Question / Help Audio popping/crackin

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neverwho

New Member
Hello! I've been using OBS for quite some time already with USB condenser mic, but several days ago I got myself new XLR mic (Shure SM7B) and audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2), and now I have little, but annoying problem. Whenever I stream/do local recordings, I get than annoying popping or cracking sound. I never had it before, and I don't get it when I record audio with Audacity or any other software (like Action!). I've already disabled all other sound devices, changed format to 44.1khz on my audio interface, but nothing seems to help.
Here's the example of that noise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTvRt8Mrj7M
So, any tips on how to solve that?
 
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Lain

Forum Admin
Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
That is.. a seriously nice mic. I am totally jealous.

As for the popping/crackling, this is (usually) due to having multiple devices active at once on the system, such as webcams/mics/USB devices. Usually multiple USB devices at once can cause this to occur. Sometimes switching the ports help, sometimes it doesn't. It can be really annoying, and I can't help but wonder if some windows driver or hardware deficiency is to blame when it occurs (fortunately doesn't happen for everybody).

My suggestion would be to try switching around the ports for the devices, or if there's USB 3.0 ports available and it's plugged into USB 2.0, try switching it from 2.0 to 3.0, or vise versa, though I can't guarantee that will work either unfortunately.

What I can say that this isn't OBS' fault diretly, it's either a hardware, driver, or SDK issue. I think I'm probably going to try writing a directsound input selection just because I'm not entirely sure if WASAPI is working properly with some of these devices. It's actually really annoying.
 
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Greendweller

Member
Perhaps a rather odd remark but i have encounterd a situation once where the system was not properly grounded and caused strange clicks, beebs ect on the speakers.
By making sure that that system was grounded properly (by hooking a cable from the pc casing to a radiator of my home) it actually removed quite some of the annoying sounds
(but it did not remove it completely tho)

But this is far from ideal ofcourse to make those wires yourself like that and it can be a dangerous situation if you have an actual power shortage in your system (and potentially can set our whole radiator system onder power and nuking other people in your household).

I'm not saying that this is the case in your situation, but it was more a general notion that you can also look into that if the rest fails.

Cheers.
 
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neverwho

New Member
Thanks for replies, guys! First thing I did, was unplugging all other devices, that can produce any kind of input sound. Didn't help. Rotated through almost every USB port on my PC, didn't work either, but actually after plugging in my preamp (Cloudlifter CL-1, when it finally arrived) and lowering gain on audio interface, those sounds are almost gone. It happens rarely now. Also, with my old audio interface (M-Audio Fast Track USB) I don't get those sounds at all, so frankly, it obviously has something to do with my new audio interface. I assume, that when interface plays sounds and records sounds at the same time, while not using ASIO drivers, it can produce that kind of noise. And yeah Jim, I absolutely love that mic :D And thanks for help guys! I do really appreciate it.
P.S. I totally in love with OBS. Keep up the good work!
 
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