Question / Help Camera for OBS, wifi delay compensation, audio

pechnatunk

New Member
Hi,
I've used OBS studio in a quite basic manner before - just screen + webcam recording and then later mixing this with iphone camera recording and audio from Roland Go Mixer in iMovie. I want to streamline this process and minimize on the video editing as I'm pretty bad at that, also later it should be an easy transition to live streaming.

Several questions:
1. If/When I buy the Camera for OBS studio app - can I use the same purchase to add the app to 3 ios devices 2 phones and an ipad. (is there a litmit?)
2. and then use all of them simultaneously for multi-cam in OBS? (is there a limit here too?)
3. I will likely use wired connection via a USB hub, however, if I go for wifi connection - is there some kind of delay compensation setting in OBS ie - delay the OS screen capture and audio capture by x amount so that they are in sync with the wifi cameras being captured (I'm just assuming wifi would have a longer delay).
4. My Motu 828x has a "Return" input - basically anything being played from the Mac, is it enough to simply create an aggregate device with these two channels plus channel 1 (Mic input)? Without the need for this iShowU software I saw in another post? As my impression is it does the same as my "Return" channels.
5. Also - do the different Mic/Aux audio devices mean I can audio mix within OBS? If so, in this case maybe I should create 2 aggregate devices - leaving "Return" channels and Mic separate so I can adjust levels on the fly if need be.

Cheers,
Vic.
 

Narcogen

Active Member
#1-3 need to be addressed to the developer of Camera for OBS.

https://obs.camera/docs/contact/

iShowU is only needed to capture desktop audio-- audio generated by the Mac itself and any software on it (music from iTunes, any audio coming from a player app like VLC, audio from a browser window playing a YouTube video. It's not necessary to capture audio from any external device (microphone, capture card, etc).

However, what you're saying is that the MOTU can be used as an external output device. But that's still for playing back sound from the Mac unless you take that output from the MOTU and plug it back into the Mac through another input. So the MOTU's "return audio" is MacOS audio and you need a virtual capture device for it: iShowU, SoundFlower, LoopBack or something similar.


Yes, OBS functions as a (rudimentary) audio mixer. It does not have advanced routing features. (For that you want a DAW or something like LoopBack). You can, however, balance the volume of different sources independently.
 

pechnatunk

New Member
OK Thanks,
I'll check our the CforOBS FAQ and contact.

From your explanation - I'm starting to think I DON'T need anything else.
What the MOTU does, is input 13/14 is actually a loopback of any audio being output from the Mac via the Thunderbolt cable.
So I would use the Aggregate device simply to make OBS think that channels 13/14 are 1/2 on a separate input device, and then also add channel 1 (mic) as another input device.

Would this work?
 

Narcogen

Active Member
It is easier to try and find out than to ask someone who doesn't have that equipment.

Also, there's no way to tell OBS to add that device and specify the channels. I'm not even sure MIDI setup will do it, but you could certainly try. The limitations of MIDI setup in this respect is why I use LoopBack, which could certainly do this.
 

pechnatunk

New Member
Yes - you're totally right - I was just excited but at work.
Now I'm home I've tried it and unfortunately nothing is working for me.
I'm still trying to connect my microphone - OBS does not appear to be getting any signal from my Motu's inputs at all - I've tried all of them as I'm unsure which one OBS is "looking" at.
I've also changed the default stereo input in Motu's control settings, which I would have though would have something to do with it - but nothing.
Anyone with a multichannel sound card on mac able to advise?
 

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Narcogen

Active Member
OBS doesn't natively understand multichannel devices. It's a stereo program that can also handle surround, but 8 or 16 channel mixers it doesn't understand at all.

On MacOS I use LoopBack as an audio router; it lets me create a virtual device (sort of like an aggregate device in MIDI setup, but not exactly) and define which channels from what hardware devices I want in the virtual device.

Then I add the virtual device as a source in OBS.
 

pechnatunk

New Member
Thank's for that - Yes LoopBack is great, the cost is a bit much for me, but I had a play with it and everything worked perfectly.
Also on a separate note,
I highly recommend Camera for OBS Studio - It works great and Will provides excellent support.
 
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