Voicemeeter Banana freezes on USB headset plug/unplug

[Jaosh]

I have been having an issue with Voicemeeter Banana completely locking up when I plug in or unplug my USB headset. It also seems to have troubles when the PC wakes up from Sleep mode.
On the occasions that Voicemeeter Banana doesn't freeze when the headset is plugged in, I have to reboot the application for it to acknowledge the microphone's audio signal.

I am on Windows 10 and the headset is the Corsair Void Wireless.

In Voicemeeter Banana, my settings are:

• Hardware Input 1 - MME: Headset Microphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)
• A1 - MME: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
• A2 - MME: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
• A3 - MME: Headset Earphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)

I would appreciate some help in troubleshooting the issue. Please let me know if you could use any more information.

[Vincent Burel]

What is the Voicemeeter version (in system settings dialog box of about box)

since your headset is not selected as output A1, it should not disturb Voicemeeter on unplug
(but need to restart audio engine on plug again anyways).
after unplug the headset, go in Voicemeeter Menu -> Restart Audio Engine (it should work again).

that you try is to select WDM RealTek Speaker as Outpus A1 to see if it prevent to freeze after unplug.

Let me know...

[Jaosh]

Hi Vincent,

My Voicemeeter Banana version is 2.0.2.7.

I changed my settings to:

• Hardware Input 1 - MME: Headset Microphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)
• A1 - MME: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
• A2 - MME: Headset Earphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)
• A3 - Unassigned

with Voicemeeter VAIO outputting to A1, A2, A3

I started playing a YouTube video (as a source of audio). I could see the bars jumping in Voicemeeter, indicating that the computer's audio was being properly routed through Voicemeeter Banana.

I unplugged the USB dongle for the headset.
The YouTube video went silent for both the headset (expected) and the speakers (unexpected).
Voicemeeter's bars froze at the height that they were just before unplugging the headset. The application itself was not completely frozen at this point.

I followed your instruction to restart the audio engine.
Hovering my mouse over the Voicemeeter Banana window changes my cursor to indicate that the application is busy. After 5 minutes with no change, I clicked the window (location on the window does not matter).
The Voicemeeter Banana window grayed out, and a system window popped up: 'VB-AUDIO Virtual Audio Device Mixing Console Application is not responding" with options "Close the program" and "Wait for the program to respond".

Closing the application and restarting it restores my A1 (speaker) audio.

Plugging in my USB headset again, I have A1 (speaker) audio but no A2 (USB headset) audio.
At this point, restarting the audio engine restores audio to A2 (USB headset) and Hardware Input 1 (USB headset microphone)


From this, it seems that Voicemeeter Banana is handling the plugging-in of hardware gracefully (although automatic detection would be better than manually restarting the audio engine) but has trouble when a piece of hardware is unplugged, effectively ceasing to exist on the system.

[Vincent Burel]

ok, thanks for this feedback.

normally there is no way to have deadlock (freeze) with Voicemeeter, but i'm going to check again.
(it would mean that the deadlock is on audio system side = driver not good)

anyway, should see if you can update your Corsair Driver with a more reent version (maybe this will fixe this problem).

detecting audio usb device plug is not really possible (it should be done on system level).

[Jaosh]

Thanks for taking a look.

I can confirm that both my Corsair headset firmware & drivers and my realtek audio drivers are up to date.

[Vincent Burel]

ok, and if you drive your Corsair device with WDM interface instead of MME
(select WDM device for your Corsair Headset instead of MME)
does it change something ?

[Jaosh]

The issue seems to be with the microphone.

I switched all of my settings from MME to WDM. This resulted in my headset's earphones making a weird static sound (I wouldn't call it white-noise) over top of the original audio. My speakers (realtek) did not have this problem.

(The static noise was my rational for going with MME in the first place.)

I set my outputs back to MME, but kept the microphone as WDM.

Settings summary:

• Hardware Input 1 - WDM: Headset Microphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)
• A1 - MME: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
• A2 - MME: Headset Earphone (Corsair VOID RGB Wireless Gaming Headset)
• A3 - Unassigned

Effectively, the only thing that changed was microphone MME -> WDM.

With this configuration, I am able to disconnect the headset's wireless USB dongle without audio playback stopping for the speakers, and restarting the audio engine does not freeze Voicemeeter Banana.
Reconnecting the USB and restarting the audio engine restored audio in the headset & microphone functionality.


Thank you very much for the help.
If you would like me to continue experimenting to help you track down the issue, or if you want to investigate the static sound I'm getting with WDM on the headset output, just let me know; I would be glad to lend you a hand.

[Vincent Burel]

If you would like me to continue experimenting to help you track down the issue, or if you want to investigate the static sound I'm getting with WDM on the headset output, just let me know; I would be glad to lend you a hand.

no, it's not useful because the freeze is on system level, i can't do anything.
and the fact that your Corsair speaker does not work by WDM 512 sample buffer (without static sound)
means that this driver is not well programmed...

[Jaosh]

Fair enough. It's unfortunate that Corsair cut corners for the drivers/firmware, but there's not much we can do about that.


Again, thank you very much for the support. I've dropped you a donation as a token of appreciation.

[Vincent Burel]

thanks a lot for your participation!