If you want to play music through your microphone the way you might have seen others do when gaming, you have multiple options. You can directly play music from a speaker into your microphone, which is the easiest but lowest-quality option. You can use features like Stereo Mix or software like Virtual Audio Cable or VoiceMeeter with a soundboard app for higher quality.
I watch Twitch streams often, so a lot of the visual and audio effects that streamers pull off intrigue me. When I saw a streamer playing music through his mic directly to his friends and opponents, I rushed to figure out how to do it. Fortunately, I found several effective options.
So, if you're looking for how to play music through mic when gaming or streaming, this is the article for you. Let's get right into it.
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You might have played against opponents who somehow manage to get music or audio to play through their mic as clearly as their voice does. Or, perhaps you've seen a streamer use it to torment opponents or entertain teammates.
Either way, if you want a similar effect and play music through mic input, there are a few ways you can achieve this. We'll talk about a few of them.
The easiest way for you to play audio through your mic would be to play it from a speaker or your phone directly into your microphone.
Of course, while this is the easiest way to play sounds that other people can hear, it probably won't sound that great. At least definitely not as good as it would be if you used any other method to play it more directly.
Regardless, of whether this option is the best for you, I'll give you a few tips that can help you get the best audio quality with this method.
The simplest way for you to play music through mic input is by using a feature that many audio drivers support.
It is called Stereo Mix, though, on some sound cards, it might be called What U Hear. Regardless, they are basically the same thing and it is only available on Windows.
The Stereo Mix option is treated by Windows as being an input device, so you can set it for input in apps that allow more than just the default app.
What comes in through this input device is everything that you would normally hear from your PC (hence, What U Hear). This means that the sounds from your OS and apps can be channeled to be picked up by other apps, like streaming software or Discord.
However, you need to enable Stereo Mix before you'll be able to use it. This is pretty easy to do, so follow the steps below:
Now, you can open any application that lets you change your input or recording devices and set "Stereo Mix" as one of them to play sound through your mic.
However, this will play absolutely any sound that comes from your computer, so keep that in mind.
Also, you should note that if your streaming software doesn't allow you to have multiple microphone inputs, you'll have to either choose your voice or your PC audio, but you won't be able to play both using this method.
Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) is a Windows application that works in exactly the same way as Stereo Mix does. This means that if your PC doesn't support Stereo Mix but you still want to play music through your mic input, you can use this instead.
The good thing is that it is also incredibly easy to use, if not easier than using the built-in option. The only potential downside is that it is not a free application.
There's a 30-minute trial version that gives you access to all features, and a Lite version that locks out some features but will allow you to use it that way forever.
Here's what you need to do to get Virtual Audio Cable up and running:
Now that you've set this up and the VAC drivers are installed, you'll see that it can be selected as one of your input devices. Any application that you set VAC as an input device in will receive any music or audio that you play from the computer.
If you have streaming software that will let you set more than just one microphone, you can put your actual mic as one and VAC as the other. This will let you play audio through your mic.
One disadvantage of Stereo Mix and VAC is that they will play absolutely all sound that comes from your computer, including system sounds. This means you have to be extra careful not to play sound that you don't want the people on the other end to hear.
This is where virtual audio mixer programs come in. They count as their own input devices and paired with a soundboard, you can make sure that they only play music and sound effects that you actually want others to hear.
For this, we'll use VoiceMeeter and an app called EXP Soundboard, though you can use any other soundboard to play music.
That should be it. You can now give it a test run by opening the using Windows' Voice Recorder. Click the microphone button to start your audio recording.
Now, speak through your mic and play music from the soundboard, then end the audio. If you set up your audio devices right, you should hear both your voice and the music you played in the recording.
Discord is one of the most popular apps that people want to play music and sounds through. Typically, it will only accept audio that comes from your default microphone, but if you used any of the software methods above, you can play music too.
If you used Stereo Mix, VAC, or an audio mixer, follow the steps below to play music through your Discord microphone:
Now, if you set it right, you'll be able to play music through your microphone on Discord.
However, since Discord only allows for one mic input in its sound settings, if you use Stereo Mix or VAC, you can only play music.
If you use VoiceMeeter, you'll be able to play songs and talk, which is great.
You've probably seen people play music with high-quality through their mic when playing games or streaming. The thing is, it isn't actually that hard to do.
By using something like Stereo Mix or Virtual Audio Cable, you can play sound directly from your PC. So, if you decide to play YouTube music, anyone on the other end will hear it. However, for playing sound a bit more conveniently, soundboard apps paired with an audio mixer like VoiceMeeter make things easiest.
Was this article able to show you how you can be playing games, stream, use Discord, and play music through your mic? If so, take a look at our related articles to learn much more.
