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The home license for Virtual Audio Cable costs $30 as a one-time payment, while the business license costs $50, also one-time and perpetual. A free Lite edition is available for private home use, and the full trial can be used before purchasing. Whether the paid cost fits depends on the routing capacity required: the Lite edition is deliberately restricted, whereas the full version supports extensive cable and format configuration.
What the license provides
Virtual Audio Cable (VAC), developed by Eugene Muzychenko, installs a virtual audio driver that adds audio devices to Windows. An application sends playback to a cable’s output, and another application records from the corresponding input. This allows sound to pass between programs without routing through a physical cable. Several applications can use a cable at once, so their audio can be combined or made available to multiple clients.
The full trial has the capabilities of the full version, but after 30 minutes a female voice reminds the user that it is a trial. Lite is limited to one cable, one client, and stereo audio at up to 48 kHz and 16-bit; it is for private home use only. These restrictions make the free edition suitable for a small, basic routing task, but not for users who need multiple cables or higher-format settings.
Routing and audio control
The full version can create up to 256 virtual audio devices. Each cable loops audio from its playback side to its recording side, providing a path for applications such as a DAW to send sound into OBS or a voice chat program. The bundled Audio Repeater applications can copy audio from one device or cable to another, which is useful when a route needs to connect devices rather than simply pass audio through a single cable.
For more demanding setups, each cable can handle up to 384 kHz, 32-bit and 32 channels in the full version. Configuration includes channel remapping, stream format limits, and microphone- or S/PDIF-type lines. When no format conversion or volume control is applied, audio transfer is bit-perfect. The driver has no tray clutter and no network access, but configuration is handled through a control panel and Windows audio settings rather than a graphical mixing interface.
Setup and practical considerations
Virtual Audio Cable supports Windows 10, Windows 11 and older versions back to Windows XP. Because installation adds a driver, administrator rights are required. If recording devices do not appear on Windows 10 or 11, microphone access may need to be allowed in Settings > Privacy > Microphone. Moving from the trial to the full version requires uninstalling the trial and installing the full package.
The driver-based approach is suited to streamers, podcasters, ham radio operators, and developers who need to move audio between Windows applications. It is less appropriate for someone seeking a free, unlimited audio router or a mixer with a graphical interface. The main trade-off is between precise, configurable routing in the paid edition and the narrower limits of Lite or the trial’s recurring voice reminder.
For a product overview and access to the program listing, see Virtual Audio Cable on ExeDepot.