VB Cable is just a neat way of having an extra 'source' that's available to record - if you can't find any that work it'll almost certainly fix the problem for you.
No, you don't set it up within Play It Live - you just run the installer in Windows. It will then appear as a source in your sound settings, in PlayIt Recorder and PlayIt Live.
I'm pretty sure there's a demo version of it, suggest you try that first ...
It should do, yes ...
Try this checklist:
1) Open Control Panel then Sound, with PlayIt Live producing output.
2) Click on the 'Recording' Tab. There should be movement in the 'LEDs' by the Virtual Cable. If there isn't, this is why you're not hearing anything. If there's no movement try setting it to 'Default Device'. But please before you do note the settings in case you need to put it back.
3) Click on the 'playback' tab. You should also have movement in the LEDs there as well.
4) You don't need Audacity, it over complicates things. Download and install the PlayIt recorder (it's free)
5) Open PlayIt recorder and choose 'Virtual Cable' as the source. You should then be able to record, and can automate recordings if you want.
That's how it works for me - but please make a note of your settings before changing, different systems may react differently.
Simon
Sorry amend 3) above to read:
3) Click on the 'playback' tab. You should also have movement in the Virtual Cable LEDs there as well.
Well Simon,
Not quite as amazing as you might think.
Yamaha made the AG03/AG06 for the streaming markets and it's the best product in that field I can find.
The Rode "Rodecaster Pro" is good if you want many microphones and only a single stereo audio from the PC (as with the Yamaha AG03/06) what neither allow for is a "cue" feed from the computer that is only heard at the mixer but not sent back to the USB output.
The problem is slightly compounded by PlayIt Live not really having a "headphones" output (as a mixer would have) although the Yamaha/Rode limitations would mean that whatever PlayIt Live does it wouldn't matter.
To a degree, whatever you do tends to end up with needing a "radio" mixer to get the best from PlayIt Live and a specialist mixer from a smaller scale manufacturer either with or without carefully selected sound cards.
I've been dabbling with PlayIt Live for a few years now and I ended up with this set up:
https://support.playitsoftware.com/support/discussions/topics/5000094065
If I were buying all new now (and had the budget), I would look at a newer D&R product such as the Airlite or Webstation but I spent a small fraction of what these cost picking up my setup second hand.
Well Kyle, that should all work very nicely.
I assume the USB sound card is a "normal" USB sound card so has a stereo output, a stereo input and any "loopback" facility is turned off.
Just select the streaming source in PlayIt Live (or anything else you use to stream B.U.T.T., Rocket Broadcaster etc.) to be the USB sound card input to the PC and send all audio from PlayIt Live to the USB sound card output.
If the PC has another sound output it is possible to make all "system sounds" go to that (set that as the default) to avoid PC "bongs" appearing in the PlayIt Live mix.
A further refinement is to put that PC sound output on another mixer channel and use it for PlayIt Live's prehear..
There is no requirement for a microphone mix plug in with your setup as the analogue mixer mixes a microphone and PlayIt Live. The idea of the microphone mix plug in is to enable USB microphones or interfaces with just a mic plugged in to work with PlayIt Live.
Hi Mark
I may have confused things a bit! I am not using the microphone plug in at all now. The chain is:
PlayItLive into USB Mixer (USB CODEC)
Presenter can hear music and instant carts (headphones plugged into mixer)
All outputs from PIL set to USB CODEC
XLR microphone added at that point in the Mixer
Entire mix then goes back via USB CODEC into PlayItLive for Broadcasting/Streaming using the plug in.
In Audacity (which has a number of settings which are confusing) or PlayItLive Recorder which is much simpler - I can see the meters in action and record, However, the minute one of the three players/decks is paused or stopped, the recording is also paused but resumes when the player is resumed or another track starts. It is really weird. The presenter WOULD be recorded but he would have to make sure he has no gaps/stops between tracks or as above, the recording would be paused.
I am sure there must be something simple I am doing wrong or a virtual cable setting I am missing - should EVEYTHING go to a virtual cable at the end of the chain, before going to the broadcast/streaming bit AND the recording software? Would sort the pause issue? Would the presenter be able to hear things still? In tests yesterday he seemed not to be able to.
Brill, thanks Simon! Do I not have to send anything to the Audio Cable (from wherever)? Will it just sort of "work"?
Thanks Simon.
By way of an update, the analog mixer/audio interface works but I cannot for love or money to work out the right settings with the virtual cable on the other laptop (the one where it is just USB mic and headphones into front of computer)
Very odd.
Well I've spent another few days, remotely configuring both users and still no dice, I can't even get it to record in Audacity from the virtual cable so there must be something I am missing along the line.
I'll start with the disclaimer that I've never used a "virtual cable" but I'm familiar with the concept.
I thin you need to set everything on PlayIt Live to play to whatever the virtual cable is called and then select the virtual cable as both PlayIt Live's streaming source and the input to Audacity.
As an alternative, if the computer as a Realtek built in sound card, have a read of this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/39532/how-to-enable-stereo-mix-in-windows-7-to-record-audio/
It's written for Windows 7 but works much the same for Windows 10
Also this is helpful if Audacity won't play nicely.
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001194.htm
.
Thank you! Will have a try in the morning again
Hi
Nope, still refusing to work. Tried the virtual cable solution - nothing. Tried setting the PlayIt Recorder to look at the USB Mixer - sound works off the players but when they pause or stop, so does the recording, same in Audacity. If I alter any playback device within PlayItLive, presenter can't hear as it is not going to the USB mixer so he can not hear and do links.
Final try was the PlayIt recorder try and capture the play it live mix (as everything is being done through hardware), from the PC to the mixer and back again - recorder doesn't even see it Play It Live mix as an option so I think I am stuck with him doing live shows with no recording being created unless there is something I am completely missing?
Ok - abandoning idea of separate mixer for moment. Going to get him to
use USB mic and standard play it live set up. Is there anything I need
to do short of setting encoder to Play It Live Main Mix for broadcast? In terms of the PIL recorder, and reading that the PIL Main Mix doesn't go anywhere, where I should point the recorder to in order to get the full thing captured please?
Thank you for your help this far by the way, much appreciated.
Gavin Richards
Hi - I'm using the internet broadcast and microphone push to talk plugins with PlayItLive.
The microphone settings have been a bit strange, but I have configured the microphone plugin to my USB microphone.
If I broadcast the playitlive mainmix to my audio stream, then you cannot hear the microphone.
The way round this is to select "headphones" as the playback in the microphone plugin, and then stream the "headphones" feed to the streaming server. This allows the microphone to be broadcast. But it feels a slightly sub-optimal way of doing things. It also means that any other noise omitted by the computer (a notification or other windows noise that gets picked up through the headphone feed) also gets broadcast into the stream.
Any advice much appreciated!