Streaming Guide

My VoiceMeeter Potato Setup

How I use it to take my stream to the next level, and how you can too.

Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash

PSA: This is going to be a long post intended for those that are looking for a guide on how to set up Voicemeeter Potato with OBS for live streaming.

What is Voicemeeter Potato?

Voicemeeter Potato is a donationware created by VB-Audio. It is a virtual audio mixer. Voicemeeter Potato is the most advanced of three mixers: Voicemeeter, Banana, and Potato. I wrote an article about why you should use Potato that you can read here.

You can download Voicemeeter Potato from here. To get the most out of the mixer you should also download the Virtual Audio Cable. Install them, restart your computer and let's get set up!

Windows Setup

First, you should go to your Windows sound settings and set up some stuff. You can find these by hitting the Windows key and type “sound settings” or right-click the volume icon in your taskbar. Then click the “App volume and device preferences” in the bottom.

Master Output

Set to Voicemeeter Input (VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO).
This directs all sound that is playing on your computer and is using the standard output to the virtual input 1 in Voicemeeter.

Master Input

Set to Voicemeeter Output (VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO).
This makes it so that all sound that is going to communications (Discord, Skype, TeamSpeak) and recording programs (OBS, Audacity) are coming from Voicemeeter VAIO (mix B1). This will make you sound amazing when talking to friends on Discord as well as on your stream.

This seems confusing at first, but remember that Voicemeeter is a virtual mixer, so look at it like you have a physical output on a physical mixer that you send your mix our of and into your computer. Hence the input/output mix you see above.

Spotify (and/or any other app you use for music playback)

Output — Voicemeeter Aux Input (VB-Audio Voicemeeter AUX VAIO)
This sends all your music to virtual input 2 in Voicemeeter. From here you can direct all that sound as a separate mix to OBS or leave it completely out of OBS and only send it to your speakers or headphones.

All the other apps

You can leave these to the default setting. All apps that use the default setting will send and receive their sound to those you have selected in the Master section. This is usually game sounds and browser sounds.

Windows Sound Control Panel

Playback

Find VoiceMeeter Input (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO), right-click it, and select “Set as Default Playback Device”.

Communication Device

Find CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable), right-click it, and select “Set as Default Communication Device”. This will make it so that all apps that are used for communication will send their sound to Cable input, which is sent to Voicemeeter Hardware Input 2.

Recording

Find VoiceMeeter Output (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO) and set as “Default Device”. This ensures that the sound that is supposed to be sent as a microphone will be sent from Voicemeeter VAIO (mix B1).

VoiceMeeter Potato

Here is my basic stream setup.

Inputs and outputs

There are two different kinds of inputs and outputs: Hardware (physical) and virtual. Hardware inputs are for anything that is physically connected to your computer (microphone, webcam, and anything else that can send audio to your computer). With the Virtual Audio Cable, you can also create hardware inputs by using the virtual cables to route the sound and trick VoiceMeeter into thinking that you have more physical inputs.

Hardware inputs

By clicking the “Select Input Device” you can choose your devices. You can double click the HARDWARE INPUT 1 to rename it to your preference.

Input 1 is my microphone and input 2 is discord. Just replace these with whatever your voice software is.

On your microphone, you should select B1 to send it to your stream, and on Discord, you select A1 and B2.

Virtual inputs

1 is all desktop sound, so all apps that have “Default” selected as its playback device in the Windows settings will end up here (games, browser sounds, apps).

2 is Spotify, which you selected earlier in this guide in the Windows settings.

Select A1 for both of these to send the mix to your headphones. The volume you adjust here will only reflect the volume that is sent to your headphones, not OBS, which is why I have set up more mixing in OBS.

In one of my mixes, I have added the third virtual input as my browser sounds. This is so that I can play a YouTube video without having it sent to my live stream.

Outputs

In the top left corner, you can select hardware out — everything physically connected to your PC. This is where you select your headphones and speakers.

Remember that anything you want to hear in headphones and/or speakers must be selected in the input channels. A1 is my headphones and A2 is my speakers in another setup. So I can send music to my speakers by hitting A2 and sending game sounds and Discord to headphones. With this method, my family can listen to music without all the other sounds mixed in.

In the master section (bottom half) you have A1-A5 and B1-B3. A1-A5 are all physical outputs you selected up in the left corner, while B1-B3 is all the Voicemeeter outputs from the sound settings. Check virtual inputs to see their names.

My mix

I’m sending my microphone alone in the B1 track, this is to make it easy to mix in OBS. I’m sending Discord as B2 so that I can control whether my viewers can hear my friends talking on Discord or not.

Everything that I am sending to A1 is going directly to my headset.

OBS settings

Copy exactly what I have selected in my Devices settings in the Audio tab.

Desktop Audio 1 is my B1 mix and Desktop Audio 2 is my B2 mix.

Mic/Auxiliary audio 1 is my microphone (from Voicemeeter) and Mic/Auxiliary audio 2 is Discord.

Desktop sound filters

Just a basic gain slider. Nothing fancy.

A limiter to make sure that my desktop sound never goes above that threshold.

Compressor to sweeten the sound.

Sidechain/Ducking for whenever I talk. This makes my voice a priority and makes it clearer for my viewers.

Discord sound filters

A simple gain reduction to make sure that my voice trumps my friends when live streaming.

And a limiter to further the point I made above.

Spotify sound filters

Just a gain slider to reduce volume slightly.

Compressor to make the sound better.

A ducking for my microphone so that whenever I talk the music is lowered.

Just a volume slider.

A limiter to make sure that the music is never too high in volume.

By applying the filters I have above and the settings as I have shown them you have the power to easily mute, boost or mix any sound that is played, recorded, or going to or from your PC. Your audio quality will be pretty darn good and your audio control is amazing.

If you find Voicemeeter Potato too daunting you can install Banana instead and apply all the same settings. If you think the mixes I have shown above are going to be enough for you, then Banana is going to suffice. I used Banana at first but quickly outgrew it as I started experimenting. My master mix is a mess for the uninitiated, so that is a story for another time.

If you have any questions you can ask them here, hit me up on Twitter, or come hang out during a live stream on Twitch.