Surround Downmixing Support

velvitonator

New Member
I use a Logitech G930 to capture both my mic audio and the game audio. Trouble is, OBS seems to only get the left/right channels of the game audio.
Surprisingly, this actually seems to work well enough in a lot of games that I can only guess actually merely "upmix" to 7.1, but I've recently tried playing Deux Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut, and it's plainly obvious that something's amiss--a lot of audio is too quiet, including the menu sounds, and Jensen's dialogue sounds reverberated.

I should note that en/disabling surround in the Logitech software doesn't seem to help--it looks like Windows 10 always sees the audio device as 8-channel, and so reports this to all applications. The game doesn't have any way of knowing to output Stereo.

Here's two videos in the beginning of DX3 demonstrating the issue:
DX3 Recorded in Stereo
DX3 Recorded In Surround

Notice how quiet the menu is, as well as the general mix, comparatively. Note also that Jensen's lines seem a little muffled.

I know a lot of people use surround headsets, and some people even have proper surround setups. Indeed, some Googling reveals that this problem surfaces from time to time.
I understand that supporting 7.1 output benefits only a fraction of users--namely, those like me who largely record offline and upload later. While this would be nice, I think that at a minimum OBS should downmix to stereo on its own, so that the video at least sounds like what I hear to viewers.

Thanks,
-Velvit
 
Top