How to Set Up Soundpad on Discord

Discord is a social media application that enables its users to communicate through text messages and calls. It has many built-in advanced features to enrich the user experience, such as screen sharing on video calls and live-streaming. To enhance the sound quality on Discord, you can additionally set up a Soundpad with it. Soundpad is an application on Windows to improve sound quality on your PC, specifically during calls. 

In this article, we have covered the setup of soundpad on Discord with the following main sections:

1. How to Set up Soundpad on Discord
2. How to Set up Hotkeys on Soundpad
3. How to Set Soundpad for Volume Normalization on Discord
4. How to Record Calls on Discord Using Soundpad

How to Set Up Soundpad on Discord

The soundpad acts as a middleman between the Discord and the microphone to improve the quality of sound. You can change the sound level as per your choice using a soundpad. It also enables to play the recorded voice or music in voice channels. To set up Soundpad on Discord, you need to run both apps at the same time. Here is a step-by-step guide to using a Soundpad on Discord:

Step 1: Download Soundpad

Soundpad is not an in-built app on your PC, you need to download and install it. Open your browser and type soundpad. Go to the website to download Soundpad:

Step 2: Download

Download the version of soundpad that suits your PC best by hitting Download:

Step 3: Install Soundpad

Open Downloads on your PC and locate the downloaded setup file of soundpad:

Double-click on the setup file and hit Next on the appeared screen:

Read the license agreement, check the box at the end of the agreement, and hit Next to proceed further: 

After accepting the license agreement, choose the installation location, and check the box for creating a desktop shortcut to easily access the app from the home screen. Click Next after selecting the destination folder:

Now that you have customized the settings, your soundpad is ready to install. Hit Install to start the installation:

After successful installation, hit Finish to complete the process:

Restart your PC to save the settings and launch the app perfectly.

Step 4: Open Soundpad

By using your keyboard, press the Win+S keys to launch the start menu. Search soundpad and click on Open to launch the app:

The home screen of the app should look like that in the image below. My sounds section has some already recorded sounds saved in it:

Step 5: Open Discord

Open the start menu again by pressing the Win+S and type Discord to open the Discord app:

Step 6: Open Voice Channel

Go to the server of your choice and open the voice channel. You will see the voice call has started:

Now click on the soundpad icon from the start bar and choose any already saved recording, click on the play icon on the top left of the screen. Now, your listeners will be able to listen to this sound on their voice channel from your side. If you do not choose to play a recorded sound instead you start talking yourself, still, this soundpad running in the background will enhance the quality of your voice before sending it to your listeners: 

How to Set up Hotkeys on Soundpad

You can set up the hotkeys for your saved recordings in the soundpad. This will help you not to bring the soundpad on your window again and again to play a sound, rather you can just hit the hotkey to play the sound in the background. 

To set up hotkeys on the soundpad, first, open the soundpad and click on My Sounds to view the saved recording. Right-click on the file of your choice and hit Set hotkey:

Choose any key that would be easy for you to remember and use. Type your hotkey and hit OK to save the setup:

The hotkey is now visible with the file name:

How to Set Soundpad for Volume Normalization on Discord

A key feature of the soundpad is its ability to normalize volume, that is, it can louder your feeble voice and quieter your loud voices to make them easily audible and understandable. To access this feature of the soundpad follow the guide below:

Step 1: Go to Preferences

Click on File and choose Preferences from the drop-down list:

Step 2: Setup Volume Normalization

Click on Audio from the top menu bar to set the parameters for audio. Under the Volume Normalization section, click on the icon next to the Voice Volume to adjust the voice pitch according to your choice. Once you are done fixing it, click on Apply and then OK to save the settings. Soundpad recommends allowing the Dynamic Voice Adjustment to automatically set your voice pitch to a standard audible range:

How to Record Calls on Discord Using Soundpad

The soundpad has an audio recording feature that you can use to record the voice calls on Discord. If you have an ongoing important call that you want to keep as a record, then follow the guide given below to achieve your goal:

Step 1: Select Sound Recorder

Right-click on the Window from the top menu and choose Sound Recorder from the drop-down menu:

You have a choice to record which sound, either from the microphone or speaker, as elaborated below:

1. Choose the Headphone icon if you want to record the sound from the speakers.
2. Choose the microphone icon if you want to record the sound from your PC.
3. Click on the blue dot marked as 3 in the figure below to start recording after picking options from 1 and 2:

Step 2: Start Voice Call

Open the chat of your friend and click on the call icon at the top of the window to start a voice call:

Now open the Soundpad from the taskbar. Make sure that the call that you want to record is connected by checking from the section marked as 1 in the image below. Click on the headphone icon marked as 2 to record the voice of the other person on call, and click on the start icon marked as 3 in the image below that will be previously below before starting recording. To end the recording, hit on the red dot that is marked as 3 in the below image:

See your My Sounds section for your recorded call audio.

Conclusion

To set up the Soundpad on Discord, install the Soundpad on your PC from its official website. Open the Soundpad and customize its sound settings according to your desire and set hotkeys for the recorded sounds on it. Now open the Discord app and start your voice/video call. Run both apps at a time to collaborate with each other. During your call, you can choose to play the recorded sounds on the soundpad that is running in the background by using hotkeys. If you want to record your Discord call, you can avail the sound recorder option from your Soundpad.