Noise Gate Filter Not Working Properly

[lcrierie]

I have to use the noise gate filter, so game audio isn't picked up. I refuse to use headphones when streaming.
It worked fine for a while, but during streaming it will all of the sudden restrict the audio all way.
The mic is next to my mouth.

The filters I have on are:
Noise Suppression (RNNoise)
Noise Gate (32 closed, 27 open, rest default)
Compressor (Default values)
Limiter (-3)

The filter values don't change.
Sometimes, when I unplug my mic and re-plug it, the issue goes away, but only for a little bit and not all time.
I also turned off Exclusive Mode in the Windows mic settings.
Windows volume is maxed for the mic settings as well.

Anyone know what the heck is going on? I've tried just about everything.

 

[AaronD]

Sometimes, when I unplug my mic and re-plug it, the issue goes away, but only for a little bit and not all time.

Are you sure it's the filter, and not a bad plug?

I do this kind of stuff (videos below), and I've seen some that are pretty loose, or dirty enough to only make contact in one specific position. If you hold them just right, they still work, but you really don't want to rely on that!

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[lcrierie]

Not sure why the usb plug would make a difference.
The mic works just fine with the filter off. It is the filter, or obs, that is messing up. Not the hardware.

 

[AaronD]

I wonder if you just have the settings wrong then, or misunderstand what a gate actually does in a *practical* sense. Coming from the world that I mentioned above, noise gates are really not all that useful. As least not in the ways that people commonly think of.

They can cut out a small amount of noise that people generally don't notice anyway until it's gone, and then they notice the silence more than the noise. If you try to use one to cut out a lot of noise, then it's more distracting for the noise to come and go than to keep it. That much noise, needs to be solved some other way.

Noise Gates also cannot "unmix". I've answered questions before about how to pick up an acoustic violin that happens to be next to a screaming guitar amp. The answer is, "MOVE THE VIOLIN! Or put the guitar amp in a closet with its own mic. Maybe both." There is no setting that will pick the violin out of the guitar amp. The same is probably true for your voice and the game sound.

 

[lcrierie]

So it actually seems to be related to Windows 11, rather than OBS.
When I went into the Windows sound settings and changed the mic record volume from 100 to something else, then back to 100, it started working as normal again.
sfc /scannow turned up nothing.

 

[AaronD]

That brings up another good point:

Windows is not designed to do what we're doing with it. It's designed to sell, primarily, and who it mostly sells to are clueless business people and clueless consumers. Both groups want their conference calls to "just work" in terrible environments, and the fairly large consumer group also buys candy. Eye candy, ear candy, etc. So Windows and the hardware drivers that it often comes with have all of those "features" turned on by default, and they wreak havoc with us.

The settings to turn that stuff off, tend to be buried deep in several different menus, so that the more nosy clueless people don't accidentally turn off the part that makes their meeting or family call work, and then blame Microsoft for "breaking their computer".

So when you set up a new rig, you need to spend a good solid full day to explore ALL of the menus, figure out what each thing is trying to describe and what it actually does, and set *everything*, on purpose, to suit *your* purpose. Most of the time, that purpose is "a straight dumb wire" for everything outside of the one place where you do *all* of the processing, so you explicitly disable anything and everything that is not that.

 

[lcrierie]

I've done that though already. I'm inclined to believe it is a bug, as I've heard multiple people saying Win 11 will also degrade mic quality often until it has been plugged back in.

 

[lcrierie]

bump

 

[Suslik V]

...will also degrade mic quality often until it has been plugged back in

This happens to all connectors, everywhere. No golden cover - more frequently it will happen.

 

[lcrierie]

This happens to all connectors, everywhere. No golden cover - more frequently it will happen.

Thats not my problem. My problem is Windows is lowering my mic volume and sometimes muting it until I move the volume slider down and back up.

 

[Suslik V]

My problem is Windows is lowering my mic volume and sometimes muting it until I move the volume slider down and back up.

Try to report it to Microsoft itself. And, just in case, make sure that isn't Communications tab setting:

Audio Input Capture drops out when YouTube is opened

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