Question / Help Headphones too loud in trying to record a game

[Mike89]

Trying to get a good video using OBS of me playing a game has been huge undertaking for me. Specifically getting the mic and game volume in balance with each other. I have a usb headphone/mic. When I try to adjust the game volume in OBS, it also raises the volume in my headphones. To get the volume to a decent level in the game recording, the headphones will be too loud to use, almost blowing my eardrums out. If I adjust the game volume to be an acceptable my headset, then the game volume will be way too low in the recording. Seems they are tied directly together and no matter how I adjust windows volume mixer, it's still either one or the other. Anyone have any tips to balance this out? Seems there should be a way to have OBS record the volume level of the game as you set it without it increasing or decreasing what you are hearing through the headphones

 

[Narcogen]

Look for Voicemeeter Banana and follow the quick guide instructions.

Basically you can set up a virtual interface to use as your output, and VB will give you separate control over the volume of the hardware device you use to monitor, so that you can be listening to a mix that is different than what OBS is recording/streaming.

 

[Mike89]

Isn't Voicemeeter just for the microphone side? I don't have a problem with the volume of the mic.

 

[Narcogen]

No.

 

[Mike89]

I looked at that program and to tell the truth, it's a bit over my head. I would think this should be able to be done straight in OBS. I mean this has to be a pretty common problem for those recording playing a game with narration using a headphone/mic. Trying to get a decent game volume in the recording is pretty hard when the headphones are blasting out your ears even when the actual game volume that is being recorded isn't that loud. Would be really nice if OBS could be configured to have a third slider, mic volume slider, game volume slider (showing volume level from the game that is getting recorded), and another game volume slider tied directly to the volume you hear coming through the headphones during a recording. That would have been perfect.

 

[Narcogen]

To do that, OBS would have to take over the role of the windows audio mixer.

That is what Voicemeeter does.

Certainly OBS devs could add this in future, but free software available now and widely used for this purpose is already out there, so it might not end up being the highest priority. The most recent new audio features are stuff that is more complicated to get running outside of OBS-- like sidechain compression that was recently added.

 

[Mike89]

Ok. If I get up the nerve, I'll try Voicemeeter to see if I can do this. I don't do many vids, I mostly am doing some KSP flight vids just to amuse myself and try to produce a video I can watch comfortably. That's about as far as it goes on me making videos but it's nice to know how to do it. I'm more worried about what the program is doing when I'm not making a vid. I'm primarily a speaker guy, just never got into headphones, can't wear them for any length of time without major discomfort. So only time I use a headphone (or a mic) is when I'm trying to make a video. I just plug in the usb headphones/mic and of course this instantly changes everything in the Windows mixer switching default audio and playback devices. I then open the game and OBS and try to record a decent vid of me playing the game. When I'm done with the recording, I close out OBS, unplug the USB headphones/mic and then watch the vid through my player (potplayer) through my normal speakers. If the game/mic volume balance turns out decent, I then upload it to youtube. It's a bit tricky for me on the game/mic balance as I said before. In KSP (Kerbal Space Program) the game volume changes during the play as you are using louder or softer sounding rockets during a flight. The tricky part is knowing how the volume of what I am hearing through my headphone is balancing with the game volume that is actually being recorded because what I am hearing through the headphone is ALWAYS going to be louder than how the recording comes out. I always have to remember to adjust for this as I'm playing. Say when I'm on the first stage (loud) rockets, it's so loud in the headphones (but listening to this same volume through speakers would be perfect), I catch myself shouting into the mic. So I alt-tab out during this liftoff and turn the game volume in the Windows mixer down so I can hear myself talk. Then later in the game when the louder rockets have been used and the game is much quieter, then the volume in the headphones are not loud enough so I alt-tab back out and turn up the volume in the mixer again. I have to do this a few times during play to end up with something kind of balanced at the end.