Simple cable usage
To use a cable simplest possible way, first run VAC Control Panel application and make sure that there are 1-3 cables and they are configured with typical parameters:
- Maximum instances - 20
- Milliseconds per interrupt - 5..7
- Sampling rate range - 22050..48000
- Bits per sample range - 8..16
- Number of channels range - 1..2
- Stream format limiting - Cable range
- Volume control - disabled
- Channel mixing - enabled
- PortCls usage - disabled
Don't close VAC Control Panel, it will help you later.
Run any audio producing application (a player, a tone generator, an audio editor) that allows you to specify a playback/render device directly and choose Virtual Cable 1.
Start playback and make sure that the application really plays to Virtual Cable 1. You should hear nothing but VAC Control Panel must show 1 or 2 new playback streams for Virtual Cable 1 and cable signal level indicator should be shown. If you hear a played sound, it means the application directs it to your hardware audio device, not to Virtual Cable 1.
If a sound is really played to the Virtual Cable 1, run Audio Repeater application and choose Virtual Cable 1 as a recording (Wave In) device and your hardware audio device as a playback (Wave Out) device.
Activate audio transfer clicking Start button in Audio Repeater. Now you must hear a sound played by an application started first and the Control Panel application must show a new recording/capture stream. It means that audio data are transferred from a playing application to Virtual Cable 1 and then Audio Repeater transfers them further to a hardware audio device. You have created a full audio path containing Virtual Cable 1.
You may hear some quality loss in comparison with a direct playback to the audio card. It may occur due to a format conversion. To improve sound quality, you need to play with client and cable audio formats. See advances usage topics section for details.
To record a signal transferred via the cable, run any recorder application. Choose Virtual Cable 1 as a recording device and start recording. VAC Control Panel may show a new recording/capture stream indicating that a recorder application has connected to Virtual Cable 1. If recording is performed via System Audio Engine, no additional recording streams will be shown.
To hear a signal during recording, you need to keep Audio Repeater active. Otherwise, a signal is transferred from a player application to a recorder application only. Starting audio transfer in the Audio Repeater, you create another connection to the recording side of the Virtual Cable 1 that splits an audio signal into two identical streams.
You can connect any number of playing/recording applications to each end of each Virtual Cable.
Remember that VAC itself only transfers audio data internally from its playback side to its recording side within each Virtual Cable. VAC does not route any sound to/from your hardware audio devices and don't intercept any signals that are not explicitly routed to Virtual Cables because VAC has no relation to other audio devices at all.
To configure driver and cable parameters, use the VAC Control Panel application.
If you have troubles using VAC, try to look at examples/troubleshooting sections and FAQ/How to... lists.
More complicated tasks
Virtual Cables can be used much more complicated ways. See the advances usage topics section.