Mic audio input crackling

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marchvet

New Member
I installed OBS a few days ago and got things setup with no issues. Decided to add a mic to the broadcast (audio input capture) and noticed severe crackling audio when playing or viewing playback recordings. I originally thought it may have been where the mic was plugged into (scarlett 4i4) I then unplugged it and still got the same crackling in audio. Ended up removing the mic audio input from the scene and the crackling went away.

This was odd so I made sure the global audio devices options were all disabled and added the input back and left it as default. I also unplugged the mic and still crackling. At this point I removed the mic input option, and everything plays fine (no mic input is set anywhere in OBS). But again, soon as I add the audio input back, the crackling starts.

On this scene I have: (OBS 30.2.2)

ASIO Input Capture (v3.2.1f) - https://github.com/Andersama/obs-asio so I can capture sound coming from Ableton Live. Settings: Device - focusrite USB ASIO, format - stereo, OBS channel 1 - loop 1, OBS channel 2 - loop 2.
Game Capture - Capturing the Ableton Live screen (mode - capture specific window)
Media Source - Just an animated overlay
Chatbox - browser source from streamlabs
Alerts - browser source from streamlabs

The option for "capture audio (beta)" is not selected nor is the "control audio via obs" selected in any of the sources.

My settings are all default when the program was installed. It appears to be when I add the "audio input capture" that is what's causing the issue.

What am I missing or overlooked?
 
M

marchvet

New Member
Just to add to this:

I went back and removed the ASIO input capture and recorded. Played back and no crackles.
Added just an audio input capture ONLY and the crackling came back.
Removed audio input and put the ASIO input back and no crackling.

Seems to be an issue when adding an audio input capture that's causing the crackling.
 
M

marchvet

New Member
Leaving this here for future reference. After spending way too much time trying to figure out what was wrong, I ended up uninstalling/installing OBS again and starting over. What's odd is that the same setup that I had before is how I set it up now and its working with no issues.
 
M

marchvet

New Member
And just like that the crackling is back. Its just when I add a mic source. The mic is brand new, brand new XLR cable etc. I have spent 3 days trying to figure this out.
 
M

MrGhost

Member
I don't have enough info to go on. Are you using the correct sample rate in OBS to match your rate on your interface?

The way to get an audio input is to use the audio input option. Don't use that ASIO plugin. If you have a mono input, use the OBS audio input, then in the advanced audio settings make sure and pan your source to the l or r depending on which of the 2 stereo inputs has your MIC attatched. You can then set it to play as MONO.

Don't worry about the 2nd of the stereo inputs, if you have another MONO source (like a guitar) you can run it into a 2nd audio input and pan it to the other direction and set it to mono.

You have to have good connections, a good buffer sample size (256 or 512 are ok, I usually use 512). You have to have a fairly decent computer with a lot of cores.

I don't know what strength your computer is, so it is hard to tell but that may be the problem causing the static. What happens when you change your sample buffer size from 512 to any other size? It may just get rid of your problem, temporarily. This happens on systems that are not very powerful. Also happens when you are running on battery (laptop or interface not plugged in).

When I first had a 4 core computer, and tried to use it on battery out someplace, I was experiencing a sudden static. I looked around and found advice to change the sample buffer size to anything different. Over the years it has worked on laptops where I experienced this. I don't have it at all on my desktop with 12 cores. Best computer I have had for audio.

Then your routing if you are using some kind of loopback, to get fx from Ableton, you may want to just use filters on your MIC chain in OBS and add vsts where needed to get your desired sound for your mic.

I found the best way to capture any audio that comes out of DAWs is to patch cable it from your first interface to your 2nd and take the direct in to OBS fom there. But then I have about 7 interfaces ranging from weak Presonus gear to vintage M Audios to powerful Presonus interfaces with optical ADAT capability.
 
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MrGhost

Member
You can also patch your single interface output pair to one of its input pairs with some 10cm patch cables, and capture those ins in OBS to get your DAW audio. 4/4 interface is pretty minimalistic in my opinion I only ever use something with 8 ins and 8 outs. You said you have a 4 out 4 in situation, so you have enough for a minimal use like this if you really wanted to you could run your DAW out in a patch back in to the 2nd stereo in. Then even if you only have an i3 2/4 core computer or something it might be worth a try because if you are using a poor computer like an i3 or i5 or something, then any loopback or virtual cables will just be one more thing taxing your CPU's performance.

These days, laptops with 6 or 8 cores are pretty common. Ryzens have been my type of choice since 2018 when I first owned one in a laptop. Or can't go wrong with a desktop. If you are using a laptop beware of constant charging while using, it will eventually blow your battery if your computer doesn't have good software to regulate charging and keep your battery at 70% all the time when it's plugged in.
 
M

marchvet

New Member
Update: While chatting with some users on the OBS discord, one of them mentioned to use the ASIO input capture for the mic. I had installed ASIO OBS so I could capture sound coming from Ableton Live. The first time I set the mic up with the ASIO, the sound was garbled, and it made my whole systems sound garbled until I restarted the PC. At that point I had spent about 3 days trying to troubleshoot the issue and walked away from it. A few hours later I decided to try it again with the ASIO and added the mic back. This time I heard no crackling or pops while recording or after. Tested again today and its running fine. Hopefully it was just a random fluke and won't happen again. 3 days of troubleshooting was wearing me down!
 
M

MrGhost

Member
As I recall when I tried to use (an, possibly the same one) ASIO OBS plugin, it was just about the only way to take a mono input. I don't recommend it. Just pan your stereo pair (in an ordinary Audio Input source in OBS) to left or right in advanced audio properties, and check the box for mono. I run about 10 Audio Input stereo pairs in my OBS on my music computer. I run them all as stereo pair inputs. For the MIC and the one MONO instrument I bring in, I pan two separate stereo input sources each to one side (both are the same "stereo pair" to select as the audio input source, but I get them as 2 separate sources) ...pan each individual one to either R or L, and set to be mono in AAP.

I don't recommend using any ASIO thing. It was ASIO4ALL I was using all those years ago when I first experienced the static on battery out someplace. Don't use that stuff! A lot of the problems aren't SPECIFICALLY dealt with here in OBS because it doesn't allow us to select Kernel Streaming (KS) (I mean, if it is Kernel Streaming that it is taking as inputs, I don't know because it doesn't specify) which works better for me in my Virtual Cable I do use. Of course I am using a 12/24 core Ryzen computer so a Virtual Cable is ok and not going to bring me down performance wise in any significant way. I do use the VBan (Voicemeeter Banana) program for this. It lets me choose KS or any other type of input type I want. I found that the KS version worked without crackling while other types of input streaming do not.
 
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marchvet

New Member
MrGhost said:
As I recall when I tried to use (an, possibly the same one) ASIO OBS plugin, it was just about the only way to take a mono input. I don't recommend it. Just pan your stereo pair (in an ordinary Audio Input source in OBS) to left or right in advanced audio properties, and check the box for mono. I run about 10 Audio Input stereo pairs in my OBS on my music computer. I run them all as stereo pair inputs. For the MIC and the one MONO instrument I bring in, I pan two separate stereo input sources each to one side (both are the same "stereo pair" to select as the audio input source, but I get them as 2 separate sources) ...pan each individual one to either R or L, and set to be mono in AAP.

I don't recommend using any ASIO thing. It was ASIO4ALL I was using all those years ago when I first experienced the static on battery out someplace. Don't use that stuff! A lot of the problems aren't SPECIFICALLY dealt with here in OBS because it doesn't allow us to select Kernel Streaming (KS) (I mean, if it is Kernel Streaming that it is taking as inputs, I don't know because it doesn't specify) which works better for me in my Virtual Cable I do use. Of course I am using a 12/24 core Ryzen computer so a Virtual Cable is ok and not going to bring me down performance wise in any significant way. I do use the VBan (Voicemeeter Banana) program for this. It lets me choose KS or any other type of input type I want. I found that the KS version worked without crackling while other types of input streaming do not.
Click to expand...
The major problem was that if I added an audio input source and setup the mic, it would crackle and pop during playback of anything on my system while OBS was running. As soon as I turned of OBS, the audio was fine. The only reason I am using the ASIO OBS plugin is so the stream can hear audio from Ableton Live. I also tried the ReaStream from Reaper and got horrible crackling.

Is there another option to get audio from Ableton Live? As of right now the only option that seems to work is the ASIO OBS.

github.com

GitHub - Andersama/obs-asio: ASIO plugin for OBS-Studio

ASIO plugin for OBS-Studio. Contribute to Andersama/obs-asio development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 
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MrGhost

Member
Yeah, I think that's the only OBS-ASIO plugin. It was about 5 years ago that I tried it, like I said it was the option to get a mono input to OBS rather than a stereo input.

Unfortunately I recall quite well that there was a BSOD on my computer when I used it. I blamed it on the interface not naturally being used to being separated into Mono inputs.

Once had crackling very bad in my Roland synth input taken via the VBan Voicemeeter Banana virtual cables. It is a USB input there from that synth (like an interface). When I chose the KS mode in the VBan list the crackling went away and never returned. That was over a year ago.
 
3

3attr1x

New Member
I fixed that issue, by using the Nvidia card to process video, or any GPU processing, rather than computer CPU trying to do both.
 
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