Turned out that if you don't do the show hidden devices part in device manager and get rid of all those, it may be part of the issue. Under Output, select CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable). main outs -1, second installation would be main outs -2, third install main outs -3 and so on, even though I uninstalled everything. Open sound settings (press the Windows key, type Sound Settings, select it).

When reinstalling my audio drivers for my Focusrite I noticed that windows was assigning new digits after every time I reinstalled the drivers, e.g. It is worth mentioning that I tried the above before and failed. I then rebooted again, and started voicemeeter. I then installed voicemeeter Potato and VB Cables, both as administrators. Then rebooted again, and switched the interface on. I then rebooted, and reinstalled my audio drivers / software package first, as administrator. That includes USB drivers and Sound drivers. I then went to Device manager, and enabled View -> Show hidden devices and uninstalled everything I could find that was related to my audio interface, voicemeeter, and VB cables. * All Focusrite (interface) related apps I could find, through the Windows app uninstaller * VB Cable through the Windows app uninstaller * Voicemeeter potato through the Windows app uninstaller To fix it, I uninstalled, in this exact order: This was on clean Windows 11 installation with nothing other than my Audio interface drivers (Focusrite Clarett 8pre USB-C) and Voicemeeter Potato + VB Cables installed (and Discord, to find help). *Voicemeeter Potato would not record any input on my microphone, even though my physical interface and the interface software registered input. Virtual Audio Cable can link a variety of programs, ranging from virtual. Posted this on their discord as well but be helpful here for others: Virtual Audio Cable can connect to more than 250 different applications where audio can be mixed and allocated.

I also managed to fix this issue, below my exact steps I took.

Windows virtual cable