Mute all media sources in a scene

[mamefan]

Hi. I do a podcast where it's me and a remote guy talking. My audio is mic, and his comes in as desktop. They're two separate tracks. The scene is podcast, and all of the sources are many videos that we talk over, so we want them silent. When I add the sources to the scene, I have to remember to mute each one individually, and I sometimes forget. I never hear the audio playing while we record, so I end up finding out afterward that everything we said was drowned out by the video audio.

Is there a way to auto-mute all of these media sources without having to rely on me doing it individually? We're talking 50 or so videos every time we do a podcast. If auto-mute isn't an option, what else can I do? Make it so I can hear the videos while recording and then I'll know to mute them? I'm not sure how. Thank you in advance.

 

[Suslik V]

The feature named "Audio ducking" or just "Ducking".

Manual setup.
The Compressor Audio/Video effect filter of OBS can do ducking, there is Sidechain/Ducking Source selection for this. When the side-chain source selected, the values that fits into threshold to trigger compression (for the destination source) are taken from the side-chain audio source. So, threshold +2 dB to your mic noise level (mic taking role of the side-chain source) and destination source will be compressed "xTimes" as soon as mic reaches this level (for example, mic noise level = -52 dB, threshold = -50dB).

There are plugins that can do ducking too. Some can do "ducking" in unusual way, as macros (Advanced Scene Switcher).

OBS Studio Plugins

Plugins for use with OBS Studio

obsproject.com

But because of "When I add the sources to the scene, I have to remember to mute each one individually..." (I assume drag-n-drop, and each dropped source is new source) none of the solutions will work for you.

 

[mamefan]

The feature named "Audio ducking" or just "Ducking".

Manual setup.
The Compressor Audio/Video effect filter of OBS can do ducking, there is Sidechain/Ducking Source selection for this. When the side-chain source selected, the values that fits into threshold to trigger compression (for the destination source) are taken from the side-chain audio source. So, threshold +2 dB to your mic noise level (mic taking role of the side-chain source) and destination source will be compressed "xTimes" as soon as mic reaches this level (for example, mic noise level = -52 dB, threshold = -50dB).

There are plugins that can do ducking too. Some can do "ducking" in unusual way, as macros (Advanced Scene Switcher).

OBS Studio Plugins

Plugins for use with OBS Studio

obsproject.com

But because of "When I add the sources to the scene, I have to remember to mute each one individually..." (I assume drag-n-drop, and each dropped source is new source) none of the solutions will work for you.

Ducking would make the media audio play when I'm not talking? I want it to never play.

 

[Suslik V]

"Advanced Scene Switcher" plugin can emulate hotkey press event on condition change, thus, if you don't forget to assign hotkey to Media Source it can do pause/resume/mute or any other actions. It also supports direct controls over the media if you wish. But again, "When I add the sources to the scene, I have to remember to mute each one individually..." makes the task much harder. I don't remember if plugin has "On source added/removed" condition and ability to modify volume of recently added sources. Maybe you need to write your own scripts or plugins.

Finally, if PC will do all work for you, why does it need you?