ChatMix balances game audio against voice chat with one control: turn it one way and the game gets
louder while chat gets quieter, turn it the other way and chat takes over. OpenChatMix brings that to
any headset or speakers on Windows, with hotkeys, the mouse wheel or the panel, and adds a microphone
chain with noise suppression, a compressor, an equalizer and VST plugins.
On SteelSeries Arctis headsets it goes further. Their hardware ChatMix dial normally only works while
SteelSeries GG and Sonar run: several background processes, hundreds of megabytes of RAM and a set of
virtual audio devices. OpenChatMix talks to the headset directly over USB HID instead, and also
covers its native settings.
The balance is applied as per-app volume in Windows, so the sound keeps going straight to the
headset. If you prefer Sonar's way, an optional virtual device mode mixes Game
and Chat from two virtual audio cables instead. It is a single native executable that idles at 0% CPU
and installs no drivers of its own.
On its own OpenChatMix needs about 4 MB of memory. What you add on top costs its own: the microphone
chain and the equalizers a little, VST plugins as much as they need — a plugin with a neural network,
such as a voice cleaner, can take hundreds of megabytes.
Contents
Works with any headset
Any headset, speakers or an unsupported SteelSeries model:
- The balance is set in the panel, with hotkeys or with the mouse wheel while a key combination is
held, and applies to the default output device, whose name the panel shows. A single key works as
a hotkey, so a keyboard's volume knob can act as a ChatMix wheel.
- Game, Chat, Media and Aux groups, ducking, app profiles and the popup work the same way.
- The microphone chain and, in virtual device mode, the equalizer work with any device.
SteelSeries Arctis: one app instead of SteelSeries GG
SteelSeries headsets from the list below also get the hardware dial and their
native settings, so GG and Sonar can stay closed:
- ChatMix from the dial on the GameDAC, base station or headset.
- Native headset settings from GG's Engine page: the Engine EQ with its presets and custom
curve, microphone volume, sidetone, mic mute LED, gain, volume limiter, display brightness and
dimming, lights, auto power-off, wireless and Bluetooth options and battery level, depending on the model.
They are stored in the headset itself and stay active while no app runs.
- Battery beside the app's name on the Mixer tab, in the tray tooltip, as the tray icon at the
even balance (in the theme's color, or green to red by its charge) and as a popup when it runs low.
Bluetooth headphones show theirs too when Windows gets the level from them. With a second pair connected
beside the headset, each gets a line of its own with its connection and battery, and a lit dot marks the
one the sound plays on.
- Only what your model has. The panel shows the settings, the battery and the display options
that the connected model supports, and nothing it does not.
- A Sonar-style mode with two virtual audio devices and a 10-band parametric equalizer, if you
want it.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
