Adjust Projector Preview/Monitor volume?

[Winchester7314]

Hi there. So I'm having a bit of a hiccup in my attempts to streamline my setup.
To explain, as many of you know, if you wish to share your obs layout to discord with audio, you can, by setting a monitor device, and monitoring all audio captures you wish to be heard. Then you share the Fullscreen Projector App, and tick Share App Audio
The issue I'm facing, is that I wish to have a master control of that volume.
I have the monitor set to a virtual cable, and upon looking in windows volume mixer, it does appear that OBS shows under the virtual cable, blasting the volume...however, no matter what device monitor is set to, adjusting that volume does not adjust the volume feeding through to discord.
There is only one way to do that, and that is to adjust the volume of the Projector preview/obs app on your default audio device....HOWEVER this in turn, not only adjusts the volume of the audio feeding to discord, it also affects the audio being recorded. So if I were to mute this, it would cause all of my sources in OBS to not be heard by the recording.

I have a physical mixer coming in(Turn Up Volume Mixer), and my plan was to map OBS Projector app to one of the knobs, and adjust that, so people in discord do not have to touch their sliders. However, upon learning that the only successful method of controlling the audio, actually breaks the recordings...I'm at a loss.

The audio monitor plugin on the forums, that has a dock, allows you to adjust monitor volume for each device, but this does not resolve either
A: controlling my multiple sources at once
or
B: controlling that volume outside of OBS docks, etc.

Any recomendations, or possible devs willing to implement a split between the Projector volume, and the main app volume?

 

[AaronD]

As you've found, OBS is really pretty bad with audio. The devs know this already - they've seen countless requests across all of the feedback sites (more than just this one) to add this and that feature and fix a bunch of bugs - but they also know that they don't have an actual audio guy, and so anything they do will likely hurt more than help because of poor implementation. There are actually a couple of bugs like that already, where a good idea wasn't done very well...

So, I would not expect any changes whatsoever, until a complete overhaul, and it's going to be a while before they even agree on what that should look like, let alone actually doing it. I like the idea (actually came from one of them, after I shared one of my own ideas for improvement) of just carving out what presently exists into a plugin, and then letting the community replace that plugin, but we'll have to see what happens.

---

In the meantime, I recommend doing ALL of your audio work *outside* of OBS. Use a DAW or physical console that is big enough for EVERYTHING. Not just a little postage stamp or DAW controller, but an actual full-featured DAW or console. Everything to do with audio - mics, headphones, Desktop audio, etc. - connects to that, not to OBS, so that OBS is completely silent except for the final, finished, already mastered soundtrack from that external tool to pass through unchanged. No other audio sources at all in OBS.

That external tool, then, takes one copy of each thing, splits/copies it as needed with separate controls for everything, and feeds each destination separately with exactly what you sent to each one individually. If you need to have a bunch of separate physical soundcards (console) or virtual loopbacks (DAW) to make that work, then do that too.

If you need to change audio settings automatically, like to have something on only when you're on a particular scene, then you'll need to recreate that yourself. The Advanced Scene Switcher can detect all kinds of things and do all kinds of things in response to that. For example, it could send an OSC message (Open Sound Control) to a DAW or digital console when you change scenes in OBS. Read the documentation for your DAW or console, to see what it wants to receive, and set up Adv. SS to send that.

Advanced Scene Switcher

This plugin will allow you to automate various tasks using "Macros". Macros consist of a list of conditions under which a list of actions will be performed. Examples and guides can be found in the wiki. Feel free to contribute! If you run...

obsproject.com

 

[Winchester7314]

So I actually in the meantime, found partial workarounds, and tbh, I think that the issue is a two pronged issue, that could be resolved by either discord, or OBS.
I did however, find a discord workaround.
On discord, if you stream a capture device, and stream the OBS virtual cam, you are given an audio device selection. So the Virtual cable that OBS monitors to, can be adjusted, to affect what the viewers hear. The issue, is that not only is it a small graphical strain, but I want my projector preview up anyway for my reference, so instead of 2 tugs on perf, its 3(preview/cam/upload) which is whatever, and 2, the virtual cam used to focus on my actual camera, so now I have to resort to using plugin virtual cam for my camera(which is another graphics processing tug)
So while not ideal, I have something working, but it would be much nicer if either OBS or discord implemented a change(OBS would need to change projector volume affecting recording volume, AND/OR Discord would need to allow audio device selection, when application streaming)
While I appreciate the input on using a DAW, its a bit more complex than I'm looking to do, and have effectively accomplished what I need to do anyway with the use of virtual cables feeding into my headset and speaker devices.(VAC can add numerous virtual cables)
I do agree, its an oversight, its just so hard to encourage change in companies that are so huge, they honestly don't notice some of the really niche issues. I will admit, it'd probably be easier to get OBS to do something than Discord, as the lack of NDI in discord, despite the overwhelming desire for it, is really telling of how they listen to their base....

 

[AaronD]

While I appreciate the input on using a DAW, its a bit more complex than I'm looking to do...

Yes, it can be intimidating when you first step into it, but OBS is kinda the same way. Both do far more than what any single person needs, so just set it up the way that works for you, and let the other features sit off to the side, unused.