Streaming echo and choppy party chat voices

[Pyraxxis]

I stream on Twitch from an Xbox Series X via a Rybozen 4K capture card to a MacBook Pro running the most recent software updates of both the Mac and OBS. My Xbox is connected to the internet via ethernet cable. I currently run two mics; one from my wired Astro A40 headset to the capture card via an El Gato Chat link cable and the other mic is hooked up directly to my Mac via a USB cable.

The issue:
While chatting in-game on COD MW2, I can hear my team through the headset with no issue, but that doesn't always translate well into the stream via the capture card. Viewers have remarked that the voice get chopped off (can confirm) after a couple of words. But it doesn't always happen. Sometimes, their complete sentence comes through. And when there are multiple environmental, in-game sounds going on (explosions, doors opening, glass breaking, weapons fire, etc), then mic audio via the secondary mic that runs straight into the Mac is echoy. I've checked all the monitoring settings in all the scenes, double checked hardware connections, but still can't fix the issues. Any thoughts?

 

[AaronD]

You say you've checked stuff, but do you know what it does? It took me a while to completely figure it out, so "checking it" before that wouldn't have meant it was right. What settings do you have? Screenshots would be nice, of everything you checked.

(I'm an audio guy, used to pro audio gear. OBS is *not* set up like that! It's its own weird thing.)

 

[Pyraxxis]

You say you've checked stuff, but do you know what it does? It took me a while to completely figure it out, so "checking it" before that wouldn't have meant it was right. What settings do you have? Screenshots would be nice, of everything you checked.

(I'm an audio guy, used to pro audio gear. OBS is *not* set up like that! It's its own weird thing.)

Great points! I'll send pics of the audio settings in OBS and on the Xbox a little later today.

 

[Pyraxxis]

Hope the pics came in clear. The first is Xbox audio setting and the final two are OBS.

 

[AaronD]

Assuming that the Xbox only has one audio out, and that's fine in your headset, then it's probably okay.

You're using the default device for the Monitor, which is generally a risk of the operating system changing it on you when you don't want it to. But again, if your headset is fine (and that's where it comes from), then it's okay for now. It would still be better to specify the device in OBS, instead of default, which lets the OS choose for you.
Default is only there as a mostly-guaranteed way to get "something" out of the box. The automatic device selection is good for that, but you don't want to rely on it for anything else.

You don't have any global audio devices. That can be okay, but it means that all of your audio must come from the scenes. What do you have in there?

It would also be good to show how all of these things connect. How do the signals flow between devices, both physical and software modules?

 

[Pyraxxis]

Assuming that the Xbox only has one audio out, and that's fine in your headset, then it's probably okay.

You're using the default device for the Monitor, which is generally a risk of the operating system changing it on you when you don't want it to. But again, if your headset is fine (and that's where it comes from), then it's okay for now. It would still be better to specify the device in OBS, instead of default, which lets the OS choose for you.
Default is only there as a mostly-guaranteed way to get "something" out of the box. The automatic device selection is good for that, but you don't want to rely on it for anything else.

You don't have any global audio devices. That can be okay, but it means that all of your audio must come from the scenes. What do you have in there?

It would also be good to show how all of these things connect. How do the signals flow between devices, both physical and software modules?

Copy that on the Default setting. I'll check that out shortly. As for the scenes, I have 4. Stream Starting Soon and Be right back which has a VLC player source linked in to play the non-copyrighted music for the audio portion. The visual overlays are from OWN3D and have no audio to them.

I've attached pics of what's in the Just Chatting and Main Stream Scenes. I've also ensured that the audio is turned off on my laptop so nothing comes through the internal speakers.

 

[AaronD]

I assume that the mics are connected correctly: that the correct one appears in each source.

What filters do you have in each one, if any? The Compressor, specifically, accepts a Sidechain input, which turns it into a Ducker, so that instead of reducing volume when its own input gets loud, it reduces volume when that other input gets loud. That's useful to "make room" for the other one without everything fighting for dominance. Maybe you tried that and forgot to remove it?

The Advanced Audio Properties would be good to see too, though usually an echo problem there requires an Output Capture source that is set to the same device as the Monitor, and you don't have that source. (at least it doesn't look like it)

One more thing to think about is how well isolated your headset mic is from your ears. I had a live band once that had that problem. They had a click track (metronome) running to my board and then to their in-ear monitors (glorified earbuds, and may have actually been a cheap set of 'buds) along with everything else that they wanted to hear. It took a long time to figure out why I kept hearing the click in the main PA, when I double- and triple-checked that I was not sending it there. Turns out that it was bleeding from the lead singer's 'buds into his mic!

 

[Pyraxxis]

I'll check on all of that and get back to you with some pics of the Advanced Audio Properties. Mics are connected properly based on all the info I could find on setting up the gear....meaning headset mic is connected through to the controller and capture card by an El Gato Chat Link cable. Other mic (for chatting with the Twitch viewers) is a Blue Yeti connected to a USB hub which is connected to the MacBook. Didn't have the echoey or choppy voices (in the stream or vid playback) before now so it's a new problem that seemingly cropped up after utilization of the the chat link cable/dual mic set up. Really appreciate the trouble shooting and effort!

 

[FinAddict]

So should Mic monitoring on the Xbox be off? I'm having a similar issue where users in party chat echo, and I think it's coming through OBS. I have a similar setup to OP, cap card with headset/mic and chat cable for game/party chat, and external USB mic for the stream.

 

[AaronD]

So should Mic monitoring on the Xbox be off? I'm having a similar issue where users in party chat echo, and I think it's coming through OBS. I have a similar setup to OP, cap card with headset/mic and chat cable for game/party chat, and external USB mic for the stream.

Draw out the entire audio path, then trace each individual signal through it. Each original signal should have exactly one complete path to each destination. If you have multiple, that's usually a problem.

For example, if the Xbox mixes all of your audio, and OBS takes that as a finished soundtrack and adds nothing to it, then it's probably fine.
But if your voice goes through the Xbox AND directly to OBS, now OBS is receiving two copies of it, probably not at the exact same time, and will probably echo. If it's not out of time enough to *audibly* echo, it could still sound weird. (comb filter)

Nothing wrong with having multiple mics for the same acoustic signal, and that's often the easiest way to feed multiple different systems (and why there are so many mics on the podium for a public speech), but as soon as one mic crosses over to a different system that also has its own mic, you get that problem again.