Random parasite sound

[Akhar]

Hello everyone!

I've just encountered the following problem today; it's the second time I've encountered it, which isn't much compared to the number of registrations I do on OBS, but it's a big problem.

I recorded a 2-hour game session.

The sound from the application (game) was sent to one channel, the sound from my Shure / Scarlett sent to another channel.

On the final file, at one point, for 3-4 minutes, the sound (ONLY from my game window) was parasitized by filthy "pops", making the sound track really unpleasant to hear. The rest of the sound track suffers no problems, and my microphone's sound track has no problems either.

Can you think of a reason/explanation for this kind of noise appearing all of a sudden?

Thank you in advance for your clarification and help!

 

[AaronD]

Are you using the Application Audio Capture or Game Audio Capture? Those are known to do this.

Use an actual loopback instead. There are several ways to do that:

1. Add an audio device that doesn't physically go anywhere, send the game there in its own settings, then use the Desktop Capture on that device. If you need to hear it yourself, you can either Monitor it in OBS, which adds some latency, or you can wire it to a physical mixer along with your main audio, and send that mix to your headphones.
2. Install a loopback driver.
   

   VB-Audio Virtual Apps

   VB-Audio Virtual Cable and App's

   vb-audio.com
   This adds a virtual speaker and a virtual mic, with no hardware at all. Like #1, send the game to the virtual speaker in its own settings, and have OBS capture the virtual mic. Also like #1, you'll need to Monitor in OBS to hear it. So the extra hardware device might be better if the latency through OBS is a problem.
3. Install a virtual audio console.
   

   VB-Audio VoiceMeeter Banana

   VoiceMeeter Banana, the Advanced Virtual Audio Mixer by V.Burel

   vb-audio.com
   or
   

   VB-Audio VoiceMeeter Potato

   VoiceMeeter Potato, the Ultimate Virtual Audio Mixer for Windows

   vb-audio.com
   This takes the loopback idea from #2, and puts a software mixer in the middle. Now you can have the same setup as #1, without any additional hardware.

 

[Akhar]

Hello Aaron D !

Sorry it took me so long to reply!

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to give me all this information!

Indeed, when I want to capture the sound of a game, I use "Application audio capture"!

I was very happy to be able to use this option JUST to avoid having to create secondary sound channels with Voice Meeter, which is a bit "heavy" to set up simply to separate sound channels from each other.

 

[AaronD]

Since OBS's audio is bad enough for other reasons that I do all of my audio work outside of OBS anyway, it's not really a problem for me.

When I still had a Windows rig, VoiceMeeter Potato (the big one) was running anyway, and on my Linux rigs, I have a full-blown DAW running anyway. Except for the one rig that taps off of a physical console: what I would have done in the DAW on that rig is done in the console instead, because it's already there and it can.