Is there a way I can get sound to play out of two different audio devices at the same time?

My desktop has a small TV as a monitor which has built-in speakers, and my PC has additional speakers that are connected via a TRS audio cable.

When I was running Windows in the past, I would play sound through both the HDMI cable and the TRS cable using "Voicemeeter Banana".

Voicemeeter Banana isn't available on Linux, so is there some kind of alternative that I can use to get sound to play out of both devices?

Try running that on WINE (which comes with Zorin).

That's probably not going to work. Voicemeeter Banana works through the Windows audio drivers. Even if I ran the program through Wine, I don't think it's going to recognize the Linux audio drivers.

Maybe try Audacity?

From websearch, I found this:

but I have no idea if it will work or not.

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Audaciy is used to record and edit audio files. While it's posibe to create audio files using two diffrent audio recording devices, that isn't what I'm trying to do.

I want the audio signial from my PC to be directed to two diffrent audio playing devices.

When I watch a YouTube video, I want the audio to come from both my TV and speakers.

Try one of these:

https://alternativeto.net/software/voicemeeter/?platform=linux

Well, I found Pulseaudio and installed it, but it doesn't seem to have it's "Simultaneous Output" option. So, I still can't play audio out of both devices at the same time.

Sorry to keep pointing to even more sources online, I wish I had a solution to offer you. But, I found this article that may be of help with this issue:

It works. It won't pop up the preferences as it shows in that tutorial, but if you go to Zorin menu > Settings > Sound, you've got a new "Simultaneous output" menu option. Now sound comes from my external USB speakers and the built-in speakers.

On my system, it installed:
paprefs

Summary

sudo apt show paprefs
Package: paprefs
Version: 1.1-1build1
Priority: optional
Section: universe/sound
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com
Original-Maintainer: Pulseaudio maintenance team pkg-pulseaudio-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Bugs: OpenID transaction in progress
Installed-Size: 370 kB
Depends: gnome-icon-theme, pulseaudio-module-gsettings, pulseaudio-module-zeroconf, libatkmm-1.6-1v5 (>= 2.24.0), libc6 (>= 2.14), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libglibmm-2.4-1v5 (>= 2.54.0), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.0.0), libgtkmm-3.0-1v5 (>= 3.24.0), libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1), libsigc++-2.0-0v5 (>= 2.2.0), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2)
Homepage: PulseAudio Preferences 1.2
Download-Size: 53.4 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
Description: PulseAudio Preferences
PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.

PulseAudio Preferences (paprefs) is a simple GTK+ based configuration dialog for the PulseAudio sound server.

gnome-icon-theme

Summary

sudo apt show gnome-icon-theme
Package: gnome-icon-theme
Version: 3.12.0-3
Priority: optional
Section: universe/gnome
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com
Original-Maintainer: Josselin Mouette joss@debian.org
Bugs: OpenID transaction in progress
Installed-Size: 15.6 MB
Depends: hicolor-icon-theme, gtk-update-icon-cache, librsvg2-common
Enhances: nautilus (>= 2.2)
Task: ubuntustudio-desktop-core, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop
Download-Size: 9,620 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: Index of /ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
Description: GNOME Desktop icon theme
This package contains the default icon theme used by the GNOME desktop.
The icons are used in the panel menu, and in nautilus and other applications, to represent the different applications, files, directories, and devices.

pulseaudio-module-zeroconf

Summary

sudo apt show pulseaudio-module-zeroconf
Package: pulseaudio-module-zeroconf
Version: 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13
Priority: optional
Section: universe/sound
Source: pulseaudio
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com
Original-Maintainer: Pulseaudio maintenance team pkg-pulseaudio-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Bugs: OpenID transaction in progress
Installed-Size: 190 kB
Depends: libavahi-client3 (>= 0.6.16), libavahi-common3 (>= 0.6.16), libc6 (>= 2.4), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libpulse0 (= 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13), pulseaudio (= 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13), avahi-daemon
Homepage: http://www.pulseaudio.org
Download-Size: 22.0 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: Index of /ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
Description: Zeroconf module for PulseAudio sound server
PulseAudio, previously known as Polypaudio, is a sound server for POSIX and WIN32 systems. It is a drop in replacement for the ESD sound server with much better latency, mixing/re-sampling quality and overall architecture.
.
This module enables PulseAudio to publish available sinks and sources via
zeroconf (aka. Avahi, mdns).
.
The module is called module-zeroconf-publish.

2 Likes

Well, it isn't showing "Simultaneous output" on my PC.
image

In paprefs, did you go to the "Simultaneous Output" tab and select "Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards"?

If so, a reboot might do it.

There isn't a "Simultaneous Output" tab.
image

Start Terminal, enter 'paprefs'. Then go to the "Simultaneous Output" tab.

The neat thing about paprefs is that if you've got a network-capable audio system, you can hook your local computer's audio into the audio system over the network. That comes in handy for, for instance, a media center computer.

The solution I am currently using is to install "PulseAudio Preferences" from the Zorin OS store, and with this app, I was able to create a "Simultaneous Output" for both my audio devices.

image

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