Mic and Audio Echo

[amio2023]

Hi

I hope someone can help me. I'm brand new when it comes to recording and using OBS. I've recorded some of my sims game through OBS. its worked and i can hear the game audio and my commentary however it is echoing. How do i get the echoing to stop? I do not have a mic or headset as its a macbook pro 2019 with only two thunderports. I do have ear plugs that are connected through the aux (i think) plug in. I also have airpods but i haven't tried recording using them yet.

In OBS I have a recording scene which then has two sources. A display capture for the recording the game and then an audio input capture which is for the mic i think. I don't own a mic so its currently set to default. Is that correct or do i need to change it to macbook pro microphone?

When I've clicked settings and then audio, everything under global audio devices say "disabled" except for mic/auxillary which is set to default.

Please can someone help to resolve the echoing problem? Also any other tips for recording on my macbook will be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

 

[AaronD]

Do you Monitor the thing that is echoing? (Advanced Audio Properties)

And is your Monitoring device set to the same one as the Desktop Audio? (Settings -> Audio)
If so, then that will pick up the Monitor as part of the Desktop Audio, which completes a feedback loop for whatever you put into the Monitor.

In a live PA, like a concert, the same sort of feedback causes a runaway screech. But you have enough delay in your rig that you hear a discrete echo.

 

[amio2023]

Do you Monitor the thing that is echoing? (Advanced Audio Properties)

And is your Monitoring device set to the same one as the Desktop Audio? (Settings -> Audio)
If so, then that will pick up the Monitor as part of the Desktop Audio, which completes a feedback loop for whatever you put into the Monitor.

In a live PA, like a concert, the same sort of feedback causes a runaway screech. But you have enough delay in your rig that you hear a discrete echo.

hi, thank you for responding. I’m really new to obs so I’m not sure to answer your question. Where do I find the monitoring device? Should I start recording and then check the advanced audio properties?

Many thanks

 

[AaronD]

Where do I find the monitoring device?

Settings -> Audio (might need to scroll down)

Should I start recording and then check the advanced audio properties?

The recording should have nothing to do with this. No way that that can feed back, unless you're sending it to something that converts the stream into a physical or virtual sound card. I've seen a way to do that, that involves putting a URL into the recording filepath......But if you're using that hack, then you should probably look at the Audio Monitor plugin instead. (Note: That plugin is different from OBS's native Monitor)

A screenshot of your Settings -> Audio would be good, showing the Monitoring device, plus your Advanced Audio Properties with the Active Only box unchecked so we can see everything, plus the settings for your audio sources.

 

[amio2023]

Settings -> Audio (might need to scroll down)


The recording should have nothing to do with this. No way that that can feed back, unless you're sending it to something that converts the stream into a physical or virtual sound card. I've seen a way to do that, that involves putting a URL into the recording filepath......But if you're using that hack, then you should probably look at the Audio Monitor plugin instead. (Note: That plugin is different from OBS's native Monitor)

A screenshot of your Settings -> Audio would be good, showing the Monitoring device, plus your Advanced Audio Properties with the Active Only box unchecked so we can see everything, plus the settings for your audio sources.

Hello

Please see the pictures below. The first two are of my audio settings and the third is the drop down menu when i click monitoring device. Then I added pictures of the audio input capture. I didn't have an audio output source so i added it in so you could see the properties. When i click the dropdown menu it doesn't give me any options. Then there is the display capture and then what the audio mixers look like.

I hope these pictures help. I apologise in advance that my screen needs a good clean. I hope you can help me.

 

[amio2023]

Settings -> Audio (might need to scroll down)


The recording should have nothing to do with this. No way that that can feed back, unless you're sending it to something that converts the stream into a physical or virtual sound card. I've seen a way to do that, that involves putting a URL into the recording filepath......But if you're using that hack, then you should probably look at the Audio Monitor plugin instead. (Note: That plugin is different from OBS's native Monitor)

A screenshot of your Settings -> Audio would be good, showing the Monitoring device, plus your Advanced Audio Properties with the Active Only box unchecked so we can see everything, plus the settings for your audio sources.

I've also changed the macos screen capture back to display. Someone said that I could do it though application capture and select the game but after watching the recording back theres no audio and a black screen so i have changed it back to display capture

 

[AaronD]

Hello

Please see the pictures below. The first two are of my audio settings and the third is the drop down menu when i click monitoring device. Then I added pictures of the audio input capture. I didn't have an audio output source so i added it in so you could see the properties. When i click the dropdown menu it doesn't give me any options. Then there is the display capture and then what the audio mixers look like.

I hope these pictures help. I apologise in advance that my screen needs a good clean. I hope you can help me.
View attachment 93198View attachment 93199View attachment 93200 View attachment 93197View attachment 93194View attachment 93195View attachment 93196

You're using "Default" a lot. That's generally not good practice because it defers that choice to the operating system and whatever logic it has to dynamically connect to something else. (plug in a toy mic, for example, and what used to be your good mic automatically switches to that)

The reason to have the "Default" option, and to make it OBS's default choice (make "Default" the default), is simply because every system is different and that's the one that has the best chance of working out of the box. Don't actually use it for production though; specify the devices directly in OBS instead, so that they don't change.

It can be a little bit confusing if the same device has both an audio in and an audio out, and you select the same one to both send and receive from OBS. If you get it right, it works. If you get it wrong, you get a feedback loop. So that might be where your echo is coming from.

• The Audio Input Capture and the global Mic sources look at what comes in from the outside world.
  • This requires an external connection of some kind, to make it feed back. That connection could be electrical (patch input to output somewhere) or acoustic (mic picking up a speaker), but it's definitely outside of OBS.
• The Audio Output Capture and the global Desktop sources take a copy of what goes out to the outside world.
  • This can feed back entirely within OBS. (or OBS and the operating system, but definitely inside the computer) If you send one of these to OBS's Monitor (from the Advanced Audio Properties), and connect the Monitor (Settings -> Audio) to the same device that that source is connected to, that's a feedback loop.

I've also changed the macos screen capture back to display. Someone said that I could do it though application capture and select the game but after watching the recording back theres no audio and a black screen so i have changed it back to display captureView attachment 93203

That's probably unrelated. Maybe start another thread for why the recommended video capture doesn't work and why it's recommended. I'm not actually a Mac guy, so I can't help you there.

 

[amio2023]

You're using "Default" a lot. That's generally not good practice because it defers that choice to the operating system and whatever logic it has to dynamically connect to something else. (plug in a toy mic, for example, and what used to be your good mic automatically switches to that)

The reason to have the "Default" option, and to make it OBS's default choice (make "Default" the default), is simply because every system is different and that's the one that has the best chance of working out of the box. Don't actually use it for production though; specify the devices directly in OBS instead, so that they don't change.

It can be a little bit confusing if the same device has both an audio in and an audio out, and you select the same one to both send and receive from OBS. If you get it right, it works. If you get it wrong, you get a feedback loop. So that might be where your echo is coming from.

• The Audio Input Capture and the global Mic sources look at what comes in from the outside world.
  • This requires an external connection of some kind, to make it feed back. That connection could be electrical (patch input to output somewhere) or acoustic (mic picking up a speaker), but it's definitely outside of OBS.
• The Audio Output Capture and the global Desktop sources take a copy of what goes out to the outside world.
  • This can feed back entirely within OBS. (or OBS and the operating system, but definitely inside the computer) If you send one of these to OBS's Monitor (from the Advanced Audio Properties), and connect the Monitor (Settings -> Audio) to the same device that that source is connected to, that's a feedback loop.

That's probably unrelated. Maybe start another thread for why the recommended video capture doesn't work and why it's recommended. I'm not actually a Mac guy, so I can't help you there.

when I have clicked the drop-down in the audio settings it doesn’t give me any other option except for disabled. Then it’s just default for the microphone/aux. Here it gives me the option for MacBook Pro microphone. Should I try that?

For audio input - you mention an external connection does this mean I will need a microphone?

For audio output - in the properties it doesn’t give me any options in the devices drop-down menu. Do I need to connect something to give me options here?

Thank you for all your help

 

[AaronD]

when I have clicked the drop-down in the audio settings it doesn’t give me any other option except for disabled. Then it’s just default for the microphone/aux. Here it gives me the option for MacBook Pro microphone. Should I try that?

For audio input - you mention an external connection does this mean I will need a microphone?

For audio output - in the properties it doesn’t give me any options in the devices drop-down menu. Do I need to connect something to give me options here?

Thank you for all your help

Use anything besides "Default" if you can. If you can't - if "Default" is the only way to connect your device - then you might start another thread about why that is, 'cause I'd call it a problem by itself. Good screenshots for that thread would be OBS's drop-down that doesn't show it, and Mac's selection that does.

 

[amio2023]

Use anything besides "Default" if you can. If you can't - if "Default" is the only way to connect your device - then you might start another thread about why that is, 'cause I'd call it a problem by itself. Good screenshots for that thread would be OBS's drop-down that doesn't show it, and Mac's selection that does.

Hi

I went back to try and record in obs today. I put my earplugs in and today it gave me the option for external microphone in the audio input properties which it didn’t do before. The earplugs are like the ones you get with iPhone with a mic bit to talk into. So I recorded a little bit. The game audio is not echoing now but me speaking us still echoing. Do you have any further hints/tips as to what could be causing the mic part to be echoing?

 

[AaronD]

Does Mac have a "Print Screen" key? ("PrntScrn" on my keyboard) That would be really handy. On some systems, like the Raspberry Pi, it doesn't seem to do anything, but then there's a new picture in your Home folder. Others, like Windows, don't seem to do anything, but that picture is now on the clipboard, and you can paste it into an editor (the one that comes with the OS is fine) or directly into a post here. I don't know what Mac does, but I'd imagine you'd have to have *some* way to take a screenshot without the dirt on the screen itself.

Anyway, I haven't seen your version of this yet:

Uncheck "Active Sources Only" so you can see everything.

The Audio Monitoring section is weird to me, as an audio guy. It should have been two checkboxes because it controls two destinations (at that point in the chain), but it's a badly-worded drop-down instead.

• Output goes to the Tracks selection immediately to the right. Simple mode (Settings -> Output) uses Track 1 only and ignores the other 5. Advanced mode can record all 6 if you want, as alternative audio selections in the playback app/device.
• Monitor goes to the physical device that you select in Settings -> Audio.

If it's a repeating echo, then you probably have a feedback path somewhere, and the Monitor is probably part of it. Especially if your Desktop Audio pulls from the same device.

If it's a single echo, then you're probably just hearing the processing delay through the OS, then OBS, then back throug the OS again. You can't get rid of that, so just turn it off. In the window above, don't let that one go to the Monitor.

If you must have the feedback of hearing yourself, but you can't stand an audible delay (most people can't), then you probably need a physical audio mixer. Small ones are fairly cheap. Run the game audio into that, and the mic, make the finished soundtrack over there, and bring it back into OBS to pass through unchanged. The same mixer also feeds your ears, and because it's designed to do exactly that and nothing else, it won't have the processing delay.

 

[AaronD]

You can click the 3 dots button for any source, or right-click the audio area, and choose that option, or click the two gears button to open it directly:

 

[amio2023]

You can click the 3 dots button for any source, or right-click the audio area, and choose that option, or click the two gears button to open it directly:
View attachment 93382

Hi
This is what mine looks like but i can't uncheck active only

 

[amio2023]

You can click the 3 dots button for any source, or right-click the audio area, and choose that option, or click the two gears button to open it directly:
View attachment 93382

 

[AaronD]

Everything has the Monitor off, so it's probably not echoing through there.

I'm wondering now, if the mic is coming in twice: once through the expected path, and again through something else, already mixed with what the something else is supposed to be.

Mute the mic (speaker button, circled below), and see if you can still hear it. If so, mute something else too (likely sims or Output Capture), and see if you can make it go away.

You'll also lose the something else when you do that, but then you can go into the settings for that, whatever it is, and disable the mic in there.

 

[amio2023]

Everything has the Monitor off, so it's probably not echoing through there.

I'm wondering now, if the mic is coming in twice: once through the expected path, and again through something else, already mixed with what the something else is supposed to be.

Mute the mic (speaker button, circled below), and see if you can still hear it. If so, mute something else too (likely sims or Output Capture), and see if you can make it go away.
View attachment 93393
You'll also lose the something else when you do that, but then you can go into the settings for that, whatever it is, and disable the mic in there.

Hello, i did what you said about muting the mic and its worked! Theres no more echo. i wasn't sure how to mute so i turned the mic/aux right down and just used the audio input which originally gave me the external microphone option. Theres no more echo which is amazing. When I watched the video back my voice was a bit quiet but the volume on the audio input is all the way up. Does that mean the microphone is as high as it can go? I'm quite a quiet person so it might just be me being too quiet.

 

[AaronD]

Hello, i did what you said about muting the mic and its worked! Theres no more echo. i wasn't sure how to mute so i turned the mic/aux right down and just used the audio input which originally gave me the external microphone option. Theres no more echo which is amazing.

I circled the mute button in my previous post. But anyway, you got the idea. You're only partway done though: you still need to figure out where it's coming from and kill that path, so you can have separate control of it through the intended path that you *temporarily* muted.

When I watched the video back my voice was a bit quiet but the volume on the audio input is all the way up. Does that mean the microphone is as high as it can go? I'm quite a quiet person so it might just be me being too quiet.

That's not really relevant yet, as you need to kill the path that it's coming through now, so that it doesn't interfere with the correct, dedicated path. If the correct path has a problem, then we can come back to it.

Continue to mute other things until it goes away completely, which tells you which other thing is including the mic when it shouldn't. Then look at that thing to see how you can disable the mic completely. Once you've done that, go back to OBS and turn everything back on.