Soundboard Audio

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kaylamerritt98

New Member
I'm doing my church's livestreams through OBS, I want to be able to take the audio that's coming through the soundboard and put it directly into my computer and through OBS. I have already gotten the 3.5mm to XLR cable and have it plug into the soundboard and into the computer. I just don't know how to do it through OBS, I really need someone's help with this. I'm new to this kind of OBS stuff, I've used it here and there to record games and stuff but nothing like this exactly. I hope this made sense.

Thank you in advance.
 
Try the following:
  • open Windows' Control Panel (search 'control panel' in Windows 10)
  • Click 'Hardware and Sound'
  • Click 'Manage audio devices' under Sound
  • Click the 'Recording' tab
  • Send some input to your mixer and look for the device from the list that is receiving signal from your XLR cable and make note of the name (you'll see activity on the VU meter)
  • go into OBS Studio and in your Scene add a new 'Audio Input Capture' source by clicking the '+' at the bottom of the Sources window
  • from the Device drop-down list, select the audio input source that was identified 2 steps above
 
I’ve tried to do this a couple times now, I’ve been playing music through the sound system and I’m not getting any activity on the meters.
 
Yes, I am. I had a sound Professional come look at the soundboard a couple weeks ago and he told me to use the port that I’m using for the XLR
 
If you have signal going into an input channel and you have that channel routed to the main outs and your main faders are up and putting signal out as shown on the meter on your board, then I'm not quite sure why no signal is coming through to your PC :(

Many mixers have RCA outputs (sometimes called tape out/rec out) that work quite well for interfacing with a PC. Male RCAs from the board to Male 3.5 mm to PC. Does your mixer have RCA outs? RCA to 3.5 mm cables are fairly easy to come by.

Lastly, some mixers have USB ports that output a stereo signal via USB to your PC. This is what we use to great success.
 
I will have to look when I’m there next, I got quite frustrated with the whole situation so I decided to put it aside for a little while. I will look next time for the RCA ports, I’m not sure if it does, I would assume so, RCA is it a new thing so I hope it does have this. it’s way over my head so this is all overwhelming to me.
 
Hello,

I am also using OBS to livestream my church service and recently gone through the same process of getting audio feed directly form our board.

The issue you are having getting this to work may have to do with the 3.5mm port you are using on your computer. Most desktop computers have 2 separate 3.5mm ports; one for a headphone connection (usually a light green color) and another for a microphone input (usually a light pink color).

If you are using a desktop computer, be sure to connect the 3.5mm cable to the pink connector in order to input sound to your PC.

If you are using a laptop or your computer only has only one 3.5mm port, then you will need a splitter that's connects to that 3.5mm port and allows you to connect a headphone and mic separately (these adapters usually come with computer headsets that's have mics). With that, you need to connect the 3.5mm cord form the sound board to the mic input in the splitter (again usually color coded as light pink on the splitter). If you don't have one, you can find them online by searching 3.5mm headseat splitter.

In my case, being on a laptop, I needed to use that splitter and I was able to get it to work (although I am currently diagnosing a problem with horrible interference/static coming from the feed).

I hope this helps. I understand this may be common knowledge for some so forgive me if this is not relevant to you.
 
Twinpanic3 said:
Hello,

I am also using OBS to livestream my church service and recently gone through the same process of getting audio feed directly form our board.

The issue you are having getting this to work may have to do with the 3.5mm port you are using on your computer. Most desktop computers have 2 separate 3.5mm ports; one for a headphone connection (usually a light green color) and another for a microphone input (usually a light pink color).

If you are using a desktop computer, be sure to connect the 3.5mm cable to the pink connector in order to input sound to your PC.

If you are using a laptop or your computer only has only one 3.5mm port, then you will need a splitter that's connects to that 3.5mm port and allows you to connect a headphone and mic separately (these adapters usually come with computer headsets that's have mics). With that, you need to connect the 3.5mm cord form the sound board to the mic input in the splitter (again usually color coded as light pink on the splitter). If you don't have one, you can find them online by searching 3.5mm headseat splitter.

In my case, being on a laptop, I needed to use that splitter and I was able to get it to work (although I am currently diagnosing a problem with horrible interference/static coming from the feed).

I hope this helps. I understand this may be common knowledge for some so forgive me if this is not relevant to you.
Click to expand...
That’s what I was starting to think was the issue. I am using a laptop with audio in and out being the same! I wasn’t sure that my laptop was recognizing that this was input and not output. Thank you, I will try a splitter, fingers crossed this will be the solution.
 
I also have this problem of getting the soundboard connected to OBS. How do I get OBS to "see" the mic that is plugged in through the soundboard and then connected to the computer via the 3.5" jack.? THe jack at the computer is dual headphone/mic in. The USB mics in the cameras are easy since the software recognizes them as an input. Thanks
 
You might want to investigate a USB DAC. It has made the sound of our Live stream much cleaner and is easy to setup. We use one of the aux channels on our sound board so that mics are not on, unless they are being used. We are in the process of setting up a second board to handle sound levels for the live stream as we move people back into the building and sound requirements will be different for the two groups. We do not use any of the camera mics. All sound comes through the sound board. We had to do some fiddling to get the delay on the sound to match that of the video, but seems to work great.

Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Olathe, KS
 
Thank you for your quick reply @aldersgateUMC. Since I am testing a setup for the church before we start spending a lot of money I thought I would try the Beringer VM2 or the FocusRite 2i2 audio interface to see if something like that works. I was hoping to use the headphone jack on the soundboard and have that go into the computer MIC input and have that capture all the sound coming out of the sound board. Since I can't do that directly I will try the USB DAC rather than the MIC input.
 
With our setup, we have a Presonus AR12USB in a sound closet, and PC is up by the alter with a USB connected webcam (PTZ camera coming.. but no audience, so not a problem). We have a 75ft XLR snake/breakout box with a feed from AUX output on the soundboard, with a converter from XLR to 3.5mm TRRS into the PC. The challenge isn't OBS, but Window 10 sound settings and OEM vendor supplied sound software, if any. The vendor software had to be told this was a mic in, and to optimize for it. And then make sure Window Sound was configured to recognize that connection as a sound source. THEN OBS could use it
This setup works for us for now.
PC will go into closet, and USB connect to sound panel, then long KVM cable with control station setup in choir loft
 
I have come off the soundboard and on the AUX ALL outputs so all microphone inputs go into an inexpensive iRig. Works well for now while we assess how much we need to spend to get a higher end system and if we want to go that high end in streaming. Sometimes humble is good.
 
kaylamerritt98 said:
I'm doing my church's livestreams through OBS, I want to be able to take the audio that's coming through the soundboard and put it directly into my computer and through OBS. I have already gotten the 3.5mm to XLR cable and have it plug into the soundboard and into the computer. I just don't know how to do it through OBS, I really need someone's help with this. I'm new to this kind of OBS stuff, I've used it here and there to record games and stuff but nothing like this exactly. I hope this made sense.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
We plug the soundboard into a Blackmagic device and the device into the computer. This also allows us to take what we feed from a separate computer into the soundboard to get recorded. Yes we use 2 computers. It keeps anything from getting overloaded and reduces the likelihood of distortion from other things running. We haven't though been able to update OBS, because BlackMagic hasn't accommodated the update, but it hasn't been an issue as of yet. We are running obs 26.02 (or something like that version..the one from November)
We also have the PTZ camera that runs through the Blackmagic into OBS. We are able to bring projections in from one computer to the recording computer (we run Easyworship). It has been working well. Relatively speaking...we lost feed back in Dec when they did the update, but were able to roll that back and received the feed back. We do however have sound distortion that we haven't been able to identify (wavering, like you are plugging and unplugging your ears) since December, but that is not OBS...I believe it may be the RAPChorizon we have our sound plugged into from our sound board. This only affect outgo for recording (or live feed), not sanctuary sound.
 
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