Quick silly Q...

[Ttaskmaster]

I can play separate songs in WMP, VLC and so on and all will play on top of each other.

So... If I have two USB headsets and connect them both to the PC, either to separate ports, or the same port via a USB splitter/hub/something... Will both mics transmit over, say, Steam chat or Teamspeak at the same time, or can the PC only handle input one at a time?

[TheAnimus]

So this will depend on how the apps are written, specifically which kinds of API they use.

In the really old days, you could only have "one" input source. This sort of made sense as the sound cards would share the, back then, expensivish sampling component and ADC.

Then came newer APIs, with these each application can select which source it is using, which output it is using. But many developers didn't like this new UI, so simply take whatever is the system default.

So yes, it's very possible to have VLC playing out of one USB device, then another instance playing out of another USB device.

But the odd thing is it sounds like you want to combine two recording devices, into one transmission app. Now I'd guess most apps won't be written like that. Most applications will have some extra magic to help cancel out background noise and such, whilst allowing you to hear what is said, this kind of adaptive gain relies on having a constant audio source.

It would be helpful to understand a bit more about what you are wanting to achieve!

[Ttaskmaster]

It would be helpful to understand a bit more about what you are wanting to achieve!

I want to connect 2 USB headsets (A and B) to one PC and have both talk to someone on Steam chat, where all three parties can hear each others voices at the same time.

I also want to have Person A playing in-game and still hear the audio from Person B's mic.

[DDY]

I want to connect 2 USB headsets (A and B) to one PC and have both talk to someone on Steam chat, where all three parties can hear each others voices at the same time.

I also want to have Person A playing in-game and still hear the audio from Person B's mic.

It's not easy getting multiple audio devices to work together, I've done it using various DAW softwares in the past but that's quite a roundabout way of getting two USB mics to work on Steam.

But I did stumble arcross this;

http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/

The juicy mixery bits of a DAW, without the DAW... I reckon you'd be able to get two headsets working together with that.

EDIT: In fact, I might give it a go later.

[Ttaskmaster]

Nah, sounds overly complicated for my needs.
I'll just talk loudly at her, through the 'phones, I think!

[TheAnimus]

Ok, so the big problem here is if you multiplexed the two input sources, it wouldn't give you the result you want.

When you talk, you don't hear yourself talk.

Wouldn't a better solution simply be to run a second instance of the voice comm app? Have that second instance only using headset B and the first instance using headset A?

I've not used steam's voice chat, so I don't know if you can do that easily. But you can totally run two separate instances of a VoIP client on the same PC, using two separate sets of hardware.

[listy]

ventrillo you can run 2 instance... you need to add something to short cut

[EndlessWaves]

Ok, so the big problem here is if you multiplexed the two input sources, it wouldn't give you the result you want.

When you talk, you don't hear yourself talk.

They're headsets so that's not an issue, the input would just be sent to the other output device.

I don't think there's any windows limitation here, but windows does leave it to the programs to decide what they'll support in terms of the provided input and output devices and it doesn't sound like a scenario that a lot of programs are likely to support.

Steam may support it as part of their console ambitions but I don't know for sure.

[DDY]

It's not easy getting multiple audio devices to work together, I've done it using various DAW softwares in the past but that's quite a roundabout way of getting two USB mics to work on Steam.

But I did stumble arcross this;

http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/

The juicy mixery bits of a DAW, without the DAW... I reckon you'd be able to get two headsets working together with that.

EDIT: In fact, I might give it a go later.

I've just played around with this and it wouldn't work too well for this situation.

While it can take two hardware inputs and two hardware outputs then mix them, it doesn't allow individual patching of each hardware output. That is, both hardware outs must listen to the same mix.

It does allow both headsets to hear the game, listen and speak to others over the internet, but the limitation means either;

- Not being able to hear the other local person over the headset

or

- Hearing the other local person and yourself speaking

I think Steam isn't the answer here, but other other voice comms apps it seems. *

EDIT: * Because Steam only supports one audio device at a time and one instance only.