So frustrated with mic settings!

[acarsme123]

Can you please help a newbie to OBS out? I’ve watched all kinds of videos and I’ve played around with all kinds of settings but I’m still about to pull my hair out trying to find good mic recording settings for OBS.

I bought a Blue Yeti mic for my son for his birthday, and I have my headphones plugged into the mic so I can direct monitor.

but I’m super confused on settings.

1. I have my Audio Input capture Source set to my Blue Yeti. But in the OBS settings I have the mic/auxiliary selection set to my Blue Yeti as well. Are you even supposed to have both Audio Input and Mic/Auxiliary set your microphone? I notice when I’m speaking into the mic, the audio meters for both Audio Input and Mic/Auxiliary are moving.
But when I go to advanced audio properties, it looks like volume and monitoring levels can be set independently for each one, so that’s why I’m confused if I should only be using one or the other to capture the audio from the Yeti?

2. If I’m not playing any media, I can generally monitor myself with the headphones plugged into the Yeti, even with the gain all the way down on the yeti knob. However, if I go to record a video of me talking over a piece of media, say something playing on YouTube, I can’t really hear myself. The only way I can seem to hear myself is either 1) engaging the Monitor Only option. However this gives my voice an echo effect as if I’m talking down in a pipe/tunnel. So that’s super annoying. 2) I can leave monitor off and increase the gain knob on the yeti and then I can hear my voice come through as I’m playing media...but then I feel like the gain is TOO high and it’s picking up the fan noises from my gaming computer. So I’m not sure what proper protocol is here.
3. I engaged some of the audio filters per a lot of videos I’ve watched. I currently have noise suppression, noise gate, and compressor. I’m honestly not sure what settings are best for these but I’ve used what I’ve seen on the videos. Now, what’s confusing is going back to the whole mic/auxillary vs Audio Input Capture thing. Looks like they are treated independently and you can have different filters for each one, so I guess it would help to know which one I’m ultimately supposed to be using.

4. When I do test videos of me talking in the mic, I often hear a whirl/swirly type sound in the background whenever I’m talking. My son complains about this too. It’s hard to describe what we are hearing. I’m not sure if it’s just the mic picking up the computer fans or what. Originally we had the mic close to the computer cause that’s as far as the supplied cord would let it go on the desk. I just bought a longer 6 ft cord so I could put the mic on the opposite end of the desk away from the computer, but it is a loud gaming computer and it still seems to be able to pick up the fan noise. Not sure if anything else can be done about this and if the computer fans are related to that swirly sound we hear on test video playback.

5. I’m confused about Windows 10 settings as well. If I go to sound settings in windows and then Sound Control Panel, under the Playback tab it shows my Yeti as “speakers”. If I double click that and go to “levels” I see a speakers slider setting and a microphone slider setting. The speakers slider doesn’t seem to do anything but the microphone slider seems to control the output of the Yeti as far as using the Yeti with the headphones plugged in. Not sure if I should leave this slider down lower and control the volume output more with the volume knob on the Yeti or vice versa.
Under the “Recording” tab, then selecting my Yeti and going to the Levels tab, I currently have the slider set to 90. I thought in one video I saw it said you should have this somewhere between 80-90?

I know this is a lot of questions, but I’m just trying to get the best sound possible for my son when he makes his videos. He doesn’t seem to be 100% ecstatic with his Yeti I bought him for his birthday cause I can’t figure out the best settings and I’m trying to make it right. Thanks.

 

[acarsme123]

So I did an experience and deleted the Audio Input completely from the sources and just left the mic/aux engaged and did some test voice recordings. It seemed to work fine and the voice recordings were pretty clear. I have the input set to -5 for the mic/aux and I had the gain knob on the Yeti all the way down. Without media playing I could hear myself fine. When I started playing a movie trailer on YouTube I couldn’t really hear my voice over the trailer audio. Now I could select in the Advanced Audio Properters the Monitor Only option. This allows my voice to come through over the media audio, but it produces that echo/pipe effect sound. However, this pipe echo was not present on test video playback in VLC. Now if I engaged the Monitor and Output option, the echo effect on my voice would be present.
I still was able to turn the Monitor Off completely and just boost the gain with the knob on the yeti which allowed me to hear my voice better over the media audio, but by increasing the gain the mic picks up the fan noise from the computer more too.
I feel like my voice is clearest with the gain on the Yeti all the way down, but I just wish I could find a way to hear my own voice better in conjunction with the media audio if we were recording say a reaction type video.

 

[koala]

For understanding things:

1. you make an audio device known to OBS either with Settings->Audio or with a Audio Input Capture source. Not both. If you make it known with Settings->Audio, it is globally present in all scenes. If you make it known with an Audio Input Capture source, it is known only to the scene you added it explicitly.
If you configure the same device to both, you have 2 sources with the same audio, and they overlay each other and distort themselves. So don't do this.

5. This mic seem to appear to Windows like a complete USB headset. The mic part of that headset is the big mic you're putting on the table, and the speakers part of that headset is available as the audio jack where you can plug in real headphones.
Windows has the ability of associating the mic of a headset with the headphones part of that headset. You can configure Windows to directly output what the mic receives into the headphones part of that headset for monitoring purposes. If you have additional monitoring activated from an app to the same headphones, you're monitoring the same audio twice, which makes the sound hollow or echo-like. To avoid this, deactivate the Windows-integrated monitoring. Start the Windows sound control panel->properties of the Yeti playback device->Levels. You will see two sliders, one for speakers and one for mic. The speakers slider is the output volume to the jack, and the mic slider is the monitoring volume. It's not the recording volume, it's the monitoring volume. Mute it. The recording volume for the mic is controlled for the mic device in Windows sound control panel->properties of the Yeti recording device->Levels->microphone.
This all is still pure Windows functionality, no OBS involved.

Your issues may stem from using the jack in that mic for monitoring and keeping the Windows feedback volume activated, so you're hearing your voice twice/echoed.

You mention swirling noises while you speak. This may come from bad USB connection. Make sure you're connecting the mic directly to the PC/Laptop, don't use any USB hub, especially not with a USB webcam also connected to it. Don't use a too long cable. And make sure the sampling frequency of all devices and apps in your workflow is the same. You should use either 44100 for everything or 48000 kHz for everything, but no one device to 44100 and others to 48000 or vice versa. In OBS, set it in Settings->Audio, and for all your audio devices, you set it in the Advanced property page of all the playback and recording devices in Windows sound control panel. Choose either 44100 or 48000 for global use, then visit every setting page and set the sampling value accordingly.

 

[acarsme123]

Ok I think I’m starting to understand a little bit. So essentially you can you can either let Windows control the monitoring or let OBS control the monitoring? I muted the “mic” level monitoring in windows and selected the Monitor Only option in OBS and I still get a kind of echo effect. I turned monitoring back off in OBS and re-engaged the mic monitoring in the Windows Sound Settings and that seems a lot cleaner to me. I can monitor without any additional echo.

the swirly style sounds I hear I can detect anytime I start speaking into the mic. I have a feeling it has something to do with the filter settings like the compressor, noise suppression filters etc. I’m still playing around with those. I’ve watched several videos and have tried copying settings from different people but they still don’t always sound good compared to what it sounds like when the person is presenting the tutorial. I notice a lot of guys on YouTube speak much closer to their mics than I do though. I have mine set back on my desk about about 1.5 feet away. So maybe my settings need to be tweaked cause of that? Not sure what setting is causing the swirly sound when the noise threshold is hit though. My guess is the compressor maybe?

now if I can only figure out too why when I shut down the computer, the Yeti is not turning back on without me having to unplug and re-plug it back in to the front USB port?

For understanding things:

1. you make an audio device known to OBS either with Settings->Audio or with a Audio Input Capture source. Not both. If you make it known with Settings->Audio, it is globally present in all scenes. If you make it known with an Audio Input Capture source, it is known only to the scene you added it explicitly.
If you configure the same device to both, you have 2 sources with the same audio, and they overlay each other and distort themselves. So don't do this.

5. This mic seem to appear to Windows like a complete USB headset. The mic part of that headset is the big mic you're putting on the table, and the speakers part of that headset is available as the audio jack where you can plug in real headphones.
Windows has the ability of associating the mic of a headset with the headphones part of that headset. You can configure Windows to directly output what the mic receives into the headphones part of that headset for monitoring purposes. If you have additional monitoring activated from an app to the same headphones, you're monitoring the same audio twice, which makes the sound hollow or echo-like. To avoid this, deactivate the Windows-integrated monitoring. Start the Windows sound control panel->properties of the Yeti playback device->Levels. You will see two sliders, one for speakers and one for mic. The speakers slider is the output volume to the jack, and the mic slider is the monitoring volume. It's not the recording volume, it's the monitoring volume. Mute it. The recording volume for the mic is controlled for the mic device in Windows sound control panel->properties of the Yeti recording device->Levels->microphone.
This all is still pure Windows functionality, no OBS involved.

Your issues may stem from using the jack in that mic for monitoring and keeping the Windows feedback volume activated, so you're hearing your voice twice/echoed.

You mention swirling noises while you speak. This may come from bad USB connection. Make sure you're connecting the mic directly to the PC/Laptop, don't use any USB hub, especially not with a USB webcam also connected to it. Don't use a too long cable. And make sure the sampling frequency of all devices and apps in your workflow is the same. You should use either 44100 for everything or 48000 kHz for everything, but no one device to 44100 and others to 48000 or vice versa. In OBS, set it in Settings->Audio, and for all your audio devices, you set it in the Advanced property page of all the playback and recording devices in Windows sound control panel. Choose either 44100 or 48000 for global use, then visit every setting page and set the sampling value accordingly.

 

[acarsme123]

Well, I figured the mic not turning on issue on windows startup. I bought a longer Monoprice 6ft cable since I wanted my Yeti to be on the opposite side of my desk from the computer. The stock 3ft cable was just a tad tight. I swapped it back to the Yeti supplied cable and it worked again on windows startup without having to unplug and re-plug the cable back in.

now if I can only figure out too why when I shut down the computer, the Yeti is not turning back on without me having to unplug and re-plug it back in to the front USB port?

 

[acarsme123]

...well poop. Even the stock Yeti cable when I started my computer this last time the mic didn’t engage in its own when Windows launched. The power light on the mic is on the entire time, but I have to unplug and re-plug in the cable into the front USB port to get the mic to engage

 

[Deleted member 121471]

USB mics need high gain on the knob, not low, otherwise you'll hear a "hiss" or white noise.

Currently settled on a Blue Yeti as well and I have the mic knob pointing straight to the right (looking directly at it) and Windows volume set to 40 (+0 dB gain). If you want to control mic gain, use Windows volume control instead. Anything ≤ 70 is fine, in my experience with a few of these mics.

While there's still a slight hiss, it allows me to be far less aggressive with the noise reduction. Blue Yeti can also be fussy sometimes when connected to USB 3 ports. Also, connect it directly to the motherboard, front ports are generally not shielded and/or add additional noise.

My current audio filters are Noise Supression-->Expander--->Compressor--->Limiter then a gain filter if my volume is too low.

 

[acarsme123]

So you’re suggesting I need the gain knob on the Yeti all the way up as opposed to down?? Then I need to reduce the mic level in the windows sound control lower since I’ll be controlling gain with the Yeti knob?

USB mics need high gain on the knob, not low, otherwise you'll hear a "hiss" or white noise.

Currently settled on a Blue Yeti as well and I have the mic knob pointing straight to the right (looking directly at it) and Windows volume set to 40 (+0 dB gain). If you want to control mic gain, use Windows volume control instead. Anything ≤ 70 is fine, in my experience with a few of these mics.

While there's still a slight hiss, it allows me to be far less aggressive with the noise reduction. Blue Yeti can also be fussy sometimes when connected to USB 3 ports. Also, connect it directly to the motherboard, front ports are generally not shielded and/or add additional noise.

My current audio filters are Noise Supression-->Expander--->Compressor--->Limiter then a gain filter if my volume is too low.

 

[Deleted member 121471]

So you’re suggesting I need the gain knob on the Yeti all the way up as opposed to down?? Then I need to reduce the mic level in the windows sound control lower since I’ll be controlling gain with the Yeti knob?

I've tested almost 20 of these mics, helping friends of mine due to how popular of a choice it is and, with one exception thus far, this is exactly what has worked. I was the lucky winner of the one exception, which has hiss no matter where the volume knob lands, though greatly reduced using the same method I have used with every single one.

All the way up will likely clip though, which is why I recommend pointing straight right, no more than that, unless you're willing to fiddle with your own mic and see how far you can go. Also, for reference, Windows 10 has a sporadic bug that will add additional clipping and other audio issues if volume is set to 100, anything below that, even 99, will stop that bug from triggering.

After you set Knob gain and Windows 10 volume to your preferred levels, then you can use Noise Supression to eliminate any remaining noise, if any, starting the slider all the way to the right then sliding it left gradually until the noise is gone.

Additionally, using an expander over a noise gate is also something to consider. An expander is similar to a noise gate, only the latter is strictly on or off (downward expander with infinite ratio) while an expander allows you to "taper" the sound between fully on and fully off and not cut off all sound below the set threshold entirely.

 

[wuzi_locjr]

So you’re suggesting I need the gain knob on the Yeti all the way up as opposed to down?? Then I need to reduce the mic level in the windows sound control lower since I’ll be controlling gain with the Yeti knob?

bro i literally made an account so i can drop this link because this helped me out a lot! Follow the order in the tutorial of 1. Noise suppression 2. Noise Gate 3. Gain and i hope this will make a difference
https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...e-suppression-noise-gate-and-gain-filter.423/

 

[Dusto]

Says I can't view the link.

 

[Dusto]

Weird, searched it on google and was able to get it!

 

[Videobuff]

IMO, Id also suggest turning off all audio input sources which are set under settings>audio and prevent any audio source from being set globally. You can then add any specific audio sources you need in each scene which gives you more control. As I said, just a suggestion and something I find helps me with controlling audio sources more easily.