Question / Help Mic Audio Gets Distorted "Randomly"

[Draaxx]

I can't quite put a finger on it but my Mic Audio on my stream only (works flawlessly in discord) becomes the sound of a robot sometimes. I've attached a log file of when I started streaming and the audio was fine then it started to turn robot on me later in the stream.

Here is my setup:
Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Noctua - NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus - STRIX Z270-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
NVIDIA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition Video Card
Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Dell - S2417DG 23.8" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor

I use a Blue Yeti Mic with Voice Meter and run Discord desktop app on Windows 10.

Any insight on what could be happening would be much appreciated.

Video of a game without the audio problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCBTTr5dPqU&t=450s
The very next game I played with the audio problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5zqLBawqo&t=29s

 

[Game Academy]

Interesting. I also use a Blue Yeti + Voice Meter and Windows 10 and i have the exact same problem that it makes me sound like a robot after a while in stream. When i shut down voice meter , the problem is gone.

I hope someone will come with a solution for this !

 

[Game Academy]

Is anyone at all reading posts here ?

 

[Game Academy]

Problem solved by using Xsplit , farewell OBS , u dont care for shit i see here now.

 

[Draaxx]

Ingeresting, XSplit worked for you?

I’d hate to abandon OBS but I’ve posted this problem on a few different help forums and have not got a single reply on any.

It’s absoutly killing my stream.

Thank you for the heads up.

 

[RytoEX]

The forum volunteers here who help address user issues absolutely care about issues with OBS. However, we're all human, and we're all volunteers. We come and help out whenever we have time away from whatever else our lives demand of us. Sometimes with the sheer volume of support requests between here, Twitter, IRC, and elsewhere, we miss a few. Sorry about that.

If you're having audio issues, I'd recommend trying CoreAudio. Follow the instructions highlighted in that link. You also have conflicting Game Capture sources trying to hook into the same game. Remove one of them.

Does the problem also occur without Voicemeeter in the mix?

 

[Draaxx]

I didn’t realize there was a conflict. Do you have any details about that conflict? I will try to set everything up without voice meter tonight and give it a try.

Would resetting my settings possibly help? I used the auto settings feature.

Thanks you.

 

[RytoEX]

20:05:58.616: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] attempting to hook process: TslGame.exe
20:05:58.619: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] using helper (compatibility hook)
20:05:58.620: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] hook not loaded yet, retrying..
20:05:58.621: ------------------------------------------------
20:05:58.621: Loaded scenes:
20:05:58.621: - scene 'Scene':
20:05:58.621: - source: 'WoW' (game_capture)
20:05:58.621: - source: 'PUBG' (game_capture)
20:05:58.621: - source: 'PoE' (game_capture)
20:05:58.621: - source: 'Main Screen Turn on' (monitor_capture)
20:05:58.621: - source: 'Watermark' (image_source)
20:05:58.621: ------------------------------------------------
20:06:00.631: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] attempting to hook process: TslGame.exe
20:06:00.699: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] d3d11 shared texture capture successful
20:06:00.712: [game-capture: 'PUBG'] shared texture capture successful
20:06:55.081: [game-capture: 'WoW'] attempting to hook fullscreen process: TslGame.exe
20:06:55.083: [game-capture: 'WoW'] init_pipe: failed to start pipe
20:06:56.163: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 46 milliseconds
20:07:03.147: [game-capture: 'WoW'] attempting to hook fullscreen process: TslGame.exe
20:07:03.149: [game-capture: 'WoW'] init_pipe: failed to start pipe
20:07:05.163: [game-capture: 'WoW'] attempting to hook fullscreen process: TslGame.exe
20:07:05.165: [game-capture: 'WoW'] init_pipe: failed to start pipe

Your "WoW" game capture source and your "PUBG" game capture source are both trying to hook into PUBG (or any fullscreen application). If you have multiple game capture sources in a scene collection, only one of them should have "Capture any fullscreen application" enabled. Perhaps a better alternative: have a separate scene collection per game to help avoid such conflicts.

 

[The_Real_Loghead]

Has anyone figured this out? I am also having this problem. I am of the opinion that it is something to do with voicemeeter rather than OBS-specific because it has happened once when I wasn't using OBS, and has never happened when I'm not using Voicemeeter. I could be wrong, though. Closing Voicemeeter and re-opening it sometimes fixes it, but I'd like to figure out how to stop it from happening at all. Does anyone know a fix short of never using Voicemeeter?

 

[The_Real_Loghead]

Has anyone figured this out? I am also having this problem. I am of the opinion that it is something to do with voicemeeter rather than OBS-specific because it has happened once when I wasn't using OBS, and has never happened when I'm not using Voicemeeter. I could be wrong, though. Closing Voicemeeter and re-opening it sometimes fixes it, but I'd like to figure out how to stop it from happening at all. Does anyone know a fix short of never using Voicemeeter?

Update: Streamed today with some friends in Discord chat. My voice was fine the whole time for them and turned robotic on the stream. I eventually stopped using Voicemeeter and just used my mic as is, and the problem went away. This pretty much confirms that the issue is caused by some interaction between Voicemeeter and OBS.

 

[JohnCiber]

I'm having this problem too, seems like is a Voicemeeter Issue (because happens always on obs, audacity, audition, etc when using mic through voicemeeter, using directly the mic with all the software mentioned mic sounds great withouth problems). Can somebody try this? Set the A1 hardware device to KS:VB-Audio Point. Did this and I Think that solves the issue, but I doesn't have mucha time for the moment to do some proper test. btw, hardware input 1 and 2 are MME for me, the only KS is the A1 Hardware out.

 

[AnalogKid84]

I'm having this problem too, seems like is a Voicemeeter Issue (because happens always on obs, audacity, audition, etc when using mic through voicemeeter, using directly the mic with all the software mentioned mic sounds great withouth problems). Can somebody try this? Set the A1 hardware device to KS:VB-Audio Point. Did this and I Think that solves the issue, but I doesn't have mucha time for the moment to do some proper test. btw, hardware input 1 and 2 are MME for me, the only KS is the A1 Hardware out.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for posting this. It fixed my issue.

Note to any future users: Make sure your sample rates are aligned throughout your audio chain. I had a similar issue earlier in the day, and the problem was that I had changed my audio devices to 48 KHz without updating OBS, which was still 44.1 KHz. After correcting OBS, I streamed for 3 hours, at which point I started having the same problem. The fix above -- changing the output of VoiceMeeter -- solved it. Here's crossing my fingers that that's the end of the story.

 

[LBeech]

Changed to the setting above. Hope this fixes it, just getting frustrated. As a point, I don't think it's OBS's fault, I didn't even have it open and it distorted spotify while I was just listening to music.

 

[Narcogen]

Honestly, you have to check these settings periodically, because across reboots, and especially if you disconnect and reconnect devices, or after software updates, Windows can spontaneously change these settings.

 

[xSlader TTV]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for posting this. It fixed my issue.

Note to any future users: Make sure your sample rates are aligned throughout your audio chain. I had a similar issue earlier in the day, and the problem was that I had changed my audio devices to 48 KHz without updating OBS, which was still 44.1 KHz. After correcting OBS, I streamed for 3 hours, at which point I started having the same problem. The fix above -- changing the output of VoiceMeeter -- solved it. Here's crossing my fingers that that's the end of the story.

Did this eventually solve this for you? I cant seem to select VB audio point as an Input. It showing an error saying it is being used by another process. I am still having this distortion issue in Streamlabs OBS actually. My Elgato sound from my gaming PC is distorting, as well as Music which is taken directly from the streaming PC, My microphone seems to be fine though even though that is going through VBAN to my streaming PC. I have no idea what is going on as I have tried everything for a couple of days now. Ive invested so much into streamlabs and would like to use both Voicemeeter and Streamlabs OBS if possible. Any thoughts or final solutions after almost a year of this thread?

 

[xSlader TTV]

Changed to the setting above. Hope this fixes it, just getting frustrated. As a point, I don't think it's OBS's fault, I didn't even have it open and it distorted spotify while I was just listening to music.

Did this eventually solve this for you? I cant seem to select VB audio point as an Input. It showing an error saying it is being used by another process. I am still having this distortion issue in Streamlabs OBS actually. My Elgato sound from my gaming PC is distorting, as well as Music which is taken directly from the streaming PC, My microphone seems to be fine though even though that is going through VBAN to my streaming PC. I have no idea what is going on as I have tried everything for a couple of days now. Ive invested so much into streamlabs and would like to use both Voicemeeter and Streamlabs OBS if possible. Any thoughts or final solutions after almost a year of this thread?

 

[CravenInsomniac]

Did this eventually solve this for you? I cant seem to select VB audio point as an Input. It showing an error saying it is being used by another process. I am still having this distortion issue in Streamlabs OBS actually. My Elgato sound from my gaming PC is distorting, as well as Music which is taken directly from the streaming PC, My microphone seems to be fine though even though that is going through VBAN to my streaming PC. I have no idea what is going on as I have tried everything for a couple of days now. Ive invested so much into streamlabs and would like to use both Voicemeeter and Streamlabs OBS if possible. Any thoughts or final solutions after almost a year of this thread?

Hey xSlader, Voicemeteer is a VERY finicky program, ESPECIALLY when you throw VBAN into the mix. I'll leave this here in case anyone else has your problem.

So just to make sure I've got your setup correct - you have voicemeteer installed on your streaming and gaming PCs. You are also using an Elgato capture card to capture your gaming pc into your streaming pc.

That said, as you yourself have said - your mic is fine, it's game audio and music where you have issues. Are you also routing your Elgato and Music through Voicemeteer? In the event you aren't - I'd first set all devices and obs to the same sample rate (Usually 44100hz or 48000hz). You do this by going to your Windows/Mac audio settings. (For Windows go to your Sound Settings > Sound Control Panel > Device Properties > Advanced) As you're confirming your devices you should also go through and make sure their bit depths are all the same as well (Usually 16 Bit or 24 Bit, in the event a device only covers one bit depth, use that for all devices.). Using VB-Audio IO Control Panels (Virtual IO Control Panel, Virtual AUX IO Control Panel, and Virtual VAIO3 IO Control Panel) make sure your devices Sample Rate matches. If you are routing your music and Elgato through Voicemeteer, or if the issue persists continue.

Before taking the nuclear option of reinstalling voicemeteer, you should go through all your inputs and outputs and make sure they are all set to either WDM or MME (or KS if it's available for ALL of your devices). At this time also make sure your settings are at their defaults. Under System Settings make sure that all your devices are the same sample rate and that;
Buffering MME: 1024
Buffering WDM: 512
Buffering KS: 512
Buffering ASIO: 128
ASIO SR: 44100 Hz or 48000 HZ depending on which your devices are
Virtual ASIO Type: Float32LSB (You can always give Int32LSB a try)
Preferred Main SampleRate: 44100 Hz or 48000 HZ depending on which your devices are
WDM Input Exclusive Mode: No
Engine Mode: Normal

Edit: As a small aside, I also recommend removing all of Windows Enhancements when your in the device properties. This'll help you have more control over your audio.

If the issue persists I'd reinstall Voicemeteer and grab an update installer. (Voicemeteer installs go Uninstall > Reboot > Install > Reboot, the reboots are important to make sure the audio drivers are properly configured). At this point I'd go through and repeat/confirm everything above is setup properly. If the issue is caused by voicemeteer this should fix it.