🔊 Rust Soundboard

A shockingly fast, lightweight, and performant cross-platform soundboard

It uses the brilliant immediate-mode GUI library egui for the interface, and cpal / rodio for the low-level audio engine, giving you the ability to target virtual audio cables to seamlessly pipe sound into communication apps like Discord or in-game voice chat.

✨ Features

• Dual Audio Pipeline (Local Echo): It outputs to a primary broadcast device (like Virtual Audio Cable) and simultaneously clones the audio to your local speakers, so you can monitor what you're playing.
• Isolated Live Volume Control: Adjust the Virtual Output volume separately from your Local Speaker echo volume. Change volumes on the fly—the system dynamically scales the decoders in real-time.
• Targeted Audio Delivery: A device dropdown menu specifically detects and allows you to bind directly to VB-CABLE Input, bypassing your operating system's default mixer.
• Folder and Tab Organization: Load entire directories of sound bytes. The app parses .mp3, .wav, .ogg, and .flac, placing them in tabs for fast, responsive navigation.
• Per-Sound Tweaking: Each sound tile contains its own granular volume level. Have a quiet clip? Just turn up that single slider.
• Persistent State: The Soundboard auto-saves its volume values, custom directories, selected output device, and window state. When you open the app again, you pick up exactly where you left off.
• Lightning Search: Search for sounds rapidly with the real-time filter bar.
• Low Memory Footprint: Minimal CPU and RAM usage, guaranteeing that your gaming or audio recording performance isn't degraded.

🛠️ Requirements & Setup

Important

CRITICAL FIRST STEP: You must install a virtual audio driver on your machine before using this software, or the app's external routing features will not function correctly.

• Windows: Download and install VB-AUDIO Virtual Cable.
• Linux: Set up a virtual null sink via PulseAudio or PipeWire.

2. Building

Ensure you have Rust and Cargo installed via rustup. Then clone the repo and run:

cargo check
cargo build --release

3. Running the Application

You can start the app via Cargo:

cargo run --release

Executing the Compiled Binary Directly: For everyday use, you do not need to use cargo. After building, the standalone executable is located in the target/release folder:

• Windows: target\release\soundboard.exe (Double-click to run, or create a desktop shortcut).
• Linux: ./target/release/soundboard

4. Audio Routing

2. In the top bar, set Output: to CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable).
3. Check the 🎧 Echo to Speakers box to hear the sounds yourself. Use the Virtual Vol slider to adjust what your friends hear, and Local Vol for what you hear!
4. Link to Discord / App: Go to your communication app's Voice Settings. Set your Input Device / Microphone to CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable).

🏗️ Architecture

• src/main.rs: Orchestrator that bridges the GUI with the audio engine configuration.
• src/audio.rs: The beating heart of the program. Configures isolated cpal threads and rodio sinks, managing state locks and dynamic multi-volume crossfading perfectly.
• src/gui.rs: Everything visual. Runs on eframe::App, drawing the grid, sliders, and device selection combo boxes effortlessly at native 60fps+.
• src/sound.rs: Handles recursive scanning (walkdir) and parses the filesystem to inject entries to the interface.
• src/config.rs: Reads/writes preferences using serde_json.

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.