How To Put Music In Microphone?
If you're trying to play music through your microphone—whether for streaming, video chatting, gaming, or voice chat—there are several methods available depending on your setup and needs. You can either play music out loud so that your microphone picks it up, or route audio digitally through your system so others hear it clearly without background noise.
Set Up Your Microphone to Pick Up Music
If you choose to play music out loud and let your microphone capture it, the audio quality depends heavily on your hardware and environment.
- Upgrade your microphone. Switching from something like a laptop's built-in microphone to a dedicated USB mic can make a significant difference in streaming quality.
- Research your microphone's pickup pattern. Microphones have different pickup patterns, which are the directions that the mic best picks up sound from. For example, the cardioid pattern picks up the most sound from directly in front of the mic, and nearly none from behind it.
- Play your music at a high quality. Microphones can't preserve the quality of your music perfectly. Plus, streaming the music over the internet will cause even more reduction in quality. Playing your music at the highest quality possible will mean you're starting better off.
- Increase the audio quality from the music streaming source.
- Upgrade the speakers you're using to play music.
- Potentially play your music from a record player for higher quality sound.
- Improve the acoustics in your room. A room with less than ideal acoustics may cause your music to become distorted or muffled, or there might be an echo. You can install soundproofing foam in your room to help prevent these issues. Or, place some rugs near your setup — they're great for absorbing sound.
Enable Stereo Mix on Windows
The Stereo Mix option allows you to route your system audio directly as a microphone input. This method is only available if your sound card and audio driver support it.
- Open the Control Panel.
- Click Hardware and Sound. If this isn't an option, select Sound.
- Click Sound to open the Control Panel sound options.
- Right-click a blank area in the Recording tab. Make sure the following options have a checkmark: Show Disabled Devices and Show Disconnected Devices.
- Right-click Stereo Mix. If your sound card supports it, Stereo Mix should appear in the list of recording sources.
- Set Stereo Mix as your default microphone input.
As long as your voice chat application (such as Discord) is not set to your default device, you can still talk while music plays through Stereo Mix.
Use Virtual Audio Software
Virtual audio tools let you tie audio from your music program and mic to the same channel, so others hear both your voice and the music simultaneously.
- VB-Audio Voicemeeter Banana
- This application allows you to mix multiple audio sources. Using this, you can tie audio from your music program and mic to the same channel.
- VB-Audio Virtual Apps
- A virtual audio cable solution that routes audio between applications without physical cables. You set the virtual audio cable as your default mic, then configure your voice chat app to use your physical microphone. Your music player outputs to the virtual cable, and an Audio Repeater utility sends the signal back to your speakers or headphones so you can monitor the audio.
- Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)
- Set Virtual Audio Cable as your default mic, then go into your voice chat application and set your mic to the one you want to talk out of. Go into your music player (such as Foobar), find the options menu, go to output, and set the output to Virtual Audio Cable. From there, you can add music via MP3 or use a YouTube plugin. Virtual Audio Cable also installs a program called Audio Repeater — open that, set the input to Virtual Audio Cable, and set the output to your speakers or headphones.
- MorphVox Junior (Free)
- The free version of MorphVox is a voice changer that allows you to play "background sounds" and sound effects. These play through its own mic source while adding your mic so you can speak and play the song at the same time. You will also hear the song or sound effect through your audio device. You can also set hotkeys to play sound effects and songs.
Use a Physical Mixer or Real Audio Cable
For setups involving live performance or physical hardware, a mixer or a real audio cable provides a straightforward alternative to software routing.
- You can use a real audio cable instead of a virtual audio cable if you have two audio in/out ports: put one end in your second audio-out and the other in your second audio-in, then set the second audio-in as your default mic. The audio you send to the second audio-out will be heard by others. Your first audio in/out remains your normal headset, speaker, and mic for other applications.
- For use at a meeting, dance, concert, function, or social gathering, use a small mixer. You basically just need a basic two-channel mixer where at least one channel is stereo for the music. Hook your music player — such as a laptop, CD player, or smartphone — to one channel, and your microphone to the other. This lets you easily control the volume for both sources and turn them on and off as needed. You will need some form of sound system, such as a PA, to send the mixed audio out.
- Mixers typically use RCA/phono inputs for line-level signals such as a music player, so you will most likely need some sort of adapter.
Use Soundboard Applications
Dedicated soundboard tools are designed specifically for playing audio through a microphone input during voice chat or streaming sessions.
- Soundpad
- A straightforward and useful application for playing audio through your microphone during voice chat or gaming sessions.
- Voicemod
- A soundboard application that is easy to use and suitable for voice chat scenarios.
- Clownfish Voice Changer
- Can function as both a voice changer and a soundboard. You can put any audio file to play or give it a YouTube link to play. However, some users report it can cause high memory and CPU usage.
On mobile devices and video calling apps, echo cancellation or suppression within the app will typically cancel out sound emitted from the device's own speaker. To work around this, you need to use a mixer app or play music from a separate device.
