Audio bug with newer OBS version causes audio crackling, choppy mic or mic stuttering multiple time a second, OBS unusable with higher quality mics?

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scrane

New Member
similar streamed audio problem....Crackly. Audio is run to mixer to PTZ NDI/HX camera to computer(Mac M1) then via OBS to YouTube live stream. distortion eliminated by...OBS/sound source/properties/bandwidth...changed from 'highest' to 'lowest' or 'Andio only'. not sure why this helps.
 
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stevecote23

New Member
Neighborhoodburrito said:
For most of 2020 there have been posts about this bug on this forum and reddit etc. It seems that OBS just does not like higher quality microphones and no fix has been presented.

Users who add a mic, especially higher end usb or even shotgun microphones fed via XLR find that their stream and recordings have choppy audio that cuts out multiple times a second. Many users on this forum and elsewhere have offered the below "fixes" that have not helped, while some users have found that reverting to older versions sometimes works. So is this a bug with recent OBS versions or just overall?

My testing setup (tested on two computers, laptop and desktop old and new OBS versions same result):
  • Canon C500 (includes XLR +48V phantom power)
  • Blackmagic ultrastudio mini 4k (includes XLR +48V phantom power that has to be enabled)
  • Elgato Camlink 4K HDMI capture card
  • Microphones (settings across all devices to 48 kHz)
    • Yeti USB mic (only one that works other than built in)
    • Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun mic
    • Sennheiser MKH-60 shogun mic
    • Shure SM7B
    • Electro-voice RE320
There is a headphone monitor on the C500 and the Blackmagic, audio is clear on both for every mic (other than yeti which does not interface with these) but the audio on OBS crackles constantly. I even downloaded voicemeeter banana to monitor the input directly and the windows PC is hearing the mic fine, it is only when it gets routed through OBS.

Troubleshooting steps taken to resolve this issue that have not worked:
  1. Ensuring all of the sampling rates matched (48k across all devices and in OBS)
  2. turning off noise suppression in OBS. It was not on
    1. Also attempted to recreate the issue with desktop and yeti mic using noise gate etc to no avail.
  3. Testing to make sure it wasn’t a clipping problem (nothing is anywhere near clipping the audio)
  4. Changing gain from -10, to 0 to +10 etc.
  5. Checking all windows settings no gain etc.
  6. Restarting everything like 5,000 fucking times
  7. tried on a separate pc with same obs version and same issue.
  8. Tried multiple thunderbolt ports for the blackmagic ultrastudio
  9. tried checking for ground looping, isolated camera, computer and the mini 4K. No changes.
  10. Tried a different XLR cable
  11. Tried to embed audio through the Canon HDMI using both the blackmagic ultrastudio and an Elgato camlink 4k. Same issue.
  12. Reverted OBS to earlier version 24, same issue on one device, have not tested on both.
  13. Tried unplugging laptop, no changes
  14. Tried unplugging desktop, computer shut off.
I am sure there are some other things I have tried but looking through the forum there are a lot of posts with people who have just not been able to solve this, I know the developers have been pretty swamped but has anyone seen them comment? I can go put together a log report with some of these things later on but hoping some newer info or an update may be incoming to fix?
Click to expand...
I am sure that this issue has been resolved but for anyone else looking to get the scratchy audio fixed while using Cam Link here is what I did and it worked immediately. In the cam link settings in OBS there is a drop down menu that says Audio Output Mode. Mine was default to capture audio. I changed to Output Desktop Audio and issue fixed. No scratching or chopping. Hope this helps someone else!
 
S

stevecote23

New Member
stevecote23 said:
I am sure that this issue has been resolved but for anyone else looking to get the scratchy audio fixed while using Cam Link here is what I did and it worked immediately. In the cam link settings in OBS there is a drop down menu that says Audio Output Mode. Mine was default to capture audio. I changed to Output Desktop Audio and issue fixed. No scratching or chopping. Hope this helps someone else!
Click to expand...
OBS Audio.jpg
 
S

stevecote23

New Member
OllieBeanz said:
For me disabling unused devices did the trick. OBS seems to get maxed out on the audio bandwidth it could process. Muting them in OBS was not enough, I needed to disable unused devices in windows sound settings. i.e. my Sony A5100 I had muted in OBS but not disabled as well as my monitors.

Since some of you might be using more audio devices than me I suggest disabling some even if you are using them to test if that is the issue.

Click to expand...
I was able to fix my issues by going into Cam Link Properties in OBS and changing the Audio Output mode from Capture Only to Output Desktop audio.
OBS Audio.jpg
 
S

stevecote23

New Member
Neighborhoodburrito said:
For most of 2020 there have been posts about this bug on this forum and reddit etc. It seems that OBS just does not like higher quality microphones and no fix has been presented.

Users who add a mic, especially higher end usb or even shotgun microphones fed via XLR find that their stream and recordings have choppy audio that cuts out multiple times a second. Many users on this forum and elsewhere have offered the below "fixes" that have not helped, while some users have found that reverting to older versions sometimes works. So is this a bug with recent OBS versions or just overall?

My testing setup (tested on two computers, laptop and desktop old and new OBS versions same result):
  • Canon C500 (includes XLR +48V phantom power)
  • Blackmagic ultrastudio mini 4k (includes XLR +48V phantom power that has to be enabled)
  • Elgato Camlink 4K HDMI capture card
  • Microphones (settings across all devices to 48 kHz)
    • Yeti USB mic (only one that works other than built in)
    • Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun mic
    • Sennheiser MKH-60 shogun mic
    • Shure SM7B
    • Electro-voice RE320
There is a headphone monitor on the C500 and the Blackmagic, audio is clear on both for every mic (other than yeti which does not interface with these) but the audio on OBS crackles constantly. I even downloaded voicemeeter banana to monitor the input directly and the windows PC is hearing the mic fine, it is only when it gets routed through OBS.

Troubleshooting steps taken to resolve this issue that have not worked:
  1. Ensuring all of the sampling rates matched (48k across all devices and in OBS)
  2. turning off noise suppression in OBS. It was not on
    1. Also attempted to recreate the issue with desktop and yeti mic using noise gate etc to no avail.
  3. Testing to make sure it wasn’t a clipping problem (nothing is anywhere near clipping the audio)
  4. Changing gain from -10, to 0 to +10 etc.
  5. Checking all windows settings no gain etc.
  6. Restarting everything like 5,000 fucking times
  7. tried on a separate pc with same obs version and same issue.
  8. Tried multiple thunderbolt ports for the blackmagic ultrastudio
  9. tried checking for ground looping, isolated camera, computer and the mini 4K. No changes.
  10. Tried a different XLR cable
  11. Tried to embed audio through the Canon HDMI using both the blackmagic ultrastudio and an Elgato camlink 4k. Same issue.
  12. Reverted OBS to earlier version 24, same issue on one device, have not tested on both.
  13. Tried unplugging laptop, no changes
  14. Tried unplugging desktop, computer shut off.
I am sure there are some other things I have tried but looking through the forum there are a lot of posts with people who have just not been able to solve this, I know the developers have been pretty swamped but has anyone seen them comment? I can go put together a log report with some of these things later on but hoping some newer info or an update may be incoming to fix?
Click to expand...
Neighborhoodburrito said:
For most of 2020 there have been posts about this bug on this forum and reddit etc. It seems that OBS just does not like higher quality microphones and no fix has been presented.

Users who add a mic, especially higher end usb or even shotgun microphones fed via XLR find that their stream and recordings have choppy audio that cuts out multiple times a second. Many users on this forum and elsewhere have offered the below "fixes" that have not helped, while some users have found that reverting to older versions sometimes works. So is this a bug with recent OBS versions or just overall?

My testing setup (tested on two computers, laptop and desktop old and new OBS versions same result):
  • Canon C500 (includes XLR +48V phantom power)
  • Blackmagic ultrastudio mini 4k (includes XLR +48V phantom power that has to be enabled)
  • Elgato Camlink 4K HDMI capture card
  • Microphones (settings across all devices to 48 kHz)
    • Yeti USB mic (only one that works other than built in)
    • Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun mic
    • Sennheiser MKH-60 shogun mic
    • Shure SM7B
    • Electro-voice RE320
There is a headphone monitor on the C500 and the Blackmagic, audio is clear on both for every mic (other than yeti which does not interface with these) but the audio on OBS crackles constantly. I even downloaded voicemeeter banana to monitor the input directly and the windows PC is hearing the mic fine, it is only when it gets routed through OBS.

Troubleshooting steps taken to resolve this issue that have not worked:
  1. Ensuring all of the sampling rates matched (48k across all devices and in OBS)
  2. turning off noise suppression in OBS. It was not on
    1. Also attempted to recreate the issue with desktop and yeti mic using noise gate etc to no avail.
  3. Testing to make sure it wasn’t a clipping problem (nothing is anywhere near clipping the audio)
  4. Changing gain from -10, to 0 to +10 etc.
  5. Checking all windows settings no gain etc.
  6. Restarting everything like 5,000 fucking times
  7. tried on a separate pc with same obs version and same issue.
  8. Tried multiple thunderbolt ports for the blackmagic ultrastudio
  9. tried checking for ground looping, isolated camera, computer and the mini 4K. No changes.
  10. Tried a different XLR cable
  11. Tried to embed audio through the Canon HDMI using both the blackmagic ultrastudio and an Elgato camlink 4k. Same issue.
  12. Reverted OBS to earlier version 24, same issue on one device, have not tested on both.
  13. Tried unplugging laptop, no changes
  14. Tried unplugging desktop, computer shut off.
I am sure there are some other things I have tried but looking through the forum there are a lot of posts with people who have just not been able to solve this, I know the developers have been pretty swamped but has anyone seen them comment? I can go put together a log report with some of these things later on but hoping some newer info or an update may be incoming to fix?
Click to expand...
I am sure that this issue has been resolved but for anyone else looking to get the scratchy audio fixed while using Cam Link here is what I did and it worked immediately. In the cam link settings in OBS there is a drop down menu that says Audio Output Mode. Mine was default to capture audio. I changed to Output Desktop Audio and issue fixed. No scratching or chopping. Hope this helps someone else!
OBS Audio.jpg
 
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