My mixer is picking up audio but it doesn't play through OBS, might be due to the camera?

[Sabake]

I have a Zoom P8 mixer and have a SHURE Mic plugged into it with an XLR cable. These past months I've been streaming with a Canon Lumix and have had no audio problems. But when I try to switch the camera out to a Sony Alpha 6600 I'm not able to get any audio through OBS. The mixer shows that it's picking up audio through the microphone but OBS displays that nothing is being picked up. Is the camera just not compatible or is it setting in OBS or the camera that I need to turn on/off?

 

[AaronD]

You swapped the *camera* and you lost *audio*? A good rig has picture and sound completely independent from each other. Did you *actually* have the sound running *through* the camera, perhaps? Were you even using the mixer at all, regardless of whether you thought you were or not?

 

[Sabake]

The mixer was definitely in use, since I saw that it was picking up the noises coming through the microphone. Essentially the setup is Microphone > XLR Cable > Zoom P8 Mixer > Dual TRS Male to TRS Male > Canon Lumix. And for the past few months that's worked. Its only when I switch out the camera to the Sony Alpha 6600 that the audio doesn't come out through OBS.

 

[AaronD]

Microphone > XLR Cable > Zoom P8 Mixer > Dual TRS Male to TRS Male > Canon Lumix.

The camera at the end of that, is your problem, even before you swapped. Don't combine audio and video until the VERY last moment. That would be OBS itself, not before. So run your audio directly into the PC, without the camera at all.

Ideally, you'd use the USB connection on the mixer itself to do that - point OBS directly to the mixer as a "USB sound card" - but if you MUST use an analog out, then you want a USB line input. Here's one that I'd consider to be the cheapest acceptable:

Amazon.com

That's a for-real stereo line input. A lot of "audio inputs" are actually mono mics. That's different. There's also a similar-looking version of this one, that's actually a phonograph input with the RIAA correction EQ built-in. You don't want that either. This link here, is good.

Depending on what market your mixer is actually designed for, you might need to keep the volume somewhat low. There's about 11dB difference between pro line level and consumer line level, with the pro version being higher. The one in that link is consumer. Works just fine; but just know what you're using and use it accordingly.