Question / Help Mic gain too high

[David Carlstrom]

The mic gain is too high. There is always noise showing about 1/4 the way up the OBS meter and the audio streaming is too loud. Audio from files using the video plug in is okay. Only the mic is too loud. I'm using a Behringer 1204USB mixer connected to the laptop by USB. I can pull the fader down in the laptop's IDT Audio panel, but it has to be nearly at the bottom to get even close to normal meter readings and level in the stream. How can OBS be set for lower mic gain?

 

[Boildown]

Try doing it in Windows, not OBS. In Windows 7 I see it under Control Panel > Sound, on the Recording tab, you can click Properties for the device and adjust its levels. Its probably similar in other Windows versions.

 

[David Carlstrom]

I looked in Windows Control Panel Recording and the IDT Audio panel which is the sound card's pretty version of the same thing. The IDT audio panel looks more promising. There is a switch for mic gain, 0 / 20. But it makes no difference to the OBS audio. In OBS the selection appears to be the driver for the USB, not the sound card. See attachment for the selection. I would expect the USB selection connect to that driver not the sound card. This is confusing as the sound card's volume control does have the effect of lowering the signal from the USB input. An additional clue is the OBS mic meter always shows noise even when there is no signal selected and no audio going out. The meter appears to be accurate as there is noise in the stream. We need to find out how to cut that gain so the OBS mic does not have so much gain it shows noise.

 

[David Carlstrom]

Behringer had the fix in the form of a special driver for their mixers with USB output. With this driver Windows is told the USB signal is line level and Windows applies a suitable gain. There is still a large indicated noise on the OBS meter (about four of the little scale marks, but the stream is no longer horribly noisy. For anyone else with this issue, contact Behringer for the driver.