Random OBS Audio Track Glitch (Not Mic, Only Game/Discord) – Windows 11

Namc

New Member
Hello,

Ever since I upgraded my PC and switched to Windows 11, I've been experiencing a random audio bug during my livestreams that affects certain audio tracks.

I can stream for three hours with no issue, then suddenly, for about 30 to 45 seconds, the audio starts glitching. It’s totally random — it might happen three times in an hour, or not at all over four hours. At first, I thought it was a Spotify issue, but it happens even when Spotify isn’t running.

One specific detail about this problem: I record my streams with separate audio tracks for easier editing (the tracks are: my mic, game audio, Discord, music, and alerts — 5 separate tracks). The strange thing is, the issue never affects my microphone track. It only affects the game audio or Discord audio.

As far as I can tell, the bug only impacts one track at a time, and I haven’t been able to find the cause.

I’ve tried setting the audio sample rate in OBS to 48kHz (because my Steelseries headset doesn’t support 44.1kHz), but that hasn’t helped.

Here’s a concrete example — in this clip, you can hear Discord audio randomly start crackling for no apparent reason:

https://clips.twitch.tv/EmpathicAbstruseFerretOSsloth-qj27y9qvFdBqciLK

The problem is that I don’t hear anything wrong during the stream since I have no audio monitoring, but for viewers, it’s really unpleasant.

That’s the situation — sorry, I tried to keep it as concise as possible. Any help would be appreciated!

And sorry if my english is bad, i'm french and I try my best !!!

Namc.
 

Suslik V

Active Member
 

Suslik V

Active Member
Code:
22:15:19.322: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 22631 (release: 23H2; revision: 5262; 64-bit)
...
22:15:23.104: WASAPI: Device '[VIRTUAL_AUDIO_DEVICE_PROCESS_LOOPBACK]' [48000 Hz] initialized (source: _Discord_Sound)
You likely run into the issue known as:
The monitoring would not help.
Possible solutions include:
  • OS update to Win11 24H2 or newer;
  • Do not use "process capture" (the Game Capture audio, Application Audio Capture (beta) and 3rd party plugins based on the same technology from Microsoft), instead use per device capture (Mic, Speakers, USB soundcard etc - depending how many devices you have and, of course, in case the game allows the audio device selection).
 

Namc

New Member
Thanks for your reply!


I updated my Windows, so that part should be good now.


As for the second point, the problem is that if I use audio capture by output device, I only have one audio output — my Arctis 7+ headset :

1750436525561.png


and I can’t separate the audio tracks anymore. I rely on having separate tracks so I can mute or adjust individual sources for my stream, and also for video editing, since I sometimes record content with OBS and need separate audio tracks.

Curently it's like this :
1750436589175.png


Is there a way to work around this and still get separated audio tracks without relying on Application Audio Capture? Or to split the general outpout audio (my headset) to get multiple outpout device in OBS ?
 

Suslik V

Active Member
If your OS has been updated to 24H2, then you don't need to change anything in your setup. At least, users report that after the updating the OS the probability of "crackling" has significantly decreased or disappeared.

Of course, if for some reason you need to keep the older OS, then you can experiment with the virtual audio interfaces/devices like mentioned in this guide:
or in this post:
 

Namc

New Member
Ok , I will stream next week and I hope the problem disapears ! If it's note the case, I will reply on this post.

Thank's for your help !!! ♥
 
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