Live Streaming to youtube using alternative audio source

[Pnutbuttrjarz]

Hey guys.
I'm trying to work out the best way to live stream to youtube using an alternative audio source other than the mic in the camera.
I'm a musician and plan on doing a live stream to my YT channel.
I play along to some backing tracks I have previously recorded myself. So I run the backings from a DAW on my laptop through my audio interface into a 12 channel mixer going to my PA speakers. Now ideally I don't want to live stream the audio coming out of the actual speakers and using the built-in camera mics.
I will actually be using OBS on a separate laptop than what my backing tracks are running on. This laptop also has a separate pro audio interface.
So my plan was to take the audio from the output of the mixing desk to the input of the audio interface that is connected to the laptop ruining OBS.
My plan is also to be running 3 cameras (Canon 750D as main front camera, and 2 mobile phones as side views using the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin to randomly change camera angles whilst I am playing).
I'm guessing I am able to stream the audio this way, but I can't figure out what settings to use. I have searched for an answer on youtube (so as to not bother you guys with newbie questions), but haven't found the correct answers. Maybe the search words I am using are wrong. But I can't figure out how to do it.
Is anyone able to enlighten an OBS moron like me??
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Pnut

 

[FerretBomb]

So long as the audio coming into the laptop shows up in Windows' Sound->Recording tab, you should be able to add the audio interface as an Audio Input Capture device in your scenes (or as a global 'Microphone' source in Settings->Audio).

About the only real 'gotcha' bits are:
-OBS doesn't like ASIO devices; there's a plugin to work around that though, obs-asio, up in the Resources section at the top of this webpage, OBS Studio Plugins.
-If an audio interface is multi-channel, OBS can only read from the first channel, unless the device provides discrete virtual devices for each channel.
-Mind your sampling rates in Windows' "Sound->Recording->(device)->Properties" section. Mismatching sample rates can/will cause clicking and popping. You want ALL audio devices that you'll be using in OBS to use the same sample rate; 48kHz is pretty standard at this point, but a lot of pro audio gear insists on 44.1kHz for legacy reasons and won't do 48.

 

[Pnutbuttrjarz]

So long as the audio coming into the laptop shows up in Windows' Sound->Recording tab, you should be able to add the audio interface as an Audio Input Capture device in your scenes (or as a global 'Microphone' source in Settings->Audio).

About the only real 'gotcha' bits are:
-OBS doesn't like ASIO devices; there's a plugin to work around that though, obs-asio, up in the Resources section at the top of this webpage, OBS Studio Plugins.
-If an audio interface is multi-channel, OBS can only read from the first channel, unless the device provides discrete virtual devices for each channel.
-Mind your sampling rates in Windows' "Sound->Recording->(device)->Properties" section. Mismatching sample rates can/will cause clicking and popping. You want ALL audio devices that you'll be using in OBS to use the same sample rate; 48kHz is pretty standard at this point, but a lot of pro audio gear insists on 44.1kHz for legacy reasons and won't do 48.

Thanks for the info mate.
Just downloaded it. Will give it a crack when the cables and 4k capture device come in the mail.
Cheers :-)

 

[Pnutbuttrjarz]

So long as the audio coming into the laptop shows up in Windows' Sound->Recording tab, you should be able to add the audio interface as an Audio Input Capture device in your scenes (or as a global 'Microphone' source in Settings->Audio).

About the only real 'gotcha' bits are:
-OBS doesn't like ASIO devices; there's a plugin to work around that though, obs-asio, up in the Resources section at the top of this webpage, OBS Studio Plugins.
-If an audio interface is multi-channel, OBS can only read from the first channel, unless the device provides discrete virtual devices for each channel.
-Mind your sampling rates in Windows' "Sound->Recording->(device)->Properties" section. Mismatching sample rates can/will cause clicking and popping. You want ALL audio devices that you'll be using in OBS to use the same sample rate; 48kHz is pretty standard at this point, but a lot of pro audio gear insists on 44.1kHz for legacy reasons and won't do 48.

One other question for you FerretBomb.
Is there a plugin for obs (like a compressor), that will automatically bring each performance track to the same audio level?? Sometimes there is a slight diffrence in audio levels between each track I play. Was wondering if there is an obs plugin in the resources section that will normalize all my tracks, therefore making the audio in the stream more consistent so to eliminate any level differences between the tracks I perform.
Thanks mate

 

[FerretBomb]

One other question for you FerretBomb.
Is there a plugin for obs (like a compressor), that will automatically bring each performance track to the same audio level?? Sometimes there is a slight diffrence in audio levels between each track I play. Was wondering if there is an obs plugin in the resources section that will normalize all my tracks, therefore making the audio in the stream more consistent so to eliminate any level differences between the tracks I perform.
Thanks mate

Click the source cog in the mixer, Filters. You can add a compressor, and OBS supports VSTs as well (though initially getting them in the right place so they're detected and loaded can be a bit annoying). Unfortunately, true normalization isn't possible in a live environment. But you can absolutely use a compressor filter, or even stacked compressors to ramp up the limiting so it never fully clips. There are also VSTs like LoudMAX that try to crank everything to 11, with varying levels of success.