InputRack

InputRack is a Windows 11 desktop application that processes a physical microphone through a user-defined chain of 64-bit VST3 effects and publishes the processed stereo signal through an output other applications can use as a microphone.

Download

The production application is distributed through the Microsoft Store. The base app is free; InputRack Pro is available only as a Store add-on. Direct installer builds are development artifacts and are not a supported consumer distribution channel.

Publishing the chain requires a virtual audio cable such as VB-CABLE, installed separately. InputRack's own kernel driver has no Microsoft release signature yet and therefore cannot be installed on a machine with Secure Boot enabled. See docs/VIRTUAL_CABLE.md for the routing, and docs/WINDOWS_VIRTUAL_MIC.md for the driver.

MVP

• Windows 11
• mono microphone input with a stereo, 48 kHz processing and output path
• VST3 discovery and hosting
• add, remove, reorder, bypass and edit plug-ins
• input/output level meters with a clipping-protection limiter on the output
• global bypass for the whole rack, independent of the per-plug-in flags
• versioned InputRack presets including complete plug-in state, with crash recovery of the last known-good rack after an unexpected shutdown
• automatic recovery when the selected audio device disappears
• named workflow profiles containing the rack and selected audio devices
• optional foreground-application bindings that select a profile automatically
• global Ctrl+Alt+B bypass and Ctrl+Alt+1 through Ctrl+Alt+9 profile hotkeys
• system tray access and an MSIX startup task controlled from Windows Settings
• publishing through any virtual audio cable
• WDM/WaveRT virtual capture endpoint on Windows 11 (driver not release-signed)

Build

Requirements: CMake 3.25+, Ninja, a C++20 compiler and the Windows audio development packages. JUCE is fetched at its pinned release unless INPUTRACK_JUCE_SOURCE_DIR points to a local checkout.

On Windows, CMake and the MSVC toolchain ship inside Visual Studio and are not on the global PATH. Dot-source the helper once per shell, then run the equivalent presets:

. .\scripts\dev-shell.ps1
cmake --preset windows-debug
cmake --build --preset windows-debug
ctest --preset windows-debug

A Visual Studio Developer PowerShell already has that environment loaded and needs no helper.

Routing the chain into a virtual audio cable, the supported path today, is documented in docs/VIRTUAL_CABLE.md.

The Windows virtual microphone is a separate kernel driver. Development build, installation, diagnostics, Discord selection, and removal are documented in docs/WINDOWS_VIRTUAL_MIC.md.

Platform delivery milestones are described in docs/IMPLEMENTATION.md. Release creation and signing requirements are described in docs/RELEASING.md. Microsoft Store purchases and the Pro entitlement are described in docs/STORE_COMMERCE.md.