Question / Help Mic audio cuts out when system audio plays

[paraclete_pizza]

Hi. I'm experiencing a particular problem when recording both mic audio and desktop audio at the same time. Rather than mixing both audio channels together, OBS seems to just only record whichever of the two is louder, and cut the other one out. This means when I am recording my voice and no system sound is playing, it sounds good, but when I'm recording both at similar levels, they alternate and become choppy, and when the system sound is even slightly louder, the microphone sound is completely muted.

I've tested different hardware configurations - both internal and external mics, as well as internal speakers vs. headphones, and the outcome is always the same.

Here's a link to a video - you can see as I adjust the volume on the sound of the MP3, my microphone audio completely cuts out. It's not getting drowned out by a louder noise, just cut out completely.

Do folks know what causes this problem? Do you have any suggestions for addressing it?

 

[paraclete_pizza]

I've tried setting up the mic audio and the desktop audio to separate tracks, as shown in the attached image, but it made no difference. This seems like it should be an obvious problem to fix, but I'm still hitting my head against it.

 

[Narcogen]

Turn off auto ducking in your windows audio device.

Go to your Sound control panel. Check the "Communications" Tab.

Under the setting "when Windows detects communications activity"

Check

"Do Nothing".

 

[paraclete_pizza]

Wild! I had just tried that a bit ago, and it wasn't working. But now tried it again, and now it's fine! Possibly restarting OBS between then and now helped? In any case, thanks.