without touching your own monitoring.
Per-application routing in Windows
- Everything at once — set Windows default playback to
VoiceMeeter Input. Every application that has no explicit preference lands on the VAIO strip. - One application only — Settings → System → Sound → Volume mixer, set that application's output to
VoiceMeeter Input(orVoiceMeeter AUX Input). Everything else keeps the direct device. - Per application, permanently — most media players and games remember the device they were last played to, so the mixer assignment survives reboots once set.
Windows 11 also lets you pick a default output per application from the same panel, which is the cleanest way to keep a game on the hardware device while a browser goes through the mixer.
The patchbay
Banana and Potato include a patchbay: an insert matrix that sits before the buses, letting any input channel reach any output channel regardless of the strip layout. Open it from the toolbar and read it as a grid — rows are sources, columns are destinations, and the diagonal is the default straight-through route.
- Use it for surgical splits — send only the left channel of a stereo input somewhere, or duplicate one microphone into two buses with different processing.
- Leave the diagonal alone unless you have a reason. Clearing a diagonal cell removes the normal route for that channel.
- Insets versus patchbay — an insert processes the bus signal in place; the patchbay changes where channels go. If you want EQ on the whole output bus, that is an insert (Potato), not a patchbay edit.
ASIO and DAWs
Banana and Potato install an ASIO driver so a DAW can see the mixer as a multichannel audio interface. In the DAW, select the VoiceMeeter ASIO device, then in VoiceMeeter set the hardware input or virtual input that the DAW should receive.
ASIO is exclusive. If a DAW holds the ASIO device in exclusive mode, another application cannot open the same hardware device at the same time. Route the DAW through a virtual input instead of pointing both at the same physical interface.
Latency and buffer size
Buffer size is the trade: smaller means lower latency and higher CPU load, larger means stability. VoiceMeeter exposes it under Menu → System Settings / Options → buffering.
| Buffer (samples @ 48 kHz) | Approx. latency | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| 128 | ~2.7 ms | Live monitoring of an instrument. Fast machine, light load. |
| 256 | ~5.3 ms | Normal use with a decent CPU. |
| 512 | ~10.7 ms | Default safe choice. Streaming, calls, general desktop. |
| 1024 | ~21 ms | Weak laptops, heavy plugin chains, or stubborn crackling. |
Latency numbers include only the buffer. Total monitoring latency adds the device's own converter latency and any processing. For pure playback — streaming, watching, listening — latency is irrelevant and a large buffer is strictly better.
VBAN over the LAN
VBAN carries audio between machines over UDP on port 6980. Available in Banana and Potato, with multiple simultaneous streams in Potato.
- Send — open the VBAN panel, pick the outgoing stream, set the destination IP and stream name, choose the bus or strip to transmit.
- Receive — on the second machine, add an incoming stream with the matching name and address.
- Wired, not wireless. VBAN tolerates a switch; it does not tolerate Wi-Fi jitter. Dropouts on a laptop are almost always the wireless link.
- Firewall. Windows Firewall must allow inbound UDP 6980 on the receiving machine.
- Clock drift — two machines on independent clocks drift slowly. For long sessions, expect to resync; short links are unaffected.
Worked example: stream with music, game and voice separated
- Windows default playback →
VoiceMeeter Input(game and browser land on the VAIO strip). - Music player →
VoiceMeeter AUX Input(Banana/Potato), so it has its own strip. - Microphone on hardware strip 1, gate and compressor on, routed to A1 and B1.
- VAIO and AUX strips routed to A1 (you hear everything) and B1 (the stream hears everything).
- OBS audio input capture →
VoiceMeeter Output. See OBS Studio. - To mute music from the stream only, route the AUX strip to A1 but not B1.