Question / Help Major Loss of Audio Quality when using OBS to Capture Sound

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Emul0us

New Member
Can anyone tell me why when I capture sound from my DJ software (Virtual DJ) using OBS, there is SUCH a decrease in audio quality when streaming to social media, or even just recording locally?

When I test it out and listen myself on my own Facebook page - through headphones - the audio sounds like it's at 32 kbps. A bunch of squeaks and cracks during the highs/treble, and the bass sounds as if it's turned completely off. Same goes for recording locally. It's absolutely awful.

If I broadcast to social media or record the audio locally directly from Virtual DJ, it sounds like a TRUE 320 kbps; no squeaks and cracks and the baseline is heavenly.

I've mucked around with the Output settings for both streaming and recording in OBS to no avail. Below are my current Streaming settings:
  • Encoder currently set to the new NVIDA NVENC H.264
    • I've tried the other two to no avail
  • Rate Control = CBR
  • Bitrate = 2500 kbps
    • I've tried 10,000 and 40,000 to no avail
  • Preset = Quality
  • Profile = high
  • Audio Bitrates for all tracks are set to 320 kbps
I've attached two recordings, each labeled with corresponding software used. When you listen to "UsingOBS.mp4" at 7-9 seconds especially, the squeaks and cracks are unbearable. UsingVirtualDJ.mp4 - zero loss of quality.

I've also attached a side by side comparison of each file's metadata.

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!
 

Attachments

  • UsingOBS.rar
    938.3 KB · Views: 280
  • UsingVirtualDJ.rar
    770.7 KB · Views: 188
  • Metadata.PNG
    Metadata.PNG
    32.6 KB · Views: 365
  • StreamAudioSettings.png
    StreamAudioSettings.png
    38.5 KB · Views: 409
BigYuckFou

BigYuckFou

Member
in my experience stream ingested by social media like facebook, Twitch, or Yourube have limits. They will typically downgrade the audio quality if streamed beyond their ingest reccomendations.

Twitch for instance wont allow more than 160 and anything over gets downgraded, and not downgraded well.

You will be best to send off the exact expectation the platform wants so it wont downgrade on its own and you can control how it sounds better.

Video format guidelines for live streaming on Facebook | Facebook Help Center

To live stream on Facebook, you can follow our recommended guidelines.
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

Capture.PNG
 
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Emul0us

New Member
Sorry, but this is not helpful in the least bit. I'm aware of these limits.

I've streamed to Facebook using OBS and directly from Virtual DJ. OBS was terrible quality; Virtual DJ was perfect.

Same goes for recording locally. Anything being captured from OBS sounds terrible.

Were you able to listen to the attached recordings?
 
BigYuckFou

BigYuckFou

Member
you are most welcome for my attempt to assist you.

what is your OBS audio bit rate set to? can you upload a log?
 
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Emul0us

New Member
Both Streaming and Recording are set to 2500 kbps, CBR. I've attempted 10,000 and 40,000. Same output quality.
 
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Emul0us

New Member
No good. Let's forget I ever said anything about Streaming.

The two attachments on the original post are local recordings: one from Virtual DJ; the other from OBS. OBS quality is terrible.

Do you have any advice for me as far as recording settings go?
 
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Emul0us

New Member
Sir, lol. More than half of these fails are just letting me know that I don't have the proper sources hooked up, like my Controller. I don't need that as a source right now to record from my laptop. Same goes for my webcam, i don't have it on.
 
BigYuckFou

BigYuckFou

Member
20:44:39.143: [CoreAudio encoder]: CoreAudio AAC encoder not installed on the system or couldn't be loaded
20:44:39.146: Failed to load 'en-US' text for module: 'decklink-ouput-ui.dll'
20:44:39.225: [AMF] Unable to load 'amfrt64.dll', error code 126.
20:44:39.230: [AMF] AMF Test failed due to one or more errors.
20:44:39.230: Failed to initialize module 'enc-amf.dll'
20:44:39.267: [obs-browser]: Version 2.8.6
20:44:39.276: NVENC supported
20:44:39.314: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled
20:44:39.323: A DeckLink iterator could not be created. The DeckLink drivers may not be installed
20:44:39.324: No blackmagic support


there you go homie. take care.
 
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Emul0us

New Member
So I understand this is probably the culprit, but I have iTunes on a Windows 10 machine installed already. Why doesn't OBS see the AAC encoder?
 
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Emul0us

New Member
Hey, so I was using the windows 10 iTunes "App." Tried to just override it with x64 version but obviously that wasn't going to work (should've known that, shame on me).

Had to uninstall it completely and re-install the x64 version from website.

I'm now seeing the 'Adding CoreAudio AAC encoder' line in my log.

I appreciate the help; sorry if I came off douchey.
 
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Slaughter_Bottle

New Member
For anyone whom this didn't help, try going to the sound mixer at the bottom middle and turning the game capture from monitor and output to monitor only (mute output). Solved my problem, two things were playing at once I guess lol.
 
obsaccount

obsaccount

New Member
Slaughter_Bottle said:
For anyone whom this didn't help, try going to the sound mixer at the bottom middle and turning the game capture from monitor and output to monitor only (mute output). Solved my problem, two things were playing at once I guess lol.
Click to expand...
I made this account just to say THANK YOU!
 
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