Game capture audio hiss

[shedzy11]

Hello,
I’m brand new here and was hoping for some help. I have a 2 PC gaming / stream setup. I run OBS on my streaming computer. I use an Elgato HD60 S+ to capture my game audio from the other PC. I have a 3.5mm male into the line out on the Elgato, and the other male end into the line in on the streaming PC. Game audio is there and can hear it great. Only problem is if there is no game audio during gameplay, example being if I pause the game or there is just active sound in game at that time I get a hissing noise coming into OBS. How can I stop this hissing noise?

I would just use the HDMI pass through for audio but unfortunately my streaming GPU only has 2 inputs, 1 display port and 1 HDMI. And each one is plugged into a monitor.

Thanks, Brandon

 

[AaronD]

That's the electronic noise that is inherent in the analog world. If you keep the analog connection, then you can only reduce it by improving the gear, never eliminate it. A given set of hardware has a given amount of hiss; nothing you can do about that except to replace it with something better.

If it were a buzz, warble, or something other than a hiss, I'd say that you had a ground loop that was picking up the AC power line or a switching power supply or something like that, and the fix would be to put an audio transformer ("ground loop isolator") in between. But a hiss just is what it is. Either deal with it, or get some better gear.

This is also one of several underlying causes that lead the broadcast and recording industry to push everything as loud as they can get, which in turn causes new streamers to wonder why their streams are still so quiet when they already have the mic as high as they dare. The pros (and pro-skilled) compress the dynamic range (not bitrate!) at a point where the signal is still clean, mostly to knock the peaks off, which allows them to turn it up even more without distorting. The higher they can push it before the noisy stage, the less of a problem that noise becomes.

---

If you're stuck with the rig that you have, then a workable "band-aid" might be the Noise Gate filter in OBS. It's essentially an automatic fade-in and fade-out, with timing that you can set to be slow and gentle or fast enough to be a hard cut, and a volume threshold for what constitutes noise to cut off and what's a valid signal to pass through. Play with those settings until it sounds right to you.

A Noise Gate does NOT eliminate the noise! The signal is completely unchanged when the gate is open. It simply cuts off when the volume is low enough. For noise that is still noticeable with the intended signal present, a gate actually hurts because the audience doesn't get used to it.

 

[shedzy11]

That's the electronic noise that is inherent in the analog world. If you keep the analog connection, then you can only reduce it by improving the gear, never eliminate it. A given set of hardware has a given amount of hiss; nothing you can do about that except to replace it with something better.

If it were a buzz, warble, or something other than a hiss, I'd say that you had a ground loop that was picking up the AC power line or a switching power supply or something like that, and the fix would be to put an audio transformer ("ground loop isolator") in between. But a hiss just is what it is. Either deal with it, or get some better gear.

This is also one of several underlying causes that lead the broadcast and recording industry to push everything as loud as they can get, which in turn causes new streamers to wonder why their streams are still so quiet when they already have the mic as high as they dare. The pros (and pro-skilled) compress the dynamic range (not bitrate!) at a point where the signal is still clean, mostly to knock the peaks off, which allows them to turn it up even more without distorting. The higher they can push it before the noisy stage, the less of a problem that noise becomes.

---

If you're stuck with the rig that you have, then a workable "band-aid" might be the Noise Gate filter in OBS. It's essentially an automatic fade-in and fade-out, with timing that you can set to be slow and gentle or fast enough to be a hard cut, and a volume threshold for what constitutes noise to cut off and what's a valid signal to pass through. Play with those settings until it sounds right to you.

A Noise Gate does NOT eliminate the noise! The signal is completely unchanged when the gate is open. It simply cuts off when the volume is low enough. For noise that is still noticeable with the intended signal present, a gate actually hurts because the audience doesn't get used to it.

Thank you so much for your reply

That's the electronic noise that is inherent in the analog world. If you keep the analog connection, then you can only reduce it by improving the gear, never eliminate it. A given set of hardware has a given amount of hiss; nothing you can do about that except to replace it with something better.

If it were a buzz, warble, or something other than a hiss, I'd say that you had a ground loop that was picking up the AC power line or a switching power supply or something like that, and the fix would be to put an audio transformer ("ground loop isolator") in between. But a hiss just is what it is. Either deal with it, or get some better gear.

This is also one of several underlying causes that lead the broadcast and recording industry to push everything as loud as they can get, which in turn causes new streamers to wonder why their streams are still so quiet when they already have the mic as high as they dare. The pros (and pro-skilled) compress the dynamic range (not bitrate!) at a point where the signal is still clean, mostly to knock the peaks off, which allows them to turn it up even more without distorting. The higher they can push it before the noisy stage, the less of a problem that noise becomes.

---

If you're stuck with the rig that you have, then a workable "band-aid" might be the Noise Gate filter in OBS. It's essentially an automatic fade-in and fade-out, with timing that you can set to be slow and gentle or fast enough to be a hard cut, and a volume threshold for what constitutes noise to cut off and what's a valid signal to pass through. Play with those settings until it sounds right to you.

A Noise Gate does NOT eliminate the noise! The signal is completely unchanged when the gate is open. It simply cuts off when the volume is low enough. For noise that is still noticeable with the intended signal present, a gate actually hurts because the audience doesn't get used to it.

hi, thank you so much for the reply!

After I posted this I decided to take a look at the back of the streaming GPU and it has 3 inputs. 1 being a DVI, which I have a DVI to HDMI cable. In doing so I was able to free up an HDMI port, now I have an HDMI cable running out of the capture card into the streaming pc GPU. Now I have no game audio at all. I guess I’ll switch it back to the way I had it and try the noise gate option.
Thanks.

 

[AaronD]

That's the electronic noise that is inherent in the analog world. If you keep the analog connection, then you can only reduce it by improving the gear, never eliminate it. A given set of hardware has a given amount of hiss; nothing you can do about that except to replace it with something better.

That said, the pro-quality interfaces are quite good! It's only the cheap, token, consumer stuff that is as bad as you describe.

Some of that has to do with the cabling - shielded twisted pair for a single, balanced, mono signal, to reject external interference - but it also has to do with the electrical design behind the connectors. It's difficult, but entirely possible, to make an analog circuit that outperforms 16-bit 44.1kHz digital audio (CD quality)...if that's all you're doing as a circuit designer.

If it's on a PC motherboard with everything else, forget it! And because most consumers don't really care anyway, they may only have 8 or fewer useful bits, with the lower 8 or more full of noise. So despite all of the digital interference that they're contaminated with, the most prominent thing is still the analog noise from the slapped-in audio path and dirt-cheap converter. Built-in PC audio connections are usually pretty bad! (but they do work in a pinch)

If you went to a USB -> XLR line out on the sending side and an XLR -> USB input on the receiving side (Behringer is fine for both: they're relatively cheap but still good), with decent mic cords in between, you'll probably get about 14 to 18 useful bits from their 24-bit converters, instead of maybe 6 useful bits from a slapped-on 16-bit converter. Big difference! And still analog.

When done right, analog is still used a lot today, as a much-less-hassle way to convert between different digital systems. Nothing wrong with that at all.

 

[shedzy11]

That said, the pro-quality interfaces are quite good! It's only the cheap, token, consumer stuff that is as bad as you describe.

Some of that has to do with the cabling - shielded twisted pair for a single, balanced, mono signal, to reject external interference - but it also has to do with the electrical design behind the connectors. It's difficult, but entirely possible, to make an analog circuit that outperforms 16-bit 44.1kHz digital audio (CD quality)...if that's all you're doing as a circuit designer.

If it's on a PC motherboard with everything else, forget it! And because most consumers don't really care anyway, they may only have 8 or fewer useful bits, with the lower 8 or more full of noise. So despite all of the digital interference that they're contaminated with, the most prominent thing is still the analog noise from the slapped-in audio path and dirt-cheap converter. Built-in PC audio connections are usually pretty bad! (but they do work in a pinch)

If you went to a USB -> XLR line out on the sending side and an XLR -> USB input on the receiving side (Behringer is fine for both: they're relatively cheap but still good), with decent mic cords in between, you'll probably get about 14 to 18 useful bits from their 24-bit converters, instead of maybe 6 useful bits from a slapped-on 16-bit converter. Big difference! And still analog.

When done right, analog is still used a lot today, as a much-less-hassle way to convert between different digital systems. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Wow so much information, thank you. I’m just streaming videos games on Twitch. But with all that info I’m now thinking to spend the money and get the mini goxlr. Seems like it will make things more simple for me. Thank you again for your reply’s. I’m going to play with the noise gate settings in the meantime. Take care