AudioPad is a desktop soundboard for playing music, memes, sound effects, and voice clips through a microphone in voice chats, meetings, streams, and games. It accepts MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, and M4A files directly, without conversion or upload. Global hotkeys with custom bindings can trigger sounds from anywhere. AudioPad can mix clips with a live microphone or switch to sound-only output. The maker lists Discord, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, OBS Studio, Steam, and Slack, and says the app works with any software that reads a microphone. It is available for Windows 10 and 11 and Linux distributions with deb, rpm, and AppImage packages. The free plan costs $0 forever and includes unlimited sounds and custom hotkeys. The maker describes playback latency as under 20 ms and the app as running locally without accounts, cloud services, analytics, or telemetry. Initial installation requires admin rights to register a virtual audio device; day-to-day use runs as a normal user-space app. The home page identifies GNU GPL v3.0, while the pricing page labels the free plan MIT License.
Who it is for
AudioPad suits people who want to trigger sound clips during voice chats, meetings, streams, or games. It is available to Windows and Linux users and supports common audio formats and global hotkeys.
What is good
- Free plan includes unlimited sounds.
- Custom global hotkeys trigger clips from anywhere.
- Accepts five listed audio formats directly.
- Can mix clips with a live microphone.
- Runs locally without accounts or cloud services, according to the maker.
What to know first
- First installation requires admin rights.
- Listed desktop platforms are Windows and Linux.
- License labels differ between the home and pricing pages.
Verdict
AudioPad offers a free soundboard with hotkeys, microphone mixing, and support for Windows and Linux. The first setup requires admin rights, and its license is described differently on its home and pricing pages.
AudioPad plans and pricing
All plansCompared on soundboard software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Desktop app
- Yes
- Hotkey triggering
- Yes
- Streaming integrations
- Yes
- Multiple soundboards
- Yes
