Аudio gaps in the audio track

[Kenachan]

This problem occurs when recording games, but not in all games and not in all videos, but at random moments. These are pauses of a couple of seconds that last from 5 to 10 minutes. The frequency of their occurrence also varies, sometimes between pauses several minutes pass before the next pause appears, and sometimes they are so frequent that the sound turns into a mush and noise that is impossible to listen to. This ruins many of my videos, so I just have to cut such fragments.



I've been looking for a solution to this problem for a long time and trying to find some kind of pattern in it. At first I thought it was due to sound overload, if the sound is too loud, but then I noticed this problem in another game, where the sound was quite quiet, but also suffered from this affliction. In addition, I have a limiter on the sound track, which does not allow the sound to go beyond the red zone.

The next thing I noticed is that this only happens with the game's sound track, but never with my microphone and Discord. By the way, the sound in the game and Discord is recorded from the same source: "application sound capture, beta".

I tried changing the audio codecs to flac, alac, opus and pcm 24bit. The first three are not supported by Premier Pro, so I settled on the last one. This helped a little, the problem became less common, but it still appears unexpectedly and seriously spoils the video.

I will also add that it seems to happen after the first 30 minutes of recording, but it does not mean that after 30 minutes it will happen immediately, it can happen later, after 50 minutes or after 1 hour 20 minutes.

The next guess is that it happens in demanding games. At one point it was in WARHAMMER 40K SPACE MARIN 2, but then I noticed this problem in Dark Souls 2, although this game is not at all demanding for my PC. This confused me a lot. I also noticed this problem in 7 days to die, Tales Beyond The Tomb - White Silence.

I will add that there were no performance issues in games.

Recently I began to suspect that the problem is in the sound card buffer. In the table 128 with slopes 44.1 (in the OS also 44.1). Perhaps the processor does not process the sound and does not process the spaces. I'll increase the buffer to 160 or higher soon if the problem persists. If it helps, I'll write here.

If you have any thoughts on my problem, please write, I will be glad to receive any advice. This problem does not allow me to live in peace.

I am attaching a photo of the damaged track, the screenshot was taken in Premiere Pro. The problem area is highlighted with a frame (lasts about 10 minutes), and in the second photo I enlarged it. On the bottom track is a recording from the microphone, and you can see that the problem affected only the game track.

My computer:
Windows 10
Ryzen 3700x
RTX 4060ti 16 GB
32 GB RAM
Sound card - focusrite solo (3rd generation)
The OBS version at the time of recording was 30.2.3. Yesterday, OBS itself was updated to 31.1.1. But I don’t think this will solve the problem.

P.S.
If anyone knows Russian, write in Russian, it will be easier for me. Thank you for understanding.

 

[prgmitchell]

Two things:
1) please include a log capturing this
2) please check the recording in other software than premiere pro to confirm the issue is the same.

 

[Kenachan]

Две вещи:
1) пожалуйста, включите журнал, фиксирующий это
2) Проверьте запись в другой программе, а не в Premiere Pro, чтобы убедиться, что проблема та же.

Thanks for the answer. As for the logs, it looks like OBS has already replaced them with new ones while I was opening OBS to take screenshots. The log doesn't have the date when I recorded that video, only today's. I'll attach it if it helps.

https://obsproject.com/logs/5ZddoO8SfXUOxDRm

And as for the other program, I played this fragment in VLC media player, there you can clearly hear these artifacts, that the sound is interrupted and stutters, as if someone quickly presses pause. And I also took a screenshot from another audio program, for sound restoration (it's quite popular), and there you can also see these gaps in the sound.

 

[prgmitchell]

You can grab any of the last 10 logs in %appdata%\obs-studio\logs

 

[Kenachan]

You can grab any of the last 10 logs in %appdata%\obs-studio\logs

Yes, I found this folder, but for some reason all the files are signed for today's date. And I recorded the problematic video a few days ago, 2025-07-08.
but after the problematic video I recorded another one last night and that's it

 

[prgmitchell]

New logs are created every time you open OBS, you'll need to reproduce the issue and send the associated log so it can be looked at.

 

[Kenachan]

Now I recorded an hour-long game, after which I checked if this problem is in this video. Everything was fine with it. But I'm still not sure if it's the sound card buffer. I just went into the game that I had this problem recording. I loaded the same place where I started having problems with sound, after which I deliberately lowered the buffer to the minimum (16, before that it was 128). I didn't record for long several times, 2-5 minutes per video. After that I checked the sound in my editing program and everything was fine with it.
I'm confused. Yesterday OBS was updated to 31.1, I don't know if this could have affected the problem somehow. But I'm more than half sure that this problem will return again when I'm not expecting it.
Previously, I recorded a lot of videos at once and gradually edited them, after which I only encountered this problem in a few. Now after each recording I will check the entire track with sound at once, so that the logs in OBS are not reset. As soon as I notice that the problem occurs again, I will write here and attach a file with logs.

Also, if anyone has encountered this, I will be glad to receive your information.

 

[Kenachan]

nothing foreshadowed trouble and here again, this problem with sound came back to me, although before that I recorded 3 more videos on different days and such problems were not observed.

This time I saved the logs in a separate folder so as not to lose them. I will also add that when OBS created this file, I recorded two videos in a row, and I did not turn off OBS, but only finished recording and started a new one. And strangely enough, everything was fine in the first video, and in the second, this problem with sound arose.
If it is important, I will note that the duration of the first video was 48:44, and the second 1:21:31.
I am attaching a file with logs.

What else can I notice, the duration of the problematic section of the sound is approximately the same: 7 minutes 50 seconds. But it did not start as before, at about 30 minutes with something, but at 56 minutes.

I will be very grateful if someone can help me with this.

 

[rockbottom]

Overall your log looks OK.

Game Mode can be enabled

HAGS is enabled, doubt if it's the source of your audio woes but might be worth testing with it disabled.

How about all those audio filters you're using, have you tried testing without any filters being used?

Scarlett Solo, looks like there might be a newer driver available.

Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen | Focusrite Downloads

Software and documentation for Focusrite products

downloads.focusrite.com

Just an FYI, you mentioned using VLC above to play your recordings. Check the installed version, I believe you have the 32-bit version installed on your system. It should be the 64-bit variant so you can use it with OBS.
08:46:22.250: LoadLibrary failed for 'C:\vlc\libvlc.dll': The specified module could not be found.
08:46:22.250: (126)
08:46:22.250: [vlc-video]: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled

 

[rockbottom]

The Scarlett looks like it's stuck in the muck, your round trip latency is slow. Check this out.

What Round Trip Latency Means? Scarlett Solo and Beyond

Learn what round trip latency means on Focusrite Scarlett Solo or any audio interface and handle it effectively for recording.

bestaudiohub.com

 

[prgmitchell]

nothing foreshadowed trouble and here again, this problem with sound came back to me, although before that I recorded 3 more videos on different days and such problems were not observed.

This time I saved the logs in a separate folder so as not to lose them. I will also add that when OBS created this file, I recorded two videos in a row, and I did not turn off OBS, but only finished recording and started a new one. And strangely enough, everything was fine in the first video, and in the second, this problem with sound arose.
If it is important, I will note that the duration of the first video was 48:44, and the second 1:21:31.
I am attaching a file with logs.

What else can I notice, the duration of the problematic section of the sound is approximately the same: 7 minutes 50 seconds. But it did not start as before, at about 30 minutes with something, but at 56 minutes.

I will be very grateful if someone can help me with this.

I would recommend recording directly to your C drive and see if you observe any further issues. If you have more space on your S drive you can move files there after the recording is finished.

 

[Kenachan]

Overall your log looks OK.

Game Mode can be enabled

HAGS is enabled, doubt if it's the source of your audio woes but might be worth testing with it disabled.

How about all those audio filters you're using, have you tried testing without any filters being used?

Scarlett Solo, looks like there might be a newer driver available.

Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen | Focusrite Downloads

Software and documentation for Focusrite products

downloads.focusrite.com

Just an FYI, you mentioned using VLC above to play your recordings. Check the installed version, I believe you have the 32-bit version installed on your system. It should be the 64-bit variant so you can use it with OBS.
08:46:22.250: LoadLibrary failed for 'C:\vlc\libvlc.dll': The specified module could not be found.
08:46:22.250: (126)
08:46:22.250: [vlc-video]: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled

Thanks for your reply. I'll try to disable HAGS and update my sound card driver, maybe some of this will help. And I'm not right about audio plugins, since I use the same plugins for my microphone and for the sound from Discord, just to limit the volume and compress the sound from the game, but only the sound from the game is damaged, the other tracks are always in good condition. But I'll take this into account and if the first options do not help, I'll try to disable the audio plugins.
By the way, perhaps, if the problem is still in the plugins, loudmax is a new plugin compared to others. I'll try to disable it

 

[Kenachan]

The Scarlett looks like it's stuck in the muck, your round trip latency is slow. Check this out.

What Round Trip Latency Means? Scarlett Solo and Beyond

Learn what round trip latency means on Focusrite Scarlett Solo or any audio interface and handle it effectively for recording.

bestaudiohub.com

View attachment 114704

As far as I understand, the delay affects the instant response when recording, so as not to hear the echo, I don't know if this can be a solution to the problem, but I will try to lower the buffer again and test it longer. By the way, I have never touched this parameter and used only this sound card. I have been recording videos for over a year, and this problem arose about 3 months ago.

 

[Kenachan]

I would recommend recording directly to your C drive and see if you observe any further issues. If you have more space on your S drive you can move files there after the recording is finished.

Thanks for the reply. There isn't much space on the C drive, but I'll try this method.
If it makes any difference, I can say that the C drive is an M.2 SSD drive, and the S drive is also an M.2 SSD drive. I mean that the S drive should have enough speed for writing.

 

[Kenachan]

Just an FYI, you mentioned using VLC above to play your recordings. Check the installed version, I believe you have the 32-bit version installed on your system. It should be the 64-bit variant so you can use it with OBS.
08:46:22.250: LoadLibrary failed for 'C:\vlc\libvlc.dll': The specified module could not be found.
08:46:22.250: (126)
08:46:22.250: [vlc-video]: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled

Regarding the VLC video player, I didn't quite understand you. I don't use it directly in OBS. I just play the already recorded video in the VLC video player itself, when OBS is already closed, to hear if there are stutters in the sound.

 

[Kenachan]

Thank you all for your answers, I am very grateful for any information. After all, this problem is very annoying and spoils many of my videos. I will try to do everything you wrote to me. But to understand whether it helped or not, I need to record for a long time and a lot, this problem does not happen with all of my videos, regardless of the length of the recording, both with short (30 minutes) and long (2 - 3 hours). So I need a lot of time. Thanks again for the information

 

[Kenachan]

In general, I disabled HAGS and updated the sound card driver to the latest version.
After which I conducted some tests and recorded a total of 6 videos of different lengths.
1) 2:39
2) 11:21
3) 39:19
4) 1:40:51
5) 41:43
6) 40:20
In all but the fifth, the sound is fine.
What is unusual is that in this video the problems began almost immediately at 7:38 and lasted until 16:35 (8:57 minutes).
I will also note that starting with the 3rd video, the obs did not close and the videos were recorded in a row.
I am attaching the logs, maybe something will be visible there.

I still have the option of recording to disk C and the option of disabling audio plugins, I will try them later.

I would appreciate any help on this matter, thank you for taking the time to help me.

 

[Suslik V]

Thanks for the link. I didn't find any specific solutions...

Are you sure?

...this only happens with the game's sound track, but never with my microphone and Discord. By the way, the sound in the game and Discord is recorded from the same source: "application sound capture, beta".

Only the track with the 'game sound' source has gaps, isn't it? Here it is:

06:52:39.472: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 19045 (release: 22H2; revision: 6093; 64-bit)
...
06:53:08.943: WASAPI: Device '[VIRTUAL_AUDIO_DEVICE_PROCESS_LOOPBACK]' [44100 Hz] initialized (source: game sound)
...

because

I can confirm that Microsoft has implemented a potential fix for this issue that is targeted for Windows 11 24H2. In our testing, the fix resolved the issue.

 

[prgmitchell]

1) this is not a valid test, your game sound source has multiple filters on it

06:52:47.925:         - source: 'game sound' (wasapi_process_output_capture)
06:52:47.925:             - filter: 'loudMax' (vst_filter)
06:52:47.925:             - filter: 'Плагин VST 2.x' (vst_filter)

2) as pointed out above you are not on the 24H2 update of windows 11 which is the only fix for some static/skips with application audio capture sources

3) still haven't tried a different drive

I would ask that you revisit all 3 of my points above and wait to reply with results until you have as they are all potential causes and there wouldn't be anything to add until they are ruled out.