bad audio recording

[Shevach]

Hi there
I made a video with an external mic and it didn't sound good at all. It sounded distant. I ended up making the video with same mic on some online service and the audio was great. This seems to indicate to me that the problem is not the mic but some setting I'm missing. Can someone help me to figure out how to make the audio better? Thanks

 

[konsolenritter]

Can you supply two examples, please?
(short audio files or vod links)

 

[Shevach]

Thank you for replying. I didn't get any notification in my in box that you replied so I only saw it today.
In any case in short clip 1 this is a short clip that I took from a video I made with obs.
short clip 2 is what I recorded straight into audacity.
What I don't understand is what am I doing wrong that the sound quality is so different.
Thank you very much

 

[konsolenritter]

So if its the same room you recorded in, its not only short reverberence on the first clip than the second, its tonal balance is completely different and(!) there are parasitic noises (hands or fingers grabbing somewhat).

Maybe that you thought in the first recording, obs should have used your external mic, but in reality used the internal mic of your computer, for instance?

If it definitely was the same microphone, then i assume two ways into obs. Double channel with different signal propagation (time). This "effect" is named comb-filter effect. Within the frequencies ranges drop. And this recording is clipping already. If your gain settings was the same as in the second clip, that is even a sign of channel doubling.

You should upload a obs log of such an recording here:

Please post a log with your issue! Here's how...

OBS Studio creates a log file each time you run it which contains very useful diagnostic information. Without a log file, it's much harder for any support volunteers to figure out problems and your post may be ignored. To upload a log file, go to the Help menu > Log Files > Upload Last Log...

obsproject.com

Make the test, close OBS, reopen it and then "send last log".

 

[Shevach]

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't understand too much of what you said.
I think that this is the log file you spoke about:

https://obsproject.com/logs/-EihvXyfT_Hg-JVm

I'm also including what I did with the microphone.
Do you know of a tutorial how to " Double channel with different signal propagation (time). " for a layman?
I really appreciate your trying to help me. I make a video once a week (this is a new project of mine) and the bad sound definitely frustrates me.

 

[konsolenritter]

Ahhm okay. A couple of misunderstandings.

What i mentioned with "double channeling..." is for shure not meant positively. So there should no tutorial being. =D
I was just mentioning what may happened to your recording in fatal manner (what it sounds like).

But it seems exactly to be the (unwanted) case...
A small problem is, that your uploaded log doesn't fit to your screenshot. Given your screenshot it looks fine (mic just linked once, to one channel within the audiomixer).

Within the log instead it seems that obs tried to initialize your samson mic as global device four times:

22:52:47.562: [WASAPISource::TryInitialize]:[Microphone (3- Samson Q2U Microphone)] Failed to activate client context: 88890004
22:52:47.563: [WASAPISource::WASAPISource] Device '{0.0.1.00000000}.{9ae7c4d0-f80b-424d-b9b6-3f2ad67fe951}' not found.  Waiting for device
22:52:47.563: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Mic/Aux'
22:52:47.564: [WASAPISource::TryInitialize]:[Microphone (3- Samson Q2U Microphone)] Failed to activate client context: 88890004
22:52:47.564: [WASAPISource::WASAPISource] Device '{0.0.1.00000000}.{9ae7c4d0-f80b-424d-b9b6-3f2ad67fe951}' not found.  Waiting for device
22:52:47.564: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Mic/Aux 2'
22:52:47.568: [WASAPISource::TryInitialize]:[Microphone (3- Samson Q2U Microphone)] Failed to activate client context: 88890004
22:52:47.568: [WASAPISource::WASAPISource] Device '{0.0.1.00000000}.{9ae7c4d0-f80b-424d-b9b6-3f2ad67fe951}' not found.  Waiting for device
22:52:47.568: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Mic/Aux 3'
22:52:47.570: [WASAPISource::TryInitialize]:[Microphone (3- Samson Q2U Microphone)] Failed to activate client context: 88890004
22:52:47.570: [WASAPISource::WASAPISource] Device '{0.0.1.00000000}.{9ae7c4d0-f80b-424d-b9b6-3f2ad67fe951}' not found.  Waiting for device
22:52:47.570: [Loaded global audio device]: 'Mic/Aux 4'

At that time the usb mic was missed, so not available.
Furthermore you seem to have put' in the mic further as a sound source into your scene!

22:52:47.801:     - source: 'Audio Input Capture' (wasapi_input_capture)

To keep it simple: Whatever you do - please ensure that the mic is entering the obs world (thus the obs audio mixer) just on one way. Not two or more... So remove please the "Audio Input Capture" from your scene.

 

[Shevach]

If I unders

tand you correctly I should remove the audio input capture. I tried it and it sounded better to me so I guess I did the right thing.
I really appreciate your help