Audio cutting out when recording guitar

[Trevor H]

Recently when recording songs on a Mac through OBS (using my Logitech pro C90 HD webcam) the audio has started to cut out. Interestingly, recordings are fine with just the voice but with an acoustic guitar the recorded sound drops out all the time (as it does when recording harmonica) although the video seems fine. CPU usage is showing in OBS as v low at around 3 to 5% at 30,000 fps. The audio bitrate is set at 160. The recording file size is set at “High quality, medium”. Re the format, I’ve tried both MPEG (.mp4) Matroska (.mkv) and QuickTime (.mov) and the same dropping out occurs with all three. Can anyone advise what else I can do to resolve this?

 

[XLCOLDJ]

Try raising the audio bitrate to 320 to make sure it's not dropping out due to a buffer-overflow. You should also check Help>Logflies>View Current Log while you're recording, to see what's going on if that doesn't help.

 

[AaronD]

fine with just the voice but with an acoustic guitar the recorded sound drops out all the time (as it does when recording harmonica)

Do you have a Noise Suppressor? Those are designed for spoken voice only, not even singing, and anything else is considered as noise to be removed.

Think of a business "bored meeting" in a terrible conference room or lobby, with background music that can't be turned off or avoided. If you're not doing that or similar, then a Noise Suppressor hurts.

 

[Trevor H]

Many thanks for the advice. I tried again with the audio bitrate raised to 320 but the dropping out was still there. However, I then took off the OBS noise suppressor filter and, lo and behold, there was no more dropping out - so that was the cause!! However, without the noise suppressor, even when playing the guitar through an AI (Focusrite Scarlet Solo) there is a noticeable amount of background 'hiss'. So the obvious next question is - is there a way of getting rid of this background noise without the guitar dropping out?

 

[AaronD]

So the obvious next question is - is there a way of getting rid of this background noise without the guitar dropping out?

Large diaphragm mics are usually good for that (average air pressure over a larger area), as are close pickups that give you a hot signal just by being close, which simply drowns out the noise.

But if it's actually room noise and not electronic noise, then you need to turn off your fans, air conditioner, fridge if necessary, etc. Maybe record in a closet full of hanging clothes......

A lot of YouTubers do turn off their air conditioners, in the middle of summer, while they record a video. They just tough it out for that time, and turn it back on again.