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by LoganDark 1201 days ago
> it does exactly what the Mac app does

no... it doesn't. sure, there are programs you can install that will add virtual sound devices on Windows, but I can't find any program that will let you manage them dynamically, let alone do half the things that Loopback does.

VAC does actually let you restart the entire driver to change the number of virtual audio devices, if no programs are using any of them.

But another big selling point of Loopback is the ability to capture audio from applications without having to change the output device, which I believe is technically possible on Windows (Discord can do it sometimes) but there isn't a program that exposes it through a virtual input device yet.

Linux does seem good for this audio stuff specifically—there may or may not be pretty Linux GUIs for arbitrary audio mixing/routing—however on Windows there are no good examples of it. or, again, none that I can find. VAC certainly isn't one.

Of course, even on Windows, I use Voicemeeter on a daily basis and I have tried to fool around with VSTHost for real-time filters (like dynamic range compression, which I had used a lot on macOS to watch movies), but there's significant latency and I cba to figure out what the problem is. Voicemeeter is still useful for muting my microphone with a macro key though.

If I wanted to try to make something like Loopback myself I'd probably need to continue my months long search to figure out how to write userspace drivers. Because I still can't figure it out.

I'm not trying to shill Loopback here, I'm just giving it as an example of a Mac-exclusive app that does something that you can't easily get on another OS right now. Maybe it's just cause nobody's put in the time yet, but macOS still seems to have more power-user-esque apps imho.