Question / Help Local Recording Distortion on 7.1 mode (Logitech G35)

[Dogerson]

I have a bit of a unique problem. My headset is a Logitech G35 which is capable of switching between 2.1 stereo mode and Dolby 7.1 surround mode either through software or a switch on the back of the left ear cup. I used to exclusively use stereo mode and had no problems.

Recently I have been using the 7.1 setting because it sounds better but this creates a problem. Whenever I do local recording, the audio becomes distorted and it sounds like the audio is being recorded twice through surround sound. If I switch back to 2.1 mode, there is no distortion. The reason this is an issue is that if I want to record videos without distorted audio, I have to switch to 2.1 mode otherwise people using surround headsets (Logitech g35, g430, g930 etc.) will hear distortion.

I am aware that OBS will record whatever is being thrown at it in terms of audio and video input but is there anyway to disable surround sound recording. Basically I want to be able to listen in 7.1 mode but record in stereo mode to avoid the distortion problem. If my explanation is hard to understand, I can present a video clip.

 

[Dogerson]

Update: I have rolled back to Logitech Gaming Software version 8.58.183 from 8.72.107 and this seems to have fixed my problem.

My theory for why this happened is because the latest version of LGS is now bundled with more advanced Dolby drivers which will completely alter Windows sound settings. When OBS records, audio is converted into Dolby 7.1. If your headset is already in surround mode, the audio will sound "duplicated" because your listening to recorded surround audio through a surround headset. Essentially, you are listening to audio that is being converted to surround sound twice which creates a distorted effect. Conversely, if you listen to the surround recording through 2.1 mode, it sounds fine.

This is still a problem though because now this means that it won't be ideal to update to the latest version of LGS because the newer Dolby drivers will create the problem again unless there's a workaround. Here is an example of what the problem sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1LC77ialKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9g54cu9kg

The first link is recorded through 7.1 mode and the second link is recorded through 2.1 mode. If you're on a surround headset, the first link should sound distorted and duplicated while the second link sounds fine. If you're on stereo mode or a stereo headset, both should sound fine.

 

[sam686]

I don't think youtube supports more then 2 channel audio (stereo). OBS only records/streams at 2 channel audio (stereo).

The second youtube link have better stereo sound on my stereo headphones. Maybe the drivers or playback software tries and fails to convert stereo back to 7.1 with stereo audio compression not helping in this case.