Question / Help All mic sources cut out for 5 seconds every 20 seconds - please help

[Perifractic]

Hi, I really am stumped with this. Please take a listen to the mic cutouts here: https://youtu.be/DLRlns4ZiOs?t=45 ...

As you hear the mic cuts out and is replaced by hissing. This happens for about 5 seconds about every 20-30 seconds. It is not random, it is exact and cyclical.

I am using the Mic as a separate source so each scene can have the mic off or on as required.

I have tried:

• Recreating the mic input source
• The interesting thing there is if I have TWO identical mic sources, the cycling cutout happens on a different cycle. E.g. source 1 cuts out after 10 seconds,source 2 after 20 seconds. I actually used this to get around the issue for a stream today, by having both sources turned on, that way when the cutout occurred, people could still hear me (quieter) through the other source, until it cut out too...
• Turning off all filters with the "eye" icon
• I do use noise gate and reduction but they had never caused an issue before
• Reboot, unplug all USB devices, change mics, change mic cable, etc.

As it is cyclical it must be happening inside OBS or the computer, but the fact that it is sync'd differently on 2 sources that come from 1 USB port and mic/cable, it can't be the port or the cable. So it seems to be OBS.

Please help.

Thank you.

 

[Perifractic]

Gah! It solved it. Hope this helps someone else:

Turns out a demo "Audio Match EQ" plugin I use to match the headset mic to the quality of my other broadcasts had expired (I didn't realize it was a demo) & was intentionally holding my audio ransom! This threw me because I had disabled the plugins & it still happened, so apparently disabling them didn't disable that effect. $100 later... problem solved!