Voicemeeter doesn't send 6 channels to virrtual cable?

[msb]

I found these wonderful pieces of software while trying to circumvent the lack of features in windows and my sound card software. From my understanding, the combination of voicemeeter and a virtual cable should be able to help me, but in practice things didn't work as I understood they would have. I will first describe the situation. My final goal will be at the end, as an FYI.

I am playing songs on youtube, and trying to make it play in all the 6 output channels of my "Realtek High Definition Audio".
See the image below:

voicemeeter_potato_flow.png (193.83 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

1. the audio from chrome is directed to the virtual input "VAIO 3". As we can see, sound is coming in OK.
2. I redirect audio from that to A2.
3. in A2, I configured it to replicate the input to all channels ("stereo repeat")
4. as we can see, the audio is being replicated fine, and going to the hardware output
5. my hardware output associated with A2 is actually the VB-Audio Virtual Cable
6. I connect the virtual cable to the hardware input 1. In theory, the virtual cable should be receiving audio in 6 channels and redirecting these 6 channels to the hardware input.
7. input 1 will redirect the sound to A1. It should be sending 6 channels of audio.
8. as we can see in the graph, the audio being redirected to A1 has only 2 channels, as opposed to the expected 6 channels that were sent to the virtual cable. The hardware out for A1 is the actual Realtek audio board, and I can only hear sound in 2 channels (one stereo output plug).

Now, if we look at the Virtual Cable Control Panel, we can see why only 2 channels are being output on A1:

vb-audio_virtual_cable_2channels.png (250.66 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

Here we can see that the virtual cable is receiving input in only 2 channels, as opposed to the expected 6 channels.
If, in Voicemeeter, I change the hardware out of A2 from the virtual cable to my actual Realtek hardware, I can hear sounds in all channels. So my conclusion is that either Voicemeeter outputs audio in 6 channels when the hardware is Realtek but 2 channels when the hardware is the cable; OR voicemeeter is always outputting 6 channels but the virtual cable for some reason is cutting to 2 channels when receiving.

Why am I doing this, explanation 1:
As one can see in the first screenshot, the virtual input of "Voicemeeter AUX" is directing to A1, meaning, straight to the Realtek hardware. But it's not replicating the stereo. I want some input (Skype) to be sent to the Realtek unreplicated, but other input (youtube) to be sent replicated. At first I tried A1 and A2 to be the same hardware, but voicemeeter doesn't support that, so I added a virtual cable to the mix. From my understanding, it should work, but in practice the replicated channels are being lost when the virtual cable gets involved.

Why am I doing this, explanation 2:
This all started because I want to listen to youtube music/videos in my speakers, and I want to talk to people on skype using my headset. And they are both plugged to the same Realtek hardware. I put the headset in the "front speakers out" plug, and the speakers in the "rear speakers out" plug. Unfortunately, windows/Realtek won't let me choose them individually for skype and chrome. So my solution is to send youtube audio to all channels, but skype audio only to the headset. I don't mind that the headset plays youtube too, I only don't want the speakers to play the skype audio. My computer has 6 plugs in the back and 2 in the front, and if I were to plug my headset to the front plugs I could do what I want because Realtek driver differentiates them. But the way I have my computer, the front side of it is too far, it's way easier and more convenient for me to plug it in the back.

Any comments are appreciated, even if to say "what you want can't be done".

Thanks in Advance,
Mauricio

[Andres]

Hi Mauricio.

So my conclusion is that either Voicemeeter outputs audio in 6 channels when the hardware is Realtek but 2 channels when the hardware is the cable; OR voicemeeter is always outputting 6 channels but the virtual cable for some reason is cutting to 2 channels when receiving.

The second option is true: VB-Audio Virtual Cable output is limited to 2-channel audio (since Windows Vista). See this post by the author.

Maybe you could try setting the A1 output bus in Composite mode (the next selection after Stereo Repeat mode). In this routing mode the first 2 channels of the output device (Realtek HD Audio) are set by default to the A1 bus channels 1 and 2 (Front Left and Front Right), so you can listen in your headset this two channels. You could then use the PATCH COMPOSITE section of the System Settings/Options window to select which Input goes to the Rear Left and Rear Right channels of the A1 output (where the speakers are connected).
So when Skype output (stereo) is connected to VoiceMeeter AUX Input and routed to the A1 bus, you hear it through the headset. When you connect Google Chrome output to VoiceMeeter VAIO3 and route it via PATCH COMPOSITE to the Rear Left and Rear Right channels you hear Youtube through the speakers. If you want to hear YouTube in your headset you could also route VAIO3 to the A1 bus.
Take into account that PATCH COMPOSITE signals can be selected PRE-fader or POST-fader. If you want to control the volume with the fader you should select POST-fader.

I suppose there are other ways of solving this. Hope this helps you.

[msb]

Thank you very much, Andres!
That really solved it. Not only that, I was able to do what I originally wanted. By using the PATCH COMPOSITE, I can set the output of skype to A3 which doesn't go anywhere, but due to PATCH COMPOSITE the output ends up going to the read speakers which is my headset. So I have my music only on my speakers, and skype only on my headset. Awesome! I still don't fully understand what is the composite mode, but this solution is way simpler since I don't use the cable. (well, since the cable only allows 2 channels, it would never be part of the solution anyway, I guess)

It's just sad that windows doesn't allow the cable to have multiple channels...

Thank you again!