# duncanthrax/scream

Virtual network sound card for Microsoft Windows

Repository: https://github.com/duncanthrax/scream
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/scream
Language: C++
License: MS-PL
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-11T20:47:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4080, "days_push": 22, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1932, forks 159 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:56.272202+00:00)

## What it is
Scream is a virtual sound card device driver for Windows that broadcasts audio played on the machine as a PCM multicast stream over the local network. Receiver applications for Linux (PulseAudio/ALSA) and Windows can pick up the stream and play it on remote speakers, with optional IVSHMEM transport for QEMU virtual machines.

## Use cases
- stream audio from a Windows PC to Linux speakers over the network
- get sound out of a Windows VM running on a QEMU host
- play Windows audio on a remote machine without cables
- set up a virtual network sound card
- redirect VM audio to the host via IVSHMEM

## When to choose
- you need low-latency audio streaming from Windows to another machine on the same LAN
- you run a Windows guest in QEMU/KVM and want simple audio passthrough
- you want a lightweight multicast-based audio redirect instead of PulseAudio network modules

## When to avoid
- you need audio streaming over the internet or WAN rather than a local network
- you require encryption or authentication on the audio stream
- your Windows 10 install cannot load cross-signed kernel drivers and you cannot use the workarounds

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: audio-processing, networking
- domain: windows
- platform: windows, cross-platform
- tags: virtual-sound-card, audio-streaming, multicast, kernel-driver, qemu, ivshmem, pcm, audio, virtualization, linux

## Member repositories
- duncanthrax/scream (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:56.272202+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:08:40.803822+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/duncanthrax/scream (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:56.272202+00:00, sha 9c7a5c1657e9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.