PLEASE HELP: NO MEDIA AUDIO IN MONITOR!!!

I cannot get OBS to send audio to my monitoring device. I have not changed anything that I can see, but it has just stopped working.

At one point, I tried switching to a new scene collection and it started working again. But now, I cannot get audio from any media source in my headphones no matter what I do.

I have made sure to set "Monitor and Ouput" for all of my media sources, but it has no effect.

If I *RECORD* the audio is recorded. If I *STREAM* the audio travels with the stream. .... but I have to be able to MONITOR what is going on to do the broadcast.

What can I do????????

(And why is OBS so flaky???)

Sorry... frustrating. Would love to be able to get this to a point where I can "set it and forget it"... but every day it's something new and disturbing.
 

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Well... after looking around for the cause of this problem, out of desperation, I toggled all of my monitoring to "Monitor Off" then restarted OBS and reset to "Monitor and Output" - and now I can hear media playing in my headphones.

This is definitely a bug.
 

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koala

Active Member
You must not record the monitoring device within OBS, otherwise it is possible to create feedback loops within OBS. As far as I know, OBS checks the devices of all known audio sources (Settings->Audio), and if the device declared as monitoring device is listed here, monitoring is simply disabled.
If a device called "default" is listed in one of the settings, the actual real device is substituted. So you need to check to what real device the current default device is pointing to.
 
You must not record the monitoring device within OBS, otherwise it is possible to create feedback loops within OBS. As far as I know, OBS checks the devices of all known audio sources (Settings->Audio), and if the device declared as monitoring device is listed here, monitoring is simply disabled.
If a device called "default" is listed in one of the settings, the actual real device is substituted. So you need to check to what real device the current default device is pointing to.

Thanks for your reply.

When you say "must not RECORD"... does that apply to the STREAM also? (I usually do not record while streaming - I have been recording prior to streaming to check that the output stream will be right... prior to streaming - assuming that it's all just "bits out" regardless of stream vs. record. does that make sense)?

SO.. If I am capturing audio IN with a Behringer interface (for example), I cannot use the same Behringer interface to monitor audio OUT ?
 

koala

Active Member
There is no difference in behavior between streaming and recording in this particular audio case. With capturing in and out - it's only out that must not be used both as audio monitoring device and audio source, since you cannot use an input device as monitoring device.
 
This has happened a few times since I posted this. The last time when setting up for a live broadcast, I was not getting any sound from my monitoring device for ANY input source. I tried toggling advanced monitoring on/off, rebooted OBS, rebooted Windows. Finally... after doing this AND switching scene collections and back..., the monitoring began working - just in time!

My monitoring device is the "OUT" on my Behringer interface.

My inputs are

1) one external mic on the interface "IN"

2) media video files (both audio and video in an MP4). I assume these are coming via "System Sound" which is a Realtek Audio drivers.

I have all audio sources DISABLED in Settings, except for the Behringer Audio IN. Audio on my external cameras is OFF (- inf DB)

When things started working, I had lowered the "Volume" on my laptops "system sound" to 0.

Could this possibly be the cause? (Doesn't seem right)

Experimenting at home I had the same problem. This time... nothing seemed to make a difference except rebooting Windows (multiple times).

Need to get a handle on this. What could the problem be? Where to look?
 

jonoabr

New Member
I am also having a similar issue.
I am streaming a set of media files (mp4) to Youtube.
I use a PreSonus Audiobox iTwo in where my headphones are plugged into, this is how I normally watch Youtube and listen to Computer Audio etc.
When I stream:
Audio is being sent to Stream fine.
Audio is being sent to the Recording fine.
But no monitoring Audio can be heard through my headphones, all my audio sources are on "Monitor and Output"
This started happening out of nowhere.
I have attached what my audio settings are currently. I hope someone knows how to fix this or help me.
 

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I am also having a similar issue.
I am streaming a set of media files (mp4) to Youtube.
I use a PreSonus Audiobox iTwo in where my headphones are plugged into, this is how I normally watch Youtube and listen to Computer Audio etc.
When I stream:
Audio is being sent to Stream fine.
Audio is being sent to the Recording fine.
But no monitoring Audio can be heard through my headphones, all my audio sources are on "Monitor and Output"
This started happening out of nowhere.
I have attached what my audio settings are currently. I hope someone knows how to fix this or help me.

Here is what I found, through trial and error:

If there is a change in the audio peripherals, OBS Audio settings need to be "reset" in order to get the monitoring working again.

In my case, this was happening because at home, I have my audio interface connected via a USB hub. When I broadcast our Church services, I connect directly to the USB 3.0 port on my laptop.

1) The first time I boot OBS with the new "hubless" hardware setup, I have to go into OBS Audio Settings and tell it to use the audio interface explicitly - because it sees the directly connected audio interface differently than it does when using the hub (even though it is the same audio interface I'm using at home, OBS sees it differently when the hub is not connected).

2) Then I toggle the selected monitoring device to "Default", hit "Apply"... then re-select the original monitoring device, which is the OUT channel on the audio interface... and hit "Apply" again.

3) Then I stop OBS, and restart.

4) Then, sometimes I need to visit my audio devices "Advanced Audio Settings" and assure they are "Monitor and Ouput"

I have found this Sunday morning "drill" to be very reliable. It's a definite bug in OBS, IMO... but not a big deal. Since figuring this out, everything behaves very reliably.

Perhaps your situation is similar?

- da
 

Audio6

New Member
Thank you thirdvalve for confirming this and sharing your routine. Sometimes I feel more like a pilot that has to go through an extensive checkist before takeoff than a mere user. I see these issues all the times with video capture settings, audio/monitoring settings, virtual camera settings etc.

Some of these work 10 times and then suddenly stop working for no apparent reason after windows updates or usb-configuration changes or use of other applications that also access audio/video devices. Oher settings never work in a fixed way and you always have to disable/enable manually (like the aspect ratio in the virtual camera) before you can use them.

I use OBS mainly in live situations. Without going throug a "pre flight" preparation routine the risk of failures is very high and if you realize an issue only 2 minutes before you go live it is very often too late to figure out what steps you have to follow to get it working again.
 

connectedblue

New Member
I'm experiencing this issue also on OBS 27.0.1 on Linux. The monitoring was perfectly working a week ago and today it has stopped (even though the recording is perfectly fine). I tried the work arounds noted above but still nothing
 

whhoffman

New Member
Chiming in that I have experienced the same issue outlined above, Unable to Monitor. I am using OBS 27.1.3 on Windows 10 for streaming my Sunday Morning service. I followed "thirdvalve's" instructions of going into Audio Mixer - Advanced Audio Properties, set all sources of Audio Monitoring to Mode Off, close OBS, restart OBS and set Audio Monitoring to "Monitor and Output". Doing so I am able to again monitor the streaming output.

Relative to posted above, similar circumstances lead to my inability to monitor, all which I could not specify contributed to this malfunction. 1. OBS Version upgrade to 27.0 2. Need to shift a source from USB to Wi-Fi 3. Change audio source configuration for decibel enhancement. 4. Additional scene configured for new presentations.

I was at a loss for three weeks until I conducted another google search for a solution. While I have no answers to contribute, I offer Thank You to thirdvalve for sharing a work-around for this misleading audio monitoring challenge.
 

Pred

New Member
Can confirm that thirdvalve's workaround worked for me.

- I had everything set correctly, no sound out of my monitor device.
- In Advanced Audio Properties I set Audio Monitoring to Monitor Off for each device.
- Closed OBS completely and reopened it.
- In Advanced Audio Properties I set Audio Monitoring back to Monitor and Output, and now I have sound properly.

This is definitely a bug. There's no reason why changing a setting, restarting the application, and changing the setting back should be the way to get the setting to take hold.

EDIT - I'm using OBS Studio 27.1.3 (64 bit), if that matters.
 
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C0dfish

New Member
All I did to solve that problem was:
Settings>Audio>Global Audio devices
and changed the desktop audio from default to the device I wanted (my headphones) and I could hear everything while still being about to record.
1650471014090.png
 

chlersrestrw

New Member
I cannot get OBS to send audio to my monitoring device. I have not changed anything that I can see, but it has just stopped working.

At one point, I tried switching to a new scene collection and it started working again. But now, I cannot get audio from any media source in my headphones no matter what I do.

I have made sure to set "Monitor and Ouput" for all of my media sources, but it has no effect.

If I *RECORD* the audio is recorded. If I *STREAM* the audio travels with the stream. .... but I have to be able to MONITOR what is going on to do the broadcast. I want to record lecture about altcoin news.

What can I do????????

(And why is OBS so flaky???)

Sorry... frustrating. Would love to be able to get this to a point where I can "set it and forget it"... but every day it's something new and disturbing.
you should use external mic to record audio. Monitor audio is not enough to get caught right. I use boya m1 for record my crypto lecture and i work amazing.
 
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