Multiple audio sources into Windows 11

[ECto-Monkey]

Hello! Wondering if I have a windows 11 issue or I just cannot figure this out on my own..

Wondering if anyone has a guide to enable 3 microphones into OBS? One USB/Bluetooth and two 3.5mm jacks?

I can get the Bluetooth and one of the two 3.5 jack to work as an input, but when I have the third headset, they cannot hear any audio nor have a mic. I also a cheap audio interface that I purchased in desperation

I am new to this so any intro level help would be much appreciated.

 

[PaiSand]

Try installing the app for the motherboard sound. Most MOBOs use realtek, wich has the app in windows store. Dont' worry, it's free.
There you need to go to advanced options and select to separate connectors as individual entries. (sorry, don't know how is told in english)

As you can see int he image, you can do the same for the output. This way you can use/select the headphones as monitor, in case you're using monitoring for something like alerts.
This is the way I know how to do it. If someone knows how to do it without the realtek app, please, please, please let me know.

 

[ECto-Monkey]

Try installing the app for the motherboard sound. Most MOBOs use realtek, wich has the app in windows store. Dont' worry, it's free.
There you need to go to advanced options and select to separate connectors as individual entries. (sorry, don't know how is told in english)

View attachment 97196

As you can see int he image, you can do the same for the output. This way you can use/select the headphones as monitor, in case you're using monitoring for something like alerts.
This is the way I know how to do it. If someone knows how to do it without the realtek app, please, please, please let me know.

Thank you!! I will try this and report back

 

[ECto-Monkey]

Unfortunately it did not work. Not sure why I’m having such a hard time with this..

Is there a guide for newbs to set this type of stuff up?

 

[AaronD]

I can get the Bluetooth and one of the two 3.5 jack to work as an input, but when I have the third headset, they cannot hear any audio nor have a mic. I also a cheap audio interface that I purchased in desperation

• If you have one jack, that's probably a TRRS headset. Combined mono mic and stereo speakers, and the mic uses the same wire for both power to the mic and signal back from the mic.
• If you have two jacks, that's probably the same thing, but split into a dedicated TRS jack for each direction, and the mic splits its power and signal onto two different wires of its TRS plug.
• If you have three jacks, that's probably the same as the two-jack version, plus a TRS stereo line-in.

Only the three-jack version actually has multiple inputs, and it's not guaranteed to use more than one at a time. Even if it did, OBS would have a fit with it. That's one of my annoyances. Every source in OBS needs to have its own device.

 

[ECto-Monkey]

• If you have one jack, that's probably a TRRS headset. Combined mono mic and stereo speakers, and the mic uses the same wire for both power to the mic and signal back from the mic.
• If you have two jacks, that's probably the same thing, but split into a dedicated TRS jack for each direction, and the mic splits its power and signal onto two different wires of its TRS plug.
• If you have three jacks, that's probably the same as the two-jack version, plus a TRS stereo line-in.

Only the three-jack version actually has multiple inputs, and it's not guaranteed to use more than one at a time. Even if it did, OBS would have a fit with it. That's one of my annoyances. Every source in OBS needs to have its own device.

Do you know what hardware and software I would need to make this work for OBS?

 

[koala]

It seems you didn't understand what PaiSand suggested.
Do you have a mainboard with "Realtek High definition audio" or "Realtek audio"? Look in Windows device manager. This is the most used onboard audio, so you probably have this.

This audio hardware has 2x 3.5 jack sets. One on the backplane at the rear of the PC, one on the front panel. If you plug in a mic to the front panel jack, the mic jack on the backplane is disabled. If you unplug the one on the front, the one on the back is enabled again.
Both jacks appear as one audio device in Windows, so Windows (and OBS) always see only one device. This might happen for you, since this is roughly what you describe.

But, this audio chipset has the ability to uncouple these jacks, so both jack sets can operate independently from each other and appear as 2 different audio devices in Windows. This behavior can be toggled in the Realtek audio control. If you have an older Realtek driver, this control panel is called "Realtek Audio Manager", called from the old style system control panel, newer drivers have a Realtek Audio control", which is an app you simply start via Windows start menu.

It's a bit tricky to find which one you have, this Google search should give you directions how to find this app and how to find that function within it: https://www.google.com/search?q=realtek+audio+enable+rear+panel

 

[AaronD]

With all of that being said, you might not like the quality that comes from any of those sources. The Bluetooth mic is designed for phone calls, not broadcasting, and the internal audio sits in an electrically noisy box, so its performance is only designed to match that noise. You might get "a weird sound", for example, that changes based on what the computer is doing, with no other rhyme or reason for it. High-spec internal audio is entirely a waste of engineering effort, but it still sells to audiophools.

To do a really good job, you need an external device for each source, all of them wired. (no radio mics) What kind of device depends on what the signal is, and because of OBS's limitation of one entire device per source (it can't use a specific channel, but insists on downmixing the entire device), you're probably better off with a physical console or a DAW. Finish the soundtrack entirely in there, and then pass it to OBS as its only audio source at all, with no processing at all in OBS.

 

[SENazSD]

Do you know what hardware and software I would need to make this work for OBS?

We are using a "USB Capture HDMI Plus" brand is "MAGEWELL" it is an external box that our Camera goes into via HDMI cable. The box has two 3.5mm jacks, a Mic (audio in) and a headphone (audio out), the box plugs into the computer via USB, this allows us to use the 3.5mm jack on the computer as a second wired mic (audio in) along with the one on the box. OBS recognizes them as two separate sources. I have not played around with Bluetooth and OBS yet. Hope this might help.