Best OBS Audio Settings To Stop Distorting on Stream!

In this short OBS tutorial, I walk you through why your microphone is distorting and how to fix it with three free plugins that are built into OBS. This will make your streams much more enjoyable to listen to.
OBS Microphone Settings To Stop Distorting on Stream!
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[@lx130]

I have been trying to fine tune this exact thing. This video couldn’t have come at a better time.

[@Hugmir]

Helping make the world a bit more bearable place. You, sir, are a credit to the team.

[@SpeedcubeRG]

I've been having so much trouble with my voice sounding too "bassy" and distorted at anything above normal talking pitch. I'd tried so many different tweaks until I found your video, and it's sorted everything. Thank you so much!

[@Ponk_80]

This is 99 percent of everyone making videos for KZbin.

[@drewgibson3319]

This is the video so many people need to see... thank you so much!

[@paints18]

Been following on and off for 8 years now (wow), and I'm just now seeing this since it's not on the main channel. Great tutorial! This video should be on the main channel. Thanks for everything that you do. I'm giving this video my first ever super thanks.

[@Podcastage2]

Wow. Thank you very much for your generosity. That is very kind of you! I've been meaning to post it to the main channel.

[@GrandNebSmada]

I wish more people would learn about what compressors/limiters are. I also wish programs like OBS would include a gain reduction meter in the settings because sometimes it can feel like you're shooting a moving target in the dark.

[@Vynivas]

2 years later youtubers and streamers still do not know what compressors/limiters are. which is why i do not watch any of the popular people. all they do is scream and my ears hurt so no thanks. "ManlyBadAssHero" i like cause hes calm with a nice voice to listen too and not need to worry if he's going to blow out ear drums.

[@HeyItsKora]

hah, the perks of being a musician/producer are coming in handy for me, one of my top priorities in my setup was a good mic, and flawless audio settings! I got an sE Dynacaster for about 280 bucks, in the same kinda league as the renowned SM7B but not quite as expensive, though still pricey, and imho looks WAY cooler and has a better/cleaner hinge mechanism without that extra small wire between the mic and the XLR port, which I never liked about the SM7B. Tbh for best audio I would record raw audio (no OBS plugins), edit the footage without touching audio, and then edit audio separately with the tools I'm familiar with in Logic X for best results, but that makes things so much more long-winded, so if I can get good results directly in OBS and only do minor tweaking if necessary in Premiere Pro, then I'd rather do that and skip the whole Logic process

[@Free-Mason]

Been looking for a simplified explanation of this for years, thanks!

[@TommyViper]

This really helped a lot! I used plugins in OBS for my SM7B, but it always sounded a tad distorted, even with a limited on. Turns out I had too much analog gain! Turning that down and increasing it on the digital side fixed it right up. Anyone can edit in post, but you can't edit a livestream and everything needs to be done on the fly. This helps! Thank you so much!

[@BetoTheButcher]

This right here! I had the limiter at a higher setting and I was still clipping. Reading your comment helped me out a lot. I manually turned down the volume wheel on my Hyper X Quadcast and no more clipping. Thanks!

[@happycompy]

Holy cow you have no idea how badly i needed this video. Thank you so much!!

[@IceniTotalWar]

Hahaha you and me both mate 😁

[@Momojitchi]

Screamed on my stream yesterday, discovered that it was PRETTY AWFUL to hear for everyone (and not just because of my voice). Thank you so much for this !

[@richardperkins78]

Buddy, I think you just blew everyones mind with these settings. Thank you for telling them straight that Gain doesn't = loudness

[@rocvan8190]

Amazing, I'm gonna share this mini tutorial a lot.

[@SkillzNGameplay]

You have just solved something ive been having an issue with for a year and a half, game changer omg! subbed!

[@somewhatfrog]

Oh, I have basically the same settings as you shared here, but without Limiter. Now it is there, even tho my streams are calm. Thank you Bandrew!

[@leyzic9272]

you should have the limiter just in case, you never know when something will happen and make you scream

[@More2Me4Life]

Holy crap just found this and it fixed my audio. Sadly already recorded for the week but dn it will be better next time. Ty ty ty 😃

[@marvean2519]

Still to this day the best tutorial about obs audio filters. I wish had added Noise gate/suppression/expander to the video though! Thank you Podcastage.

[@yuh9157]

Would love to see a video like this for vocals and an acoustic guitar through a daw using some basic plugins to where it can be appropriate for a live stream music performance

[@TETRINO]

Came here to try and solve some odd muffled audio in my setup and you'll be pleased to know that even a year later it's still very helpful. Now most of my problems are down to Win10 audio pipeline issues with the generic driver (the Rode AI-1 doesn't have its own driver to bypass it) so I'm mostly there now!

[@KolaXP]

Just got my first dynamic mic, and it's been a big learning process to get the sound right. You've helped greatly thank you :)

[@rachellewis88]

Thank you for this! Am a very new streamer and I tried to do the settings off another video, and although sounded better I was still peaking because my voice is super high pitched when I get going lol (I had a noise gate on to block out my birds, it turns out Im higher than them... opps) Some of the things you mentioned to do have seemed to make it 100x better! Going to test it out better tomorrow!

[@tetra3000]

Finally someone how knows how to set threshold, I see so many people saying put it at -35 which way too much compression -16 is a solid starting point.

[@SGTLK-GonzPlays-]

Thank you for giving EXAMPLES in real time as you did the stuff. Proper tutorial

[@0perator3rror]

Will be trying this tonight. Turns out I get a little louder than I knew when excited 😂

[@AMEMORYSAY0]

Thank you so much, back to this video after many years !!

[@uniworkhorse]

Woah, I'm really learned a lot about digital gain and limiters, stuff I didn't know before man. Love the shirt vids!

[@DamyanLP]

DUDE!! I HAVE BATTLED WITH THIS ISSUE FOR SUCH A LONG F___ING TIME AND NOW I STUMBLE OVER YOUR VIDEO AND YOU'RE LIKE: *"Oh yeah, easy fix, just calibrate your Audio-Interface a little and add these two filters in OBS"* I tried it and as simple as that all my Problems are gone... WHAT THE F__K??? Thank you so so much for this tutorial it has helped me so much. I will send you a "Super Thanks" for this! Thank you so much!

[@PolishMoon2]

Amazing video. Short and to the point. Thanks for sharing your insights!

[@BubbyBotches]

Literally been deciding that I want to be able to yell louder some and had “digital clipping” I believe it’s technically called but I already had a limiter on, and I noticed my gain knob was at 2 o clock. Already a very helpful video

[@candinmuniz3225]

Thanks for this Bandrew! Going to share this with my shop so they can get a feel for what to do during a livestream. Also, I'd love for you to show off the fact that you can put VST plugins in OBS! I find the RX-7/RX-8 voice denoise to be quite useful when I'm running a livestream for an event. Gates are also fantastic. Thanks for the great content!

[@Podcastage2]

I was actually just playing with this a little bit earlier because I want to make an "OBS mic settings" video, but was shocked that there was no EQ. Was able to get some nice use out of PRODS and PROQ3 from Fab Filter. Will have to try adding in my RX7 plugins to see how that affects the latency of the audio.

[@candinmuniz3225]

@@Podcastage2 I was shocked to find the latency relatively unaffected. However, it's worth noting I tend to run livestreams and not host them, so audio delay doesn't really come up in what I'm doing.

[@alasseearfalas]

Thank you!! I get really loud and squeaky when I'm laughing, so my audio would get really distorted and cut out. This seems to be working! Now I've just gotta get the noise gate set up right & I'm good to go!

[@robdmusic915]

Thank you🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼. As soon I saw Bandrew pop up on my search, I knew I was in good hands😁

[@symonjamesmusic]

If only the world was this on point! Load, aim, fire …. Bullseye 🎯

[@PeachORican]

Thank you! I’ll fix my settings for next time I stream and hopefully my viewers don’t run away cause of my excessively yucky sounding loud outbursts!

[@vizcaa]

This is exactly what I needed. I have Shure MV7 and my friends voices tower over mine in streams. Can't wait to try this when I'm home

[@tyeman3039]

Great video! Exactly what I was looking for without all the BS! Subscribed BTW!

[@HalstedOW]

thank you SOOOO MUCH i didnt know that about the analog vs digital gain. using the gain filter in obs made it soooo much better.

[@robbiehanzmapalo2041]

Thank you for this guide. This actually solve my issue with sm7b distorting at end of sentences or lyrics with obs even though I wasn’t peaking. Set compression attack to 10 ms and adjusted my threshold after adjusting my mic gain on my audio interface.

[@warriorbug13]

This video was so helpful that after I fixed my settings, I came back just to give it a like and leave this comment! :D

[@kaneyoshida]

You da man, thank you! Finally a brief and clear explanation to the problem I’ve been battling the entire day yesterday. Mahalo breh 🤙🏽

[@r.a.r8829]

this is the video that i really need from a long time ago!

[@DamyanLP]

You just solved all my Audio-Problems!! Thank you so much!!

[@CharlesDunkley]

I have been struggling trying to get my Blue Yeti Pro audio to sound decent using Streamlabs OBS to record external audio (BYP hooked up to laptop with USB, no audio interface yet). This helped. My voice volume fluctuates where I end up clipping on things I shouldn't clip on because, well, let's face it, I have no idea what I'm doing audio recording-wise yet. Between your Blue Yeti Pro test video I watched last night from 2017 and this I just did a test of these filters and the mic placement from that other video, and I can already hear a difference. Lot's for me to tweak but this makes me feel a lot better about using the equipment I currently have till I'm ready to take the next step up. Thanks!

[@MelekReloaded]

Brother, you showed the world everything these settings, thank you so much for this helpfull video. Greetings from germany.

[@jackm7064]

I was literally searching for a video like this from you yesterday. Perfect timing!

[@toskaroska318]

Thank you so much I've been trying to fix my audio cause my scream or me speaking loudly gets cut off!

[@justinurness]

Does not distort Still sounds fine Nice and clean

[@Deepsim]

You are talking exactly what I am looking for. Thanks, good guy.

[@TheCadWoman]

Thank you so much! Helped me a lot.

[@mmansonnumber1]

Im so glad i found this video. Massive help man

[@Podcastage2]

Really happy to know it helped. Happy streaming/recording.

[@thechatterpodpodcast1432]

Great video. Thank you. Wish someone would make one on the settings on the rodecaster pro. Hint Hint 👀. But for real love your videos. You're the go to guy before buying a mic that is for sure.

[@DavidNwachuku]

That’s so cool how you did it all live 🔥🔥🔥

[@donnygunawan123]

i really thanks to you sir you help me to resolve my samson c01u pro for clipping when i live stream

[@UpendraSinghai]

Really really useful. Been following your channel for quite some time. Your videos are amazing! The ones like this, are pure gold. Thank you!

[@mikoomhatsune3035]

This fixed my mic sounding really weird, would recommend this 100%

[@HarantheBlue]

This is exactly the video I was looking for. Thanks!

[@Oofenshmirtz]

Thank you for the help! I’ve been looking for the correct settings for me because I play horror games on my KZbin channel and this made my settings perfect! Thank you!

[@wongobongo]

This is the best video of the year. 🏆

[@rhemamusic6502]

I'll try this out..been looking for this.. thanks

[@LawrenceSolon]

Thanks, I found this very helpful!

[@aigener8]

Just wondering, why don't you use the gain on the Compressor filter instead? Is it not as good as using just the Gain filter? Ive always just used the Compressor filter with output gain upped on there but yeah, I still get distorted mic audio but that's because I probably need to lower the threshold. Though I am wondering if I should be using your set up instead? Not sure what the difference is.

[@darbs2112]

This helped a helluva ton! Thank you

[@xY3SHUAx]

Musician here. Thank you for not making your vids 10 min long

[@CurtisJ]

Thank you so much! This was super helpful!

[@MoorhuhnNils]

I just got the MV7 and I'm using it over usb. The shure Motive app has it's own limiter & compressor as you sure know. Should I use those or filters in obs?

[@lx130]

You should be fine in either or. Try both and see if you have a preference.

[@sexysournova208]

You're such a great dude just handing this information out

[@daeroc]

Where in the chain would you put a gate? I'm going to save this video for streamer friends that are clueless. Nice and short so they will actually watch it and super easy to setup.

[@Martin__]

Before boosting imo, so gate -> digital gain -> compression -> limiter . You can ofc do it after digital gain, pretty much no difference. If you want to eq, do it before or after compression. I prefer after.

[@PURPLEBLACK]

I tested today, and it’s better after the digital gain. It’s easier to set it this way

[@the_wau_]

thank you so much for making this

[@pakfumejia6951]

Awesome video man! Do you also put noise suppression?

[@Hairless-Bear]

any difference between having a separate gain filter pre-compressor vs. using the compressor's output gain?

[@ClefrinThompson]

Thank you, this is a great video.

[@TonyHasToes]

Absolutely amazing and straight to the point. Thank you :)

[@mmocracy]

I love your channel. Thank you

[@jpaul7113]

This is so good and well needed. Thanks so much💯🐐

[@boiledlobster1374]

BRO THE LIMITER I HAD NO IDEA IT EXISTED OMG THANKS

[@Martin__]

Okey, but now you are still very quiet in discord/teams etc... how can you do this system wide? I know one low latency solution: Asio4all + VB-audio cable + Live monitoring in your DAW

[@niter43]

EqualizerAPO, but VST support is somewhat limited. Works system-wide without any visible programs in task bar or tray.

[@Mr.C0ffee]

Would adding digital gain also increase de s/n ratio? So might as well just set the gain from the rare amo the correct way? Or am I just crazy? 🤕

[@WyattOShea]

You should make a video on how to apply this stuff for discord if you know how to. I believe eq apo and maybe peace with reaper plugins could work for that but I'm a bit of a potato when it comes to software stuff.

[@Martin__]

Low latency solution: Asio4all + VB-audio cable + Live monitoring in your DAW You would have VB-audio cable as output/listening device in your daw and input in discord etc

[@WyattOShea]

@@Martin__ Thanks for the info but I'm a visual learner so I find it quite hard to learn without seeing how it's done first. Maybe I'm just dumb lol. I do understand most of it though as I currently use voicemeeter with vb cable and I already have hardware that does all of the rest of the stuff I need it to do though so this might not be a bad idea to look into myself anyway :P.

[@Martin__]

@@WyattOShea Completely understandable. I have not found a video that shows how you do it, maybe podcastage will pick up on it.

[@Martin__]

​@@WyattOShea Here is a quick runddown: 1. Open your DAW and select ASIO as device class in audio hardware. Select "ASIO4ALL v2" as device. 2. Configure device, press advanced view down in the bottom right corner and expand your interface and VB-Audio cable. 3. Select your mic and VB-Audio Cable Out. Here is what I selected imgur.com/a/hbDwbhL 4. Set I/O buffer to the same number in asio and DAW (I use 512). 4. Now select those (or default) on your track, and arm for record + monitor input. Now your mic should be outputted to VB-Audio OUtPUT in windows. Now you can add effects to your track :)

[@WyattOShea]

@@Martin__ Thanks for the info :).

[@readyrenne8278]

Great video thanks for your help! :)

[@nelumbonucifera6224]

Is there a setting to stop breathing noise from coming through other than just taking small quick quiet breaths rather than long breaths? Or any airy noise capturing in general. Thank you! :)

[@realsmt]

Excellent tip. Anyone know off any recommendations for customizing sound on streamyard? Audio is a nightmare on that platform.

[@nickbnash]

This is tremendously helpful. Thank you.

[@Casquillo8520]

I'll have to try this out for my church livestream thanks man

[@mrbeeringer]

Amazing. Thank you SO much.

[@kickbuttowski6045]

Gee these videos are fantastic and super helpful

[@ayushijainmusic3450]

Great video again ✌️✌️✌️ Can you please review features and possible applications of Mackie Pro Fx6 v3 mixer

[@fatenabu1]

We do a live stream for our church, we first used an USB audio out on our sound board but when we upgraded our computer, the new computer wasn't 100% compatible with the sound board's usb. We ended up just using a normal left/right RCA cable audio out from soundboard into line in on the PC for our audio. Voices now sound fine but once the the piano starts we get for lack of better terms a tinny sounding distortion? Any advice?

[@spenddollarzent]

Can you make a new OBS video like the best update settings for audio

[@HauntedJess]

The problem with my mic is that when I laugh or scream or whisper, it completely cuts out the voice. I have the HyperX Quadcast. Is there something I need to change in the Windows settings or in Audacity? What if I record with OBS? I don't know what to do 😂 ... Omg, one minute after I wrote this comment I managed to solve the problem 😂😂 It was actually Audacity that cut out my voice. I tried with OBS and now I manage to record even the loudest screams. Also the sound quality is so much better (in my opinion.. but I'm not an expert and I may be wrong). I hope this comment will help those people who are struggling with the same problem.

[@Clix]

Love your tips

[@hardcorepablo]

Thanks. You helped me a lot (AGAIN XD). Thank you so much Bandrew :D

[@yuvaldror]

wonderful tip!

[@Biscoff_Papi]

wow this helped so much! thank you!!

[@narioesprit4516]

Question: why when I record a music band session in obs it sounds way cleaner and fuller than when I live stream on KZbin?!?! 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@ForeverHollowed]

Question why is there no fan noise or any noise coming from your mic. im lost on this i have the mv7x along with the mvx2u and i can just hear every noise coming from my room the limiter and everything else is fine so far. just need audio help please.

[@ayasinx8797]

Do this only work with microphones like that? Because it made it worse for my headset microphone. :( I just can't figure out good settings for it at all.

[@dandowdtrading]

Thanks

[@N64MasterTut]

So I think what I did was really weird and used lots of different things to get my voice to be louder in the mix while recording. I don't edit or mess with the game sound, I only edit the gameplay down to 15 minutes like 1-2 hour long recordings with lots of commentary,. I would not have the time to do so to go in and make things that sound lower higher, I have something setup to auto do that for me while I speak. I already use my mic on a low gain, at like 30-35 volume and use a program to remove background noise from the microphone, before, it even hits obs. I have no idea, if my audio sounds good though, I don't have, the right equipment to monitor sound, even headphones don't work the same it seems, it's hard to find the problem. I tried to get my microphone volume to match, other channels, that do the same content, I do, they seem to boost it, sounds way better then, what I'm doing, it sounds, even louder, then mine, people just watch them anyway because they have waaaaaaay more views. I think, they don't boost it live, that's the problem, I'm trying to boost the microphone live and add base and boost, treble and auto leveling live within obs, So I don't have to go in and bring the levels up, I think I'm going about it the wrong way but I'm not sure. A few people have seen my videos, I get no feed back, so I can't tell, if my audio levels are good or not, I applied this to the end of whatever, I do to boost my audio and it sounds better for sure and does not clip into the red anymore. I use things to bring down the game sound and then boosts the game sound so it sounds better overall,. but had the issue that my microphone even though it was hitting the red it would still sound lower then the game it made no sense at all to me. I could not figure out how to get my microphone to sound clear and louder then the game sound. I think this might have done the trick, not sure though, I will have to record a video, but this along with other things might just be what I needed. I used a windscreen, but that makes my voice sound muffled, I have one of those pop foam caps, I don't really know how that works since it seems like air /plosives still gets into the microphone " I don't talk directly into it" even background noise seems to get through, I don't think that is made to stop that, I have gates setup to stop it but they seem to fail the louder I get or if I speak normal it gets weird. I have thick hand made scrap Duro foam panels cheaply made around my room, it has helped with echo/reverb. I just don't have the money to buy anything else at the moment. I use a Audio Technica AT2035 xlr, I think when I bought it 6 years ago, it sounded way better then it does now. Another thing is it could be doing all this on one pc is causing software to fail. I'm thinking of using a old laptop doing everything on that then sending the audio through voice meter banana to my gaming pc when I get my stream pc setup, I would be able to do the same, I have a 2700x gaming pc and old amd 9590 pc that does not like windows 10 and runs High cpu usage, it's weird it would not let me record with obs would always get high encoding errors off cpu/gpu encoding, with a 750 ti gpu, I might get a cheap 980 or 1080 to fix that issue.

[@HafizHFZ]

I just notice that everytime when set a Noise Suppression filter in OBS Studio it cause the mic to be clipping when talking too loud or screaming, I dont know if its a bug or they need to fix it

[@DJMaticsgaming]

love your video

[@EST0913]

That what I'm looking for it. Thank you man 🙏