More useful audio meters

[DryRoastedLemon]

The current audio meters have a scale, but no numbers. Also, they are incredibly tiny. This makes the audio meters less than useful. The most right edge obviously indicates 0dB, and with some testing I found out that each line going left from 0dB mark is a decrease of approximately 7dB. It'd be great if future releases of OBS would put numbers to the audio meter scale. Even better, it'd be great to have much bigger (and possibly detachable) audio meters.

 

[Cryonic]

You can use your own audio meter to see what is going on. Something like this: http://www.klanghelm.com/VUMT.html
There are many plugins out there, some of them are standalone - thats what you need to monitor your audio level.
I´m using a different one as a DJ while doing a radioshow/streaming and its working fine, but it depends on your software & hardware. Feel free to message me, i can test some stuff and find the right thing for you :-)

 

[DryRoastedLemon]

That's kind of missing the point, though. I'm well-aware that I can use any other application to do my audio monitoring, but what I'm talking about is that from a design standpoint the audio meters in OBS aren't very helpful. The simple addition of numbers to the scale would already make the meter more useful.

 

[Cryonic]

Most people dont really use it, they just set the volume high enough and its fine. And people who stream audio-related stuff like radioshows or DJ-sets, they have external audio monitoring while using hardware and/or software.
Yeah this will help a bit, i have the same problem to while DJing live on a radio - each DJ has his own level and its hard to keep it on the same level with different people connecting to the server.
They are working on a rewrite, a new client will be avaliable for testing in the near future - maybe they will add the function.

 

[DryRoastedLemon]

Just setting the audio levels "high enough" is not useful if you're doing live commentary. In that case it's fairly important because having your game volume levels set too high can mask your voice to the point where you can't be heard very well at all.

Indeed, they're working on a rewrite. That's also why I posted this here.

 

[Jack0r]

I think a better visual display of the current volume OBS is outputting is a very good idea. As mentioned this will probably not be added to the current OBS, but the rewrite will have a more complex audio system and if someone has the time to implement it, it will probably be no problem.
Also I am curious on how you would want to use the VU meter you linked with OBS? I know I could route input sounds through such a thing, but the output of OBS is just going out to the stream. So I would think an option included in OBS would be much more useful.

 

[DryRoastedLemon]

As mentioned this will probably not be added to the current OBS, but the rewrite will have a more complex audio system and if someone has the time to implement it, it will probably be no problem.

That'd be great :) I'm not expecting it to be implemented in the current release, but it would be great to see it in the rewrite. From what I understand a lot of OBS is hard-coded, whereas OBSRedux will be a lot more modular. It makes sense to implement it with the new version.

The way Cryonic would set that up is via a DAW. You would handle the inputs with a DAW of your choice, where you would load up the VU meters (if your DAW doesn't have them) so you can check and manage the levels that way. You would then output it to something like VAC or VB-Audio Cable so you can then capture it in OBS. I've done it before, but it's a bit of a hassle. Since livestreaming is something I do as a hobby, I'm not interested in having to do this setup every time I start streaming. Especially if the only thing I want is an audio meter with numbers, for which getting a whole DAW setup would be completely ridiculous.

BTW, Jack0r, OBSRedux is getting VST support, right? That'd be great. Can't wait to do soime proper audio processing :)

 

[Cryonic]

Yeah after so much nice stuff with video settings its time to improve the audio part. I`m lucky, i have enough software & hardware but not everyone can afford the expensive stuff (and it was really expensive, you can build a nice highend gaming/enthusiast rig for that money), it will be nice to have the VST-host function (there are enough free/cheap plugins) so people can do more with the audio.
Most people who try to stream with multiple sources and more than 2-3 people are messing around with audio settings. This will help a bit, specially for people who are not familiar with professional audio gear or just dont have the money to actually get some.

And working with audio on a multichannel mixer or in a DAW is great, but this need some power and screen space (for the software) or some heavy cable management and space for a mixer, most people just dont want to mess around with all the cables... Even for me its a mess, condenser mic>preamp>audio interface>multiple outputs, like 30m cables just for the mic :-)