Question / Help Odd, randomly-occurring echo

[Toolbox Motley]

For some reason, partway through recording any webcam video, my audio will begin to echo. It doesn't seem to have a set time frame in which it occurs, though the first two videos in which it happened both messed up at 10 minutes and 50 seconds into the recording. I'm not sure when it starts in the video for which I have the log, but it's present when I test it at around 11:40.

It seems to only take effect when I'm using my actual microphone, versus the webcam's built-in microphone. If it's important, the microphone is a 3- Samson C01U, and the webcam is a Logitech HD Webcam C525.

Additionally, no echo occurs when using the Samson microphone with Audacity instead.

http://pastebin.com/QE4VremE

The log references hl2.exe, the filename for many different Steam games, but I'm not sure why. None of my sources, Global or otherwise, are set to connect to hl2.exe, and I didn't have any hl2.exe files open in the first place. Other than that, I can't make heads or tails of what the log says. :( Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be the problem?

 

[NicOnAcid]

First of all: there are many conflicts with hooks. Since the target is unknown, I don't know if this is a major problem. The analyzer says following:

Game capture detected a hook conflict but was unable to determine which application was responsible. Try closing any other applications that may be injecting into your game, such as FRAPS, D3DGear, MSI Afterburner, AMD Raptr / Gaming Evolved, Action!, TeamSpeak/Mumble Overlays or any other kind of FPS monitor or overlay program

Your Bitrate Is Set to 1000. For 720p, i think you need at least 2000-2500. Higher your Bitrate or downscale more.

The Audio issue:
make sure, every Audio device is Set to 48000hz. you can check this in Windows Audio mixer. Check for all devices. The mic too.

 

[Toolbox Motley]

Bitrate is now set to 2500, webcam and microphone both set to 48000hz, single-channel, 16-bit. I'm not sure if there are other audio devices to be changed. I don't have any of the programs listed in regards to the hook conflict. :( The main things I can think of that might be related to microphone weirdness are Skype and Steam.

Here's the log from my latest test: http://pastebin.com/U9V9wqfM

It seems as though the echo "builds" over time. The latest test video was an hour long, and as I skipped ahead in the timeline, the echo goes worse and worse. The delay between each echo seemed to be about the same, but the number of echoes grew.

It sounded like it echoed three or four times, towards the end... Could this
"11:53:47: Audio timestamp for device 'Microphone (3- Samson C01U )' was behind target timestamp by 70
12:08:22: Audio timestamp for device 'Microphone (3- Samson C01U )' was behind target timestamp by 90
12:27:57: Audio timestamp for device 'Microphone (3- Samson C01U )' was behind target timestamp by 100"
be related, perhaps?

Thank you for your help so far, I'm sorry for my ineptitude regarding this program. X) I'm not terribly knowledgeable in video or audio matters.

 

[NicOnAcid]

Could be. I hope @dping can explain the behind target thing.

Anyway: is your webcam mic, if there is one, muted in the source settings of the cam?

 

[Toolbox Motley]

I believe so. You mean in the Sources list? The webcam Source is set up with "Device" as "Logitech HD Webcam C525", and "Audio Input Device" as "Microphone (3- Samson 301U )". I'm not seeing any options for outright disabling the Webcam's microphone, but I'm assuming that not having it set as the audio input device means it's basically muted. Am I mistaken?

 

[Osiris]

The webcam should have the audio input device set to disabled.

 

[NicOnAcid]

You can check that by the properties of you webcam. In your sources window. Or global source's, if the cam is an global source.

 

[Toolbox Motley]

The webcam should have the audio input device set to disabled.

You can check that by the properties of you webcam. In your sources window. Or global source's, if the cam is an global source.

That fixed it!! I didn't know the microphone would still pick up audio with it disabled for the webcam Source. X) Thank you both very, very, very much! This problem has been driving me nuts. XD