Virtual Audio Cable 3

Latest version: 3.12

Description

Virtual Audio Cable 3 is a previous version of VAC, implemented as a Windows MME multimedia audio driver. Major differences are:

VAC 3 can be better than VAC 4 if both sides applications use the MME (waveIn/waveOut) audio interfaces and can be configured to use a single, common audio format. If at least one application uses DirectSound interface and/or different audio format, VAC 4 is preferred.

In any case, you always can download a free trial and test both versions. VAC 3 and VAC 4 can coexist in the same system if you choose different installation directories and Start Menu groups. But different versions of VAC 3 or VAC 4 (for example, 3.10 and 3.12 or 4.01 and 4.02) cannot coexist in the same system.

Features

• Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000/XP/2003 platforms.
• Windows MME (waveIn/waveOut) audio interface. DirectSound interface is directly supported under Windows 98/ME but emulated under Windows 2000/XP/2003.
• Up to 256 virtual cables.
• 1..20 milliseconds per interrupt.
• Almost any of fixed point PCM audio formats (200..1000000 samples per second, 8..32 bits per sample, 1..8 channels). Floating point formats are not supported.
• Almost no sound latency with maximal interrupt frequency.
• Unlimited number of clients connected to each port.
• Signal mixing (with saturation) between output port clients.
• Control Panel application to dynamically configure cables.
• Audio Repeater application that transfers from any Wave In to any Wave Out port.

Download

VAC 3 is distributed free of charge:

Download

How to install

VAC package is distributed as a ZIP archive. Simply unpack it into an empty folder, run setup.exe application and follow the instructions displayed. If you use VAC for the first time, please read the readme.txt and vac.chm files before installation. If you have already installed previous version of VAC 3, don't forget to uninstall it before installation.

Release history

Version 3.12 (09.01.06)

• Fixed a bug caused boot-time hangup in some Windows versions (mostly in XP SP2).

Version 3.11 (02.12.05)

• Fixed some deadlock problems.

Version 3.10 (14.07.05)

• Control Panel restricted to be run in single instance only.
• Setup utility updated for proper Terminal Services and Remote Desktop support.

Version 3.09 (06.06.05)

• Fixed driver/cables disappearing after reboot in some systems and when using RemoteDesktop.
• Changed noise in demo version to an attractive female voice (by Irina Kalatinskaya).

Version 3.08 (18.03.05)

• Fixed a small bug that can cause cable transfer to stop after about 5 hours of continuous working.

Version 3.07 (16.03.05)

• Fixed some minor bugs in mixer behavior.
• Fixed Audio Repeater to properly set its priority under 2k/XP.
• Improved sampling rate accuracy.
• Better support for high resolution and/or multichannel formats (WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE descriptors).
• Improved installer functionality.
• Now supporting 98/ME and 2k/XP only (support for 95/NT4 is discontinued).

Version 3.06 (11.05.03)

• Fixed bugs caused bug checks under NT/2k/XP (IRQL and memory leaks).
• Fixed incorrect behavior in low resource conditions under 2k/XP.
• Fixed some memory leaks under 9x/ME.
• Fixed rare installation failures under 9x/ME.
• Added number of input/output clients display to the Control Panel.

Version 3.05 (26.02.03)

• Fixed a race condition within waveInReset/waveOutReset (last WAVEHDR might not have WHDR_DONE bit set upon return).
• Fixed termination cleanup under NT/2k/XP (on abnormal application termination, there might be a system crash).
• Fixed a synchronization bug occurred if several cables are working simultaneously.
• Added a fake mixer.

Version 3.04 (28.10.02)

• Fixed a bug that caused VAC to use default values (number of cables and other) on boot under NT/2k/XP.

Version 3.03 (07.07.02)

• Fixed a bug that caused VAC to crash under Windows XP.
• Added a workaround to make VAC accessible from WinAMP and some other apps under Win2k. This was die to XP bug (the VAC user-mode driver DLL was statically linked with SETUPAPI.DLL which conflicts with some other system DLLs when dynamically loaded under Win2k.
• Added a workaround to allow VAC to be reinstalled under WinXP without rebooting when configured with more than one cable. This was another XP bug related to symbolic link directory management.

Version 3.02 (02.07.02)

• Fixed some minor bugs in VAC and Audio Repeater.
• Added minor updates to Audio Repeater.

Version 3.01 (20.06.02)

• Fixed a bug caused system crash under Win9x/ME.
• Fixed some minor bugs in Audio Repeater.
• Updated the installer to be able to remove old (2.xx) version in NT4/2000/XP.
• Creating program group for all users if possible (NT4/2000/XP).

Version 3.00 (11.06.02)

• Added synchronous mode support.
• Added Control Panel application.
• Created this hypertext help file.
• Restricted the demo version usability.
• Added the automatic installer/uninstaller.
• Now distributed in a single package for Win 9x/ME and NT/2000/XP.

Support

If you have experienced any problem with VAC, please ask for support. See the Support chapter in the Manual for the request format guidelines.

Source code and other options

VAC 3 consists of the kernel-mode and user-mode driver pair written entirely in C++ using object-oriented technology. No assembly files or additional driver development tools like VtoolsD are used.

VAC 3 also allows to create a custom (proprietary) configuration to be used together with a particular application only.

Each of custom versions has an unique key to identify its "native" application. This "native" application uses a special way to open a Virtual Cable device. Such opening way is called a "open in the native mode". When a cable is opened in native mode, it behaves as the full VAC version and can be opened by an unlimited number of applications at both In and Out sides. If a cable isn't opened in native mode, only a single side (In or Out) can be opened by a "foreign" application and cable doesn't perform audio data transfer.

To order VAC sources or a custom version, please contact the author.