Setting up TAN

How to get TAN running on your computer, in plain language. No audio-engineering background needed.

What TAN is doing, in one sentence

TAN keeps a hand on the volume knob for you: it quietly turns whispers up and explosions down while leaving everything else alone. To do that live, it has to sit somewhere between whatever is making the sound and your ears. The rest of this page is just about putting it there.

The no-install option

If you only want to hear the difference, or run your own files or a YouTube tab through it, you don't have to install anything. Open the demo page right in your browser. It does everything on your own machine and uploads nothing. That's the easiest way to start.

The steps below are for the other case: fixing all the sound on your computer, all the time.

Installing the app (Windows)

  1. Grab the installer from the releases page and run it.
  2. Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" box, because the app isn't code-signed yet. Click More info, then Run anyway. (This goes away once TAN is signed.)
  3. You now have a small system-tray app plus the command-line tools tan-cli (for files) and tan-live (for live audio).

macOS and Linux builds are on the same page. They can process files today; live system-wide audio on those platforms is still being built.

Why live setup takes one extra step right now

Here's the honest part. Right now TAN's live tool works by listening to one audio device and playing the fixed sound out of a different one. Your headset is a single device, so by itself there's no "in between" for TAN to sit in. It needs a second device to hand the cleaned-up audio to.

You don't need to buy anything for that second device. You almost certainly already have software that can create one.

Using TAN with SteelSeries Sonar (or any audio mixer)

If you game, you may already run SteelSeries Sonar (part of SteelSeries GG). Programs like Sonar, plus free tools like VB-Audio Cable or Voicemeeter, all do one thing that solves this: they create virtual audio devices.

A virtual audio device is a sound card that exists only in software. Nothing is plugged into it, but Windows treats it like a real speaker or headset. That gives TAN the extra device it needs, out of thin air.

How the pieces line up

  1. Your games, movies, and browser play their sound into the virtual device. If you already use Sonar, that's your normal setup already, since Sonar's virtual device is your default output.
  2. TAN listens to that virtual device and evens out the loudness of whatever is playing.
  3. TAN plays the fixed result out to your real headset.
  4. You listen on the headset. TAN is now in the middle, smoothing the final mix on its way to your ears.

In a terminal, that looks like:

tan-live --list-devices
tan-live --loopback --output "<your real headset>"

--loopback means "grab whatever the default output is already playing" (the virtual device). --output is the real device you actually listen on. Use the exact device name that --list-devices prints.

Do Sonar and TAN step on each other? No.

They work at different points, so they get along. Sonar mixes your separate game, chat, and microphone streams, runs its own EQ, and handles your mic. TAN takes the finished mix Sonar hands out and simply levels its loudness before it reaches you. You don't turn either one off. Your whole Sonar setup stays exactly as it is; TAN just tidies the volume at the very end.

One thing to watch: don't create a loop. The device TAN plays out to must not be one the mixer is also feeding back in, or the sound chases its own tail. The simple fixes: send TAN's output straight to your headset while apps play into the virtual device, or use a mixer that gives you a distinct second output (Sonar has a separate stream / monitoring output; you can also add a second VB-Cable) and point TAN at that.

Where this is all heading

The two-device routing above is a workaround, and I know it's fiddly. It exists only because TAN isn't yet built into the Windows sound pipeline. The next big piece of work is exactly that: a system audio effect that slots TAN directly onto your output, the same way Sonar and Waves attach to a device.

When that ships, none of the routing on this page is needed. TAN will sit on your headset alongside Sonar automatically, with nothing to wire up. Until then, the virtual-device trick is the way to get TAN fixing everything you play.

Plugins & library integrations

Everything above is about live audio on your own desktop. TAN also has two optional add-ons for people who watch through a media server or app instead - each is its own small guide, since the setup is different from anything on this page:

TAN for Jellyfin →

Adds a "TAN Normalized" version of your movies and shows right in Jellyfin's own Play Version picker, alongside the original.

TAN for Stremio →

Same idea for a local video folder played through Stremio: a "TAN Normalized" stream shows up next to whatever else provides the original.