Comments on: Windows virtual audio?

Question: Windows virtual audio?

b1tr0t — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:07:00 -0800

I need to make an audio application work on a windows xp computer that doesn't have audio hardware.

In normal operation, the software sends and receives lots of audio through the sound card. I need to use the software in an obscure way on a computer that doesn't (and can't) have an audio card. Is there a virtual or loopback sound driver for windows? I've tried Virtual Audio Cable, but that doesn't seem to work if you don't already have an audio card installed.

I don't need to hear or record the sounds, I just need something that will satisfy the program's need for audio hardware.

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:40:33 -0800

What program is it, someone can find a replacement/plugin/hack for it perhaps?

By: fake

fake — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 20:15:05 -0800

it wouldn't surprise me if you could do it with the kx-project driver...

By: true

true — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 05:21:02 -0800

If you want the easy way out, and can spend a little money, just get a USB sound adaptor and be done with it. This one, by Xitel, looks like it might be pretty decent to have just as a home stereo connector anyway, and costs about $40. It's totally plug and play, so no drivers needed.

By: majick

majick — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 06:52:21 -0800

Another option would be to install a PC speaker/squeaker soundcard driver.

By: 31d1

31d1 — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 09:05:16 -0800

I don't think the kx drivers will work - they'll just error out if you don't have a compatible soundcard installed. But I bet they CAN do it - if you can hack around the errors...

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 14:36:11 -0800

The problem is this: modern soundcards are themselves quite sophisticated signal processing computers. They're implemented (mostly) in hardware, rather than software, because software would be significantly slower.

It's not just a matter of loop-back, it's a matter of emulating in software all that the sound card does in hardware. It's obviously possible, but it's not trivial nor would the resulting software be speedy.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:16:31 -0800

true - the system is colocated, and the vendor doesn't like dangling hardware. I think we have a card filling the PCI slot already.

majick - I jumped through the hoops to download that driver, and unzipped it. What I found was a repackaged driver for some sound card. I really don't trust loading something like that into my kernel.

orthogonality - I don't need the driver to function, I just want it to return S_OK or E_NOTIMPL for all of the functions and send whatever data it receives off to the bitbucket. I don't need anything as sophisticated as VAC.

thanks for all the responses so far!