Hi!
This guide explains how to remove the tavern background noise (or ”walla”) in Hearthstone by using VAC and a noise gate in OBS. I have wanted to mute the background noise for years as I like to play Hearthstone without the music (the music is great but distracting).
Sorry for the lack of images! My trust level is too low.
This guide is for Windows 10 but the concept should work for macOS and Linux as well if you substitute VAC.
Required software
Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) by Eugene Muzychenko
https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/download.htmThe lite version is free for home use. The download button for the lite version is below the feature comparision table on the download page.
Commercial users such as streamers need to buy a license.
OBS
https://obsproject.comOBS (Open Broadcast Software) is free for both professional and home use.
You do not need to be streaming or recording, but OBS needs to be running to capture Hearthstone and filter the sound.
Download and install VAC
Install VAC to get a virtual speaker and a virtual microphone.
Download VAC. Extract the contents of the .zip file to the same drive as Windows is installed on and run ”setup64.exe” to install VAC.
You do not need to configure or start the VAC control panel or audio repeater for this purpose (although it has many configuration options, should you want to use it for something else). The purpose of VAC is to provide the virtual microphone and speaker. The virtual devices show up under Sound devices in Windows, just as your computers hardware devices do.
When installing VAC, Windows will set the VAC playback device as the default playback device, and the VAC microphone as the default recording device. We will change this later. Both devices are labeled ”Line 1”.
You can rename the devices if you want.
Download and install OBS
Setup OBS by reading the OBS quickstart guide.
Select default playback and recording device per application in Windows
Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog. Input the below URI command and press enter:
ms-settings:apps-volumeSet your headphones (or other desired listening device of choice) as Output at the top.
Set the “Line 1” virtual microphone as Input for OBS.
Set the ”Line 1” virtual speaker as the Output for Hearthstone.
If you can’t see the app that you want to change the settings for, start the app.
Add a scene in OBS
Add a scene in OBS by right-clicking in Scenes (very easy, but needs to be done before the next steps).
Activate monitoring in OBS
Press ”Settings” in the lower right corner of OBS. Select ”Audio”.
Leave all Global Audio Devices as ”Disabled” (and disable them if not).
Go to advanced (still under ”Audio”). Set your headphones as ”Monitoring Device” (remove them from your ears first, as mine played a loud pop when switching).
Tick the box ”Disable Windows audio ducking”. Close Settings and go back to the OBS main screen.
Setting OBS to filter and playback the sound
Add ”Audio Input Capture” under Sources by right-clicking in Sources, selecting ”Add” and then
”Audio Input Capture”.
Highlight ”Audio Input Capture” in Sources. A new dropdown menu labeled ”Device” should appear above the Sources panel. Select ”Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable)” as device.
Right-click on the Audio Mixer and select ”Advanced Audio Properties”. Open the dropdown menu labeled ”Audio Monitoring” and select ”Monitor Only (mute output)”.
Highlight ”Audio Input Capture”. Press ”Filters” (to the left above the Sources panel).
A new window should open. Click the + sign in the bottom left corner of the new window.
Select Noise Gate. A wild Noise Gate appears.
Configuring the noisegate
The default levels may work fine, but the levels required will depend on the volume you are listening at. It is easiest to configure the Noise Gate with Hearthstone running, while playing a solo adventure to be able to read the db levels in the OBS Audio Mixer.
It is important to understand that the gate is either opening or closing. If the gate is closed, no sound below the Close Threshold will play, but if the gate is open, then all sound will play, even if a sounds db level is below the Close Threshold, as the loudest sound dictates if the gate is open or not.
In other words, the gate will not filter out the background noise if a louder sound than the specified Close Threshold is playing at the same time. So you may hear the background noise when clicking on buttons or attacking with a minion, but you should not hear any background noise when only the background noise would be playing.
Close Threshold:
At which volume (db level) that the noise gate should ”close” to prevent the sound. In other words, any sound at or quieter than the specified Close Threshold will close the gate, and thus the sound won’t be heard.
You want the Close Threshold to be at a db level that is louder than the background tavern noise.
Open Threshold:
At which volume (db level) that the noise gate should ”open” and allow sound to pass through.
You want the Open Threshold to be at a db level that is louder than the background tavern noise, so that the background noise won’t open the gate, but at a db level that is quieter than minions and spells so that minions and spells can open the gate.
Attack time:
How fast the noise gate changes from closed to fully open.
Decrease the attack time if the beginning of speech does not naturally fade in.
Hold time:
How long the noise gate remains open if the db level falls below the specified level. If this is too short, then natural pauses in speech will be cut off as the gate closes, as will softer parts of speech.
Release time:
The opposite of attack time. How fast the Noise Gate changes from open to fully closed.
Increase the release time if speech is abruptly cut off.
The Release time starts after the Hold time ends.
Hearthstone should now be filtered via OBS and the tavern background noise should not be audible unless some other noise is also audible.
How it works
The Hearthstone game sound is routed to the VAC virtual speaker, VAC virtual mic and then filtered in OBS and then sent to the playback device that you specify in the OBS Audio settings (such as your headphones). So you are not really listening to Hearthstone, but to OBS instead.
Troubleshooting
Issue:
There is no sound after starting or restarting Windows. It worked before and no changes has been made.
Solution:
Select the virtual speaker as playback device by clicking on the speaker/volume icon in the lower right corner on the Windows taskbar, then change back to the headphones.
Issue:
The sound is bad.
Solution:
Logout from Windows. Log back into Windows.
Issue:
OBS cannot access the virtual microphone or the virtual microphone does not record any sound.
Solution:
Make sure that microphone access for the device is turned on in Windows and that the application has microphone access.
Press the Windows key + R, enter the below URI command and then press enter to open the microphone privacy settings.
ms-settings:privacy-microphoneImprovements
If you have suggestions for improvement of the guide or the sound filtering, please post those suggestions here.
Credits
Many thanks to Eugene (Evgenii) Muzychenko for developing Virtual Audio Cable, the OBS Project for developing OBS, and Blizzard for developing Hearthstone.
Blizzard, please add a feature to mute the walla. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!