VB-Cable a VAC Alternative

 While I have for some time used VAC for my digital audio cable with various digital modes and the Flex SDR 3000

I was recently made aware of another Virtual Audio software product called VB-Cable.

I have now been using VB-Cable for several months and found it to be more stable, use less system resources and have less latency then VAC.

VB-cable is a donation software product- A software link to the 2nd and 3rd cables can found be donating any monetary amount to the author:

You’ll need the 3 files Driver- ADRIVER and BDRIVER use the donate link on the website to get the other 2 cables-

To helps us to maintain freeware and continue our research, thanks to support our development team !   Click on Donate button and get two more virtual audio devices:
VB-CABLES A & B !

Now proceed to install and configure the software

1 Make a folder on your system call it VBCABLE or whatever you’d like

2 And unzip the files in that folder-

3 Per there site instructions- ( The setup program must be run in administrative mode) do the setup on each of the 3 sub folders created within the folder you made and the run the setup within them- All the SETUP.exe files should be run in administrative mode

4 Go back to each of the 3 sub folders : in them you will see a application file called:  VBCABLE_ControlPanel.exe double click to launch it and then go to options top left corner : select your latency and the sampling rate

 I used 512 latency and 48000 Hz (some may need to bump latency closer to 1024 / 2048 depending on their system) 

 Changes made my prompt for: Any changes take effect on next reboot message: Reboot if prompted to do so

 Start PowerSDR open setup click Audio- VAC and select driver format needed – I used Windows- WDM-KS as that has always worked well for me:

 Select Input: VB-Audio CABLE-A

 Select Output: VB-Audio CABLE B

 Start your digital mode and configure the Audio  devices as needed simply swap the in and out virtual cables :

 In my example of using WSJTX my Audio In is now Cable B and the Audio Out is Cable A- just opposite of my Flex VAC settings

Also you’ll now see the streaming taken place if you open the VBCABLE_ControlPanel.exe to see the control panel the WSJTX application  has a fixed 44100Hz sample rate the screen shot show CABLE B which is the input to WSJTX so the VB-Cable will fall back to what is needed- I haven’t seen to many HAM digital apps that need more than 48000 HZ but if needed the control panel options will allow you to change the sample rate

I also setup a Audio Profile for each mode or digital application so when I use it all Input / Output levels are pre set and I don’t have to mess with them.

Each cable can be Uninstalled from the windows software control panel as well

Hope this helps-

Rick

N8SDR