You don't need any additional hardware, VoiceMeeter can do what you're trying to do by itself:
- Install VoiceMeeter and reboot your computer
- Set hardware input 1 to your microphone by clicking the "1" button on the left-hand side of the window, and choosing the relevant device preceded by "WDM" from the dropdown
- Remove hardware input 1 from bus A (click the "A" in a circle for that section so it's not green)
- Set hardware output A1 to your normal playback device (E.G. speakers or headphones) by clicking the "A1" button on the right-hand side of the window, and choosing the relevant device preceded by "WDM" from the dropdown
- Set the "VoiceMeeter Output" device as your Windows default recording device (multimedia and communications)
- On the "Audio" tab of the VoiceAttack options window, set the "Override Default Playback Device" option to "VoiceMeeter Input (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)" (do the same for the "Override Default Text-to-Speech Device" if you want TTS played back to that device as well)
- On the "Recognition" tab of the VoiceAttack options window, set the "Windows Speech Recording Device" option to your physical microphone
- Click "OK" to save the changes
This is a basic setup, where now both your microphone input, and VoiceAttack's sound output, will play to the default recording device, which you can then use in games.
You will still hear the sounds through your chosen playback device, but you won't hear yourself talking into your microphone
One addition you'll likely want to make is to add push-to-talk or push-to-mute (so you can issue VoiceAttack commands without them being heard by other people); VoiceMeeter comes with its own macro/hotkey application, which can be opened by clicking the "Menu" button, and choosing "MacroButtons: Run on Voicemeeter start", which should only need to be clicked once, as enabling that option will from then on automatically open the macro application when you open VoiceMeeter.
A window with a single blue button should appear. Right-click the button, and a window with a whole bunch of options will open.
On this window, do the following:
In the "Button Name:" field, enter the text that will appear on the button (E.G. "push-to-talk")
Use the "keyboard Shortcut:" dropdown to choose the keyboard key(s) that will trigger push-to-talk (or push-to-mute)
If you want to prevent the key from getting through to other applications (the equivalent of VoiceAttack's "Do not allow key to be passed through" option), check the "Exclusive Key" option
If you want to set up this hotkey for push-to-talk (I.E. you normally talk to VoiceAttack, but when you push the button you'll talk to other people), paste the following into the "Request for Button ON / Trigger IN:" field:
strip[0].mute = 0.0f
And this in the "Request for Button OFF / Trigger OUT:" field:
strip[0].mute = 1.0f
If you want to set up this hotkey for push-to-mute instead (I.E. you normally talk to other people, but when you push the button you'll talk to VoiceAttack), paste the following into the "Request for Button ON / Trigger IN:" field:
strip[0].mute = 1.0f
And this in the "Request for Button OFF / Trigger OUT:" field:
strip[0].mute = 0.0f
Now click "Ok" to save the changes.
At this point, pressing the keyboard shortcut you chose in the "Keyboard Shortcut:" dropdown should affect your microphone (you'll see the "M" symbol on VoiceMeeter" change when you press it)
To stop VoiceAttack from responding when you're talking to other people, you'll also want to set it up for push-to-talk or push-to-mute.
If you chose to set up VoiceMeeter for push-to-talk:
- Click the "..." button next to the "Recognition Global Hotkey" option on the "Hotkeys" tab of the VoiceAttack options window
- Check the "Enable keyboard global hotkey" option
- Press the same keyboard key(s) you used for VoiceMeeter
- Click the "VoiceAttack stops listening while keys are down" option
- Click "OK"
- Click "OK"
If instead you chose to set up VoiceMeeter for push-to-mute:
- Click the "..." button next to the "Recognition Global Hotkey" option on the "Hotkeys" tab of the VoiceAttack options window
- Check the "Enable keyboard global hotkey" option
- Press the same keyboard key(s) you used for VoiceMeeter
- Click the "VoiceAttack listens while keys are down" option
- Click "OK"
- Click "OK"
Just so we're clear: Stereo Mix does not come into this; Literally none of the options should be set to Stereo Mix