Question / Help Do I need a mixer for my console streaming setup?

[JustCallMeWes]

I've Googled my heart out trying to find a solution for this problem with no luck. I've seen some people with similar issues in various forums, but never really found a solution. I'm trying to find a solution to allow me to hear audio from both my PS4 and PC while I'm streaming. Here's what I have right now:

- PS4 --> Elgato Game Capture HD --> TV with USB going to my streaming PC.
- Blue Snowball Mic connected to PS4 so I can talk to my friends while playing.
- Headset connected to my TV so I can hear all the chat/audio from the PS4.
- OBS on the streaming PC to do all the streaming things.

The only solution I have right now is to use earbuds connected to my PC under my headset that's connected to the TV. This somewhat works, but A.) I hate the earbuds because they drown out the game audio in the actual headset and B.) The earbuds get uncomfortable after a while.

I just want to be able to hear the TwitchAlerts sounds and my music that I'm including in my stream into my headset. Will a mixer help with this? I'm still a noob at this, so I'm not 100% sure what a mixer accomplishes. Can I feed the audio out from my TV and my PC to a mixer and then plug my headset into the mixer to hear both?

I don't know why I'm struggling to find a suitable guide to setting this up as this seems like a fairly common setup with streams I watch. I see people on Twitch all the time putting music to their streams and they can hear it fine.

If a mixer is indeed what I need, can you all suggest a particular one to use? Keep in mind, I'm on a budget here. I just stream for fun and don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on the setup.

Also, If I'm missing a guide that has already been done to show how this is done, can you link me to it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[FerretBomb]

Probably not, as AFAIK the PS4 headset uses some proprietary stuff which could make it kind of difficult to plug into the mixer. Otherwise, yes. That's what a mixer does; it takes multiple audio sources and mixes them together with various input levels, so they can all be used by an output source (in your case, your headphones). It's a bit overkill though.

 

[Cryonic]

If you use analog sound routing (and analog only, forget the digital crap [there is a reason why everyone is still using analog in the pro&semi-pro audio gear, digital is just moving in] and get one). A 4-channel mixer (in the audio world in&outputs are MONO, so for a stereo signal you need 2 in/outputs. Microphones are generally mono, but you may have a stereo mic on a headset etc.
But for this you have to change your gear to analog only (that means your Snowball mic is useless and you have to get sound from your PS4 in analog!).

 

[FerretBomb]

Cryonic, he's not asking about a mixer for audio input to OBS. He wants a mixer for the sound going to his headphones only, to hear both desktop audio from the PC as well as audio from the PS4. Like I said above, overkill.

 

[JustCallMeWes]

@FerretBomb : I'm not using a proprietary PS4 headset. I'm just using a regular headset plugged into the headphone jack on my TV. I'm using the Snowball (plugged into the PS4 via USB) to communicate with my friends. This is all working properly now. The only problem I'm running into is that I can't hear the music I'm playing on the stream without playing it out of the speakers on my PC. This causes a problem because the mics pic up the music from the speakers and I don't want that.

@Cryonic: I'm not using the Snowball for anything other than talking to my friends on PS4 chat. To communicate with my stream, I'm using the same headset that is plugged into the TV. It has a plug for the headphones and a plug for the mic. I just have the mic plug (standard 3.5mm) going into the frontline mic jack on my PC if that makes any sense.

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[JustCallMeWes]

@FerretBomb do you have any non-overkill recommendations to accomplish this task?

 

[FerretBomb]

Nah, just get a cheap 2 channel mixer, and plug the headphone/speaker port of your headphones into the Monitor port. Get two dubbing cables (essentially a double ended male speaker cable). Speakers from the computer go to the line-level input on one mixer channel via one cable, and the TV gets plugged into the other channel using the other cable. Be aware that you may need adapters.

 

[JustCallMeWes]

Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate it. I think I have this figured out. I took a 3.5mm male to male adapter and plugged it in from the TV's audio out into my sound card's rear microphone port. I set Windows to listen to that device and now I have game audio and PC audio going to the same headset! FINALLY! After some testing there seems to be a very minor audio synchronization issue, but I don't think that will be too hard to fix.

Do you guys see any problem with this setup? So far so good IMO.

Again, thanks for taking time to help me!

 

[FerretBomb]

It's going to duplicate any audio from the TV and capture card.

 

[JustCallMeWes]

Hah... you are correct sir! This is so frustrating. I tried disabling the audio in the OBS capture card settings, which fixed the sound duplication, but now the sound going to the desktop is way ahead of the video.

 

[FerretBomb]

Hence why you need a mixer.
You can also set the capture card to play audio to desktop instead, but then you'll be hearing the game with that same delay into the past.

 

[JustCallMeWes]

Gotcha... any recommendations for a 2 channel mixer that isn't very expensive?

 

[DJS]

This is what I use, one end going into my tv (in your case the ps4 controller) and the other into my pc.

You will need a couple of extensions too but other than that its cheap and cheerful :D.

 

[Cryonic]

@FerretBomb
I wanted to post something like this:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xenyx_502.htm

This is not overkill, this is the cheapest mixer that you can use for this task (routing all the audio signals together into the headphones, with a simple 2-band EQ for each channel and a possible upgrade later with an XLR mic). Simple, really cheap, audio quality is OK for console use etc (but dont expect wonders for 45$, thats the entry level stuff here).
This small mixer will allow anyone with 2 stereo sources + mic to do what ever they want, and having full control over the audio on the fly on hardware (no messing around with software settings) is a huge bonus. Once you get used to it, having everything in range without taking your eyes off the game/chat/whatever else, you will never go back to pure software based audio routing.

I do my audio routing sometimes over my DAW with my audio interface and sometimes with a mixer or a full audio chain (preamp> mixer> audio interface> DAW> OBS to achieve the quality that i need and have enough room to play around a bit). This is overkill.

 

[FerretBomb]

This is what I use, one end going into my tv (in your case the ps4 controller) and the other into my pc.

You will need a couple of extensions too but other than that its cheap and cheerful :D.

Indeed, that could work. Problem being, that can lead to dual-ground hum issues, and potentially overload certain types of headphones.

@FerretBomb
I wanted to post something like this:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xenyx_502.htm

This is not overkill, this is the cheapest mixer that you can use for this task (routing all the audio signals together into the headphones, with a simple 2-band EQ for each channel and a possible upgrade later with an XLR mic). Simple, really cheap, audio quality is OK for console use etc (but dont expect wonders for 45$, thats the entry level stuff here).
This small mixer will allow anyone with 2 stereo sources + mic to do what ever they want, and having full control over the audio on the fly on hardware (no messing around with software settings) is a huge bonus. Once you get used to it, having everything in range without taking your eyes off the game/chat/whatever else, you will never go back to pure software based audio routing.

I do my audio routing sometimes over my DAW with my audio interface and sometimes with a mixer or a full audio chain (preamp> mixer> audio interface> DAW> OBS to achieve the quality that i need and have enough room to play around a bit). This is overkill.

You actually can get an even simpler unpowered version for about $5-10. Dollar-store specials. He isn't looking to plug a mic into it, or feed the output into OBS at all, ever. Just to the headphones. It's essentially just the Y-cable DJS mentioned above, but with two pots and some basic limiting circuitry to avoid signal crossfeed/backfeed, and prevent overpeak. In this case, yes, even the super-basic X-502 is overkill.

 

[Cryonic]

I know a lot of guys who are sad after 1-2 years because they actually started streaming something else and got huge problems with their hardware. Having a mixer as a streamer is essential, even if it`s collecting dust. We talk here about 39€, i cant even buy 40 cigarettes for this money here. Thats not overkill, thats the basic stuff. Overkill would be a digital mixer with a 4 digit price tag...

 

[JustCallMeWes]

There seems to be plenty xenyx 502's around for $30-40. I'm just going that route. I tried messing around with Virtual Audio Cable last night and couldn't make that work either. At this point, I'd be happy to fork over $40 to get the desired results.

 

[omar]

@JustCallMeWes Hi. I was looking for a solution for my problem when I found this thread and it looks like you got the answer. I'm sorry for asking about something different than you guys talking about but I need help in it.
Can you please tell me how did you manage to be able to listen to your PC you streaming of and your PS4 without hearing a duplicate sound?
I have a mac mini (streaming PC) and a PS4 and using a avermedia live gamer portable capture card.
everything works fine except I can't hear my music I'm playing on the stream without hearing game sound coming out of the capture card.

Hope you can help me with that.
thanks

 

[DJS]

Is your PS4 sounds playing through your Mac? You don't want that as it will be delayed anyway so turn it off in the Stream Engine properties within OBS.

 

[Cryonic]

Thats why we use a mixer for that. So we can split the sound that is going to master output (what is then streamed) and what we hear in headphones (the mixer will give you the option to route each input to headphones and adjust the volume without changing the master volume). The only problem is the digital audio when transmitted via HDMI or toslink/coaxial - there is no cheap router avaliable that can handle digital audio.