Splitting Audio to 2 Playback Devices

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derekp16

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Apr 2, 2014
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Hello,

I recently bought a gaming PC/streaming PC so I could start live streaming on Twitch with a high quality and it's been perfect. My capture card in the streaming PC picks up the video like a dream, my stream looks decent, etc. But there's been a bump in the road I honestly thought wasn't that big of a deal: audio. I have an HDMI out of my GPU going into my capture card and my headphones plugged into the computer via the front 3.5mm headphone jack. I have two options for both (screenshot). What I'd like to do is send audio through the HDMI as well as my headphones.

I've actually gotten it to work a few times by having my stereo mix listen to my HDMI and setting my headphones as the default playback. The only problem being when I restart it seems like my audio settings change and get screwed up. I try the same thing the next time I'm on and is doesn't work.

Is there a more robust way of doing this?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Hi,

I had a similar issue with stereo mix. That is I have a set of speakers (5.1) which get their input from the optical and a wireless USB headset (stereo). Basically the Realtek chip on the motherboard should have supported routing audio to both by using stereo mix and setting the listen with setting to the headset. But no. I managed to get it working a few times, but a reboot would then make the stereo mix device not pick up any signals.

The conclusion I've come to (I may be incorrect) is that the Realtek drivers deliberately "disable" the stereo mix device. I found some unofficial drivers floating around that claim they enable stereo mix with the Realtek chip, but they require you to disable driver verification on windows...
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derekp16

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Apr 2, 2014
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Thanks for the response.

I've actually been trying that. Here's proof I'm getting audio through my stereo mix via HDMI (proof). It's just not playing through on the playback devices. It's weird. Here's what my playback devices look like when I have audio playing (screenshot). It should be picking up the same audio through my NVIDIA HD Audio as well. :/
 
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nooneinparticular

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Aug 4, 2015
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Hi,

I had a similar issue with stereo mix. That is I have a set of speakers (5.1) which get their input from the optical and a wireless USB headset (stereo). Basically the Realtek chip on the motherboard should have supported routing audio to both by using stereo mix and setting the listen with setting to the headset. But no. I managed to get it working a few times, but a reboot would then make the stereo mix device not pick up any signals.

The conclusion I've come to (I may be incorrect) is that the Realtek drivers deliberately "disable" the stereo mix device. I found some unofficial drivers floating around that claim they enable stereo mix with the Realtek chip, but they require you to disable driver verification on windows.

Needless to say I was frustrated, and in the end I just went ahead and bought a sound card. (A local brick-and-mortar store had the Sound Blaster Z on the shelf.) Using the card stereo mix started working and I now get audio from both devices at the same time; 5.1 on the speakers and stereo from the headset.

This might be the issue if you're using the Realtek audio / drivers on the motherboard.
 
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derekp16

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Apr 2, 2014
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Hmm, interesting. My stereo mix never gets disabled where it must be re-enabled. It just doesn't work like it did the last time I was on the computer.

But yes, my PC does use Realtek audio. I downloaded their most recent compatible drivers from their website and everything seems alright except for this. I didn't think a sound card would fix my issue but I will definitely be looking into it now. Would there perhaps be a cheaper sound card that could solve this? I know the Sound Blaster Z is a great card but it's out of price range. :D Thanks for the response, man!
 
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nooneinparticular

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Aug 4, 2015
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I had some really weird problems with stereo mix with the Realtek drivers, that's why I posted the answer. I cannot guarantee that a sound card + a different set of drivers will solve the issue, but it did for me.

I should have picked up a cheaper sound card myself, since the Sound Blaster is most definitely overkill for me too. It just happened to catch my eye at the opportune moment (and I figured if it doesn't work, I'll sell it on / return it). I suppose you could borrow a sound card / get the cheapest one you can find and try it out.
 
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derekp16

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Apr 2, 2014
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Yeah I really appreciate you telling me about that. I think a cheap sound card will solve the issue. As long as it let you split your PC's audio to 2 sources it should be good. I actually had it working and I think Realtek's shaky drivers went derp lol. I've heard after market sound cards are worth it too so there might be an upside.

Thanks!

 
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