{"id":92,"date":"2026-08-22T17:31:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/?p=92"},"modified":"2026-08-22T17:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:31:30","slug":"play-music-in-chat-stereo-mix-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/en\/play-music-in-chat-stereo-mix-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Music in a Chat: Stereo Mix on Windows 11"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&rsquo;re hosting a room, you want to play a track, set a mood or improvise a karaoke night \u2014 but everyone only hears your voice. That&rsquo;s normal: by default, your microphone only picks up what comes in through the mic, not what your computer is playing. The solution is called <strong>Stereo Mix<\/strong>, and it&rsquo;s already built into Windows.<\/p>\n<h2>What exactly is Stereo Mix?<\/h2>\n<p>Stereo Mix is a <strong>virtual recording device<\/strong> built into Windows. Instead of capturing outside sound the way a microphone does, it captures the audio stream your sound card is playing directly: music, video, a game, the browser.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, if you select it as the source in your chat, the other participants will hear exactly what comes out of your speakers. It&rsquo;s the simplest way to play music with no extra hardware.<\/p>\n<h2>Enabling Stereo Mix on Windows 11, step by step<\/h2>\n<p>Stereo Mix exists on most machines, but it&rsquo;s <strong>disabled and hidden<\/strong> by default. Here&rsquo;s how to bring it back.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Right-click the sound icon<\/strong> in the taskbar, bottom right.<\/li>\n<li>Choose <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Sound settings\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong>, then scroll down to <strong>\u00ab\u00a0More sound settings\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> (the old control panel opens).<\/li>\n<li>Go to the <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Recording\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> tab.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right-click in the empty area<\/strong> of the list, then tick <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Show Disabled Devices\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> and <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Show Disconnected Devices\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00ab\u00a0Stereo Mix\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> now appears in the list. Right-click it, then <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Enable\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Right-click again \u2192 <strong>\u00ab\u00a0Set as Default Device\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> if you want it used automatically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>All that&rsquo;s left is to select \u00ab\u00a0Stereo Mix\u00a0\u00bb as the microphone in your browser or chat, and the music will come through.<\/p>\n<h2>\u00ab\u00a0I don&rsquo;t have Stereo Mix in the list\u00a0\u00bb<\/h2>\n<p>This is common, and it&rsquo;s not your fault: Stereo Mix depends on your <strong>sound card driver<\/strong>. Some manufacturers \u2014 especially on recent laptops and USB sound cards \u2014 simply don&rsquo;t include it.<\/p>\n<p>Two options in that case:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Install the manufacturer&rsquo;s driver<\/strong> (Realtek, for example) rather than the generic Windows one. The generic driver often hides this feature.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use a virtual audio cable<\/strong>: free tools like VB-Audio Virtual Cable or VoiceMeeter create a virtual input device that does exactly the same job, with the added ability to <em>mix<\/em> your voice and the music.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The real trap: nobody can hear you any more<\/h2>\n<p>This is the classic disappointment. By switching to Stereo Mix, you broadcast the computer&rsquo;s sound\u2026 <strong>and only that<\/strong>. Your mic is no longer transmitted: the music plays, but you can&rsquo;t talk over it.<\/p>\n<p>To have both at once, you need to mix the two sources. The simplest method is <strong>VoiceMeeter<\/strong>: you plug your mic into one input, the music into another, and the app sends the mix to the chat. It&rsquo;s the solution most music-room hosts use.<\/p>\n<h2>Set the volume, or it&rsquo;ll clip<\/h2>\n<p>An often-overlooked point: Stereo Mix captures the sound <strong>at the level it comes out<\/strong>. If your music is at full volume, it will arrive distorted and unpleasant for others, even if they turn their own volume down.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set your player&rsquo;s volume to around <strong>60\u201370%<\/strong> rather than maximum.<\/li>\n<li>In the Stereo Mix properties, \u00ab\u00a0Levels\u00a0\u00bb tab, keep some headroom: don&rsquo;t go up to 100.<\/li>\n<li>Ask someone in the room whether the sound is clear \u2014 you can&rsquo;t judge it yourself, since you hear the source directly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>An important word on copyright<\/h2>\n<p>Playing music in a public room is not a harmless act legally. A commercial track is protected, and broadcasting it to a group of people is a public communication that, in principle, requires permission.<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s why our <a href=\"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/cgu.en.html\">terms of use<\/a> forbid broadcasting protected works without authorisation. In practice, favour:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>your <strong>own creations<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li><strong>freely licensed<\/strong> music (Creative Commons, royalty-free music libraries);<\/li>\n<li><strong>private rooms among friends<\/strong> rather than a public broadcast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Responsibility for what you broadcast is yours: better to know it before you start your first playlist.<\/p>\n<h2>Over to you<\/h2>\n<p>Once Stereo Mix is set up, creating a musical mood in your room becomes a two-click affair. <a href=\"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/en\/\">Join LibertiChat<\/a>, create your room and test it: the mic and webcam stay optional, and you can happily host with sound alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&rsquo;re hosting a room, you want to play a track, set a mood or improvise a karaoke night \u2014 but everyone only hears your voice. That&rsquo;s normal: by default, your microphone only picks up what comes in through the mic, not what your computer is playing. The solution is called Stereo Mix, and it&rsquo;s already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"description":"Others only hear your voice, not your music? Stereo Mix is the fix, and it's built into Windows 11. How to enable it, and the trap that mutes your mic.","title":"Play Music in a Chat: Stereo Mix on Windows 11 - Le blog de libertichat"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guides-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libertichat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}