Camera Audio issues

[poporacer]

I have 2 cameras attached to my computer and want them to have their own audio track and I am running across some issues.
I created a scene and added a video capture device for both cameras.
My Audio Mixer shows the Desktop Audio, Mic/Aux, Mic/Aux 2, Mic/Aux 3 since I have those enabled in the Global Audio Devices settings and it also shows the 2 cameras. But the in the Audio Mixer the cameras do not show that they are receiving audio. I can "remap" the audio to the Mic/Aux tracks and the Mic/Aux tracks seem to be capturing the audio correctly but the audio meters for the individual cameras do not show any audio signals. The cameras are not muted and I can't find anywhere else that might cause this behavior... Any ideas?

 

[AaronD]

What kind of cameras? Not so much make/model, but how do they get into OBS?

Usually, audio and video are separated by the device or the operating system before they even get to OBS. So as far as OBS is concerned, they're completely separate things with no connection whatsoever. Sometimes, like with the NDI plugin, the audio and video stay connected because the raw stream goes straight through the OS and into OBS before getting decoded by the plugin.

As an immediate workaround, since you can get the audio as a global source, you could mute the camera just in case, and then add an explicit audio capture source to the scene for each camera.

But, for a more professional result, I'd stick with using global audio only (mute any incidental scene-specific audio), except for pre-recorded media that OBS plays itself, and use the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin to automate a nice fade in/out of each global audio source at the appropriate time(s).
The reason for that is because a scene switch always cuts the scene-specific audio on or off, regardless of the video transition. Fades sound much better, even if they're short, and for that you need global with either automation or a fast mouse. (probably automation)

 

[poporacer]

Thanks for the reply. They are web cams connected to the computer via USB. I will edit the sound transitions through my editing program. I was curious why the Camera's Audio output was not showing but the "remapped" was. I guess that is just the way it works?

 

[AaronD]

My guess is that the way that OBS receives the cameras tells it that there *should* be audio attached to it, but Windows has already separated it out to its own "sound card", and so OBS only receives silence on the attached audio channel.

It's fairly common for a physical device itself to accept and provide exactly one stream to one software endpoint. It's the operating system's job to mix, composite, split, etc. that stream so that all of the apps can work like they're supposed to. Pretty much all modern OS's (Windows, Mac, Linux) have an audio system that functions as a basic mixer for audio outputs (speakers), but that's been slower in coming for audio inputs (mics) and especially video inputs.
For example, you might find that you can't use the same camera in both OBS and a web browser at the same time. Or a web browser and Zoom, or whatever you have. If you close one, and tell the other to try again, it works, but never at the same time. Once inside the app, anything goes, so the one input to OBS can be in multiple scenes, etc., but only OBS can have it until it lets go.

It might be a similar concept with the camera audio, but inside of Windows itself for some reason. Instead of splitting a separate copy to different places, it only sends it to one, and sends silence to the other when/if it asks. Haven't actually done that experiment to know.

At any rate, Windoze is also very well-known among media people for being absolutely stoopid with audio. Enough for serious production apps to use a special driver (ASIO) that bypasses Winblows entirely and talks directly to the hardware. No other operating system needs that. Mac and Linux are both sensible as they are, with no "user experience smarts" that make a royal mess of everything.

 

[poporacer]

LOL, Thanks a Million for your input! It really helped

 

[Weijeff]

I have 2 cameras attached to my computer and want them to have their own audio track and I am running across some issues.
I created a scene and added a video capture device for both cameras.
My Audio Mixer shows the Desktop Audio, Mic/Aux, Mic/Aux 2, Mic/Aux 3 since I have those enabled in the Global Audio Devices settings and it also shows the 2 cameras. But the in the Audio Mixer the cameras do not show that they are receiving audio. I can "remap" the audio to the Mic/Aux tracks and the Mic/Aux tracks seem to be capturing the audio correctly but the audio meters for the individual cameras do not show any audio signals. The cameras are not muted and I can't find anywhere else that might cause this behavior... Any ideas?

first make sure the mirophone of the camera works. If globel setting isn't working, try to set in the source. when you add video capture device, in the audio output, click "use custom audio device", and then select audio device to the camera. Then you can see it shows in your audio mixer.