OBS Game Audio becomes robotic several minutes into recording

[srr]

Hello, I'm running into a problem I wasn't able to fix by researching online what it is. My OBS was working just fine literally two days ago. Today, I updated to the newest version and downloaded a Filter Plugin for my mic (reaper eq vst plugin) and hit record to play with friends. About 20 minutes into the recording, after everything sounding completely fine, the mic, the discord audio, and game audio, it all suddenly distorts into this robotic, tinny sound. It was ONLY game audio/discord audio (MULTIPLE GAMES, NOT JUST ONE)--but NOT MY MIC. My Mic was completely unaffected by this.

After the session, I tried to completely replicate the scenario, which is why the video showing it happening looks silly haha. I was able to replicate the issue with it happening at around 18 minutes in.

Why is this happening? I have double checked all the audio settings, which are all at 48k hz, and even double checked in Windows. The only outlier is my mic at 24 bit 48k hz instead of everything else at 16 bit 48k hz, and my mic isn't even having the issue on the recording anyways! All the audio tracks are set to 320 bitrate. Is it the plugin? Is it the update? Is my CPU overloading? It definitely shouldn't be, since I used OBS less than 24 hours ago, only difference being the update and the TWO (2) audio filter plugins. Why is this happening?

Video of the sound changing in real time: https://imgur.com/a/n8PVCra

Attached 3 different logs, all from today, where the problem occurred.

 

[rockbottom]

Desktop Audio is lagging, may be caused by CPU overload. Your Scene Collection could use some attention as there's multiple Display, Game or Window Captures in 2 of the Scenes. There's also rendering lag, aka GPU overload.

23:03:06.314: Max audio buffering reached!
23:03:06.314: adding 917 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 960 milliseconds (source: Desktop Audio)
23:03:06.314:
23:03:06.334: Source Desktop Audio audio is lagging (over by 43802.45 ms) at max audio buffering. Restarting source audio.
23:03:15.786: Source Desktop Audio audio is lagging (over by 5283.57 ms) at max audio buffering. Restarting source audio.

18:17:53.601: audio_thread(Audio): min=0.007 ms, median=1.484 ms, max=442.902 ms, 99th percentile=39.277 ms

Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 25862 (4.5%)

Test without the filters/plugins

Encoding Performance Troubleshooting | OBS

OBS Knowledge Base. Learn best practices to solve encoding performance issues

obsproject.com

Audio lag occurs when using audio monitor for long time on sources without video. · Issue #12973 · obsproject/obs-studio

Operating System Info Windows 11 Other OS No response OBS Studio Version 32.0.2 OBS Studio Version (Other) No response OBS Studio Log URL https://obsproject.com/logs/CAccX95FPLiO3Y3m OBS Studio Cra...

github.com

 

[rockbottom]

Your system is a bit on the thin side & running low on RAM. Your system may be thrashing at certain times.

22:46:29.820: Physical Memory: 16066MB Total, 4197MB Free

 

[srr]

Your Scene Collection could use some attention as there's multiple Display, Game or Window Captures in 2 of the Scenes.

Inititally I wasn't sure what you meant by this, but I did some research and turns out I was completely splitting audio tracks wrong, and was putting a massive amount of extra stress on my hardware. If anyone else happens upon this thread in the future with the same issue, I was using the "Application Audio Capture (BETA)" as a source for each of my games I was recording, and an additional source for capturing the video of the game. Essentially, I was using two sources to record one game, and had all of my games done this way, all in the same scene, for about a total of 12 sources. Instead, I found out you can click on the game capture's properties settings and tick this little box, and it will do the exact same thing without putting the extra source stress on your computer. Along with deleting some other sources I didn't need immediately, this fixed the issue. (knocking on wood it wont come back.)

For anyone curious, my CPU now hovers at about 35-45%, my memory at 85-92%, and my GPU around 90-100% when replicating this scenario.

I'll keep monitoring the recordings until I play with my friends again, and will update this thread if anything changes. Otherwise, everything's working again! Thank you!!!

 

[rockbottom]

I would shed additional load. There's no VRAM in the system. RAM & GPU utilization are still on the high side, there's barely any headroom remaining.

When using OBS, your system will perform much better running your monitor @ 60HZ instead of 120.

Keep your Scene collection simple.

Turn on Game Mode

 

[rockbottom]

Your driver is getting a bit long in the tooth, looks like it was released in 2024. An update should get you a performance boost. If it's a Dell, might want to check their support page instead of using the OEM driver. New is 32 . 7084

Driver Version: 31.0.101.3962

Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Processor (24M Cache, up to 4.70 GHz) Downloads, Drivers and Software | Intel

Intel® Core™ i7-12700H Processor (24M Cache, up to 4.70 GHz) - Download supporting resources inclusive drivers, software, bios, and firmware updates.

www.intel.com