Mic/Aux only has one line

[johnswenson1]

I'm using OBS to livestream a church service. I have a Behringer audio USB stereo interface connected to a stereo out of our mixer. The Mic/Aux input only has one line, ie not stereo. This one line connects to the left channel of the USB interface. I actually have three Mic/Aux and all of them just show one line. It is always one line no matter what device I assign to it. I want to livestream in stereo, But I have no idea how to change the Mic/Aux into a 2 channel input.

 

[fpn]

Not clear to me. (better describing separatly h/w and logical devices when debugging)
Is your audio hardware: mixer-stereo-out -> behringer-interface-stereo-in -> usb -> PC ?
Is the "Mix/Aux input" you mention referring to the PC/OBS/File menu/Settings/Audio/Global Audio Devices" ?
Also: did you take a look to OBS/Edit menu/Advanced Audio Properties ? (because in this panel you can select the mono/stereo/balance)

 

[AaronD]

OBS itself is probably set to Mono. Settings -> Audio. Change it to Stereo.

I'm surprised though, that it didn't downmix both stereo channels into mono, like it does a multichannel interface to stereo on the unchangeable assumption that multichannel must be surround. (wreaks havoc with the USB interface of a mixing console...)

 

[johnswenson1]

It turns out it is not an OBS issue, the Windows driver sees it as a "microphone" and since it thinks all microphones are mono devices it sets it to just one channel. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to tell Windows it is a 2 channel input. But at least I know it is a Windows issue not OBS.

I tried plugging in a different stereo audio input device (coming from a PTZ camera) and Windows saw THAT as stereo. So it seems it is just how it sees THIS device.

It turned out the solution was to right click on the speaker icon in the task bar, click on Sounds, click on the recording tab, click on the device, click on properties, click on the advanced tab, then click on the drop down for Default Format, it was 1 channel, change to 2 channel. This is not available in the normal sound settings. This is REALLY hard to find. I hope someone else that has this problem can see this solution.

In answer to earlier question, yes I'm talking about the global audio inputs, and audio out is set to stereo.

 

[AaronD]

...the Windows driver sees it as a "microphone" and since it thinks all microphones are mono devices it sets it to just one channel...

I tried plugging in a different stereo audio input device (coming from a PTZ camera) and Windows saw THAT as stereo. So it seems it is just how it sees THIS device.

It turned out the solution was to right click on the speaker icon in the task bar, click on Sounds, click on the recording tab, click on the device, click on properties, click on the advanced tab, then click on the drop down for Default Format, it was 1 channel, change to 2 channel. This is not available in the normal sound settings. This is REALLY hard to find.

WOW! I hadn't seen that before! All of my experience says that Windows will use all channels of every device, because it really doesn't know the difference between mics, line inputs, or anything else. They're all just "audio inputs", and we call them "mics" to avoid our own confusion as developers of various things.

When a device you're working on is more of a passthrough than an endpoint, ins and outs get all confused, so a generic function name like "speaker" or "mic" is far more useful, even if this specific device has neither of those.

Anyway, based on that, I wonder if yours got changed somehow? If it was originally set to use all channels, and someone or something set it to 1 channel?
Regardless though, it's yet another example to say that you should look through ALL of your settings, figure out what they all do, and set them to work for you instead of the other way around. That can easily take a full day, but it's well worth it.

 

[rihonobs]

It turns out it is not an OBS issue, the Windows driver sees it as a "microphone" and since it thinks all microphones are mono devices it sets it to just one channel. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to tell Windows it is a 2 channel input. But at least I know it is a Windows issue not OBS.

I tried plugging in a different stereo audio input device (coming from a PTZ camera) and Windows saw THAT as stereo. So it seems it is just how it sees THIS device.

It turned out the solution was to right click on the speaker icon in the task bar, click on Sounds, click on the recording tab, click on the device, click on properties, click on the advanced tab, then click on the drop down for Default Format, it was 1 channel, change to 2 channel. This is not available in the normal sound settings. This is REALLY hard to find. I hope someone else that has this problem can see this solution.

In answer to earlier question, yes I'm talking about the global audio inputs, and audio out is set to stereo.

This is freakin' insane ! I think ur right here, but for my case, under Adv tab. i don' thave any options that says 2 channels. Everything says 1 channel. Is this normal?
Btw I'm using a Maono PD100X USB mic.

 

[AaronD]

Btw I'm using a Maono PD100X USB mic.

A single mic will be a single channel. Unless it's a specialty stereo mic or array or something like that. A quick google search of yours says that it's probably just a single.

The maximum setting comes from what the device itself reports. If the device (mic, interface, whatever) says it has 1 channel, then you only have the option for 1. If the device says it has 10 channels, then you can choose up to 10...but OBS will make a mess of it as I mentioned above.