Audio Monitoring causes a loop that keeps getting louder.

[AaronD]

I am honestly not sure what terms apply to what I want to do. I think I understand, but let me just tell you what I would like.

1) For tutorials I want to record my screen and my voice, which should be easy. Video and one track of audio.
2) For tutorial streams I will want to record my screen, my voice, and maybe a separate audio track for music. I would want both of the audios on separate tracks so I can adjust them as needed.
3) Then there will be gameplay videos. For that I will be doing both PC gaming and console gaming. I will want the capture from the console video (and that will have the game audio with it I would think), and my voice on another channel. That way I can adjust them separately in Premiere Pro as needed.
3a) For PC gaming I would capture the screen and the game audio and have my voice on a separate track.
4) They will probably be gameplay streams as well with the same goals as 3 and 3a, but with the idea being the ability to adjust in real time.

Thank you.

Some things just don't work very well with words. I just finished a diagram of the audio path of a rig that I'm building on Linux, and attached here for reference; maybe you could do the same for your rig(s)?

Mine has a common theme with variations, so it worked to use an overall diagram with certain parts disabled for different uses. You may or may not be able to get away with that; don't try to force it.
OBS can have completely different settings and content, in different Profiles and Scene Collections, so that can be an option too. I use that for the Master and Slave copies of OBS on the same machine, as shown in this diagram.

 

[AaronD]

Also, "Track" means something specific in OBS. It's not an input channel, if that's what you mean. It's an output channel, that does not mix with the other output channels, but can accept any number of inputs to mix into itself.

 

[Ludonarrian]

Also, "Track" means something specific in OBS. It's not an input channel, if that's what you mean. It's an output channel, that does not mix with the other output channels, but can accept any number of inputs to mix into itself.

I think I mean the output channel so when I put it into Premiere Pro I can see the game audio on one track and my voice audio on another so I can mess with them separately.

And I am sorry, but that diagram didn't help at all. I just need to be told exactly what setting I need to put things on to get them to work.

But now there is a bigger problem. After all of this trial and error, I can't seem to get my mic to register with OBS so I am only seeing the mixer level on OBS for the input device move every now and then and sometimes when it works, it will suddenly stop working. I don't know why this is so difficult.

 

[Ludonarrian]

This is like programing. You fix one problem and new ones show up. I got my audio to sound pretty good, but I messed with one dial on my mixer and now the audio is messed up. I can see that OBS is registering that I am talking, but when I record, I don't hear my voice. All the dials that I've used before to make my voice work say they sound should work.

And on top of that now when I hear audio, OBS doesn't register anything in Audio Output capture. When I click on the sound level on my speaker icon on my desktop and it dings, I can hear it and before it was registering on the Audio Input Capture, but now it doesn't register at all, even though I can hear it in my headphones attached to my laptop.

Do I need to return this audio mixer and get the Soundcraft Notepad mixer? I want a mixer that I can plug my headphone/mic combo into without causing a feedback loop, I want to be able to have high, mid, and low EQ dials, and I only need one mic in jack. I have until April 4th to return the mixer.

Oh, and now I can't monitor through laptop headphones either.

I know all this shouldn't be this hard. I don't know why it is.

 

[AaronD]

And I am sorry, but that diagram didn't help at all. I just need to be told exactly what setting I need to put things on to get them to work.

I can't do that without practically being there and seeing the full context. That diagram is my rig, not yours, and my point was for you to make one like it for yours. Once you do that, you might see the problem yourself and how to fix it. If not, it's a great starting point to post here.

 

[Ludonarrian]

Oh, I won't see the problem because I don't understand what's wrong or what all the things in OBS do.

Basically my headphone/mic combo has the mic plugged into my SI-4UX and then the SI-4UX is plugged into the laptop through a USB cord and that goes into OBS. Then I have my earbud headphones plugged into the laptop and into my ears. I don't know what else to describe.

 

[AaronD]

Oh, I won't see the problem because I don't understand what's wrong.

Part of the purpose of drawing it out is to show you what's wrong. You won't understand when you start, so just start drawing what you see. At some point, either the understanding will come, or you'll have been everywhere in every app and produced something that we can use here.

Don't treat an app as a "magic black box" that somehow works. I did for OBS in my diagram because I know it well enough to fill in that detail. I didn't for Ardour because it's SO configurable that that's kinda the point of me making that diagram. For you, you probably need to draw out what OBS is doing too. Explore the settings, looking for audio stuff, and draw what you find, not as a collection of settings, but as a signal path. Boxes and arrows.

Follow the signals from each source to each destination, and be a stickler for details. Match the names, and don't assume that things work the way you think they do and skip over them, because that's likely where the problem is. Draw everything. Be stupid with the amount of detail that you include in your diagram, but don't make it unreadable. If it takes several iterations to make it both inclusive and clean, that's fine.

 

[Ludonarrian]

That's the thing. I don't understand the paths. I don't know what it all does so I can't show how it all connects. Exploring the setting and messing with stuff is how I got into this mess in the first place. It used to work and now it doesn't. Maybe I've tweaked things so much that I should uninstall it and reinstall it because it used to work great. I do appreciate all your help, but I am so far in the weeds that I don't know what's going on anymore.

 

[AaronD]

That's the thing. I don't understand the paths. I don't know what it all does so I can't show how it all connects.

Understanding comes from doing. If you wait until you understand, you never will.

Exploring the setting and messing with stuff is how I got into this mess in the first place.

Explore, see what's there, build a map, but don't necessarily mess with it yet.

Maybe I've tweaked things so much that I should uninstall it and reinstall it because it used to work great.

Once you have the understanding, you won't need to do that. You'll get there, just keep working at it.

I do appreciate all your help, but I am so far in the weeds that I don't know what's going on anymore.

I think your biggest problem is not the mess itself, but intimidation. Take it slow, work through it, and at some point you'll have a breakthrough.

Try to engineer some small successes early in the process. That works wonders for motivation. Diagram something you understand well, for example, and revisit it periodically.

 

[Ludonarrian]

No, the biggest problem is the mess. Going and messing with things to try and learn is how I got in this mess in the first place. Understanding comes from someone explaining it to me because if it makes no sense to me, me experimenting doesn't work. Just messing with things tells me nothing. It leads to frustration and no understanding because there is no explanation. It might work for you, but it doesn't work for me, I'm sorry.

But I uninstalled OBS and reinstalled it and at first the mic wasn't working, but every time I unplug the wire at the headset and plug it back in, the mic works again. Not sure why that is the issue. Never used to be.

Now the mic picks up my typing, my mouse clicks, and every time I touch my headsets or arm for the mic. Never used to do that when I first got it. I have noise suppression and noise gate on. The problem with noise gate is that if I move the settings to where it doesn't pic up the noise, it also won't pic up my voice. This also never happened the first time I used OBS.

The problem with the extra noise goes away when I turn down my gain and level dial, but again it won't pick up my voice.

 

[Ludonarrian]

I'm going to return the audio mixer and buy a higher end one and see if I still have issues.

 

[AaronD]

I'm going to return the audio mixer and buy a higher end one and see if I still have issues.

I think you will still have issues. It looks to me like you won't put in the effort to learn, and you're just "shotgunning" the problem instead. You *might* get lucky...until the next thing breaks...but probably not.

 

[Ludonarrian]

Just because I don't learn like you doesn't mean I don't want to learn. I just need a way that will work for me and yours isn't it. Yes, you are giving me help and I appreciate that, but since I can't understand it, it is of no help to me. Trial and error has never worked for me. It only leads to frustration. I need someone who will walk me through it, step by step.