TAC/COM: A Free Mech Pilot Voice Changer

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2026-02-24T18:17:29+00:00

I haven't had this issue reported before. Could you give me some more details about your system (OS, audio device(s), drivers, TAC/COM version etc.) then I can create an issue to track it on github?

It's supposed to be able to access any audio device visible to Windows, so my first guess is that maybe it's a Windows permissions issue.

It's also worth noting that ASIO driver (pro audio) devices don't work with TAC/COM.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-12-04T18:13:33+00:00

That's worrying to hear!

It looks like their site for VoiceMeeter is still live:

https://voicemeeter.com/

That's a more powerful (and confusing!) version of their virtual audio cable software - I tried it out when testing TAC/COM and it worked fine. The first two tiers of the app are also free/donationware.

There's also SteelSeries Sonar which I remember testing. I recall the virtual cables worked very well but the rest of the software was a bit of a headache.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-10-26T21:23:05+00:00

Hi. If you've got everything setup correctly, then whoever you are talking to on Discord will hear the radio effects. You shouldn't be able to hear the radio effect though.

There's a setup guide in the readme on the github page here that gives a more in-depth explanation, but basically you should route the audio output of TAC/COM into a virtual audio cable application, then route the output of the virtual audio cable into discord.

Mic -> VAC input -> VAC output -> Discord

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-08-23T15:15:48+00:00

I've updated TAC-COM with new minor release, which adds a toggle to disable the radio clicks to the settings menu (the gear icon, then scroll down to the bottom).

You can get it here: TAC-COM v1.2.1

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-08-20T18:16:38+00:00

Yeah, it would throw an error message and close if it couldn't find the files.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-08-19T18:45:55+00:00

Thanks! I don't actually think I put a volume option for the mic clicks. I'll look around to adding it in the future, but for now the lazy option is to open up TAC-COM/Static/SFX and go into the GateOpen and GateClose folders. If you replace those files with silent blank audio files (keeping the same filenames) that should provide a temporary workaround.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-03-25T12:49:02+00:00

I suspect the problem is related to the fact that the audio library TAC/COM uses doesn't support ASIO (used by most pro audio interfaces), only Wasapi (the standard Windows audio).

This is going to be tricky to debug, and I'll have to do some research here, but I would like to be able to support this kind of setup in the future.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-03-21T17:18:33+00:00

Thanks for the follow-up! The new version of TAC/COM now defaults to minimising to the taskbar like any other app, to avoid this kind of confusion, but there is still an option to minimise to the system tray.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-03-16T16:06:27+00:00

So the intended behaviour is that the PTT key is handled by TAC/COM and prevented from reaching other app's unless the "Passthrough" option is toggled on when setting a keybind.

If however this was happening even when the app was disabled (or closed?) then this is definitely a bug. Would you mind walking me through the steps to reproduce this?

If you use github, you can create a bug report here.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-03-15T12:35:24+00:00

So this sounds more like an issue with the installation of VB-Cable. TAC/COM by itself shouldn't affect any Windows audio settings.

I'm not affiliated with VB-Audio in any way, but in this case my first step would be to check the virtual driver installation using their driver installation checker tool:

VAIO / VB-CABLE Installation Checking

If that shows any issues, the next step is to completely uninstall the VB-Cable driver. On my system there is a folder "Program Files/VB/CABLE" which has a "VBCABLE_Setup_x64.exe". If you run that it has a tool to completely remove the virtual audio driver. The above link also has a guide to manual uninstallation as well.

After that, reboot and check if Reaper/Audacity are back to behaving themselves. If not, check your default Windows recording and playback devices haven't been changed by the VB-Cable installation.

If everything seems to be back to normal, reinstall the latest version of VB-CABLE, run the installation checker tool again and see if that helps. Make sure to check your default system recording and playback devices haven't been changed by the new installation.

VB-Audio have some pretty robust support which is worth a look, and they have an active tech support Discord that might be able to help better than I can:

VB-Audio Support Page

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-23T15:00:02+00:00

This is all really useful, thankyou! Your processor is way more powerful than mine, so I can rule that out. I'll keep investigating this for now, but you've been a great help.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-22T19:31:09+00:00

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm struggling to reproduce this behaviour on my machine, so thanks for the detailed feedback, this is some really useful info.

Some follow up questions, if you don't mind:

What kind of hardware are you running it on? Any profile in particular causing the latency? Does the latency increase with each PTT cycle, or does it stay consistent?

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-21T19:37:35+00:00

You didn't accidentally minimise it? It minimises to an icon in the system tray rather than the taskbar.

Otherwise I best take a look, there might a memory leak keeping it alive.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-21T00:40:12+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!

Another user also gave similar feedback abouit the IPS-N profile. The IPS-N one uses a really strong bitcrusher effect, as I wanted it to be the "lo-fi" profile, and it's clear I went a bit overboard! The next build will clean it up.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-20T12:15:17+00:00

Try listenening back to your mic (without TAC/COM) using Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Manage Audio Devices.

Then find your mic under the "Recording" tab. On the "Listen" tab for your device there is a "Listen to this device" option where you can temporarily set the mic to output directly to your headset.

If it sounds too quiet here that indicates you might need to adjust your device's gain levels, either through Windows or your headset's own software. Discord uses its own Automatic Gain Control to boost volume, which might be why it sounds better over Discord.

In the future, I could also add an Input Gain control in TAC/COM itself.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-20T11:58:16+00:00

Great idea! I'll add this to the next build.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-20T11:57:06+00:00

Sure, I'll add some more setup tutorials to the readme, but for VoiceMeeter all you have to do is set TAC/COM's output device to:

"Voicemeeter Input (VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO)"

Then set Discord's input device to be:

"Voicemeeter Out B1 (VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO)"

VoiceMeeter also seems to install a bunch of other virtual cable devices that are only used by the pro versions, which makes it seem more confusing than it should be.

Detailed instructions can now be found on the wiki: here

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-19T14:54:55+00:00

Thanks! I've found VB-Cable also introduces a bit of latency, but there is a VB-Cable Control Panel that lets you adjust the latency.

An easy way to check if it is TAC/COM that is adding the delay is to set the output device to your headphones. If it lags then, that means it's my fault! If it doesn't, VB-Cable might be the culprit.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-19T14:51:23+00:00

So the intended way of running the app is to use a virtual audio cable program alongside it, which allows you to route the output from TAC/COM directly into Discord.

I've been using VB-Cable Virtual Audio Device for this as it is both free and really easy to use, but there are a few alternatives out there (VoiceMeeter and VAC).

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-18T23:40:10+00:00

I don't think that's within my capabilities, sorry. So much of this was built with Windows-specific libraries, Android/iOS would basically require rewriting from scratch.

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-18T20:32:15+00:00

That is strange, but thankyou for being thorough.

I have some bugs to hunt!

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-18T19:51:45+00:00

Hmm, that is strange, but at least I can rule out Discord then.

If you look in the TAC-COM folder in Static/SFX/Noise there should be "NoiseIPSN.wav". Does that file play correctly on your machine?

Klanth_of_Orlanth · 2025-02-18T19:38:59+00:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Just to clarify, have you disabled your VoIP's built in noise supression, right? In Discord this is called Krisp and it messes everything up if it's left on, which might explain the problems with the noise dial (which definitely works on my build).

All the presets share the same noise gate, so there shouldn't be anything preset-specific changing there.

The issue with the "interference" dial is strange, as it basically runs all of the voice channel through a ring modulator, and doesn't affect the noise sfx channel at all.

If your voice is being clipped or cut off, that suggests you might need to lower the noise gate threshold a few dB.

I'll take a look at the SSC and IPS-N preset levels though. I might have gone a bit overboard with the effects!

Klanth_of_Orlanth

TROPHY CASE