title: Windows 10 virtual microphone device that records/proxies from real microphone
body: <p><strong>Background:</strong> In my Windows PC based audio production setup I plan to be unplugging and re-plugging in my USB microphone on a regular basis.</p>
  
  <p>A cheap <em>but mandatory/necessary</em> 3rd party app that I use to record from my USB microphone unfortunately does not gracefully handle the USB microphone being unplugged and re-plugged in.</p>
  
  <p>After re-plugging in the USB microphone, the app just records dead silence.</p>
  
  <p>If I close the app and re-open it, it then records audio just fine.</p>
  
  <p>I have contacted the app's developers requesting a fix not expecting one.</p>
  
  <p>(One "simple" fix might be to close and reopen the app via a script, but this is undesirable because when the app launches it forces itself to the foreground with an annoying splash screen that causes me to have to alt-tab to the previously foregrounded app; I will be doing live audio production with video output and prefer to not get this visual distraction).</p>
  
  <p>I am looking for a way to have a persistent virtual microphone that records from my real USB microphone and that outputs silence when the real device is not present (unplugged) and when it is present (plugged-in) gracefully/dynamically re-connects and forwards the real USB microphone's raw output <strong>as an audio recording/input capture endpoint</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>I am aware of VoiceMeeter, VBCable, VAC, Jack, etc.</p>
  
  <p>These all seem to output the virtual <strong>recording/input</strong> to a <strong>playback/output</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>I am also aware of Windows' recording device "Listen to this device" feature, but this also seems to only output to only a <strong>playback</strong> device.</p>
  
  <p>What I am looking for is a virtual recording/input that outputs audio recorded <strong>from another recording/input</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>For lack of a better term, think "Microphone Proxy", "Microphone Forward", "Microphone Loopback", "Microphone Pass-Through", "Microphone In-Line", or "Microphone Sniffer"?</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions on how I can accomplish this, or if such a thing even exists or make sense?</p>
  
  <p>Perhaps there is still a creative way to work with the existing virtual inputs/outputs (I have 5: VBCable 0, VBCable A, VBCable B, VoiceMeeter Main, and VoiceMeeter AUX, but I am using 4 of them already: VBCable A (output from one app), VBCable B (output from another app), VoiceMeeter Main (system default output), and VoiceMeeter AUX (VBAN from another PC)), any of their ability to "self-loopback", combined w/ Windows' "Listen to this device" setting, but I have been fiddling with this for days and don't see any way to get this to work yet...thus this question.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas/suggestions?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>