Question / Help Problems with the mic

[LA LAGERTHA]

Hey all!

I need help fixing this, at least for me, rare issue.

I have a new monitor (BenQ ZOWIE XL2411P ) that I connected with my notebook (Lenovo Legion Y720) with this DisplayPort Cable. I played Fortnite and I didn't had any issue while playing it and chatting with my squad teammates, and also didn't had any issue using Discord. BUT!

When I did a Stream on the weekend I had issues all the time with my mic. From my side I got like 'freeze' moments with lag and a strange noise like a robot; and from the viewer side they heard the robotic sound too, saw the freeze and when that happened my mic sound changed o.O

So every like 10 minutes, I had this lag/freeze that changed my mic sound from normal to very gained like with noise and much background noise, and louder!

Do you think that has something to do with the monitor? I didn't made any change on my OBS settings :(

How can I fix this?

Please find attached 2 logs from that day. Thanks a lot!!

 

[Narcogen]

19:35:11.634: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 17134 (revision: 829; 64-bit)

Windows is out of date and your version has a broken feature that can degrade OBS performance. You should update to at least 1809.

19:35:12.842: Loading up D3D11 on adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (0)

You're running OBS on your integrated GPU, is that intentional? This would be required for a laptop if you wanted to do Display capture, but generally not if you were trying to game capture an app like Fortnite.

19:35:20.099: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 64 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.183: adding 64 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 128 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.546: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 170 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.652: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 213 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.715: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 256 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:46:18.213: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 277 milliseconds (source: STREAM ON)
21:38:38.776: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 320 milliseconds (source: Audio del escritorio)

This is generally indicative of high system load (CPU or USB bus/controller, not GPU) that is affecting an audio capture device.

 

[LA LAGERTHA]

19:35:11.634: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 17134 (revision: 829; 64-bit)

Windows is out of date and your version has a broken feature that can degrade OBS performance. You should update to at least 1809.

19:35:12.842: Loading up D3D11 on adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (0)

You're running OBS on your integrated GPU, is that intentional? This would be required for a laptop if you wanted to do Display capture, but generally not if you were trying to game capture an app like Fortnite.

19:35:20.099: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 64 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.183: adding 64 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 128 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.546: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 170 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.652: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 213 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:35:20.715: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 256 milliseconds (source: Next ON)
19:46:18.213: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 277 milliseconds (source: STREAM ON)
21:38:38.776: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 320 milliseconds (source: Audio del escritorio)

This is generally indicative of high system load (CPU or USB bus/controller, not GPU) that is affecting an audio capture device.

Hey Narcogen! Thanks for your reply!

I updated my Windows Version and tried to Stream also changing the Coder from "NVIDIA NVENC H.264" to "x264", but I still having issues :(

I'm still surprise of this issue because I have been streaming for a couple of months without this issues, it's weird.

I attached the log, thanks again!

 

[Narcogen]

The problem is not the encoder. The problem is that you have an Intel GPU and an Nvidia GPU, and you are running OBS on the weaker GPU. This is necessary if you're using Display capture, but otherwise not.

Your logs don't contain recording or streaming sessions, but I would bet that you have rendering lag rather than encoding lag. If you're not using Display capture, you need to use the Nvidia control panel to tell OBS to run on your 1060, not on the intel 630.

01:00:09.686: Initializing D3D11...
01:00:09.686: Available Video Adapters:
01:00:09.694: Adapter 0: Intel(R) HD Graphics 630
01:00:09.694: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728
01:00:09.694: Shared VRAM: 4221650944
01:00:09.694: output 0: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
01:00:09.694: Adapter 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
01:00:09.694: Dedicated VRAM: 2051014656
01:00:09.694: Shared VRAM: 4221650944
01:00:09.694: output 0: pos={1920, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
01:00:09.719: Loading up D3D11 on adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (0)
01:00:09.732: D3D11 loaded successfully, feature level used: 45056

This link has information on how to change the settings so OBS uses your Nvidia card:

Laptop? Black screen when capturing? Read here first.

 

[LA LAGERTHA]

Thanks again for your reply Naracogen!

I applied the changes to run on the 1060, and even tough the instances decreased I still have the problem :(

Maybe is something broken on the laptop? I don't know...

I attached the logs of my last stream.

 

[Narcogen]

Is there a reason you're recording at 48fps?

I don't see any obvious videop performance issues in the log. There is a lot of browser source activity, and some audio buffering that is generally indicative of system overload:

21:52:38.723: adding 139 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 441 milliseconds (source: STREAM ON)
21:52:39.240: obs-browser[3]: API: posting call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 103, args: [{"data":{"function":"com.streamelements.obslive.media-request-play-pause","state":"media-request-pause-on"},"name":"SYS$REPORT:STATE:FUNCTION"}]
21:52:39.240: obs-browser[3]: API: performing call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 103
21:52:39.241: obs-browser[3]: API: completed call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 103
21:52:39.398: adding 46 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 487 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:52:39.467: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 510 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:52:39.535: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 534 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:52:39.798: obs-browser[3]: API: posting call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 104, args: [{"data":{"function":"com.streamelements.obslive.media-request-play-pause","state":"media-request-pause-off"},"name":"SYS$REPORT:STATE:FUNCTION"}]
21:52:39.798: obs-browser[3]: API: performing call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 104
21:52:39.799: obs-browser[3]: API: completed call to 'broadcastEvent', callback id 104
21:52:39.839: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 557 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:52:39.956: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 580 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:52:40.002: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 603 milliseconds (source: (null))
21:56:32.746: adding 46 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 650 milliseconds (source: Mic/Aux)

 

[LA LAGERTHA]

Hey!

Nope, there's no particular reason, just to try to have a stream running ok and not slow. Should I decrease the number?

Yes! Searching about 'rendering lag' I saw that having a lot of source activity is not good so I deleted a lot that I wasn't used, also checked the option of "close the file when inactive", removed the preview of the stream and moved the obs to my monitor where I also run Fortnite leaving in the notebook only the chat, notifications and other panels that I use and that worked a lot!

I almost almost didn't had any issue. I only experienced lag like 4 times in 3 hours, and it was mostly in my side because the viewers said that they didn't heard my mic different this time.

So is a progress! But still, is not working 100% smoothly yet.

I don't know how can I decrease the audio buffering :/

 

[Narcogen]

I'd say you're generally better off with a standard framerate, meaning 30 or 60.

You can't decrease the audio buffering-- the buffering itself is a sign that either your CPU or your USB bus controller (or whatever controller is managing the audio device affected) is not keeping up, and so is buffering to prevent you from hearing artifacts. It's introducing latency in order to maintain good audio quality.

 

[Narcogen]

If anything I would suggest at least temporarily running without StreamElements. At the very least, its use makes logs harder to analyze.