Question / Help [Solved] Crackly sound unique to OBS (audio compressed?)

[Munbalance]

[EDIT: SOLVED!!] Seems to have been fixed by installing AAC encoding, if anyone is having the same issue, I recommend trying that.

Here is my latest log from OBS
https://gist.github.com/0c0161f969cb13365d4a841aedcec461

Hey there guys, I hate to ask for help but I've literally gone though every setting I understand and have tried to fix this issue I'm having with my OBS.

Any sound at all going through the program gets an awful occasional shock sound. This effects both mic-in and sounds from my system and no other program is effected at all. Almost as if the audio is being compressed, but I didn't change any settings for that until I had this issue which of course drew me to testing every single audio related setting in the whole program.

I've seen a lot of other issues posted with OBS sound issues and from what I've seen, either they were super outdated or were related to issues which don't apply to me (some had audio expenditures outside of OBS, my live mic goes right into OBS. Others had issues with Webcams, which I don't use at all. I don't even own one.)

Not using any audio filters on OBS or Audacity. Sample Rate is set to 48khz (I've tried 44.1 and it didn't fix)

This issue happened literally overnight without any setting changes so I'm truly baffled. I've also tried re-installing but no avail. Perhaps someone might be able to pin-point my issue from hearing it? I've made a small video displaying the issue in action. Hopefully it helps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc5s6jOcp-I

I really hate to ask and wouldn't unless I was in a corner, but please if anyone knows anything I could try, please let me know.

 

[EBrito]

Personally, what I perceive from your recording is OBS sounds louder than Audacity. No noises at all.
So, maybe you should adjust OBS mic level and reduce it at least 3 dB and test it.

 

[Munbalance]

My volume settings for audacity must have been a little bit lower. But I can assure you that I can increase my mic volume by 200% and still not experience any crackle noises from audacity. (I actually record at 10% of my mics volume normally) I get crackle noises in OBS even when reducing my mic volume by 50%

 

[EBrito]

Output audio bitrate: more than 160 Kbps not recommended unless you use AAC audio encoding. (Not default OBS encodignmm. You have to install AAC)
Maybe this helps.

 

[Munbalance]

Audio bitrate is set to 160kbps I didn't go any higher because OBS warned me about streaming with it.