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Aeonix 71 Posting Whiz

I know that it's possible for speakers to repeat whatever sound comes into microphone.

But, now I'm thinking. When I speak on Skype/TeamSpeak (VoIP software), would it be possible for me, to select audiofile and play it as if it was sent through microphone?

To send music through my "microphone" and microphone has no actual involvment, but software is managing it this way, that every program that listens to my microphone, gets to hear the sound in high quality (higher*).

Of course I could give them link, or title, but still, I'm heavily interested whether it's possible.

(question involves Linux, any custom type really, Ubuntu, Arch, Slackware, what you not)

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Dani AI

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Short answer for : yes — you can make a “virtual microphone” and play audio files into it so Skype/TeamSpeak (or any app) hears the music instead of a physical mic. Two reliable approaches on Linux are PulseAudio (works on most desktops and on PipeWire’s Pulse compatibility layer) and the ALSA kernel loopback device. Below are concise, practical options and troubleshooting tips.

PulseAudio (easy, works with pavucontrol)

  • Create a virtual sink and play audio to it; the sink’s monitor becomes a selectable input in VoIP apps.
  • Example command to create the sink:
    pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=VirtualMic sink_properties=device.description=VirtualMic
  • Use your media player and, in pavucontrol → Playback, move that stream to “VirtualMic.” In Skype/TeamSpeak choose “Monitor of VirtualMic” as the input device.

ALSA snd-aloop (lower-level)

  • Load the kernel loopback:
    sudo modprobe snd_aloop
  • Play into the loopback playback device (check aplay -L/arecord -l for exact names) and select the corresponding loopback capture device in your VoIP client. This is useful when you need pure ALSA routing or when PulseAudio isn’t available.

Troubleshooting & notes

  • Disable echo cancellation/AGC/noise suppression in the client — those will often mangle forwarded music.
  • Match sample rates (PulseAudio’s daemon.conf or your player) to avoid resampling artifacts.
  • Use pavucontrol to set volumes/levels and to confirm which stream is routed where.
  • For pro/low-latency work, consider JACK or advanced PipeWire tools.
  • Be mindful of etiquette and copyright when piping music into calls.
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