Question / Help DAW (Cubase) and PC Audio is all Mono in OBS

[tymus1]

Hello,

Fairly new to OBS. What I am trying to do should be very simple as many people have done this setup. I am trying to record from my DAW (Cubase) stereo audio into OBS as well as an external microphone (mono). The mic records fine and plays back fine, however my computer audio when I test it out into OBS and my DAW audio when it gets to OBS it's always in mono, (there's a mono track that gets recorded see attached). I don't see a stereo track being created when I set things up for my computer audio or DAW audio in OBS.

I am using Voicemeeter Banana as the DAW bridge to OBS.

In my DAW I setup Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO from my VST Audio System settings in Cubase. In Voicemeeter I have the Voicemeeter VAIO set to the right sample rate and sending to A1 (So I can hear from my audio interface) and B1 Virtual (So that goes to OBS to record). In Voicemeeter I can see that A1 and B1 are in stereo when I play music from my DAW however when I look in OBS I can see the incoming audio but it is a mono track and it doesn't go into stereo (see attached). Also when I play back the video the DAW audio gets recorded into OBS as mono.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and yes in settings in OBS I have the sample rate the same for everything and channels are set to stereo.

Setup:
PC Windows 10 Pro
DAW (Cubase)
Voicemeeter Banana
OBS 23.2.1 (64 Bit)
Audio Interfaces: UAD Apollo Quad, and Apogee Duet (I am using the Apogee for everything to record into OBS)

Thanks

Tyler

 

[Sukiyucky]

I would keep OBS Studio out of it first, and validate that your Cubase and Voicemeeter Banana integration is working. Then, when you solved that, integrate OBS Studio.

I'm not familiar with Cubase but with Ableton Live so this maybe off the mark. So am just thinking out loud here.
Given this is a Steinberg product, I would assume that Cubase prefers ASIO audio devices. When you add an audio device in Cubase, does it list Voicemeeter Banana as an ASIO device with stereo channels?

When you set Voicemeeter Banana as the default playback device and hookup your stereo headphones as A1 hardware out, do you hear mono or stereo? Is the mono button in the Master Section A1 enabled?

 

[tymus1]

Thanks for your response and trying to help first and foremost.

I also plan to use Ableton 10.1 as well. I just did a test with Ableton 10.1 and I am getting the same thing, when I monitor the audio into OBS from my DAW as well as play back the audio from the video capture it is in mono. However, by switching to Virtual Aux for the computer audio I am now getting stereo into OBS and playback, but still just mono from my DAW's, which I seem to think there might be some issue with the DAWs or some setup within the DAWs now...what do you think?

That was my plan to get everything working before adding OBS to the equation. First, I verified the audio as I hear it from my computer and from Cubase/Ableton through Voicemeeter is in stereo by all the meters (Banana meters and Apogee Duet Maestro meters). It was the final integration with OBS that this issue happened, which is why I think it ultimately is with OBS...or some obscure setting in my Windows sound settings, Banana or my DAWs that causes OBS to see the audio it gets sent from my DAWs as mono for some reason or OBS is just taking one side of the stereo information that is being sent to it...

Per your last paragraph, everything that I hear through Banana A1 output, either PC computer audio or the audio from Cubase/Ableton is in Stereo, by listening and by the meters in Maestro. I can tell the audio data in the OBS video recordings are in mono from llistening but also looking at my Maestro outputs from when OBS recorded and again it is a mono signal.

When I add a Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO device as the output for Cubase it is in stereo (VM-VAIO 1, 2), please see attached. Also, if you are familiar with Voicemeeter does everything look good in Banana and in the settings, is there something I missed? I can go to their forums, but I still really believe the problem is with OBS not recognizing what Banana sends it as stereo, because I see it as stereo in Banana, I pan things in my DAWs and I see the meters show stereo signal in Banana. Is there some setting within OBS for the Input Audio source that I should be using instead? Please see attached, I call it "DAW" in OBS as an audio input source, I am using VoiceMeeter Output....

I appreciate the help,

Thanks

Tyler

 

[Sukiyucky]

Why are you setting Hardware Input 1 tied to Apogee Duet as being Mono?

 

[tymus1]

Because when I don't for another reason OBS puts it in either hard right or left and I have to either downmix to mono in OBS advanced settings or just mono the hardware (mic) from Banana and I get two channels (both equal, i.e. mono) into OBS. This is for my mic only, I'll turn it off and downmix in OBS, but that shouldn't affect my audio from my DAW on Virtual busses into OBS...I think.

The weird thing is OBS only shows one meter from my DAW to banana into OBS. It's like it's just dropping one side and recording mono, can you think of why it's doing that? OBS will correct itself and show two (stereo) channels for my PC computer sounds into OBS when I play a YouTube video for instance. Initially it'll show one channel then show stereo channels when I run my computer audio through it. But my DAW audio into banana then OBS never corrects and shows a stereo pair, just the single channel in my last post.

Help, this is frustrating, I mean what I'm trying to do should be so simple, but there's so many different settings in my DAW, computer sound, banana and OBS... Someone has to have had this problem before, I've seen similar posts but no posted solution.

Tyler

 

[tymus1]

Allllrightyy then. Here was the issue.

It was a Windows settings issue. In the Sounds menu, I was mostly messing around with changing the Playback settings. It really was a "Recording" settings issue.

I was messing around with an Audio Output source for recording my DAW audio into OBS mostly because I was getting some success with a stereo signal into OBS with my computer audio as an Audio Output from Banana, but could never get the audio from Cubase to be seen by OBS with an Audio Output. I could only get it to be seen by OBS when I had an Audio Input source for obvious reasons now but only could get a single channel. The reason why I was only seeing one channel was because by default in the "Recording" properties for My Voicemeeter Output, the settings where for a 1 Channel 48 kHz signal, and I just changed under the "Recording" tab for my VoiceMeeter Output to "2 channels" and at the same sample rate as my DAW and finally got my stereo signal from my DAW into OBS.

I have seen other people have this issue, but never really a posted solution. This really was a simple process with mostly just trial and error, but I hope this can help someone else out who is very new to this and will probably experience the same issue when first setting things up with Windows.

Thanks for trying to help.

Tyler