"Mixer" vs "Audio Input Capture"

[BackSeat]

Setup: USB mixer (Yamaha AG06) connected to Windows 10. Music plays (from StudioPlaylist on the Windows 10 system) to AG06; there's a mic plugged in to the AG06; AG06 output feeds into OBS.

Earlier today I had a problem that music was being received by OBS, but not mic input. It turned out that the music was going to OBS regardless of settings on the AG06. Disconnecting the USB lead to the AG06stopped the music. The "Audio Mixer" part of OBS had one VU meter/control labelled "Mixer", which showed normal indication irrespective of volume controls on the AG06. The OBS mixer input was set to AG06.

Eventually I discovered that if I added an "Audio Input Capture" to the Sources, that behaved exactly as I would expect. It received mic input from the AG06, and it responded to fader settings on the AG06. I have disabled the OBS "Mixer" under "Audio Mixer", and everything appears to work as it should.

So my problem is solved, but I don't understand what the "Mixer" was that appeared. I'm new to OBS, but I'm fairly sure I didn't create it. The single setting for it, "Device" is "AG06/AG03", exactly the same as the now-working Audio Input Capture, yet it appeared to be taking its feed directly from the music player (except when the AG06 was disconnected).

Can anyone explain what was happening? How this "Mixer" is picking up input? As I say, it's fixed, but I feel uncomfortable not understanding what happened.

 

[koala]

By "disabling" the OBS mixer, you simply disabled the visualization of the mixer, but not the mixer itself.

What the mixer is: OBS has a bunch of possible audio inputs. External inputs like Windows audio devices and internal inputs like the audio track of media movie sources or capture devices). These inputs need to be mixed and output to some the streaming or recording audio track(s).

In OBS, you configure input devices in Settings->Audio. These are global input devices, where global means global for all scenes. Regardless to which scene you switch, these source will always appear in the OBS mixer.
Additionally, you can add audio sources with the "Audio input capture" source type. This is exactly the same as a source you configure in Settings->Audio, with the only exception that it is local to the scene you add it. If you switch away from this scene, the audio source vanishes from the mixer and cannot bei output to your stream or recording any more.

Now that you configured all input devices, you need to configure the level and which source goes out to which track in case of multi track recording. Click Edit->Advanced Audio Properties. Here you have again a list of all current audio sources, and at the right end of that list you have a matrix where you can assign which source should go out to which audio track. Track 1 is the default track for streaming and recording, but can output up to 6 tracks for recording. Additionally you can change volume, balance and other properties.

Why it worked for you as soon as you added your mic input as audio input capture source I don't know. Probably because you didn't add it to Settings->Audio before, so OBS didn't know anything about that device. If you want this mic a global source, remove it as audio input capture source and configure it as one of the Mic/Auxillary Audio devices in Settings->Audio instead.

Also consider disabling the "default" entries in that window and configure explicit device names instead, so you don't get confused by Windows switching default desktop audio and mic devices as soon as you connect additional devices like mic or headphones.

And for volume control and general control, do re-add the display of the mixer with View->Docks->Audio Mixer. You don't change any of its functionality if you hide it or show it - it's always there, regardless of visibility of that widget.

 

[BackSeat]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I've removed the "Audio input capture" as you suggest, but the problem has returned. I understand your explanation, but it doesn't appear to match what I'm seeing.

I'm testing with Winamp. Winamp is set to output to my USB hardware mixer, AG06:

The AG06 has a mic plugged in.

OBS, Global Audio Devices (settings, audio) is set to AG06:

When I play a track on Winamp, the OBS mixer VU meters light up:

That happens regardless of the settings on the AG06 mixer. Also, the output from the AG06 will include the mic, but that doesn't reach OBS.

If I add an Audio Input Capture to the scene, set to AG06:

...and silence OBS's 'mixer':

...it all works exactly as expected: the mixer faders control the output to OBS, the mic plugged into the AG06 is "heard" by OBS. As you say, this is limited to one scene.

So I'm doing something silly or have something set incorrectly or...I don't know. What can I show you to help me understand what's happening here?

Thanks for your help.

 

[koala]

What can I show you to help me understand what's happening here?

Please show an OBS logfile that contains some test recording session, show a full screenshots of Settings->Audio and not a small snippet, of settings->Output->Recording, of the full OBS window, and provide a screenshot of the advanced audio properties window.
Unfortunately, the audio settings are not all recorded in the logfile, so only a number of screenshots give the full picture of the audio configuration. For video issues, simply the logfile and no screenshot at all is required to debug.
What I'm worried about is the name "Mixer" as source name in the audio mixer. You seem to have renamed this item. To what device or source does this entry belong? What was the original name of this item?

 

[BackSeat]

Please show an OBS logfile that contains some test recording session

Attached.

show a full screenshots of Settings->Audio

of settings->Output->Recording

the full OBS window

provide a screenshot of the advanced audio properties window

What I'm worried about is the name "Mixer" as source name in the audio mixer. You seem to have renamed this item. To what device or source does this entry belong? What was the original name of this item?

I'm new to OBS. I don't recall renaming it, so sorry I can't answer that. Somewhere the name "Mixer" is mapped to the actual device, and if you can tell me where then I'll dig that out.

Thank you for your help.

 

[BackSeat]

Thank you. Where do I fix that? Do I add more Global Audio Devices in Settings/Audio, all pointing to the AG06, or do I fix it somewhere else?

What you say makes perfect sense, but I just need to know how to fix!

Thanks.

 

[koala]

In Settings->Audio you configured the "Line (AG06/AG03)" device as desktop audio for capturing by OBS, as well as monitoring device. You set no source to monitoring active in advanced audio properties, but as far as I remember, OBS disables capturing the monitoring device to avoid feedback. So configure some other device as monitoring device, but no device you configured for capturing.

And you should configure every audio device once. Capturing it multiple times, for example one entry in settings->audio and an additional entry as audio input source, will get you issues. Either remove the global entry or the audio input source entry.

The other two mixer entries (shelf and monitor) are from capture devices, probably webcams. If they have microphones, it's these. If they have no mics, or if you don't want their input, mute them to get no static or noise from there.

 

[BackSeat]

@cyclemat I only have one input source, the USB AG06 mixer. I don't have Voicemeter and, with only one input, I can't see why I need it.

@koala Thanks. I don't need a monitoring device: my headset is plugged into the AG06 mixer. It still seems to me that OBS is somehow taking the its input from what I send to the AG06 rather than what the AG06 returns to the PC. Does that make sense?

 

[BackSeat]

I think I've fixed it.

It occurred to me that I don't want to input "Desktop Audio" to OBS, but rather the external audio from the AG06 mixer. I reconfigured the Global Audio Devices like this:

Now OBS is taking the output from the AG06 mixer rather than the output from any desktop audio, such as Winamp.

Thanks to @koala and @cyclemat for pointing me in the right direction. I think I'm sorted now, but will come back here if not.

 

[koala]

You seem to not have a clear understanding of how Windows audio devices work.

A windows audio device is either a playback device (output) or a recording device (input).

A playback device is a usually connected to a physical device that outputs audio. Speakers are such a device. Apps like your favorite media player output their audio (for example music from mp3) to a Windows playback device, and Windows sends the audio data to the device, and the device plays this back aloud.

A recording device is usually connected to a physical device that generates audio. Microphones are such a device. The physical device generates an audio signal and feeds it into the Windows recording device, and apps can listen to that recording device and process that audio signal in whatever way. Audio recorders are such apps, or conferencing software like Zoom.

OBS is able to grab audio not only from recording devices, but also from playback devices. This may be a source of confusion.

You connected an external mixer to your PC with USB. In this case, the mixer might have created zero, one, or more playback devices within Windows, and zero, one, or more recording devices.
With OBS, what do you want to record? You seem to want to record what the mixer sends to the PC. This is input, so you are looking for a recording device, or mic device.
So you go to Settings->Audio and locate the "Mic/Auxiliary Audio" entries. In one of these entries, set your external mixer. Now you input into OBS what your mixer sends to your PC.

It may be there are pairs of similar named recording and playback devices from your mixer. Don't confuse playback devices (you configure in Desktop Audio/Desktop Audio 2) with recording devices (Mic/Auxiliary Audio x).

In your opening post, you told you added a "Audio input source" and it worked for you. Now it's clear what happened: In settings->Audio, you configured the output device of your mixer. A device that's silent as long as you don't have some app that outputs sound to that device.
In your Audio input source, you added a similar named recording device of your external mixer.
So do what I wrote above and configure your mixer as mic, not as desktop audio.

Edit:
nice you found this yourself. My post is an answer to your previous post, not to your last post, where you seem to have sorted it out.

 

[BackSeat]

Thanks, we seem to have arrived there together!

 

[sir_emmy_uche]

You seem to not have a clear understanding of how Windows audio devices work.

A windows audio device is either a playback device (output) or a recording device (input).

A playback device is a usually connected to a physical device that outputs audio. Speakers are such a device. Apps like your favorite media player output their audio (for example music from mp3) to a Windows playback device, and Windows sends the audio data to the device, and the device plays this back aloud.

A recording device is usually connected to a physical device that generates audio. Microphones are such a device. The physical device generates an audio signal and feeds it into the Windows recording device, and apps can listen to that recording device and process that audio signal in whatever way. Audio recorders are such apps, or conferencing software like Zoom.

OBS is able to grab audio not only from recording devices, but also from playback devices. This may be a source of confusion.

You connected an external mixer to your PC with USB. In this case, the mixer might have created zero, one, or more playback devices within Windows, and zero, one, or more recording devices.
With OBS, what do you want to record? You seem to want to record what the mixer sends to the PC. This is input, so you are looking for a recording device, or mic device.
So you go to Settings->Audio and locate the "Mic/Auxiliary Audio" entries. In one of these entries, set your external mixer. Now you input into OBS what your mixer sends to your PC.

It may be there are pairs of similar named recording and playback devices from your mixer. Don't confuse playback devices (you configure in Desktop Audio/Desktop Audio 2) with recording devices (Mic/Auxiliary Audio x).

In your opening post, you told you added a "Audio input source" and it worked for you. Now it's clear what happened: In settings->Audio, you configured the output device of your mixer. A device that's silent as long as you don't have some app that outputs sound to that device.
In your Audio input source, you added a similar named recording device of your external mixer.
So do what I wrote above and configure your mixer as mic, not as desktop audio.

Edit:
nice you found this yourself. My post is an answer to your previous post, not to your last post, where you seem to have sorted it out.

Wow! Thanks @KAOLA you really made me understand how the obs audio work.