Issue adding second microphone via Rode Wireless Go

[eugepettit]

Hi,

I have a Rode Wireless Go II which is inputted via USB and two wireless microphones connected. However, when I add the audio imput source to OBS and select the Rode device, it is only capuring the audio from one microphone and not the second microphone, even though the Rode receiver is picking up both mics.

Can anyone advise how I can have two transmitters picked up in OBS via one receiver?

Thanks

 

[AaronD]

OBS is not designed for independent streams coming from one device. I get the strong impression that it was made originally for the stereotypical bedroom streamer, who only has the one mic and possibly headphones, and even that was botched in terms of the headphones being written by someone who understood software but not audio. (if it hiccups, expand the buffer...even after it's become uselessly out of sync) And despite many complaints, it still hasn't been fixed.

For the specific situation of a 2-channel device that is actually 2 independent sources, there's a workaround:

1. Set OBS to stereo
2. Create 2 copies of that source. Now you have 4 channels total, for those that count stereo as 2.
3. In the Advanced Audio Properties, set both to Mono, and Pan/Balance them all the way to either side.

Now you have each of the 2 inputs controllable separately, panned center. That works (and ends up the way it does) because the Pan/Balance control is actually *before* the Mono switch, which is backwards from pretty much every professional thing. In this particular case, one non-professional thing (wacky processing order) partially cancels another non-professional thing (not choosing individual channels of a device), to get something that is at least partially usable.

If you want anything more than that specifically, you need to move your audio processing to an external DAW (Digital Audio Workstation: essentially a complete sound studio in one app), do everything in there, and bring the finished soundtrack into OBS as its only input, to pass through unchanged. A physical console with a USB line-in to the computer, works too, if you can get all of the signals in there and do what you need with them.

It helps a lot if you can control the DAW (or a physical digital console) from OBS, and for that, there's the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin, which can send OSC (Open Sound Control) messages. Figure out how your DAW (or digital board) wants to receive OSC, set up Adv. SS for that, and now you don't have to switch apps all the time.

For a nice fade in one of my rigs, I ended up using the OSC messages to turn on and off a control signal, that is generated in the DAW, and goes to the sidechain input of several noise gates. When the control signal is on, the gate is open; when the control signal is off, the gate is closed (muted). The timing controls of each gate, produce the fade.

 

[loydemann]

This is genius. Is it possible to add the two gopro mics as one left and one right on the channels. Use it with advanced scene shifter. Then set finished product as mono?

Is this what you mean with advanced audio properties?

 

[AaronD]

This is genius. Is it possible to add the two gopro mics as one left and one right on the channels. Use it with advanced scene shifter. Then set finished product as mono?

Is this what you mean with advanced audio properties?

The Advanced Scene Switcher is used in this particular case to send messages to an *external* audio processor, not in OBS:

That's a quick example from memory, of cutting a mic on when I switch to the camera. This assumes that I have a DAW on the same machine, that's listening to port 12345 (read the documentation for your specific DAW to see what it wants), and that the mic is on processing strip 1. 0dB is no change in volume through that point in the processing; off would be -oodB, but my DAW interprets a sufficiently large negative number the same way, so I send it -200 if I remember right.

But like I said, I don't actually control audio directly with these messages. I use them to manupulate a control signal, which is handled as audio but you wouldn't want to listen to it. That control signal then affects how other things work, and their timing controls create a nice fade from what would have been a hard on/off.

One of those processors:

and the overall DAW:

Mic 1 and Mic 2 in that screenshot are two channels of the same device, handled separately in the DAW with no trouble at all.

If you imagine a physical console and remember the wires behind it, then that's pretty much what this is, all in one app.

 

[wfjjr]

OBS is not designed for independent streams coming from one device. I get the strong impression that it was made originally for the stereotypical bedroom streamer, who only has the one mic and possibly headphones, and even that was botched in terms of the headphones being written by someone who understood software but not audio. (if it hiccups, expand the buffer...even after it's become uselessly out of sync) And despite many complaints, it still hasn't been fixed.

For the specific situation of a 2-channel device that is actually 2 independent sources, there's a workaround:

1. Set OBS to stereo
2. Create 2 copies of that source. Now you have 4 channels total, for those that count stereo as 2.
3. In the Advanced Audio Properties, set both to Mono, and Pan/Balance them all the way to either side.

Now you have each of the 2 inputs controllable separately, panned center. That works (and ends up the way it does) because the Pan/Balance control is actually *before* the Mono switch, which is backwards from pretty much every professional thing. In this particular case, one non-professional thing (wacky processing order) partially cancels another non-professional thing (not choosing individual channels of a device), to get something that is at least partially usable.

If you want anything more than that specifically, you need to move your audio processing to an external DAW (Digital Audio Workstation: essentially a complete sound studio in one app), do everything in there, and bring the finished soundtrack into OBS as its only input, to pass through unchanged. A physical console with a USB line-in to the computer, works too, if you can get all of the signals in there and do what you need with them.

It helps a lot if you can control the DAW (or a physical digital console) from OBS, and for that, there's the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin, which can send OSC (Open Sound Control) messages. Figure out how your DAW (or digital board) wants to receive OSC, set up Adv. SS for that, and now you don't have to switch apps all the time.

For a nice fade in one of my rigs, I ended up using the OSC messages to turn on and off a control signal, that is generated in the DAW, and goes to the sidechain input of several noise gates. When the control signal is on, the gate is open; when the control signal is off, the gate is closed (muted). The timing controls of each gate, produce the fade.

I'm new to OBS. I've been trying to make my wireless rode mic II work with OBS for a couple and hours now and can figure it out. I even went and bought all these extra attachments after watching a bunch of youtube videos. Can you help me? PLEASE!

 

[AaronD]

I'm new to OBS. I've been trying to make my wireless rode mic II work with OBS for a couple and hours now and can figure it out. I even went and bought all these extra attachments after watching a bunch of youtube videos. Can you help me? PLEASE!

What extra attachments? How does your wireless mic receiver connect to the next thing downstream? (XLR? 1/4"? Something else?) And what else do you have to play with? (same questions there)

What have you tried, and what did each attempt get you? Details matter here. If you didn't get sound all the way at the end of the chain, but a meter in the middle somewhere showed something, that's critical. Did you pay attention enough to notice that?

"It doesn't work," means nothing. And we don't see through your eyes. All we know is what you post here.

Media rigs are not pre-fab or cookie-cutter. They're all custom-built, somewhat like Legos. Every one of them is different, including yours. That makes the technical details even more important. Each one practically amounts to a custom, one-off, engineering project, and we're helping you with yours for free.

So, as a technical engineering project, what do you have, in all of that detail? And what has it done so far, in all of that detail?