How to Micspam Properly in TF2

How you should probably micspam.

Introduction // What IS Micspam?

Hi, I'm Chaotix. I've been micspamming songs in TF2 for a few years now. Sometimes in Casual, most of the time on community servers.

Chances are if you're reading this, you probably know what micspam is, but for the few that don't, here's your introduction.

Micspamming is the act of playing music through your microphone so other players can hear it in-game. You've probably seen bots do this, usually with loud songs. Often times I see people try to micspam but they get a few things wrong, whether it's volume or programs they use. So, I'm making this guide to hopefully steer people in the right direction should they ever want to micspam songs!

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU GET KICKED FROM CASUAL OR BANNED FROM YOUR FAVOURITE SERVERS. HOWEVER, THIS WILL NOT GIVE YOU A VAC BAN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. These programs do not interact with TF2 in any way, only your microphone settings.

Also, this is a guide for Windows. I know basically nothing about MacOS and very little about Linux.

Speaking of programs...

Part 1 // What Programs Do I Use?

The first thing a lot of people will ask is what do you use for micspam? Well, there's plenty of programs available for it and I'll showcase a few of them to hopefully lead you in the right direction.

Music/Sound Players

SLAM (Source Live Audio Mixer) - This sucks. Don't use this.
This might work on CS:S or CS:GO (I haven't tested) but it does not work with TF2 at all and it hasn't worked for a few years. The program was last updated in 2017.

HLDJ - Same as SLAM. Don't use it.

Winamp - Used to be good, not sure anymore
This is what I've seen a lot of older guides use, and for good reason. Winamp (or at least the older versions) is a dedicated music player that can output to whatever you want, including virtual audio cables. Naturally, it's a good fit for playing music through the microphone. However, they've recently dabbled into NFT garbage. Ew. I haven't used this myself because of it and it's changed a lot, so I can't be sure if it's a good program to micspam with anymore.

Soundpad - The absolute easiest option
Soundpad is a program that lets you play sounds directly through your microphone. Being a program specifically designed for it, it's definitely a good one with support for hotkeys, soundlists and even a dedicated sound recorder. There's a free demo available on Steam and only costs £4 (and goes on sale often!)
Give it a look here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/629520/Soundpad/

Voicemod - Relatively simple, if a tad annoying
Voicemod is a program similar to Soundpad, but it also includes a voice changer to mess around with. It's also subscription-based (I believe they offer lifetime keys as well but I'm not sure, I got mine over 3 years ago so that may have changed). It's pretty good and it also has Stream Deck support if you use one. Just uh, don't look at their official Twitter unless you want a good cringe session. Also they advertise using AI for their latest voice changers. Whether that's a deal-breaker or not is up to you.
Take a look here: https://www.voicemod.net/

foobar2000 - Fantastic, if a bit finicky
This used to be my preferred program for micspamming. I've recently been having issues with it however so I've moved over to a different program, but if you're more familiar with this program, this is a fantastic option.
Download here: https://www.foobar2000.org/

AIMP - My preferred program
After I was having issues using foobar2000, a friend of mine recommended this program, and it's fairly apparent why. It's similar to foobar2000, except it's way simpler. This is the program that I will be using for this tutorial.
Download here: https://www.aimp.ru/

Basically, if it's a music program that can output to any input other than the default, you should be able to micspam using it.

Virtual Audio Cables

VB-Audio Virtual Cable
If you're not using Soundpad or Voicemod, you will be needing this. If you're needing multiple audio cables, you'll have to pay for them two at a time up to a maximum of 5, though they are relatively cheap (5 euros for 2 extra virtual audio cables). For this tutorial, this is the program we'll be using.
Download here: https://vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm

Virtual Audio Cable
An alternative to the VB-Audio Virtual Cable is the original Virtual Audio Cable by Eugene Muzychenko, which you've probably seen on other micspam guides. This is also a free program, but you'll only get access to one cable as well as some other limitations (which shouldn't affect most people). If you really need more than one cable, a perpetual license for one user costs $30, which will get you 255 more virtual cables. If you really need them.

Download here: https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/download.htm (You'll probably want to download VAC Lite)


OPTIONAL: Voicemeeter
Voicemeeter (and by extension Voicemeeter Banana and Potato) allows you to mix and manage audio sources and essentially merge them into one. If, for example, you want to play wacky sounds through Soundpad/Voicemod and use a program like AIMP for music exclusively, this is what you'll need. If you don't care about that however, you don't have to.
Download here: https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/index.html

OPTIONAL: Elgato Wave Link
If you have an Elgato Wave microphone or use a Wave XLR, then you don't need Voicemeeter or a virtual audio cable at all and can use this instead! It's basically similar to Voicemeeter, except it's super easy and streamlined. This is what I personally use myself as I use an Elgato Wave:1, although this tutorial will be using the VB-Audio Virtual Cable.

Part 2 // Let's Get This Set Up Already

When downloading AIMP, you'll want to download specifically the 32-bit version, regardless if you're using a 64-bit version of Windows. This is so we have the most compatibility with certain plugins we'll be using.



Once AIMP is downloaded and installed, pick whatever theme you feel comfortable with. I'm using the Modern theme. It should look something like this.
(Yours will look slightly different, I made mine blue because I can. By default, it'll be orange.)



Next up, let's get our Virtual Audio Cable installed.
Download the virtual audio cable from VB-Audio. It should be in a .zip file.
Extract everything into a single folder and run the installation as administrator.



Once completed, you may need to restart your computer.
Now that both programs are finished installing, we can move on to actually setting everything up!

First things first, let's get this outputting to our virtual audio cable.
Click on the AIMP logo on the top right, and click on Preferences. You should get a menu like this.



Set the device to your virtual audio cable, like so.



Next, set your default input device in Windows to this new virtual audio cable. The easiest way to do this is by clicking the three dots next to the device selection menu in AIMP:



Then, switch the tab to Recording and set the VB-Audio Virtual Cable Output as the default.



With that, you're basically 90% finished already!
Launch TF2 and start up a local server to make sure everything works. You'll want to turn off Steam Networking if you don't want anyone else joining you.




To properly test this, open up the console and type "voice_loopback 1". This is so we can actually hear our music in-game, as we won't be able to hear it since it's being outputted to the virtual audio cable.

Once done, drag some music into AIMP and hold down your push-to-talk key! If everything has been done right, you should be able to hear whatever music you decide to play in-game!

Part 3 // Extra Settings

These settings, whilst optional, will make your micspamming life a little bit easier! This includes some TF2 settings as well as some AIMP settings.

AIMP Settings

My number 1 recommendation is to have a keybind to play/pause music. Specifically, a global keybind.
A global keybind is basically a bind that will work regardless if the program is focused or not. I personally have mine set to CTRL+Home.



Next, if you have multiple songs added, by default the program will continuously play them as though it was a playlist. If you don't want that, turn off "Automatically jump to next track" under the "Automatic" section.



One weird quirk about TF2's voice chat is that it's always in mono. Instead of downmixing both stereo channels into mono however, it completely throws out the right channel. This could cause issues with cutting out, or in some cases, not play anything at all. Thankfully, there's a fairly easy fix you can do in Windows.

In the sound settings we entered earlier, switch over to Playback, right click the VB-Audio Virtual Cable, and click on "Configure Speakers".



Then, set the configuration to "Mono".



Now, your music should be in mono, exactly what TF2 is looking for!

TF2 Settings

There's only a couple of TF2 settings I'd recommend changing.
For starters, in console, I recommend typing "voice_buffer_ms 10". This will change the amount of time it takes for your voice/music to go through, with the downside being that since there's no buffer, it may have some weird audio glitches. I personally haven't experienced any, though your mileage may vary.

The last setting is to do with the push-to-talk key. I imagine not everyone will be happy having to hold down their push-to-talk key every time they want to play music, especially if they need to alt-tab for whatever reason. So, I recommend this helpful config by [EXG] on GameBanana. It basically lets you toggle on and off your microphone as opposed to it just being push-to-talk, which should make micspamming way easier! Just paste this config into your autoexec.cfg file and you should be good to go!

https://gamebanana.com/scripts/4020

Part 4 // An Infinite Library of Music

So, you've gotten pretty much everything sorted out by now. You've gotten your audio program, you've got your TF2 all set up. But there's just one problem.

You don't have enough music!

Worse yet, people in-game are asking for requests of songs that you don't actually have, and you don't have the time to download them!
What are you going to do?

Well, this is one of the reasons why I recommend using AIMP or foobar2000.
A YouTube plugin!

Using a YouTube plugin, you can use pretty much every single video on the website and micspam it without having to download every single one!
First off, you'll want to download the "youtube-dl" plugin from AIMP. This is the main reason why I recommend using the 32-bit version of AIMP, as the 64-bit version doesn't support this plugin.
As an added bonus, this plugin will also let you use Soundcloud, Twitch, Yandex.Music, and more! Basically, whatever's supported by yt-dlp!

Download the plugin here: https://www.aimp.ru/?do=catalog&rec_id=1090

You should just be able to click on it and it should install successfully.

Once done, open preferences and make sure that it's successfully installed yt-dlp and that it's up to date.



Once that's done, if you click the + button on the bottom right, you should have a Youtube-DL button.




Then, simply paste a YouTube URL (or whatever other website that yt-dlp supports) and get to micspamming!

Outroduction // That's All, Folks!

With that, I believe those are the bare basics on how to micspam properly in TF2! No more holding your phone up to your cheap headset mic to play music! No more outdated programs! Now, go and enjoy getting votekicked from your casual games! This guide has been a few years in the making, mostly because I started it a while ago and never took the time to finish it until now, lol

If you've found this guide helpful, leave a comment, a rating, or even a medal! I don't really have much to say otherwise.

Might as well use this time to shill the fact that I do SFM commissions! If you're interested, leave a comment on my profile and I'll get back to you when I can.




Ciao for now!