Question / Help Bad Microphone Quality HELP

[FriendKiller96]

Hello users of the forum! I come to you with a question which I would love to be solved :)
I have recently downloaded OBS seeing as it encodes off of the GPU resulting in little to no frame drop. Now, I love this over other programs like Dxtory or Fraps that encode off of your Processor.
Now, my question has something to do with Microphone quality. Is there any way to raise the microphone quality of the capture by any means? When I record, it seems very bad and hard on the ears, but with other programs, it is fantastic.

Here is a comparison using the same microphone, but different recorders.

OBS

DXTORY

As you can tell, there is a big difference between recorders. If there is an option (3rd party plugins or not, doesn't matter) I would love to know about it. Thank you very much for the help, and have a great day :)

 

[FriendKiller96]

Bump. :3

 

[Lain]

OBS having a bit poorer microphone quality is a somewhat known issue, though I haven't determined the cause. The reason why I noticed this is because in the rewrite (OBS multiplatform, still in development, will eventually replace the original) the microphone quality is great, but in the original OBS it definitely seems lower quality than it should be. Not sure if this is because of encoding or resampling and testing seems to result in dead ends, but it's happening somewhere.

Regardless, outside of that, best option at the moment is to set audio to 160 bitrate and make the best of it that you can for the time being until the program is replaced with the newer version.

 

[FriendKiller96]

Thank you Jim for responding. I'm glad that the microphone quality is better in the rewrite. I do have a question though. In the rewrite, will the video still encode on the Gpu or will it switch to encoding on the processor.
Having it encode on the gpu is amazing as there is no performance drop at all. Thank you very much for helping me with my problem here.

 

[suprst4r]

I am also experiencing low quality mic audio. I have been told it sounds better on Skype, but similar on Mumble.

Here is a sample of streaming: http://www.twitch.tv/suprst4r/c/5172662

It sounds robotty, and sometimes it gets that fizz sound in my voice and sometimes, even mid sentence, it clears up. I was listening to a vod yesterday and noticed it happened mid sentence and found that odd.

I'm glad to hear that it's fixed in the rewrite! Keep up the great work.


I'd like to add that I tested my mic in Audacity - sounds clear. Tested with OBS local recording at 160 bitrate - sounds clear. So something is happening during the streaming process where it's losing quality. Dunno if that helps you any!

 

[Videophile]

Wow, wait, so any sound input in OBS will sounds a little bit harsh if its being used in the mic/input section?

I have my mixer set as my mic, so would my quality for everything(Since everything comes from the mixer) be reduced?

 

[Lain]

It has nothing to do with streaming, if your recording sounds fine that data is the same data transmitted to stream. It does not change anything for streaming. I was referring to the quality in general.

 

[suprst4r]

I know you didn't refer to that, but I'm saying it's crystal clear when I record locally and then my stream sounds like that. So something is happening with OBS and streaming.

 

[Lain]

Well all I can tell you is that OBS does not change the audio settings or audio encoding settings for streaming. The exact encoded data that you use for local recording is also used for streaming. That's all I was saying.

 

[suprst4r]

I see what you're saying. Any idea why there is this much variation in my mic quality when I made sure that both OBS profiles have the exact same settings? - Might be worth noting that the game I'm playing is running through a capture card and AverMedia Center

http://www.twitch.tv/suprst4r/b/572420188
http://www.twitch.tv/suprst4rtest/b/571802419

 

[Lain]

Your mic doesn't sound all that unusual, though I'm not entirely sure how it normally sounds. It indeed doesn't sound 'great', I can tell you that there is something wrong with OBS in terms of mic audio quality right now, though we haven't entirely figured out what it is, though we have a suspicion it's there. Mics seem to be cleared up with our multiplatform version (which will eventually replace the windows version). You might have to bare with it until that time.