Audio Monitor 0.8.6

[AaronD]

Hello!

I know with the use of virtual cables, it's possible to achieve a loopback scenario, but is it at all possible to add input sources as a routing option? I admit I don't know enough about windows to know how difficult it would be, but the scenario I have in mind, is having sources in OBS, such as browser sources with specific audio, that you'd want to route back into discord, zoom, so on. If it could be done right within OBS it would completely eliminate the need for things like Voicemeeter and so on.


Thanks for any insight into this!

Typically, loopbacks are outside of the apps themselves, just because of how the various audio systems work, but nothing says they can't be installed along with an app from the same installer. Then we have two separate apps for the devs to manage...

Every operating system is pretty much the same here, as far as the apps are concerned. Apps just get a list of available in and out connections, as if they were all physical, and they choose from that list. The differences between systems are in how those lists are created (hardware devices only, or some virtual and some physical, etc.), and in what the system does with each of those options (direct to hardware, copy to multiple hardware, pipe to a different virtual thing, etc.). PipeWire on Linux is probably the least like the others and the most flexible (imagine an old telephone patchbay), but that has nothing to do with OBS itself.

 

[reefbreland]

i have one source set to linked to source muting but it never saves that state so i have to go in to filters properties and flip flop that setting away from linked to source muting and then back to source muting if there is a fix i would love to know

 

[Shredcase]

Typically, loopbacks are outside of the apps themselves, just because of how the various audio systems work, but nothing says they can't be installed along with an app from the same installer. Then we have two separate apps for the devs to manage...

Every operating system is pretty much the same here, as far as the apps are concerned. Apps just get a list of available in and out connections, as if they were all physical, and they choose from that list. The differences between systems are in how those lists are created (hardware devices only, or some virtual and some physical, etc.), and in what the system does with each of those options (direct to hardware, copy to multiple hardware, pipe to a different virtual thing, etc.). PipeWire on Linux is probably the least like the others and the most flexible (imagine an old telephone patchbay), but that has nothing to do with OBS itself.

Thanks for the reply! I currently use VB Audio cables, and also use things like LAMA or Element as VST hosts to allow me to route audio using VST plugins, but I wasn't sure if that was possible in any other way.

Your explanation helps me understand it more though! I appreciate it!

 

[lucidnx]

Hello! I have issue with mute - linked to source muting. If I close and re-open OBS, it just stop working (not following mute/unmute state of device). I have to set mute to "not linked" and back to "linked to source muting" per device to get this function working again. (I am not sure if it's already discussed here, if yes, sorry)

 

[VernG]

Hey folks- was hoping to solve a "mystery" about this plugin when used with my Behringer XR18 USB mixer. Specifically, the drop down list of USB targets for the Audio Monitor is showing my USB mixer OUTPUTs rather than the INPUTs

I cant tell if this is a mislabeling or if its an error or..? The thing is, it *appears* to work since when I engage the monitor then select OUT 1-2 (BEHRINGER X-AIR) I see levels on the mixer on USB channels 1&2. The other devices in the list are clearly shown as "inputs" to the respective devices such as the Virtual Cables and my Logitech Headphones.

As another test, I have a Behringer UMC 204HD USB audio interface on another machine and verified that it also shows the USB OUTS listed in the target listing:

Is this a bug or did I misconfigure something?

**** UPDATE ****

So, I think this may be a Behringer problem rather than a plugin/OBS issue. I noticed that when I use standard "Audio Input Capture" as a source, my options for the Behringer USB devices seem reversed there as well

I think I may pop over to the Behringer forum and post about this there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[AaronD]

Hey folks- was hoping to solve a "mystery" about this plugin when used with my Behringer XR18 USB mixer. Specifically, the drop down list of USB targets for the Audio Monitor is showing my USB mixer OUTPUTs rather than the INPUTs
View attachment 107616
I cant tell if this is a mislabeling or if its an error or..? The thing is, it *appears* to work since when I engage the monitor then select OUT 1-2 (BEHRINGER X-AIR) I see levels on the mixer on USB channels 1&2. The other devices in the list are clearly shown as "inputs" to the respective devices such as the Virtual Cables and my Logitech Headphones.

As another test, I have a Behringer UMC 204HD USB audio interface on another machine and verified that it also shows the USB OUTS listed in the target listing:
View attachment 107617
Is this a bug or did I misconfigure something?

I wonder if this is related to USB's own terminology:

• OUT = leaving the computer, going to the device
• IN = into the computer, from the device

That gets especially confusing when the official documentation uses the same terminology for the same absolute directions, on the device side as well!

I suspect that the names you see here simply reflect that absolute terminology, and are indeed the things you want to connect to, while the others use relative terminology. Thus, both "input" and "output" in the same list, for the same absolute direction.

When I occasionally make a USB thing, I try to stay away from IN and OUT for precisely that reason. For audio, I'll call them MIC and SPK, even if they're actually line-in and line-out.

 

[VernG]

I wonder if this is related to USB's own terminology:

• OUT = leaving the computer, going to the device
• IN = into the computer, from the device

That gets especially confusing when the official documentation uses the same terminology for the same absolute directions, on the device side as well!

I suspect that the names you see here simply reflect that absolute terminology, and are indeed the things you want to connect to, while the others use relative terminology. Thus, both "input" and "output" in the same list, for the same absolute direction.

When I occasionally make a USB thing, I try to stay away from IN and OUT for precisely that reason. For audio, I'll call them MIC and SPK, even if they're actually line-in and line-out.

I guess that makes sense in a way. Similar to the process to STOP a Windows computer is to click the START button since you are STARTING the shutdown process! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[VernG]

Ok, so here's my next challenge (or maybe feature request?)

Would it be possible to have the Audio monitor choose "L", "R" or "BOTH" for the selected Device?

The reason I need this ability is that I need to have 6 (or more) people participating in a live stream. The way it is now, I end up consuming two USB channels for each single mic I select in the Audio monitor Device choice. My Behringer XR18 digital mixer exposes 8 USB channels as stereo pairs (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8).

In my use case, I currently have six mono audio sources (six people's mics in a meeting) and I want to send each individual mic to a channel on my XR18 digital mixer. Since I have to choose a PAIR of USB channels when I select a device, It comes out like this:

• Person 1: Device USB 1/2
• Person 2: Device USB 3/4
• Person 3: Device USB 5/6
• Person 4: Device USB 7/8
• Person 5: unavailable
• Person 6: unavailable

Since each source is a mono mic, I am consuming two USB channels for a single source. The Behringer XR18 USB driver exposes four stereo pairs. So I end up mapping my channels this way:

As you can see, I can't use USB channels 2,4,6,8 for other mics since they are already consumed (i.e. USB input 2 is consumed by choosing Device 1/2 for channel 1). Ideally, If I could choose the use as L, R, or BOTH on channel, I could do something like this:

• Person 1: USB 1/2 (L)
• Person 2: USB 1/2 (R)
• Person 3: USB 3/4 (L)
• Person 4: USB 3/4 (R)
• Person 5: USB 5/6 (L)
• Person 6: USB 5/6 (R)

And then I could map my input channels like this:

Since there are other USB interfaces that have USB pairs, this might be useful for other folks that are trying to get the most out of their USB ADC/DAC devices.

Alternately, the XR18 USB driver from Behringer***1 has a 1-8 choice where it exposes all 8 individual channels in a single choice:

I don't know if it would be easier to use this driver with something like check boxes for each channel you want to use from the device?

I guess lastly, and maybe something that would add a LOT of flexibility to the Audio Monitor would be to consider including ASIO in the device choices. The Behringer (And quite a few other higher end Audio devices) have ASIO drivers. On the Behringer all 18 in and out channels are exposed as individual ASIO channels. You can then use the ASIO plugin***2 to select any of the ASIO channels as shown here:

The benefit of using ASIO is it is specifically designed for very low latency which is really important for keeping audio/video in sync. That said, If I could just get the "L, R, both" switch in the existing Audio Monitor plugin, that would allow me to have up to eight individual live feeds for my live streams and that would be great!

Let me know if you have any questions about this and/or if I can help with troubleshooting/testing!

***1 The Behringer download page requires you to select a path to the driver. For the XR18 it is "Mixers, Digital Stagebox Mixers, All, XR18, Software, Drivers/USB/Audio"
***2 I did hear recently that ASIO driver support in OBS V30 and higher might have some issue with the existing ASIO driver, but it seems there was a fork and maybe some movement on updating but I'm not sure.

 

[AaronD]

Ok, so here's my next challenge (or maybe feature request?)

Would it be possible to have the Audio monitor choose "L", "R" or "BOTH" for the selected Device?

The reason I need this ability is that I need to have 6 (or more) people participating in a live stream. The way it is now, I end up consuming two USB channels for each single mic I select in the Audio monitor Device choice. My Behringer XR18 digital mixer exposes 8 USB channels as stereo pairs (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8).

In my use case, I currently have six mono audio sources (six people's mics in a meeting) and I want to send each individual mic to a channel on my XR18 digital mixer. Since I have to choose a PAIR of USB channels when I select a device, It comes out like this:

• Person 1: Device USB 1/2
• Person 2: Device USB 3/4
• Person 3: Device USB 5/6
• Person 4: Device USB 7/8
• Person 5: unavailable
• Person 6: unavailable

Since each source is a mono mic, I am consuming two USB channels for a single source. The Behringer XR18 USB driver exposes four stereo pairs. So I end up mapping my channels this way:

View attachment 107621​

As you can see, I can't use USB channels 2,4,6,8 for other mics since they are already consumed (i.e. USB input 2 is consumed by choosing Device 1/2 for channel 1). Ideally, If I could choose the use as L, R, or BOTH on channel, I could do something like this:

• Person 1: USB 1/2 (L)
• Person 2: USB 1/2 (R)
• Person 3: USB 3/4 (L)
• Person 4: USB 3/4 (R)
• Person 5: USB 5/6 (L)
• Person 6: USB 5/6 (R)

And then I could map my input channels like this:

View attachment 107622​

Since there are other USB interfaces that have USB pairs, this might be useful for other folks that are trying to get the most out of their USB ADC/DAC devices.

Alternately, the XR18 USB driver from Behringer***1 has a 1-8 choice where it exposes all 8 individual channels in a single choice:

View attachment 107623​

I don't know if it would be easier to use this driver with something like check boxes for each channel you want to use from the device?

I guess lastly, and maybe something that would add a LOT of flexibility to the Audio Monitor would be to consider including ASIO in the device choices. The Behringer (And quite a few other higher end Audio devices) have ASIO drivers. On the Behringer all 18 in and out channels are exposed as individual ASIO channels. You can then use the ASIO plugin***2 to select any of the ASIO channels as shown here:

View attachment 107624​

The benefit of using ASIO is it is specifically designed for very low latency which is really important for keeping audio/video in sync. That said, If I could just get the "L, R, both" switch in the existing Audio Monitor plugin, that would allow me to have up to eight individual live feeds for my live streams and that would be great!

Let me know if you have any questions about this and/or if I can help with troubleshooting/testing!

***1 The Behringer download page requires you to select a path to the driver. For the XR18 it is "Mixers, Digital Stagebox Mixers, All, XR18, Software, Drivers/USB/Audio"
***2 I did hear recently that ASIO driver support in OBS V30 and higher might have some issue with the existing ASIO driver, but it seems there was a fork and maybe some movement on updating but I'm not sure.

At that point (actually slightly before), I'd recommend taking all of your audio work out of OBS, leaving it silent except for a dumb passthrough, and moving it into a DAW instead.

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation. Essentially a complete sound studio, all in one standalone app. It only does audio, and it does it VERY WELL! This plugin replicates *some* of a DAW's functionality, but nowhere near all of it, and I think you're past that threshold.

Look around and see what you can find for cheap or free. I like Ardour because it does everything I need and far more, and comes preinstalled in my favorite free version of Linux (Ubuntu Studio), but it's not free otherwise anymore.

windows daw free - Google Search

Surely there's *something* that works for you.

 

[VernG]

At that point (actually slightly before), I'd recommend taking all of your audio work out of OBS, leaving it silent except for a dumb passthrough, and moving it into a DAW instead.

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation. Essentially a complete sound studio, all in one standalone app. It only does audio, and it does it VERY WELL! This plugin replicates *some* of a DAW's functionality, but nowhere near all of it, and I think you're past that threshold.

Look around and see what you can find for cheap or free. I like Ardour because it does everything I need and far more, and comes preinstalled in my favorite free version of Linux (Ubuntu Studio), but it's not free otherwise anymore.

windows daw free - Google Search

Surely there's *something* that works for you.

Heh. I too am a DAW fan and you're absolutely right that they can be amazing. For an old coot like me that came from the "all analog" days, DAWs are a flippin miracle! Most recently, we use Reaper for live events and for studio recording. The VST plug-ins alone are just astonishing. When you add Izotope RX series DSP magic, it can make for some jaw dropping results!

That said, the issue is we are producing three 90-minute live streaming podcasts (plus one pre-recorded one)every week where the crew & show hosts participate from all over the world. We switched from Wirecast to OBS + VDO.ninja as the platform to stream our shows to YouTube. The show hosts & guests participate from home studios (also from around the world). Being as how the final output of the show is going to be from OBS to YouTube live, I am looking for a way to do give control of all the audio sources and destinations to a dedicated audio operator.

If we are sending all the individual sound sources to the XR18 mixer the remote operator(s) can manage the shows from their desks at home. Since our crew VPNs into the LAN at the studio, they are able to have the mixer "desk" up on their desk during the show and use the snapshot feature to completely reconfigure audio paths very quickly. This is one of the setups on the XR18 for the shows:

The sound operator is responsible for routing sound to discord, the live studio audience, the crew intercom, the live stream, the call screeners, and all the participants in the VDO.ninja session. They are also responsible for bring in & balancing the audio from our call in audience. We need all those participants to be able to hear the director, the interstitials, the intro music, the announcements, the mid-rolls and the outros. The audio routing is... complicated. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Before the pandemic we had multiple mics at a desk in a studio and the mixing was much more traditional (which for me at least was much easier). Now, since we have remote hosts and remote crew, we need the flexibility and quality the in studio setup gave us. Additionally, we still do in-person live shows so training is more coherent if we have a similar setup for remote shows as we do for in person shows. Heres our studio during a recent live show:

Anyway, at the moment, even with just the 4x inputs from VDO.ninja coming into OBS via the Audio Monitor plugin, we are already well on our way to making this all possible. I would just like to have more than 4x individual audio feeds from VDO.ninja for flexibility.

I do appreciate you offering advice and to help! I'm just hoping I can find a way to get 4 more USB inputs for OBS!

 

[AaronD]

Heh. I too am a DAW fan and you're absolutely right that they can be amazing. For an old coot like me that came from the "all analog" days, DAWs are a flippin miracle! Most recently, we use Reaper for live events and for studio recording. The VST plug-ins alone are just astonishing. When you add Izotope RX series DSP magic, it can make for some jaw dropping results!

That said, the issue is we are producing three 90-minute live streaming podcasts (plus one pre-recorded one)every week where the crew & show hosts participate from all over the world. We switched from Wirecast to OBS + VDO.ninja as the platform to stream our shows to YouTube. The show hosts & guests participate from home studios (also from around the world). Being as how the final output of the show is going to be from OBS to YouTube live, I am looking for a way to do give control of all the audio sources and destinations to a dedicated audio operator.

If we are sending all the individual sound sources to the XR18 mixer the remote operator(s) can manage the shows from their desks at home. Since our crew VPNs into the LAN at the studio, they are able to have the mixer "desk" up on their desk during the show and use the snapshot feature to completely reconfigure audio paths very quickly. This is one of the setups on the XR18 for the shows:

View attachment 107628​

The sound operator is responsible for routing sound to discord, the live studio audience, the crew intercom, the live stream, the call screeners, and all the participants in the VDO.ninja session. They are also responsible for bring in & balancing the audio from our call in audience. We need all those participants to be able to hear the director, the interstitials, the intro music, the announcements, the mid-rolls and the outros. The audio routing is... complicated. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Before the pandemic we had multiple mics at a desk in a studio and the mixing was much more traditional (which for me at least was much easier). Now, since we have remote hosts and remote crew, we need the flexibility and quality the in studio setup gave us. Additionally, we still do in-person live shows so training is more coherent if we have a similar setup for remote shows as we do for in person shows. Heres our studio during a recent live show:

View attachment 107629​

Anyway, at the moment, even with just the 4x inputs from VDO.ninja coming into OBS via the Audio Monitor plugin, we are already well on our way to making this all possible. I would just like to have more than 4x individual audio feeds from VDO.ninja for flexibility.

I do appreciate you offering advice and to help! I'm just hoping I can find a way to get 4 more USB inputs for OBS!

Wow! Nice!

My first thought for that, is to separate some duties. Have several separate machines for the VDO.ninja connections, with wired connections to a physical video capture on the OBS machine, and 1/8" TRS to dual 1/4" TS cords to the XR18 since it's all close. The VDO.ninja machines can be relatively cheap if they're effectively a TV and nothing else. (they don't feed video back; that comes from OBS or whatever you're currently doing already)

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The 4-input HDMI card for $210 looks like it might be a good fit for you. I have the 4-input SDI one in a church rig with cameras, and it works great!

It's a bit more money than you might have had in mind - that capture card plus a few casual home computers - but separation of duties, and physical wires, are both amazingly freeing!

 

[kishorek437]

Previously (in older versions) I am able to select another microphone as device to audio monitor plugin .
now all i can see in devices is only output devices like speakers.

Basically i want to add a delay of 5 sec to audio from my physical microphone to the virtual microphone input.

 

[Tallicia]

Is there (or would there be) a streamDeck plugin to control the audio monitor plugin, or is there a websocket interface to control it?

 

[neilis]

I have this most weird and annoying thing going on with Audio Monitor plugin. I use it to route media sources to a “speakers X” output device of Asio Link Pro Tool. Very often and randomly the sound stops, and the only way to restore it is going to the filter properties, selecting another like “speakers Y” device, and then going back to the X device again. Even then, when the properties window is closed, sometimes you still get no sound, just to find out that your last choice for the speaker X did not stick...

 

[Exeldro]

Exeldro updated Audio Monitor with a new update entry:

Version 0.8.6

Add support for OBS 31

Read the rest of this update entry...