Question / Help Audio "Hiccups"/Video Slowdown with two different audio devices

Level99

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Using Open Broadcaster Software v0.65b (64-bit primarily, but confirmed same issues with 32-bit).

I'm currently running the following rig:

AMD 8320 FX
ASRock 970 Extreme4
8gb ram
Toshiba 840 512gb SSD/1TB WD Caviar Black
AMD Radeon 6870
EVGA 850Watt G2 PSU
Windows 7 64-bit SP1 with all latest updates.

I should have more than enough power for everything to be working correctly. I have two pro audio devices that I use to create a lagless relay for streaming. A Steinberg UR44 for Mic input, Skype chatter, and game audio. These normally flow directly into a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB 1.1 for capturing, streaming and recording. I have switched between the two and encountered the following issues:

If I set the Steinberg as my main audio device and mic input in OBS, then everything works fine except for audio. Every 2-7 seconds it will "hiccup", and completely cut out on the stream, the recording, and on the preview. I can hear it on my machine as well, so OBS is capturing it properly but the hiccups only happen when OBS is running the preview, record, or stream. These hiccups do not happen outside of OBS running.

If I set the Focusrite as my main audio device (disabling mic input, since it is not needed as all game, mic and skype audio flows from the steinberg), the same thing happens, so it is definitely affecting the Steingberg for hiccups.

If I set the Focusrite as my main audio device, and hook up my mic to it and run skype and game through it, then I do not get any audio hiccups but my in-game framerate drops from a consistent 60fps to 10fps at best, sometimes way worse.

I'm at my witts end here. I went out and purchased the new PSU because I thought my old one was not powerful enough to run all the usb devices at the same time while streaming, but that does not seem to be the case.


I can provide my latest log, but I am not seeing any events being logged whenever the audio hiccups. Any assistance or insight would be greatly appreciated, folks.
 
You're on the right track with USB, but you're lacking USB bandwidth, not power. You need to either move devices to individual hubs or cut down on the number of USB devices in use, especially webcams.
 
I'm only using four devices on a single powered hub:
Keyboard
Mouse
Steinberg
Focusrite

I'll try moving the Steinberg to a dedicated USB, I guess I'll try a USB 3 since its not a shared hub, and report back.
 
The Steinberg, on the dedicated USB 3.0 connection, was marginally better but was still having the hiccup problem. I unplugged as much else as I could, and all the power saving features of the CPU are off.
 
R1CH, I can not thank you enough. I ran latencymon but didn't see any issues, however I did remove the Saffire 6 from any motherboard-centric usb port and onto a dedicated PCI card USB2.0. It seems as though the power and bandwidth it consumes (498 mA out of 500 mA available, and nearly 95% of bandwidth even when idle) was causing a ripple effect negatively impacting all other devices on the motherboard hubs. I was able to get OBS to work for an hour before confirming the issue is no longer present.

Thanks again for helping me in resolving this issue!
 
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