Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) – connect audio applications, route and mix sounds

Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) is an audio bridge between applications that
transmits sounds (audio streams) from app to app, from device to device.

VAC creates a set of virtual audio devices. Each device simulates an audio
adapter (usually named a “card”) whose output is internally
connected to the input, making an audio loopback. If an application plays
audio to the output of such device, the sound will not be audible because
the signal is looped back to the input. But if another application records
from the input, it receives the sound produced by the first app.

Such virtual devices are named Virtual Cables. The term “Virtual
Cable” is used only in the description of VAC product, as a
placeholder. Actual names of virtual audio devices/endpoints that you
will see in applications’ menus, are different (for example,
“Line 1”, “Line 2” etc.).

Each side of any Virtual Cable can be used by several audio apps at the same
time. If two or more apps play sounds to the same playback endpoint, these
sounds are mixed, and the result is transmitted to the recording side. It
two or more apps record from the same endpoint, each app gets a copy of the
sound.

VAC delivers audio signals completely inside the computer. No audio hardware
is required (VAC can be used on a virtual server with no audio adapter).

There is no quality loss (if no format
conversion and/or volume control are involved). If all these conditions
are met, audio transfer is bitperfect, suitable for audiophile applications. In
well-tuned systems, signal
latency is very low.

To transfer/route audio signals from an endpoint (device) to another, VAC
offers Audio Repeater
application:

Warning: in the Internet, there are several other products using the name
“Virtual Audio Cable”. Some of them use this name just for
promotional purposes, but some others are completely fake and contain
malware. If you decide to try them, don’t forget to check their
sites/binaries with anti-malware software/services.

Applicability

Use VAC with the following audio applications and application classes:

• Internet Telephony/VoIP/SIP/voice messengers (Skype, Discord, Ventrilo,
  MicroSIP).
• Live mixing/DJ (vMix, Mixxx, VirtualDJ, VoiceMeeter Banana/Potato).
• Live broadcasting (Open Broadcaster/OBS Studio, WireCast, VidBlasterX. SAM
  Broadcaster).
• Speech synthesis/recognition (Google Text-to-Speech/Speech-to-Text, Dragon
  Naturally Speaking).
• Software synthesizers and studio/DAW (Ableton, Acid, AudioMulch,
  Band-in-a-Box, Bidule, Cakewalk/Sonar, Cubase, FL Studio, GarageBand,
  Logic, MiniMoog, n-Track, Nuendo, Reaktor, REAPER, Reason, Samplitude,
  Traktor, Vegas).
• Audio editors/recorders (Audacity, Adobe Audition, GoldWave, WaveLab,
  Sound Forge).
• Virtual Machines (VMware Player/Workstation, VirtualBox, Hyper-V).
• Amateur and software-defined radio (Flex Radio, PowerSDR, HAM Radio
  Deluxe, HamSphere, HDSDR, Fldigi, SDR-Radio, WSJT-X, JTDX).
• Audio application development – watch the application’s audio operations,
  check audio data played, supply with specific data to be recorded etc.

Compatibility

VAC works in Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and 11.

No obsessive activity

VAC just performs things what it is intended for: passes audio streams
between applications, converting audio formats if necessary. It never guides
you to advertising pages, nor pops up busily on the screen, nor installs
hidden activities in your system. VAC does only actions that you explicitly
demand for.

Data policy

VAC driver and the supplied applications can only collect and use
information directly related to their functionality. For example, VAC driver
can query processor functions to optimize performance, request
process/thread information to display it in a log, Audio Repeater
applications request audio device/endpoint properties, etc. Since they do
not work with personal, business, geographical, economic or political data,
they do not access such data sources at all.

VAC driver and the supplied applications do not access network functions at
all. Thus, it is technically impossible for them to send or receive data
over a network, whether local or global.

Older versions

VAC 4 works only under Windows versions starting from XP (5.1). For support
of older Windows releases, please visit VAC 3 page.