Crackling issue with Bass Guitar setup

[PhoenixAudio13]

So I recently borrowed a bass guitar from my friend to play in our "band" (we're just playing a few songs for fun, since we're all musical, and between us, we have the instruments) and am trying to set it up to play through my computer to headphones.

It's a fairly unique setup and goal (I think) so here's a rundown: I want to be able listen to the bass in my wireless headphones (Razer Barracuda X) AND play the bass audio, alongside my voice, directly into a XBOX party chat so my friends can listen and we can compare progress live without getting together. Microphone is also not good enough to pick up the low frequency of the amp, so AFAIK this is the only way to do it.

The setup: Bass to amp, 'phones' output to a 3.5mm adapter, cabled to line in on my motherboard. Line in is "listened" by Voicemeeter VAIO input, which is tied to output 'A' and 'B' on Voicemeeter Banana. The headset microphone is a hardware input to Voicemeeter, and only goes to output 'A'. This way, output 'A' goes to Voicemeeter virtual cable, which is used as the input for the XBOX app, while 'B' goes directly to my headset, so I hear the bass and not my voice.

The problem: Barely any tones come out of the bass when hooked up like this (sounds great just to the amp, or if I just directly listen to Line in with my headphones.) Only loud crackling when I play. Anyone have ideas on how to make this work? Open to any suggestions (preferably nothing paid) on how to just hear it normally while routing the audio in this manner.

Sorry this is long- wanted to be descriptive so we don't just go back and forth forever "fixing" things I already tried.

[BertKoor]

With crackling my first goto is a DSP Latency meaauring tool. There are a couple around, I recall Resplendence being one.

But for a proper solution, eventually you'll want a better audio interface. Using onboard audio with Voicemeeter are kind of hacks. A proper audio interface should have (imho) a control panel that lets you route the audio as you like.

Costs a bob or two, but pays off eventually. Most hobbies cost a bit of money...

[2DaT]

Costs a bob or two, but pays off eventually.

If this was true, musicians wouldn't be so broke. In this particular case cheap interface like focusrite solo 3gen would be enough. It also has XLR for the mic which is usable together with 6.3.

For bassist timing is very important, latency must be low, so anything other than ASIO is going to be not ideal. 64@44.1k is what I would run for a bass without having any latency issues.

I suggest getting a wired headphones straight into interface. Usually these "gaming" devices work through USB, and that means they are a separate audio device. This is not ideal. Ideal would be your bass, mic and headphones all in 1 device running asio 64@44.1.

I know, it sucks to pay, but it will be best 200 bucks you spend for sure. Audio inputs on motherboard are horrible (outputs are ok). Audio inputs on modern interface are professional quality. You could use DI for bass too, chances are it will sound better than the amp you have. And the microphone will be much better too.

For rehearsals I would stay from chat apps and use a vst for realtime jamming like sonobus. Lower latency and more flexible. You can setup a voice here too if your mic is using same interface.

Some interfaces allow windows audio with ASIO, some don't. So in case you are lucky, you can use your chat apps too.

Make sure you live close enough so that latency isn't too big. You can't play in realtime across the sea.

Technically you can use ASIO4ALL and get low latency using existing hardware, but audio inputs on motherboards are still terrible. May require some tinkering, but it is possible to get "acceptable" latency. The gimmick is that it overrides windows audio engine and you need to chat through the vst.

The "hacks" you are trying to use, they should work, it's probably a configuration issue of some sort. But even if it works, you will have bad latency and bad quality.