Question / Help Alesis Multimix 4 w/ OBS

[Rodney Blu]

I have an alesis multimix 4 4-channel mixer and I'm using OBS to run a Youtube live stream that is simply my iTunes music and me narrating/hosting on my microphone. (think of this, except with an on-air personality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6qXZa-N_ow)

I downloaded the iShowU digital audio capture device so that I could pull sound from my iTunes without the outside noise of my mic.

A couple things I'm having issues with.

Is it possible to control OBS volume sliders with my physical mixer?
All lowering my audio on the mixer does is decrease the volume in my headphones. It doesn't change anything on-screen or in OBS. I'd like to know if there was a way my physical mixer could control the OBS audio levels, especially considering I'm using multiple channels.

Another thing is audio ducking.

I have it configured via the audio filters but the audio will only truly return to its original volume if I mute the microphone slider via OBS. Turning down my mic on the mixer doesn't make much of an effect. Yeah, I can't hear myself in my cans and it doesn't register (much) on the OBS volume slider, but it's not truly muted, as my desktop audio doesn't return to its original volume until the mic track is muted on OBS.

So basically, I guess my question is - does having a physical mixer (Alesis Multimix 4) allow me the range of OBS controls that I'm looking for? Or is it simply a medium between my headphones and my OBS audio? I know this is more of a setup question and I intend to have an A/V buddy of mine stop by and grade my setup. But I wanted to check here first to see if anyone could diagnose my issue for me.

Thanks in advance,
BLU.

 

[Narcogen]

There's not really enough information about how you've connected things to give a good answer.

As far as I know, there's no way for your mixer to act as a remote control for volume sliders in OBS. If the volume of your input is being controlled by the mixer then OBS will be affected by those changes, but the slider won't move-- there's no mechanism for that.

Not sure what you're actually doing (or trying to do) with the mixer, but if you're using iShowU, you're getting the music into OBS directly-- it won't be affected by anything you do with the mixer.

If the mixer is just for your mic that should work-- not sure what the issue is with your sidechain setup aside just from values in the filter settings.

 

[Rodney Blu]

Here’s my setup.

And again, thanks for your help.

My mic is in channel one.
The computer headphone jack is actually plugged into channel three. I used a aux to LR 1/4”.
And then my cans are in the headphone jack.

You’ll see here that it’s powered from a power adapter and then the usb is connected to the computer.

Mixer.
My brother’s SD card that’s been hanging out for about three weeks.
Channel three aux to LR 1/4”

I used a tutorial, downloaded the iShowU digital mic or whatever. Just so I could pull audio from my desktop without interfering with the real world audio. I made it and my built-in output a multi output device in my MIDI settings and then made my system settings output that saved aggregate device. My input is set to USB AUDIO CODEC, as that's what the mixer that my mic is plugged into registers as.

These are also my OBS Settings for reference. Including the current bitrate settings (I have the hardest time going live smoothly, ie without buffering/loading hiccups)
I'm also using OBS's new audio ducking feature that's supposed to automatically lower the audio of the other channels when I unmute my microphone. It kiiiinda works but I'm not sure if the settings are correct.

 

[Narcogen]

Not sure why but all the image links are broken-- giving me a "410" error. It looks like you linked them directly from your google mailbox.

For troubleshooting relating to bitrates and other settings, it would help to have a log that includes a complete streaming or recording attempt.

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/include-a-log-file-if-you-have-a-problem-heres-how.16571/

 

[Rodney Blu]

 

[Str8UpJack]

I use this exact same mixer. The thing that I do differently is I monitor all my stream audio from my MAC.. I don't monitor from the Phone out on the mixer. I use LOOPBACK for audio routing in the Mac. Not sure how that compares to what you are using. Loopback lets you play with the audio and you can mute the playback of it, or route the monitoring of it to a particular output.. I generally MUTE the Audio source and then monitor it in OBS ( using the advanced audio properties and then selecting MONITOR for each channel I want to hear played back ). This way I hear exactly what is being sent out over the stream.

I have a Mic connected via XLR and then I connect an iPhone to Channel 3 via line 3/4 with a 1/8 to dual 1/4".

If you are running your music on the same computer you are streaming from, why are you sending it to you mixer? You should just set up a virtual audio device on your mac and send that to OBS as an Audio Input source. Setting up a virtual audio device within the Mac OS is a little confusing ( for me at least ) but LOOPBACK automates that entire process ( it does cost $99 though ). You can see I have a number of virtual audio devices set up in Loopback and those are all seen within OBS as individual Audio Input sources that I can bring into my stream. That is the best way to have full control over each source of audio... separate them all into a single source.

You SHOULD be able to change your signal levels by adjusting the ALESIS mixer channel outputs but it's not going to physically change the sliders of the OBS mixer... it's just going to reduce the signal level sent to the computer. I run my music into ch 3/4 and change the level of my music bed by rotating the level knob on the mixer.. It registers fine in OBS.

 

[Rodney Blu]

thank you so much for your help Jack. I'm gonna give this a shot when I get back to my workstation but I'm grateful even for the relief that someone has a setup even SIMILAR to mine. Thank you so much dude and I'll return to this post with updates. Good looking out.

I use this exact same mixer. The thing that I do differently is I monitor all my stream audio from my MAC.. I don't monitor from the Phone out on the mixer. I use LOOPBACK for audio routing in the Mac. Not sure how that compares to what you are using. Loopback lets you play with the audio and you can mute the playback of it, or route the monitoring of it to a particular output.. I generally MUTE the Audio source and then monitor it in OBS ( using the advanced audio properties and then selecting MONITOR for each channel I want to hear played back ). This way I hear exactly what is being sent out over the stream.

I have a Mic connected via XLR and then I connect an iPhone to Channel 3 via line 3/4 with a 1/8 to dual 1/4".

If you are running your music on the same computer you are streaming from, why are you sending it to you mixer? You should just set up a virtual audio device on your mac and send that to OBS as an Audio Input source. Setting up a virtual audio device within the Mac OS is a little confusing ( for me at least ) but LOOPBACK automates that entire process ( it does cost $99 though ). You can see I have a number of virtual audio devices set up in Loopback and those are all seen within OBS as individual Audio Input sources that I can bring into my stream. That is the best way to have full control over each source of audio... separate them all into a single source.

You SHOULD be able to change your signal levels by adjusting the ALESIS mixer channel outputs but it's not going to physically change the sliders of the OBS mixer... it's just going to reduce the signal level sent to the computer. I run my music into ch 3/4 and change the level of my music bed by rotating the level knob on the mixer.. It registers fine in OBS.