MAIRA uses VB-CABLE to route audio internally on your PC so it can be analyzed and repurposed for features like:
- Captions – capturing iRacing voice chat audio
- Wheel LFE (Low Frequency Effects) – routing bass shaker effects to the wheel
VB-CABLE is developed by VB-Audio and provides virtual audio devices that behave like physical sound cards, allowing audio to be redirected between applications.
Downloading VB-CABLE
VB-CABLE is available directly from VB-Audio:
Which version do I need?
Free version (VB-CABLE)
✔ Required for either Speech-To-Text or LFE
✔ Fully sufficient if you use only one of those features
Paid version (VB-CABLE A+B)
✔ Required if you want to use Speech-To-Text and LFE at the same time
✔ Provides additional virtual cables so audio paths don’t conflict
Installing VB-CABLE
- Download the ZIP from the VB-Audio website.
- Extract the ZIP file.
- Right-click on the setup file and choose Run as administrator.
- Click Install Driver.
- Reboot Windows when prompted (important).
After rebooting, Windows will have new audio devices:
- CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)
- CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)
Configuring VB-CABLE
VB-CABLE routes audio internally, which means audio sent into it won’t automatically go to your speakers/headphones (or to your shaker amp). To hear it (or send it to your bass shaker device), you must enable monitoring in Windows:
Step-by-step: Enable “Listen to this device”
- Right-click the speaker icon in the Windows taskbar
- Click Sound settings
- Scroll down and click More sound settings
(This opens the classic Sound control panel) - Go to the Recording tab
- Find and double-click:
CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) - Go to the Listen tab
- Check: ✅ Listen to this device
- Under Playback through this device, choose where you want the audio to go:
- Your headphones / speakers (to hear voice chat), or
- Your bass shaker sound card / USB DAC (to drive the shaker amp)
- Click Apply, then OK
At this point:
- iRacing → VB-CABLE → MAIRA can analyze it
- AND Windows forwards VB-CABLE audio to the device you selected
Selecting the cable inside MAIRA
The Windows routing above sends the audio into the cable, but MAIRA also needs to be told which device to listen to. In MAIRA, choose “CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)” as the capture/recording device:
- For Wheel LFE — select CABLE Output as the recording device on the Racing wheel page.
- For Captions — select CABLE Output as the recording device on the Speech-to-Text page.
If you are using the paid VB-CABLE A+B version to run both features at once, pick the matching CABLE-A / CABLE-B Output device on each page so the two audio paths don’t conflict.
Configuring iRacing to Use VB-CABLE
Once VB-CABLE is installed and Windows monitoring is configured, iRacing must be told to send data through VB-CABLE. This is done inside iRacing’s settings UI.
- Launch the iRacing simulator
- Go to Settings
- For the MAIRA Wheel LFE feature
- Go to Bass Shaker Force Feedback
- Select the CABLE Input as the LFE Device
- For the MAIRA Captions feature
- Go to Audio
- Go to Voice Chat > Devices
- Select the CABLE Input as the Voice Chat Output Device
When using both the Wheel LFE and Captions features, I like to use CABLE-A for the voice chat, and CABLE-B (“B” for Bass Shaker) for the LFE.
How MAIRA Uses VB-CABLE
Conceptual overview
VB-CABLE always works in pairs:
- CABLE Input → appears as a playback device (speaker)
- CABLE Output → appears as a recording device (microphone)
Audio sent into CABLE Input comes out of CABLE Output. In other words, speakers are turned into microphones.
MAIRA listens to CABLE Output.