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hifihedgehog edited this page Jun 15, 2026 · 2 revisions

Controller Audio

Play sound through the speaker built into a DualSense or DualShock 4, over USB or Bluetooth.

Audio tab with mirror source picker and master volume

The DualSense and DualShock 4 have a small speaker in the pad. PadForge can drive it with two things: a mirror of a Windows audio output, and the sound effects your Macros play. The Audio tab is per pad per slot, and it appears when the slot has a speaker-capable Sony pad assigned.

When the tab shows

The Audio tab appears when the selected mapped device is a DualSense, DualSense Edge, or DualShock 4 (Sony VID 0x054C). Inside the tab, the mirror controls need a pad that actually has a reachable speaker:

  • DualSense and DualSense Edge: USB or Bluetooth.
  • DualShock 4: Bluetooth, or the Sony USB wireless adaptor (0x0BA0). A cable-connected DS4 has no audio interface, so the tab shows a "no speaker on this device" note and the mirror stays disabled.

Macro sounds do not depend on the mirror toggle. They play on any speaker-capable pad on the slot whenever a macro fires.

Mirror a Windows audio output

Turn on Mirror system audio and pick a source. PadForge captures that Windows output with a loopback and streams it to the pad speaker.

Control What it does
Mirror system audio Per-device toggle. Off by default.
Mirror source "System default" or any active output device on the PC.
Master volume 0–100. Sets the pad speaker level for the slot.

Picking "System default" follows whatever Windows is using at the moment. Switch from speakers to headphones and the mirror follows, with nothing to reconfigure. Pick a specific output instead when you want one particular device's sound on the pad.

The mirror captures a Windows output endpoint, not a single program. To send one game's sound to the pad, point that game (or all of Windows) at the output you are mirroring. This is also how a game's own DualSense audio reaches the speaker: the game plays it to a Windows output, and PadForge mirrors that output. PadForge does not intercept the game's controller-audio packets directly.

Macro sounds

A Macros Play Sound action plays on the controller speaker. When the slot has a speaker-capable Sony pad, the sound goes to the pad. When it does not, the sound falls back to the PC's default output.

Supported files: WAV, MP3, M4A, AAC, WMA, FLAC, decoded through Windows Media Foundation. Sounds bundled in a sound package are referenced with a pfsound:// path and play the same way.

Test and stop

Button What it does
Test Plays an 880 Hz tone for 200 ms on the selected device only, so you can check one pad without firing the others on the slot.
Stop all Stops every sound playing on the slot.
Reset Restores the slot's audio settings to their defaults.

How it reaches the pad

PadForge mixes the mirror and any macro sounds into one stream per pad and sends it over whatever transport the pad is on.

Pad Transport Carrier
DualSense / DualSense Edge USB USB Audio Class endpoint, 48 kHz
DualSense / DualSense Edge Bluetooth Opus in the speaker output report (0x35), 48 kHz
DualShock 4 Bluetooth SBC in the audio output report (0x17), 32 kHz
DualShock 4 (USB wireless adaptor 0x0BA0) USB USB Audio Class endpoint

The DualSense Bluetooth path uses the Concentus pure-C# Opus encoder. The DualShock 4 Bluetooth path uses a clean-room SBC encoder written from the Bluetooth A2DP specification. Master volume is applied as the pad's firmware speaker-volume byte rather than by scaling the audio samples, so it does not lose quality at low levels.

Limits

  • DualShock 4 audio is Bluetooth only. A wired DS4 exposes no audio interface. The exception is the Sony USB wireless adaptor, which presents a real USB audio endpoint.
  • The mirror is endpoint-level, not per-app. It mirrors a Windows output device, not one program's sound.
  • The pad speaker is small. It suits voice, prompts, and effects more than music.

Related pages

  • Macros: the Play Sound action and sound packages that feed the speaker.
  • Lighting: the other DualSense and DualShock 4 output feature.
  • Adaptive Triggers: trigger feedback on the same pads.
  • Controller Slots: assign a DualSense or DualShock 4 to a slot.
  • Devices: confirm the pad and its connection (USB or Bluetooth).
  • Remote Link: send the pad speaker audio to a pad on another PC.

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