---
title: "How to Install ReVoice for Non-Steam Voice Chat"
excerpt: "Install the ReVoice Metamod plugin so Steam and non-Steam CS 1.6 clients can hear each other, configure the codecs, and fix the silent-voice problems."
category: "installation"
tags: "revoice, voice"
image: ""
read_time: "8 min read"
---
<p>Voice chat in CS 1.6 is a codec problem. Steam clients speak <strong>SILK</strong> (introduced with the Steam voice update); older and non-Steam clients speak the legacy <strong>Speex</strong> codec, and some builds speak <strong>Opus</strong>. On a mixed server, half your players press their voice key and the other half hear nothing. <strong>ReVoice</strong> is a Metamod plugin that transcodes between these codecs on the server, so everyone hears everyone.</p>

<p>If your server is Steam-only, you do not need ReVoice. If you accept non-Steam players — which, if you run <a href="/tutorials/install-reunion">Reunion</a> or <a href="/tutorials/install-dproto">dproto</a>, you do — you almost certainly do.</p>

<h2>1. Prerequisites</h2>
<ul>
<li>ReHLDS (ReVoice is built for it; it is not guaranteed on stock HLDS).</li>
<li>Metamod loaded — <code>meta version</code> must answer. See <a href="/tutorials/install-metamod-r">Metamod-r</a>.</li>
<li>Voice enabled at all on the server. This is easy to forget:
<pre>sv_voiceenable 1
sv_voicecodec voice_speex
sv_voicequality 5</pre>
</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. Install the plugin</h2>
<p>ReVoice is a <strong>Metamod plugin</strong>, not an AMXX plugin. It goes in its own directory under <code>addons/</code> and it is registered in <code>metamod/plugins.ini</code>, not in AMXX's <code>plugins.ini</code>. Mixing those two files up is the most common installation mistake.</p>
<pre>mkdir -p /home/steam/hlds/cstrike/addons/revoice
cp revoice_mm_i386.so /home/steam/hlds/cstrike/addons/revoice/
cp revoice.cfg        /home/steam/hlds/cstrike/addons/revoice/
chmod 644 /home/steam/hlds/cstrike/addons/revoice/*</pre>
<p>Add it to <code>cstrike/addons/metamod/plugins.ini</code>:</p>
<pre>linux addons/revoice/revoice_mm_i386.so
linux addons/amxmodx/dlls/amxmodx_mm_i386.so</pre>
<p>Order in <code>plugins.ini</code> is load order. ReVoice is fine anywhere, but keeping the voice/protocol plugins above AMXX is the convention and it makes <code>meta list</code> easier to read.</p>

<h2>3. Configure revoice.cfg</h2>
<p>The config controls which codecs ReVoice will accept from clients and which it hands back. The important settings:</p>
<pre>// codec used to talk to legacy / non-Steam clients
revoice_default_codec "silk"

// bitrate for the SILK stream; higher = clearer, more bandwidth
revoice_silk_bitrate  16000

// how to handle clients whose codec is unknown
revoice_speex_quality 5</pre>
<p>Read the <code>revoice.cfg</code> that ships with your build rather than copying a cvar list from a forum — the cvar names have changed between versions, and setting a cvar that does not exist is a silent no-op. Whatever you set, keep <code>sv_voicecodec</code> in <code>server.cfg</code> consistent with what ReVoice expects; a mismatch there is the classic "nobody can hear anybody" configuration.</p>

<h2>4. Restart and verify</h2>
<p>Metamod plugins load at server start.</p>
<pre>meta list</pre>
<pre>Currently loaded plugins:
      description      stat pend  file                vers   src  load  unload
 [ 1] ReVoice          RUN   -    revoice_mm_i386.so  0.1.x  ini  Start ANY
 [ 2] AMX Mod X        RUN   -    amxmodx_mm_i386.so  1.9.0  ini  Start ANY
2 plugins, 2 running</pre>
<p>ReVoice must be <code>RUN</code>. <code>bad load</code> means the binary is the wrong architecture or built against an incompatible Metamod API — see <a href="/tutorials/fix-metamod-bad-load">bad load</a>.</p>

<h2>5. The real test</h2>
<p>Console output proves nothing about voice. You need two clients:</p>
<ol>
<li>One <strong>Steam</strong> client and one <strong>non-Steam</strong> client on the server at once.</li>
<li>Both on the same team, both with <code>voice_enable 1</code> and a bound <code>+voicerecord</code> key.</li>
<li>Steam client talks → non-Steam client must hear it.</li>
<li>Non-Steam client talks → Steam client must hear it.</li>
</ol>
<p>Both directions. It is entirely possible to have transcoding working one way and not the other, and testing with two clients of the same kind proves nothing at all — they could hear each other without ReVoice.</p>

<h2>Client-side settings that break voice</h2>
<p>Half of "ReVoice doesn't work" is client configuration. Have the player run, in their own console:</p>
<pre>voice_enable 1
voice_scale 1.0
voice_loopback 1   // temporarily: they hear themselves back</pre>
<p><code>voice_loopback 1</code> is the quickest triage. If they cannot hear their own voice looped back, the problem is their microphone or their client, and no server-side change will fix it.</p>

<h2>Common errors</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>ReVoice is <code>RUN</code> but nobody hears anything</strong> — <code>sv_voiceenable</code> is 0, or <code>sv_voicecodec</code> is unset. Check in the console with <code>sv_voiceenable</code> (no argument prints the value).</li>
<li><strong>Only Steam players hear each other</strong> — ReVoice is not actually loaded (check <code>meta list</code>, not the file on disk), or its codec config does not cover the legacy codec.</li>
<li><strong>Voice is choppy or robotic</strong> — bitrate too high for your players' upstream, or the server is bandwidth-starved. Lower the SILK bitrate.</li>
<li><strong><code>bad load</code></strong> — wrong architecture. <code>file revoice_mm_i386.so</code> must report <em>ELF 32-bit, Intel 80386</em>.</li>
<li><strong>Works on Steam clients, silent on non-Steam</strong> — the classic case; walk through <a href="/tutorials/fix-revoice-no-voice-nonsteam">non-Steam players have no voice</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Verification checklist</h2>
<ol>
<li><code>meta list</code> — ReVoice <code>RUN</code>.</li>
<li><code>sv_voiceenable</code> prints <code>1</code>.</li>
<li>A Steam client and a non-Steam client hear each other, in both directions.</li>
<li>No voice-related spam in the server log during a full map.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you run a mixed server, ReVoice belongs in the same install batch as <a href="/tutorials/install-reunion">Reunion</a> and <a href="/tutorials/install-rechecker">ReChecker</a> — they are the three Metamod plugins that make a non-Steam-friendly server behave like a proper one.</p>