Audio sounds distorted on Facebook

[psperle]

Hello,
I run the live stream for our church. We use OBS to put the stream out on Facebook. The audio when watched on F-book is really bad and i cant seem to figure out whats wrong. Using win 11 if that helps.

Please advise, this is very frustrating

Thank you, P.

 

[AaronD]

Is OBS's meter full? If it is, and you don't have the "broadcast mastering" processing that is required to make it work there, then that's your problem.

Or, it could be too hot somewhere else, and you turned it down where it was convenient, but not where the problem was. That'll give you a meter that isn't full, but it's still clipped. (classic "flat-top" at, say, -6dBFS instead of 0dBFS, because it clipped at 0dBFS somewhere upstream and then you turned *that* down by 6dB)

Much beyond that, probably needs some more detail of the rig (which feeds what, and in what order), and possibly a recording.

 

[psperle]

you are welcome to view live right now on f book. search...
Grace Baptist Church Madison.
give a listen and tell me what you think.

 

[AaronD]

The end result is lower volume than most, so you're not clipping at the *end* of the processing chain. If you want to match a commercial broadcast, then you'll absolutely need some "broadcast mastering" to be able to completely fill the meter without ever overflowing. But let's not do that until it's clean where it is.

It's still possible that you're clipping somewhere *before* the end - just barely, because it's only an occasional pop and not a constant "edgy kids' effect" - and then turning it down *after* the point where it's clipping. It can be confusing sometimes, for a not-so-technical person to hear that you have to turn it down here and up there, to get the *same* end result...but that can indeed be what's needed, if it's clipping in between those two controls.

Another possibility is data corruption, somewhere along the line - dropping or inserting samples to get back in time, or replacing an entire buffer that disappeared, or something like that - but let's make sure that we're giving it something good to work with in the first place.