There is a way to capture audio before windows modify his volume?

[ViejoPiojoso]

Hello everyone. Thank you for trying to help me.

I'm starting to stream my games, and I am trying to add music to my streams (obviously without copyright). But I have a problem.

Basically, sometimes I like to play competitive games and I need to listen to the game. So, I want to mute the sound of the music, but only for me, and let the viewers listen to the music.

When I started to stream (about 3 months ago) I tried Twitch Studio. And I don't know how they do (in the Twitch's App), but I have could mute the Music App in the Windows Audio Mixer and the Stream was still getting the sound of the music app at max volume. So I just needed to configure the volume in the Stream App, and I could configure another volume for me with the Windows Audio Mixer.

I'm trying to do something like that with OBS. Anybody known how to do something similar?

If something is not clear, I can provide pictures of what I am trying to do.

Sorry if I made a mistake in my writing, English is not my first language.

Thanks to all again, and I really hope someone can help me.

 

[AaronD]

If the music is its own source in OBS, and you only listen through OBS, then you could look at this:

"Monitor Off" for the music, so it goes to the stream and not your speakers.
"Monitor and Output" for the game, so it goes to the stream AND your speakers.
"Monitor Only" would send it to your speakers, but *not* the stream.

---

If your routing is more complex than that, with some signal paths bypassing OBS entirely, then I'd probably need a diagram of all that. And once you've made that diagram, the answer might be obvious to you too.

 

[ViejoPiojoso]

Hi Aaron, thanks to answer me.

As I said before, I am new at this, and I am not sure if I am understanding you, or doing it right.

When I started to configure all my setup. I thought the best way to get all app's volume were adding each App as an audio source in OBS.
So I have this:

It's a chaos, I know it, but again, in this way I can modify and adjust each app's volume individually.
Each Music - <something> it's a try I made. Music - All it's a source I do with the Win-Capture-Audio plugin.
The monitoring config, it's by default (in the picture). I have just tried with the config you tell me, and I have not noticed any change in the audio I'm listening. But I have noticed the change in the record that I did.

But if I am not understanding wrong. I am not listening to the game, music, etc. through OBS. I am listening directly from the app.
And I think it is the best, because I am not always streaming or with OBS open.

About audio routing:
I have no idea exactly how it is. I didn't configure anything external to OBS. So I suppose there should be something like this:

• App generate the Audio
• Windows modify the volume
• OBS and Headphone capture it.

Excuse my ignorance again, but I am truly a noob on all of this, haha.

 

[AaronD]

Almost there. Don't send each app directly to the speakers, but to a "dummy device" instead. Then you listen through OBS's Monitor, which goes to your actual speakers. So this:

                                                +-------+
                +------------------------------>|       |
                |                               |       |
                |       +---------------------->| OBS   |
                |       |                       |       |
                |       |       +-------------->|       |
                |       |       |               +-------+
+-------+       |       |       |
| App 1 |-------+------- ------- -------+
+-------+               |       |       |
                        |       |       |
+-------+               |       |       |
| App 2 |---------------+------- -------+
+-------+                       |       |
                                |       |
+-------+                       |       |
| App 3 |-----------------------+-------+
+-------+                               |
                                        |       +-----------+
                                        +------>| Speakers  |
                                                +-----------+

becomes this:

                                                +-------+
                +------------------------------>|       |
                |                               |       |       +-----------+
                |       +---------------------->| OBS   |------>| Speakers  |
                |       |                       |       |       +-----------+
                |       |       +-------------->|       |
                |       |       |               +-------+
+-------+       |       |       |
| App 1 |-------+------- ------- -------+
+-------+               |       |       |
                        |       |       |
+-------+               |       |       |
| App 2 |---------------+------- -------+
+-------+                       |       |
                                |       |
+-------+                       |       |
| App 3 |-----------------------+-------+
+-------+                               |
                                        |       +-------+
                                        +------>| Dummy |
                                                +-------+

That dummy device could be a cheap USB sound card that you don't wire up to anything, or it could be a virtual device like this:

VB-Audio Virtual Apps

VB-Audio Virtual Cable and App's

vb-audio.com

Actually, that's more than just a dummy virtual speaker. It's a loopback, which means that it also installs a virtual mic, and whatever you send to that virtual speaker, appears in that virtual mic. You can use it to connect apps when the application-specific method doesn't work.

If you scroll down that page and install some more, you can have up to 5 independent loopbacks that all work like that.

If you look at the other tabs on that page, you'll see some small audio mixers that install their own loopbacks, which can also be handy. If you get the biggest one of those, it gives you 3 loopbacks, independently from anything else, that go through the mixer and not just straight across like the other 5 do. And you can drive your headphones from that mixer too, instead of OBS, which may or may not have some advantages.

---

In any case, draw out what you're doing, in all of its detail, including what the default settings actually do. If you need to change something, change your documentation first, so you can see what you're actually doing, and *then* change the rig to match it again.

 

[ViejoPiojoso]

Hi Aaron.

I have tried to use that config today. And my worries have just become true.

If I use the OBS as an intermediate in my Audio route I need to have OBS always open to listen something, and as I said before, I don't have OBS open all day. Plus, I can't adjust the volume of the Apps just for me. Only can mute and unmute the audio for me or viewers.

So, do you think (or know) if there is a way to configure the Audio routing to get another solution to solve my needs?

Thank you again.

 

[AaronD]

I have a couple of serious rigs that run on my personal daily driver. I have a script that completely rearranges the audio configuration at the system level to make that work, waits until I'm done, and then rearranges it all back again. It also starts two instances of OBS and some other apps in the correct order, and closes them in the correct order so they don't remember things being wrong.

So I'd consider a substantial rearrangement between live media production and everything else, to be normal and expected. See if you can figure out a script to do it for you so you don't have to remember it all, forget some, and wonder why it doesn't work. Or have a dedicated machine just for streaming and that's all it does; that works too.

---

Another part of those rigs that you might consider, is that all of my audio is processed in a DAW. OBS only gets a finished soundtrack to pass through unchanged.

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation. It's essentially a complete sound studio in one app. It's designed specifically and only for audio, and it does that VERY WELL!!

Here's what one of those rigs looks like in the DAW:

Each column is a different audio signal, with its own individual processing, and each one has its own destination:

• The pink ones (color-coded across the top) are individual mics that all feed into the red one for some group processing.
• The green one is system playback, and OBS's Monitor goes there too, so that the finished soundtrack from here really does contain *everything*, including videos that play in OBS.
• The yellow ones are the send and return from a remote meeting.
• The blue ones are the speakers in the room, and the recording in OBS.
• The PFL button for each signal, puts the selected signal(s) in my headphones, that are also driven directly from here, not OBS.
• The Master is not actually used here. I couldn't decide whether to use it for the speakers or the recording, so I didn't for either one.
• The black one on the far left is actually a control signal, not audio, even though the app treats it like audio. (the first processor is a sinewave generator that ignores its own input) Its aux sends are controlled by a plugin in OBS, which then affect how other parts of this audio rig work.

If you can set up something like that, then you can give yourself all the controls you want and none that you don't. :-)

I've also attached the diagram that I have for it.

 

[Edwo]

I was experimenting with a lot of settings in the near past and at some point I deleted the "dekstop audio" audio source.
in settings -> audio -> global audio devices
im pretty sure i disabled the dekstop audio there and I noticed that my window volume mixer did not apply anymore to all the other audio sources, that I was capturing individually.

hope it helps

 

[AaronD]

I was experimenting with a lot of settings in the near past and at some point I deleted the "dekstop audio" audio source.
in settings -> audio -> global audio devices
im pretty sure i disabled the dekstop audio there and I noticed that my window volume mixer did not apply anymore to all the other audio sources, that I was capturing individually.

hope it helps

Yes! The Desktop Audio source is post-everything, as a literal copy of what the output device is doing. So it does include all the processing that goes to that device: volume, environmental FX, etc.

It doesn't override the individual sources, only adds to them, but if you turn down an individual one, then this one naturally dominates.

 

[immigration expert]

can i use my microphone to be captured by desktop sound. i would like to turn off mic on obs. then use bossradio to capture my mic sound then send it to obs via desktop sound. can that be done.