Question / Help Desktop audio picking up on Mic channel

[OutrunExile]

I've been trying everything to try and fix this issue but to no avail.
My audio from my Desktop Audio is being picked up on my Mic for some reason, despite being separate channels. I'll include some screengrabs of some of my settings. I can include some more if it's helpful too.

Ignore the speakers titled "Garbage speakers". Those are actually headphones, so they won't be picked up by my mic, and my mic is actually muted during testing.
Log file below.

https://obsproject.com/logs/AQC09boLNGWU8STL

 

[Narcogen]

What is "Stereo Mix" as a device?

If you're saying that device picks up desktop audio when your mic is muted, then "Stereo Mix" would seem to be something that is not just your microphone, but is picking up audio from other sources.

 

[OutrunExile]

Stereo Mix is my microphone coming out of my mixer. It's set as my default device.
It wasn't previously picking up desktop audio, which is why I found it odd.

 

[Narcogen]

I think you've misconfigured your mixer, then, because if that device is picking up desktop audio, it isn't OBS that's doing it, since monitoring is off.

 

[OutrunExile]

I don't think it's a problem with my mixer, since I even disconnected the mixer and still had issues.
It might be something that changed with the recent windows update. That seems to be when things stopped working.

 

[Narcogen]

Then it's somewhere in Windows' sound device settings-- especially if that device is getting audio even when the device is disconnected. Just the name "stereo mix" indicates to me that either that's a downmix of a surround device, or an aggregate device that includes more than one source or a multichannel device, which leaves open the possibility that it includes desktop audio even if you didn't intend it to.

 

[OutrunExile]

It looks like that might've been the problem. I changed my setup a bit and my mic isn't going through the stereo mix, now.
Instead it's gong through here:

Gonna do some rebalancing of my audio, but that seems to have removed the issue of desktop audio being on my microphone mix.
Thanks for the help :)

 

[Narcogen]

You're welcome!

 

[Cloudax722]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

 

[Paul Kenyon]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

Hi and this is definitely the best way to show people have to solve a problem. I have the same problem and already knew these steps to take. I'm sitting here watching all of the audio on a display capture in OBS being picked up by my mic from desktop audio. I've eliminated, omitted, changed and tweaked everything. The only thing I've not done is smash everything!
I've had these problems ever since I started using a headset. Of course it never was an issue with speakers/microphone. This is frustrating as can be. Any other help would be more than appreciated.

 

[Feefofifo]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

BROO I LITERALLY HAD TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT TO THANK YOU FOR THIS.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW CRAZY THIS WAS MAKING ME AND YOU SLOVED IT THANK YOU SO MUCH

 

[pearsb]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

I did what you do and it's still not working. This happened since i downloaded VB Cable, even when i uninstalled it somehow my desktop still taking my mic voice. When i mute my desktop audio, my laptop stopped taking sound from my mic

 

[Books maneuver]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

not expecting you to know if this will work in Mac, but can you clarify if this works with Mac? I already tried didn’t see the “listen to” option but there’s gotta be a way. Any referrals or other blogs greatly appreciated. My situation is the same as original issue

 

[Donster]

Thank you so much! I will try this.

 

[delgelato]

Hi all
My case is somewhat similar except that only if i activate "Listen to this device", THEN my music doesn't get picked up by the mic

It's like some toggle is switched in the opposite way, on top of having the original problem..

 

[AppleGothic]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

Okay... so this didn't work.

Not only did it NOT WORK, I can't figure out how it can.

I even disconnected EVERYTHING that could even be attached to the audio source, and it's still grabbing it. Every device, like.

Everything is turned off. It's still picking up on the waveform. The only thing that works is to, I KID YOU NOT, turn of the sound coming into my Headphones. Once I mute my own sound I can hear, it stops fully. There is no way to have audio coming into my Heaphones and not have it come through the Mic channel. Since I can't play audio through a Speaker or my Monitor while streaming, this causes a whole host of problems for me, and I don't know how to fix it.

 

[Carionto]

I recently discovered I have this problem too. Tried everything listed here - nothing works. Even when the mic was the only thing physically plugged in, the desktop audio was muted in OBS, every other audio related thing either disable or muted, it still faintly but noticeably somehow recorded whatever output I had going on in the background. I even plugged in an old separate standing mic I had lying about, same result.

So I figured out a sort-of workaround to it echoing within OBS, which was to go into the advanced audio properties and configure the sync offset for the desktop audio. I went to a free sound effect site, recorded a short loud one, then opened it in Audacity to see how big the delay was and set the offset to that. For me it was 360ms.

I know it's a janky solution that doesn't address the underlying problem. After everything, I can only think the source of the problem is somewhere within the actual wiring with the signals intercepting somewhere, I'm not an IT guy, could not even begin to understand how that works, but I got no other ideas.

 

[Jokeuhl]

"You're welcome!"

You did nothing (Narcogen).

In case anyone else has this problem, here's how you fix it.

Firstly open sound settings, and then click Sound Control Panel
View attachment 55983

Click on the Recording tab, and write click on the microphone you are using.

View attachment 55984

Click on Properties. Then click on the Listen tab.

View attachment 55985

In the Listen tab, above the 'Playback through this device', uncheck the 'Listen to this device' box. Click apply, then OK.

This how I solved the problem.

(And THIS ^ is how you show people how to solve a problem. "You're welcome!")

Actually this doesn't work at all. to fix this issue you must disable AGC. Some of us like to listen to our own voice for quality control. like a monitor speaker. just disable AGC problem solved. Automatic gain control (AGC) allows a microphone's signal to automatically adjust to compensate for variations in volume from different talkers, or variations due to a single talker moving relative to the mic. Windows software AGC is broken.

 

[QueenandMia]

I'm having the same problem and I can hear myself thro my headset. I'm so annoyed here r my setting if anyone could help pls. It was not a problem until this week and now I cant get it to stop. In order to get the loop gone i have to go into my editing software to delete one of the tracks to get rid of the loop. But that wont work when I stream. And I also followed all the steps listed and still that same.

 

[QueenandMia]

I'm having the same problem and I can hear myself thro my headset. I'm so annoyed here r my setting if anyone could help pls. It was not a problem until this week and now I cant get it to stop. In order to get the loop gone i have to go into my editing software to delete one of the tracks to get rid of the loop. But that wont work when I stream. And I also followed all the steps listed and still that same.

i figured it out i had to delete my mic and create a new source for it. Not sure if this will work for u but this was my fix