Voicemeeter equivalent for linux

[JonPaul]

I am using voicemeeter on windows to control my mic and computer audio while using zoom. It is a simple virtual audio mixer which allows two hardware inputs (mic and zoom return - that latter via a virtual patch cable) and one virtual input as well as two hardware outputs (speaker and headset) and one virtual output (zoom out). It was very easy to configure - one short youtube video! I am not really interested in building and patching a mixer from scratch. I also have no need to record.

If anyone knows of a simple equivalent for linux I would be grateful. (and yes, I have googled it!)

[keith]

Have you looked Here?

[JonPaul]

Yes. But as I said (regarding Jack) "I am not really interested in building and patching a mixer from scratch."
Cheers

[nikgnomic]

mixing audio capture from a microphone and audio playback to send to a VOIP caller is not much different to recording a mix of microphone and audio playback

There was a recent discussion on here about recording 2 microphones + playback audio
Recording sound from two microphones

you probably do not want the complexity of using OBS, Ardour or JACK

but using a loopback-module in Pulseaudio is similar function to using 'virtual cable'
and Pulseaudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) can be used in a similar way to Voicemeeter

• pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=inputs
• pactl load-module module-loopback sink=inputs
• pactl set-default-source inputs.monitor

[JonPaul]

Hi nikgnomic. Thank you for trying to help but these pactl commands are pretty opaque to me. If I couldn't do this simply in windows I would push through the learning curve. As much as I love linux as my primary os, I will switch to windows for when I need this functionality.

[nikgnomic]

commands are bound to seem opaque until it can be seen and heard in Pulseaudio
but no point explaining more here considering last response

[nikgnomic]

my previous post was missing a pulseaudio module to control audio to the 2 'outputs' for VOIP mix and headphones

the following pactl commands include names of onboard audio sink and source for my system
for another system the sink/source names will be similar but numbers for pci location are probably different
find correct Name in pactl list sources for microphone and edit line 2
and 'pactl list sinks' for Headphone output to edit line 3

pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=voipmix
pactl load-module module-loopback source=alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo sink=voipmix
pactl load-module module-combine-sink channels=2 slaves=voipmix,alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo
pactl set-default-source voipmix.monitor 

screenshots of pavucontrol to show the modules
(will add screenshots of pagraphcontrol when i can get them into a logical layout)

once the modules are loaded and configured correctly, it is better to change pulseaudio playback tab to Show: Applications to hide the virtual connecctions

each audio stream can be assigned in pavucontrol --tab=1 to one of three options in drop-down menu:

1. Built-in Audio Analog Stereo(headphones)
   audio from callers on zoom must be routed only to headphones
   if audio from zoom call is sent to null Output (including Simultaneous Output) callers voice is echoed back at them with a delay and they are unlikely to be able to talk over it
   so it must be kept away from the null-sink
2. Null Output
   microphone must be routed to null sink only
   audio is delayed by looping around in pulseaudio and is not usable for monitoring. user can usually monitor microphone audio with no delay in ALSA or direct from audio device
3. Simultaneous Output... - audio to headphones and null-sink mix for discord
   audio routed to simultaneous output will be audible in headphones and for zoom callers

this screenshot shows the 3 connections in use -
QMMP playing to Analog Output (headphones)
Deadbeef playing to Null Output
Firefox playing to both sinks using Simultaneous Output

(pagraphcontrol screenshots needed to show this in action)

[JonPaul]

Hi nikgnomic
The problem with all this is the linux zoom app itself. the windows and mac apps have 'original sound' but the linux app doesn't. zoom for linux does not let you disable the 'advanced' audio options as per below

I put in a support ticket for this weeks ago but zoom has still not replied - no suprises there...

[treier57lol]

JACK isn't very complicated at all if you use something like Cadence.

You don't have to build anything 'from scratch'. Cadence has a nice interface that makes using JACK very simple, it is no more complicated than VoiceMeeter. I would even argue that VoiceMeeters UI is more complicated, which is more true for VoiceMeeter Potato than the basic version.

JACK is much more powerful than VoiceMeeter thanks to the Catia patchbay in the case of Cadence. You can route your audio with no restrictions, so there is no need for seperate, more advanced versions of the software, and usually applications route themselves automatically. You just connect the nodes to route your audio anywhere you want. It's also lower latency.

Lots of programs support JACK, but not all, so I would recommend enabling Pulseaudio bridge and ALSA bridge so programs go through those and end up in JACK, so you can still route them. More on that and a basic setup guide here.

If you need some more control over the routing like adjustable volume sliders, you can try pairing Cadence with PatchMatrix, but that will feel more like making your own mixer, which isn't a bad thing inherently.

You say that you don't want to build your own mixer because you probably fear that you will get overwhelmed by the options or that it would take too much time, but that's just not true. Just adjust and add anything that you need and ignore the rest, it won't get overwhelming when it doesn't need to.

It also helps with clutter and bloat, for example VoiceMeeter Potato has a few effects built in, but I found no practical use for them, so they became unnessecary buttons cluttering up the mixer. You mostly get only the basics and if you need anything extra, you download it separately.

Cadence and it's tools are available on the Community repo here. I really recommend you give it a try. It makes setting up JACK very simple and it's just so much better than VoiceMeeter that I don't miss it a single bit.

As for Zoom, you will just have to wait for them to reply or it could be that the Linux client just doesn't have any audio processing.