How To Play Music Through Mic (2023)
There are many ways to achieve what you’re after.
Here you will learn the many ways you can play sounds in a game or a voice application as if it came out of a microphone.
Some methods are easier than others. If you’re completely new to this, try to remember each step you took in order to revert the changes if something goes wrong.
Here the power to choose is in your hands! Choose the method from the list below you think best suits Your needs. Note that there are methods that are fully free to use and ones that are not. However, the ones that cost money are much easier to use.
1 – Fully Free
VoiceMeeter + Soundboard
This is probably the best free solution for playing audio in a game or voice application as if it came through a microphone. It might not look like it at first glance, but it’s incredibly easy to set up and offers a lot of configurations. Most other methods branch off of this one.
TUTORIAL on how to play music through mic using VoiceMeeter and a soundboard (link opens in a new tab).
You’ll be able to:
- Play Soundboard audio through mic
(can be toggled on/off) - Listen to that audio yourself at the same time
(can be toggled on/off) - Talk through the mic at the same time
(can be toggled on/off)
What’s needed for this to work:
- Soundboard
- VoiceMeeter
- Audio clips
- Physical mic is optional
With VoiceMeeter, there’s more room for making things work the way you want. You don’t even have to have a mic of your own to make it work. For example, you can actually use any audio source, not just a soundboard, as long as it allows you to change its audio output. However, by using a soundboard, we’ll be able to control exactly what plays how and when using custom sound files and keyboard shortcuts. In essence, it’s a virtual audio mixer with a built-in virtual audio cable making use of a soundboard.
Short version of the full tutorial:
- Download VoiceMeeter and a soundboard of your choosing
(download and open up the programs) - Set VoiceMeeter Output as Windows’ Input
(Win10: Start – Settings – System – Sound – Choose your input device) - In VoiceMeeter, set 1st HARDWARE INPUT as your mic
(Your mic now goes into VoiceMeeter)
(Toggling “A” circle enables/disables your mic for your speakers)
(Toggling “B” circle enables/disables your mic for the virtual mic) - In VoiceMeeter, set A1 HARDWARE OUT as your speakers
(Now you can listen in on what goes out of VoiceMeeter via virtual mic) - In sounboard, set its Output as VoiceMeeter Input
(The soundboard sounds now go into VoiceMeeter) - Set VoiceMeeter Output as the game’s or voice application’s Audio Input
(VoiceMeeter Output acts as a virtual mic every1 else will hear)
2 – NOT Free
Soundpad ($5)
Their official site: leppsoft.com
Also available on Steam
Probably the best non-free solution out there.
It doesn’t cost much and is super easy to use. The way it works is you load your audio files, be it sounds or music, to the interface, assign them hotkeys and play them through mic. It comes with lots of extra features that support the experience of playing audio through mic in various ways. Before you buy, make sure it works for you by testing out their free demo first.
I personally prefer using it off steam for obvious reasons.
3 – Fully Free
Virtual Audio Cable + Soundboard
This is a good one, too, but it’s limited by the soundboard, though there’s always a way around things. We’ll use this method to transmit audio through a virtual microphone. It works basically the same way as the 1st solution wherein VoiceMeeter is replaced with a simple virtual audio cable instead.
TUTORIAL on how to play music through mic using VAC and a soundboard (link opens in a new tab).
You’ll be able to:
- Play Soundboard audio through mic
(can be toggled on/off) - Listen to that audio yourself at the same time
(can be toggled on/off) - Talk through the mic at the same time
(can be toggled on/off)
What’s needed for this to work:
- Soundboard
- VB-CABLE Driver
- Audio clips
- Physical mic is optional
This method allows you to choose what specific audio source you want to play through the virtual microphone. That specific audio source can be any configurable audio source, but in this case the audio source will be a soundboard that uses hotkeys to trigger the sounds. Note that VAC is short for Virtual Audio Cable.
However, with this method you might not be able to hear the sounds you transmit yourself depending on what you use for the audio source. You’d have to switch the output manually back and forth in order to check if things work or not. It’s because most audio sources don’t have 2 outputs, and the one they do have is already occupied by the cable input. However, the audio source (soundboard) used in the following tutorial happens to have 2 audio outputs, one for the virtual mic and the other for our speakers.
Short version of the full tutorial:
- Download VB-CABLE Driver and a soundboard of your choosing
(download and open up the programs) - Set CABLE Output as Windows’ Input
(Win10: Start – Settings – System – Sound – Choose your input device) - In soundboard, set its 1st Output as CABLE Input, 2nd as your speakers
(The soundboard sounds now go into CABLE input, a.k.a virtual mic)
(If it has 2nd Output option, the sounds can also go into your speakers) - In Sound Settings, under mic properties and Listen tab, select CABLE input
(Win10: Start – Settings – System – Sound – Sound Control Panel – Recording tab)
(This will allow you to talk through the virtual mic at the same time) - Set CABLE Output as the game’s or voice application’s Audio Input
(CABLE Output acts as a virtual mic every1 else will hear)
4 – Fully Free
Stereo Mix
This is the most basic of methods, but also the most limited in what you can do with it. We’ll use it for transmitting audio to a game or a voice application as if it came through a microphone.
TUTORIAL on how to play music through mic using stereo mix (link opens in a new tab).
In the tutorial, you’ll find out how to check if you have a stereo mix or an equivalent. Most sound cards have it by default, so there’s no need to download anything extra.
You’ll also learn what it is and how it works. And of course, there’s a step by step tutorial on how to set it up, test if it’s working and how to actually use it.
I personally wouldn’t recommend using this as it’s awfully limited in how you can use it.
5 – NOT Free
MorphVox Pro
Their official site: screamingbee.com
This software is primarily a voice changer. It’s actually quite a few things in addition to being a soundboard that can play sounds or music you want through mic using hotkeys. It’s kind of old though. It launched back in 2014 or sooner even. However, I do see small updates for it in my steam library every now and then, if that’s anything to go by. They’ve got a demo too, so best test that out in case you were to buy it (though in my opinion it’s severely outdated and overpriced).
Extra 6 – Fully Free
How To Play Audio Through Mic Without Having A Mic
Don’t have a microphone but want to transmit audio into the voice application (a game’s voice chat, Skype, Discord, etc) regardless? No problem.
TUTORIAL on how to play music through mic without having a mic (link opens in a new tab).
Like I’ve said before, there are so many ways to achieve what you’re after. These explanatory tutorials go deep and simple, helping you see many new possibilities for configuring things the way that best suit your needs.
Extra 7 – Fully Free
How To Stream Spotify Music Through Mic
Straming Spotify through a microphone can be tricky because Spotify doesn’t have an output selection in audio settings. However, this tutorial circumvents that problem fairly easily. All you need is Spotify, Windows 10, and VoiceMeeter. You’ll find out where to get VoiceMeeter in the tutorial.
TUTORIAL on how to stream Spotify music through mic (link opens in a new tab).
The step by step tutorial goes over things like:
- how to play Spotify music through mic (can be toggled on/off)
- listen to that music yourself at the same time (can be toggled on/off)
- and be able to talk through the mic yourself at the same time as well (can be toggled on/off)
Keep in mind that you need to have Windows 10 to follow through with this tutorial.
Extra 8 – Fully Free
How To Stream YouTube Audio Through Mic
Straming audio coming from YouTube through a microphone is fairly simple matter. All you need to have is YouTube, Windows 10, and VoiceMeeter. You’ll find out where to get VoiceMeeter in the tutorial.
TUTORIAL on how to stream YouTube audio through mic (link opens in a new tab).
In that tutorial you’ll find:
- how to stream YouTube audio through mic (can be toggled on/off)
- listen to the audio yourself at the same time (can be toggled on/off)
- and be able to talk through the mic yourself at the same time as well (can be toggled on/off)
Keep in mind that you need to have Windows 10 to follow through with that tutorial.
Extra 9 – Fully Free
How To Play Music In Discord
Ever wanted to play music in Discord?
TUTORIAL on how to play music in Discord (link opens in a new tab). In the the tutorial, you will learn:
• how to play music in a Discord voice channel through a microphone (even if you don’t have a mic; lower quality audio),
• how to do that with a second instance of Discord that’s logged into a secondary account and acts like just a music player (lower quality),
• how to do that with a music bot (good audio quality).
Extra 10 – Fully Free
How To Play Music Through Mic In RUST
So how does one play music in Rust through their microphone? Even if you didn’t have an actual microphone?
All that and more can be found out in the following TUTORIAL: How to play music through mic in RUST.
Take some time to understand how things work with this method so that you can choose an alternative method or configure things to work the way you prefer. Once you understand the process, configuring things to work in certain other ways should be relatively easy.
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