Soundboard

Soundboard is a local Windows desktop soundboard. It combines a physical microphone with one-shot sound effects and sends the mix to VB-CABLE through CABLE Input; Discord or a game then receives that combined signal from CABLE Output. Sound effects can also be monitored separately through physical headphones.

The application works entirely on the local computer. It requires no account, uses no telemetry or cloud storage, and does not access the network.

Features

• WAV and MP3 playback
• Ogg Opus and Ogg Vorbis playback, including .opus files in an Ogg container
• Persistent local sound library
• Empty library on first launch, ready for user-controlled audio imports
• Categories, Favorites, search, and persistent manual ordering
• Drag a tile onto a sidebar category to file it, with an Undo notification
• Organize mode for selecting several sounds and moving or favoriting them together in one operation
• Quick "Move to" category action on every tile
• Imports go straight into the selected category, or into a destination you pick as part of the import
• Audio files can be dragged from File Explorer onto the grid or onto a category
• Inline category creation, renaming, and deletion in the sidebar
• Tile accents and other tile personalization
• Windows global hotkeys using registered keys or key combinations
• Voice Priority: automatic microphone-triggered ducking that lowers sounds while you speak, with Low/Normal/High sensitivity and Light/Balanced/Strong strength
• Pause and resume playback from the main window or an optional global hotkey, with microphone passthrough continuing while sounds are paused
• One-shot playback of one sound at a time; triggering another sound stops the current one and starts the new one from the beginning
• Non-destructive trimming, fade-in, and fade-out
• Decoded waveform editing
• Per-sound volume plus one soundboard master volume
• Automatic microphone startup and endpoint reconnection
• Windows-default communications microphone mode or a pinned physical device
• Sound-only monitoring through physical headphones or speakers
• Duplicate detection using SHA-256
• Accessible keyboard navigation and screen-reader labels

Soundboard never modifies imported source files. It copies supported files into its managed local library and stores trim, fade, volume, category, hotkey, and personalization settings as metadata.

Soundboard includes no audio content and does not seed, download, or suggest sounds. Users add their own audio through the Import Sounds command and are responsible for using media they are authorized to use. Managed copies remain local under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Soundboard.

Requirements

• Windows x64
• VB-CABLE installed separately for virtual microphone routing
• Discord Krisp or similar noise suppression generally disabled so sound effects are not filtered out

The installer and portable release are self-contained. No separately installed .NET runtime is required.

Installation

Download the current installer or portable archive from this repository's Releases page.

Installer

Run Soundboard-Setup-v1.3.1-win-x64.exe. The installer is per-user and shows a destination page, so the installation folder can be changed. Its normal default under the current user's local application-data folder does not require administrator rights.

Portable ZIP

Extract Soundboard-v1.3.1-win-x64-portable.zip to a writable folder and run Soundboard\Soundboard.exe. Portable mode removes the installer requirement; user data still stays under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Soundboard.

The application and installer are unsigned. Windows SmartScreen may display an Unknown Publisher warning. Verify downloads with the included SHA256SUMS.txt before running them.

Discord routing

On first launch, keep the recommended Windows-default microphone mode or pin a physical microphone, then select CABLE Input if it was not detected automatically. Soundboard captures that microphone continuously whenever the app is open. In Discord or a game, select these devices once:

Discord input:              CABLE Output
Discord output:             Physical headset

Do not select VB-CABLE as Discord's output. That can create confusing routing or feedback; Discord output should remain on the physical headset.

Krisp and similar voice-processing features can suppress sound effects even when they reach VB-CABLE correctly. Disable them when using the soundboard. Soundboard does not change Discord or Windows audio settings.

Optionally enable sound-only monitoring in Soundboard and select a physical headset or speakers. Microphone audio is never sent to this monitor path.

Voice Priority and pause

Voice Priority automatically lowers sounds while you speak, so your physical microphone stays clearly audible in Discord or a game. It analyses the selected physical microphone only, before it is mixed with soundboard playback, so soundboard audio can never trigger its own ducking. Your microphone keeps its existing unity application gain; only the decoded sounds and the optional sound-only monitor are lowered, and they return to their configured volume when you stop speaking.

Voice Priority is off until you turn it on, including after an update. The toggle sits next to the master volume; sensitivity and strength are in Settings. Defaults are Normal sensitivity (-36 dBFS) and Balanced strength (-12 dB).

Pause sounds holds the playing sound at its exact position and resumes from the same sample. Microphone passthrough, the audio service, and the device connections keep running while playback is paused. Triggering a sound while paused replaces the paused one and starts playing immediately. A global hotkey for Pause/Resume playback can be assigned in Settings; none is assigned by default.

Soundboard does not change Windows volume, endpoint volume, microphone hardware gain, communication-session ducking, VB-CABLE, Discord, or game settings to achieve this.

Privacy

Soundboard has:

• no telemetry or analytics;
• no accounts;
• no cloud sync;
• no audio uploads; and
• no network access.

Global hotkeys use Windows RegisterHotKey registrations for explicitly configured keys or key combinations. Soundboard does not use keylogging, low-level keyboard hooks, raw input, keyboard polling, or simulated keystrokes.

Files and settings stay under:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Soundboard

That directory contains library.json, settings.json, managed copies of imported sounds, and waveform caches. Back up the entire directory while Soundboard is closed to preserve the library. Reinstall and uninstall operations preserve this user-data directory by default.

Supported audio formats

Soundboard accepts:

• .wav
• .mp3
• .ogg containing Opus audio
• .ogg containing Vorbis audio
• .opus containing Opus audio in an Ogg container

Ogg is a container. Soundboard inspects its contents and rejects malformed files, unsupported codecs, video, multiple logical streams, and unsupported multichannel audio. It does not require FFmpeg, VLC, external converters, or runtime codec downloads.

Building from source

Development requires Windows, the .NET 10 SDK, and an x64-capable environment.

dotnet restore
dotnet build --configuration Release
dotnet test --configuration Release
dotnet run --project .\tests\Soundboard.App.Tests\Soundboard.App.Tests.csproj --configuration Release --no-build --no-restore

Run the application from source with:

dotnet run --project .\src\Soundboard.App\Soundboard.App.csproj --configuration Release

The custom executable test harness is required in addition to dotnet test because the test project contains dependency-free integration checks that run as a normal executable.

Packaging

Inno Setup 7 is required to build the installer. From a clean checkout:

.\build\package.ps1 -Version 1.3.1
.\build\verify-package.ps1 -Version 1.3.1

The packaging script restores, builds, format-checks, runs tests and the custom harness, publishes a self-contained single-file x64 application, creates the portable ZIP and per-user installer, and generates the release manifest and SHA-256 checksums. Generated files are written under the ignored artifacts directory.

Limitations

• Windows x64 only
• VB-CABLE remains a separate prerequisite
• No automatic updates
• No code signing yet
• No microphone monitoring through the application
• No general system-audio capture
• Mono and stereo sources and outputs only
• No Discord API integration or automatic Discord configuration
• No tray integration or startup task

Soundboard starts its internal audio service automatically, but does not install or modify drivers, change Windows default audio devices, or change Discord settings. Windows does not expose a supported application API for publishing a mixed stream through an existing physical microphone endpoint; see the architecture decision.

License

Soundboard source code is available under the MIT License. Third-party dependencies retain their own licenses; distribution notices and license texts are under release. The project license applies to the software, not to audio or other media imported by users. Soundboard ships with no audio content. The installer and portable build are unsigned.

The MIT License does not grant trademark rights to the Soundboard name, logo, or branding beyond uses necessary to describe the software and exercise the license. No third-party component is relicensed by this project.