So I've been using OBS for 4 years now, and it's only recently that I've encountered this specific issue. I used to have my capture card audio set to "Monitor Only (mute output)" and have it play on my desktop, usually turning both my capture card and desktop audio level down about 3/4 dB to be at a good volume a smidge lower than my mic.
But ever since I took apart my setup to bring it to a LAN gaming event and put it back together again, that's changed. Having 0.0 dB set for the capture card and desktop audio used to bring the audio up to the mid yellow range on desktop audio, now it only goes about 30% up the bar at maximum. I really don't want to manually turn up the volume in advanced audio properties higher than 0.0 dB, because then whenever I adjust it on the slider it just defaults the max on the slider to 0.0 dB so I'd have to open advanced audio properties whenever I wanted to make the slightest micro adjustment... So instead lately I've just been resorting to using "Monitor and Output" on the capture card, muting the desktop, and using an external capture for my alerts, but with the alerts now coming from a different source to stream than the desktop audio I hear it means I have no reference for whether it's too loud or too quiet, since I'm listening to the desktop audio. So while the alerts are often incredibly quiet and hard for me to hear, they're apparently blaringly loud on stream. Not playing desktop audio also means other features around my stream like my starting soon / BRB screen audio waveform that read desktop audio no longer works for capture card games.
I've also been experiencing issues in regards to games being played on the same PC doing the streaming. Once again the maximum volume seems to be incredibly quiet unless I turn it up past 0.0 dB in advanced audio properties (and both OBS and the game are maxed out in the volume mixer). So my temporary solution was just to turn my own mic volume down to be just a smidge louder than the quiet game, and just ask my viewers to turn up their volume in general. I really don't want to have any PC game streams just be several notches quieter than any capture card streams...
As well, it seems my desktop audio is just really really crappy quality now as well, as showcased here for example, where the game music just sounds absolutely disgusting
And it seems like the washed out audio isn't exclusive to PC titles either, capture card games before I switched away from using desktop audio experienced this same issue as well where the music and background sounds are this super low quality that are incredibly unpleasant to the ear
I've also noticed OBS had started treating my microphone a bit differently. I use a Blue Yeti mic, and for the longest time the device was set to "Blue Yeti Microphone" or something like that, but ever since this LAN event OBS instead recognizes it as "Microphone (Yeti Classic)" now and I have no idea why, and no idea if that has anything to do with it? My mic audio quality has seemed to remain perfectly fine throughout this all though.
All of this started ever since taking apart my setup and bringing it to this LAN event for the first time (July 22), and my audio's been all screwed like this ever since. It was working pretty much fine for the past couple years, until that LAN weekend. If anybody has any input into how I might potentially be able to dig myself out of this rut of audio hell I'd very much appreciate it!
But ever since I took apart my setup to bring it to a LAN gaming event and put it back together again, that's changed. Having 0.0 dB set for the capture card and desktop audio used to bring the audio up to the mid yellow range on desktop audio, now it only goes about 30% up the bar at maximum. I really don't want to manually turn up the volume in advanced audio properties higher than 0.0 dB, because then whenever I adjust it on the slider it just defaults the max on the slider to 0.0 dB so I'd have to open advanced audio properties whenever I wanted to make the slightest micro adjustment... So instead lately I've just been resorting to using "Monitor and Output" on the capture card, muting the desktop, and using an external capture for my alerts, but with the alerts now coming from a different source to stream than the desktop audio I hear it means I have no reference for whether it's too loud or too quiet, since I'm listening to the desktop audio. So while the alerts are often incredibly quiet and hard for me to hear, they're apparently blaringly loud on stream. Not playing desktop audio also means other features around my stream like my starting soon / BRB screen audio waveform that read desktop audio no longer works for capture card games.
I've also been experiencing issues in regards to games being played on the same PC doing the streaming. Once again the maximum volume seems to be incredibly quiet unless I turn it up past 0.0 dB in advanced audio properties (and both OBS and the game are maxed out in the volume mixer). So my temporary solution was just to turn my own mic volume down to be just a smidge louder than the quiet game, and just ask my viewers to turn up their volume in general. I really don't want to have any PC game streams just be several notches quieter than any capture card streams...
As well, it seems my desktop audio is just really really crappy quality now as well, as showcased here for example, where the game music just sounds absolutely disgusting
I've also noticed OBS had started treating my microphone a bit differently. I use a Blue Yeti mic, and for the longest time the device was set to "Blue Yeti Microphone" or something like that, but ever since this LAN event OBS instead recognizes it as "Microphone (Yeti Classic)" now and I have no idea why, and no idea if that has anything to do with it? My mic audio quality has seemed to remain perfectly fine throughout this all though.
All of this started ever since taking apart my setup and bringing it to this LAN event for the first time (July 22), and my audio's been all screwed like this ever since. It was working pretty much fine for the past couple years, until that LAN weekend. If anybody has any input into how I might potentially be able to dig myself out of this rut of audio hell I'd very much appreciate it!