Audio Router

Audio Router for Windows is an application that allows you to select a specific audio output device for different apps. It is a free, open-source program (GPL-3.0) that runs without installation and gives you one place to control the audio output of all running programs.

Features:

• Routes the sound of each application to a chosen output device, so several programs can play on different devices at once.
• It does not need to be installed to your computer, it can be downloaded and extracted from a zip file (32-bit and 64-bit builds are available).
• Can change the volume level of each program and mute it, with peak meters showing the output level.
• Can duplicate an application's audio stream so it plays on several devices at the same time.

Each program can play through its own audio device, for example a game on the speakers and music or chat on headphones.

There are other programs available like VoiceMeeter Banana or CheVolume, but the interface of Audio Router is simple and straightforward to use: every audio device appears as a panel with volume sliders for the applications that play through it, and the drop-down button under each application offers the Mute/Unmute, Duplicate and Route commands. Because it is a portable program, it can be kept on a USB drive and used on different computers without a new download, and it takes only a few hundred kilobytes of disk space. It allows a computer user to play a video game while listening to music at the same time, with separate control of the audio of each application. If one is too loud, it can easily be adjusted while both applications keep playing. It also allows you to play one application through your headphones while another one plays through your speakers, so others in the room can hear one program while you listen privately to something else. Any output device that Windows recognizes, including Bluetooth speakers and headsets, can be used as a target. Metro (Store) apps need extra manual steps, and applications running with administrator rights cannot be routed automatically. It gives you per-application device control that media players such as VLC Player or Windows Media Player do not offer. The last release, 0.10.2, was published in 2016 and the program is no longer developed; recent versions of Windows 10 and 11 also include their own per-app output selection in the sound settings.