Question / Help Audio delay ruining OBS

[knopf55]

Installed OBS two weeks ago, streamed live music events successfully (except sound quality) three times via Youtube live-streaming on my channel. Video looks great. The sound quality is so bad, it has to improve otherwise I have to try a different encoder.

Included: screenshots of all my settings in OBS, Mac system audio settings, and the midi setup interface. Also attached is an mkv file generated within OBS about 6 seconds long demonstrating the problem.

Echo is actually the wrong term for the problem, there is a delay on all external sound inputs — and some internal sources. The ONLY internal source that is clean of the delay is iTunes, I can play a sound file from there and stream it, and it’s clear of any echo. I have hooked up variations of external sources, like a USB mixer, also a Zoom H2n USB connected mic singly. All have delay in the audio. I have also tried the audio in the simplest format, that is the onboard computer speakers output, and onboard computer mic input. That also has the *@#& delay.

So to be clear, the effect I am calling a delay is this: If I snap my fingers near the microphone, I hear two snaps, the acoustic sound my fingers make outside of the earphones, and then a split second later my fingers snapping in the earphones. The stream recordings all have both sounds, hence the “echo” effect. Just discovered I cannot attach a video or audio file, so cannot demo the problem. Here is the link to one of the streams:

Satsang Meditation with Live Music

Satsang Meditation begins at 23:40. Scheduled: 10-11 am Berlin Time. Jamie and Arpita stream a live music satsang meditation from the studio in New York, USA.

youtu.be

Also relevant, Soundflower does not update to high sierra, so I installed "IShowU" audio driver to aggregate the audio streams.

 

[Narcogen]

Question / Help - DOUBLED AUDIO!

Okay, so I just installed OBS. First use of the program the audio was fine. Streamed audio perfectly. Opened the program back up to stream a second time and the audio settings changed. Now the audio doubles. (Dunno why.) I have an El Gato HD60 Pro. I have Desktop audio on because I use discord...

obsproject.com

Since you are capturing an aggregate device that includes your default output, the cause of echo is most likely that you have monitoring on for that input, and monitoring output is going to the default device. You left this setting out of your screenshot.

 

[knopf55]

Question / Help - DOUBLED AUDIO!

Okay, so I just installed OBS. First use of the program the audio was fine. Streamed audio perfectly. Opened the program back up to stream a second time and the audio settings changed. Now the audio doubles. (Dunno why.) I have an El Gato HD60 Pro. I have Desktop audio on because I use discord...

obsproject.com

Since you are capturing an aggregate device that includes your default output, the cause of echo is most likely that you have monitoring on for that input, and monitoring output is going to the default device. You left this setting out of your screenshot.

Today after posting I did a little test. I unplugged all external devices, dismantled the aggregate device in midi setup and closed that down, reset in the system preferences all the defaults. So in system preferences I chose the onboard mic (default) for the input, and onboard speakers (default) for output, the signal going to headphones so no feedback poss. So no aggregate device in play, and only onboard hardware being used. I adjusted the OBS settings accordingly. The delay (remember the diff. between delay and echo) is still there. I speak, and it takes a half second before the sound of my voice comes thru the headphones. I only wonder if the IshowU audio driver is giving problems but in this scenario, it should not be in play.

 

[stwbass]

just dropping in to say I have this exact same problem. audio input capture of internal laptop mic, monitor output in OBS, 20ms/something-very-noticeable delay between snapped finger and audio output through OBS. I'm not even using IshowU or soundflower or blackhole, just the internal computer components. if I do use soundflower/blackhole it's the exact same kind of delay with better audio equipment.

 

[stwbass]

I wonder if it's a high sierra problem! I'm also on 10.13.6

 

[knopf55]

I have found a solution, it's a good work around, not 100%, but it creates a clean stream, or clean recording (if that's what you're doing). Narcogen's answer above gave me the idea to look more in the direction of a doubled up output, which would create a delay/echo. So I did something counter intuitive, I un-plugged the "iShowU Audio Capture" in the midi setup app, and then two things happened:
1. I could not hear the sound in my headphones anymore
2. The audio was still routed thru OBS and into the stream free of delay.

Counter intuitive because the Built-in Output is still plugged in so I SHOULD be able to hear the mix in my headphones. But no mix. So to test it I both recorded the mix, and created a test stream with iShowU Audio Capture deactivated, listened as a user on youtube to the broadcast, and in BOTH the audio is pristine, completely clean, free of any echo or delay.

Since I am using a mixer to go into the computer as an input source, I can plug my headphones into the mixer to monitor the mix. So that's all good. Downside is if something were to go south in the stream like OBS dropping the audio, I won't know it, so I have to visually keep track of the audio VU meter in OBS to make sure it's still active. I can live with that. The other downside is iTunes does not enter the mix now. With iShowU unplugged, it cannot add that input into the mix. So I have to activate it each time in the midi setup when I want to play something from iTunes, and then deactivate it again. Hope I can remember all that.

I would happily have ditched OBS except there are no other free stream softwares that come close to the control OBS gives, for instance with the bitrate. And screen composition. It's just way more advanced than Zoom or Streamyard.
See screenshot attached today for what I unplugged.

 

[CCooper]

I too am having the exact same problem. However, our sound booth is in the sanctuary and the pseudo delay makes it difficult to mix and operate OBS. We are hearing the praise band a split second before we are hearing it on the OBS preview screen. The above workaround did not work for us since we cannot isolate the sound booth completely from the sanctuary.

I also ran the same audio signal, into Garage band to see if maybe the mixing board was faulting, the input signal was in perfect sync with the Computer monitor.

I installed Wirecast and Streamlabs to see if maybe it was just an issue with OBS and the same exact problem occurred, Wirecast lag was even greater than OBS.

I have done all of the MAC RAM and PRAM/DRAM resets along with completely reinstalling OBS and was not able to fix the problem

This problem began out of nowhere (September 8th) The Sunday service prior to the 8th was fine and we have been using OBS since January of this year.

Any help with this problem is greatly appreciated.

 

[Kavoossi]

I'm also experiencing this same problem on my 2017 macbook pro with High Sierra, whether I'm snapping my fingers into the built in mic or running an X Air 18 or ZOOM audio interface, logic, pro tools, etc, all the same.. And I know this isn't a universal thing because I work for a church that uses OBS with an old laptop and there is zero delay. That being said, the actual audio is synced up to the video on the OUTPUT once streamed/recorded. Its only the monitor experiencing the delay.

I've tried all kinds of things, double checking sample rates, audio channels, buffer sizes, iShowU, Soundflower, you name it. So far, nothing solves it.

 

[nottooloud]

And I know this isn't a universal thing because I work for a church that uses OBS with an old laptop and there is zero delay.

Doubtful. There is always latency, unless you're not monitoring *through* OBS. There needs to be, because video processing takes time.

 

[Comkri]

Also have audio delay. Kinda annoying if you record a session and after the recording finding out that the delay is there. Now I will have to play the whole game from scratch again. Not so fun when you are streaming or recording.
I have had this problem before and now it's back.

All the settings are the same settings I have used for over a couple of years.
Can also add that this problem accrued on a different set up years ago.

The computer with the problem at the moment is an i7 with rtx card, m.2 harddrive, 16 gig ram so the computer is not the issue.

After watching KSI and PewDiePie I actually tried bandicam and not a single problem so far.
The sound is on point and also the quality is good.

Will try a couple of things to see if there is something wrong with drivers or something otherwise I will continue with bandicam, a program that actually works without problems.