🤌 How to get PERFECT stream audio using ONLY OBS effects! (OBS 29 Upward Compressor & 3-Band EQ)

[@naveentechs]

been waiting for this love all your OBS videos keep it up :D

[@djjinoreacts]

Your sound is so much better these days. You had some videos where the mic sounded too compressed. I've learned so much from your videos and applied it to my channel over the years. You and Podcastage have been the greatest influence on the audio quality of my streams. Thanks for everything! You deserve more subs and recognition.

[@EposVox]

Wow, thank you!

[@Nick-c5j4v]

I think this is the only tutorial on all of KZbin that covers OBS filters with actual knowledge and without winging it and choosing whatever settings work for their mic and calling it a day. Actually helped me, thank you!

[@somewhatfrog]

8:10 there is, record your voice without any filters, add this recording as media source, enable monitoring on it, then apply and adjust filters on it in real time and see/hear what you like the most. Great tutorial!

[@jntracksgaming]

Was about to suggest this, too. Easy example loop! (Glad I check comments first)

[@grandpahgamer3526]

Can you turn the filters on and off as you record? Then just play it back and listen to the changes? I have not tried yet so I thought I would ask. Or do the filters, even if eyed out, not change while the same recording is still going?

[@somewhatfrog]

yes, changes apply in real time, but it might be harder to differentiate the small changes just on recording itself compared to being able to enable/disable on the fly while listening@@grandpahgamer3526

[@ILG-Mobile]

The fact I didnt think of this myself is depressing! Thanks!

[@throbbinhooddd]

Bro thank you so much, this has been stressing me out forever

[@SaniGoneUltra]

BROOOOO MY MIC SOUNDS 1 MILLION TIMES BETTER, THANK YOU!!!! I spent months and watched tons of vids to try to get my mic to sound good on obs. None of them has gotten my mic to sound so perfect as this video did!! I Love You Bro!😭🙏

[@Bountynuma]

I have been struggling with audio for literal years at this point, and I can say without a doubt that this video has been the easiest to follow along, and the most effective one that I've ever watched on the topic. Thank you so much for making this.

[@KaveManZA]

Thanks to your video, I have learned a lot from using filters to control my sound and making it better. Appreciate it!

[@DizConnected]

You are my go to source for OBS audio and video settings! Thank you for all your hard work!

[@CrunchtimeDiego-bo1wy]

I've Been Putting off fixing my audio bc all the videos I saw over complicated things or tried to go to fast, expecting me to understand terms and concepts I had no idea about. this was simple, straight to the point, a very easy to follow along with

[@FramePerfectJump]

Such an amazing tutorial. You actually explain what everything is doing.

[@Micalex]

As a "music producer", I always found adding a hi-pass filter to remove the extreme low end at the start nof your chain helps to get a cleaner signal for later compression and it also helps noise suppression to be a bit more precise as the extreme low end takes a lot more energy to be produce. most of the time its just the low end that triggers your compressor and limiters.

[@AindriRealm]

I am a new streamer and have been having such a hard time trying out different settings to get a balance between my game audio, voice chat and ducking features. This solved it! Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Malforian]

After months of trying to get my audio better i rewatched this video following the steps one by one, then moving these setting sinto my GoXLR instead of OBS and I appreciate you so much Epos, finally i have audio that I like, especially after lowering the Gain on my SM7B to 52 and then adding back in Post, its so much cleaner sound and less annoying mouth/breathing pickup... literally makes me want to make a new video now for channel. Thanks for all your guides

[@deepfrieddevelopment3123]

This video is crazy good! I had a bit of trouble setting up the ducking for my music based on the explanation given. For anyone having problems, I was trying to set the threshold around my talking voice and then nothing was happening, but it seems like you need to set the threshold lower than your talking voice, and when your voice crosses that line it will duck in relation to how far the line was crossed. As a loose example, if the voice is hovering around -8db, and you set your ducking compressor to have a threshold of -22db, then when you start talking it it will duck your music by ~12db. Maybe this is incorrect and the ratio is at play here as well, but that is what I observe. Either way, thanks for the amazing video!

[@Naaackers]

Perfect video that captures everything you need to know about setting up a great sounding stream and a dope sounding microphone. This will be the first place I send people to give them a great introduction into what it takes and how learn! Great video Epos, thank you.

[@EposVox]

Thanks bro!! Huge praise

[@Denigirl]

I had been struggling with my audio as of late. And not only is this a great step by step video to get your audio sounding really clean and nice, but it also teaches you what all of these terms in all of the audio filters mean, so that from now on you understand how each one works and can make adjustments comfortably yourself! Thank you so much for this great resource!

[@haviick1014]

have watched the video 5 times. still can't figure out how to remove fuzzy sound whenever i speak into my mic

[@Mako_Racing]

I watched several videos that were alarmingly...not optimal...before finding this one. Really well done.

[@EposVox]

Thanks!

[@savagealleycat]

a year and some change later, and I'm just now realizing that the ORDER of the filters matter. My mic reset for some reason and I just couldn't get the right audio again. You saved my whole stream dude. Thank you!

[@Quelkaima]

After much consternation and "I'm never gonna be able to figure this out!", I did it. After watching it all the way through one time, I re-watched it with OBS open, seeking to different points to follow through with you step-by-step. While my streams will still not have great audio, it will be vastly improved! Since I cannot (for whatever reason) use Exeldro's Source Record plugin, adding in redundant, unfiltered audio tracks for capture card and PC audio that aren't sent to the audience but are saved with the video allows me to clip highlights with the game audio only. I'll be making a backup of this new setup because I have to reinstall Windows 11. That's another story for another time, however!

[@HeavyLiftSkilling]

It's so weird, I just searched for this help video and it was just uploaded within the last 24 hours. Thank you much EposVox :)

[@JoshJoshJoshJoshJoshJosh]

I came here just to figure out how to get the sound of my AC not be picked up during my stream, but now my mic sounds WAY better as well. Thanks so much! I'll definitely be checking out more of your vids. Thank for the comprehensive yet easy-to-follow video. Edit: I would like to add that I have a portable AC like two feet from me that makes a lot of noise, so I followed the steps you laid out, BUT I did *Noise Suppression* below Gain and then a *VST Plugin* underneath the noise suppression. Then I followed the steps you laid out after Gain. There's a tiny bit more to the way I laid things out, but it helped a lot with my very low-end mic.

[@E-M-T]

I'd recommend doing the compressor before the gain. At least in my testing, it seems like some permanent clipping happens whenever you do the gain first (Even if the waveforms never go above 0db, they'll still sound distorted when the compressor kicks in). It's weird though because if you to +30db gain then -30db gain, nothing gets lost which makes me think the compressor probably bakes in the audio before processing it (It shouldn't work like that but it gets the job done)

[@EposVox]

It definitely shouldn’t (and doesn’t in my testing) work like that, and compressing before you’ve gotten levels to a decent place can make for some not great sounding results

[@E-M-T]

@@EposVox Hmmm, I'll try testing so more. You prob right, the way I was capturing my audio to listen back was a little scuffed so that could've been why it sounded wack

[@jolilottie]

thank you so so, so much for this! learning audio has been something of a crash course for me, and yours is the most helpful video I've found; I don't shy away from learning something new, but you've saved me from a lot of tears and frustration. (and thank you for including break reminders, I needed them and I'm probably not the only one!)

[@drewlegends3156]

Great video. Have watched other youtubers explain the same things and not one of them mentioned that the filters need to be organized

[@Nienna_Asyare]

oh my gosh, I was so stumped as to why I was sounding so awful and quiet, I can't believe I didn't even think of eqs/gain, this video helped massively! Thank you! ^_^

[@evaldas249]

Ayyy, I've been waiting for this video to drop since OBS 29 came out! Thank you!

[@TaylorDaleWright]

This was super insightful. Thank you! I just got a Deity D4 mic and was surprised at how much ambient noise it was picking up for a min shotgun mic, but now with these filters, I'm getting a good result, and I feel like I know how to tune things as I go.

[@MedixQuiz]

this improved my sound MASSIVELY. Previously, it was always clipped while speaking (now i know its because the time-delay "attack" was set to 6ms instead of 3ms), the noise reduction didnt really work well. It either reduced waaay too much or you could still hear cars outside which was unfortunate. And then my voice was very low, I had to talk so loud that it hurt after 10 minutes. Really stressful. Also you get a headache pretty quickly and the whole process is not enjoyable. Well. Your video did wonders! Now when talking VERY calmly, the audio is really good to hear. Loud. But also sounds nice. And background noise as well as mouse clicking and keyboard tapping is cut out. And the limiter prevents my loudest moments from being deleted. Overall a very nice tutorial. Thanks for that! I have a rode smartlav microphone. Nothing special at all. around 50$ I think it costs. Anyways. The sound is more than good for my expectations and I am really happy now. Thanks again man.

[@DirtyCes]

I wonder if OBS can have a virtual mic plugin that other programs like discord etc can select as a microphone, you did all the work to find the perfect settings in obs I wish there was a way to carry that over to other apps

[@SebsDuran]

This is phenomenal. Gonna fix my audio today

[@vick7848]

This is the greatest obs sound video ever made

[@slavic_fox98]

Thank you for the video tutorial! Out of so many tutorials I've watched, this was the best for solving my audio issues. The same settings you used, worked perfectly for me.

[@Pilzinsel64]

The best tutorial and explination I've ever seen! Thank you so much for this, were looking for a long time for such a good video!

[@EposVox]

Glad it helped!

[@RudyRayLDU]

just found your videos and it help me take my streaming set up to the NEXT LEVEL!! thank you so much and keep make great content!

[@TheSolidscorpius]

this tutorial was awesome, thanks man.. I will be sending anyone needing help with this, to here

[@ApexLodestar]

WOW this is PERFECT timing. I just got the Maono DM30 but couldn't solve how to tame the peaking. You're awesome, EposVox!

[@EposVox]

Glad I could help!

[@jenks_TV]

First off, THANK YOU! Second, what about an "Expander" for noise suppression? I've found those seem to give me better results in OBS. What are your thoughts? Oh, also, where would you recommend placing a de-esser in the chain?

[@49Macman]

Thank You Epos Vox! I am praying that I can boost the volume of my built in Mic of my Mac. For some reason it is to quiet over facetime. I do use an external mic, but would rather not take the time set it up.

[@Kordanor]

Something related and maybe worth another video: Distances and Echo. Essentially in two scenarios: Free movement and Narration. Let me explain what I mean: In your case you are sitting infront of a microphone, with a more or less consistent distance. Small differences don't matter too much in a stream, they maybe even add in depth (like audio reflects, that you are turning around). However if you move a lot, lean back and have your head positioned rather differently, your sound will be all over the place in case of volume and echo. Thats one reason I am still using a headset: It does have a consistent distance to my mouth, meaning the volume and echo is always (almost) the same. I guess the nvidia echo removal could help (I cant test, graphics card too old), and for volume maybe the upward compressor. But there are the two specific usecases I mentioned in the beginning when it's espeically important to keep consistency in mind: 1. In Narration, when you don't want any variety at all. If you are narrating a documentary for example, 2 takes at 2 different days should not sound differently, just because the one day the microphone was 3 cm closer. It's already bad enough that you naturally can sound differently every day (if you slept bad, more nose problems whatever), these issues add to it. For narration I use a Yeti microphoen and I try to make sure I always got exactly the same setup and distance. But options to adjust that automatically (again echo remover and upward compressor) would be nice. 2. When you are at a workbench and there is no way you got your microphone 20 cm infront of you. Maybe you are using a shotgun. But because of the range of movement and differences in distances the voice will sound vastly different with different volume. Here adjustments would also be nice to have. That workbench could also just be a cooking livestream, or if you are livstreaming how you are soldering something, or putting together a PC.

[@AgentVincent]

Awesome guide! I'm excited to try out these settings and filters to clean up my stream sounds.

[@codycroosh3073]

Nice I’m gonna use some of these tips to help illuminate that HissI’ve been getting. You were right lowering the gain seemed to help out a ton.

[@BackPackGearsYT]

most helpful vid i ever watched for audio thank you brotha

[@Pinceau2k]

Great! A lot of content creator should watch this!

[@ILG-Mobile]

Very useful explanation even for an audio novice! Thank you!

[@EposVox]

Glad it was helpful!

[@imAgentR]

Such a great video. Every time I have it dialed in, I learn I can tweak it just a lil more for an even better presentation. Appreciate it 😎

[@YeetCrew]

Amazing video! ill be implementing this whole video later today.

[@mathemitnullplan]

thanks mate! the best explaination for obs so far and it really worked. this video came just in time, i was close to release low level audio for upcoming videos, but now that changed. cool video would be how to setup a screenrecording in 4k hdr (codecs colors and so on).

[@EposVox]

HDR recording guides are here: HDR Content Creation Guides kzbin.info/aero/PLzo7l8HTJNK_HIUFhcIqOKSmlz0u0VJpB

[@ronniepaulinc]

this was brilliant, my multitrack mixer went down and I meixed my audio that way... This is way better.. Brilliant!!!

[@Dirt_Man]

When you showed the sound levels for the different sound channels my brain exploded because no one ever does that

[@TheRealClaylex]

Ty for this my dude! Gonna test this out with my stream this week

[@MagSouille]

Nice video but, i have a question. Wouldn't putting the gain directly on the compressor be easier to best adapt the volume of the microphone ? I would be curious to know if there is a difference between the two. Otherwise, you might as well have one less filter

[@EposVox]

Every mic chain - analog or digital - has gain before compression. Makes it a lot easier to set proper thresholds and ratios when you have the full range of the signal, rather than just compressing down an already quiet signal. You lose more range and typically bring up more hiss in the makeup gain that way

[@MagSouille]

​@@EposVox Thank you very much !

[@sirdeadknight]

I have the goxlr and the main channel is broadcast stream mix (game, mic), if I add a gain filter on that, it will gain up the game and mic, should I move mic out of broadcast stream mix to it's own channel and just make chat mic an input in OBS?

[@AndresReviews]

You can loop a monitoring sequence, for that just do a test recording and use it as a media source on a loop + apply filters to it

[@Prince_EssVR]

Thank you so so so so much I've been having so much trouble with this stuff I followed another persons tutorial and didn't understand anything I was doing and sounded terribly but now at least I understand what all the different things do and I feel like my audio is way way way better you're doing gods work thank you

[@WereCatf]

This is exactly what I needed/wanted. Now, I do have one question that's related, but not exactly on the topic: what microphone would you recommend to someone who has very limited budget and who *doesn't* like having a microphone all up in their face, like you have?

[@TeaOS]

Welcome to the King Bee club. I traded my RE320 for this thing

[@GNEWSSS0]

You just saved my life! When I become the number 1 creator in the world you will be in the THANK YOU speech! Much love!

[@BoysVideoo]

This Is AWESOME INFORMATION --- GOOD JOB

[@bedroomlab]

You mentioned there's no high pass filter but the first dot in the Elgato Equaliser is doing precisely that. Move the dot to the right to increase it from 34Hz to around 80Hz (or more). If you do that then you can then get rid of 3-Band equalizer.

[@EposVox]

Elgato equalizer doesn’t work in obs because it’s VST3

[@bedroomlab]

@@EposVox my mistake, I thought you had it as a part of the chain in in the video. I use ReaEq in OBS (part of ReaPlugs). It does the same thing and is free.

[@EposVox]

Yes. I covered that in the last video. This was specifically only using things built into obs, as the title says.

[@MohsenTheKnight21]

thanks your obs guide videos are really helpful

[@PlankWrld]

thank you for the great audio tips

[@vladkj5676]

This is the best tutorial i have ever seen and ive seen many. But, i have a question. We are 2 people: dad and son doing gaming content and our mics are 5 feet away from each other and these settings make both mics to pick up a lot. Any suggestions? Oh, and we both use Fduce SL40 Usb. Once again, thanks and great tutorial.

[@ScaredyMat]

great video! so i play a lot of horror games and the sound mixing on each different game is just so bad, some too loud , some too quiet ( upward Compressor helps) , what's the best way to address the loud parts of those games, would it be a limiter? do you have a video for this? thank you

[@FrankMather]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing. I'm getting better with my audio, while streaming.

[@HablemosdeRunning]

What's up friend, do you happen to have a video on your channel where you teach how to record and edit your audio? but I'm talking specifically about the audio that you record in off. Sounds great!! I have a Rode NTG but so far I have not achieved excellent recording quality.

[@DannyUntamed]

This video was great very informative. This has taught me a few things I can do with mixing and mastering. Thank you

[@EposVox]

Glad it was helpful!

[@calebgibson55]

This is great advice!!

[@555Custom]

This time i add this video in a dedicated playlsit dont want to loose it again ^^

[@Raglarak]

I just came back to do this tutorial again, and I also watch your other 2 audio videos. I noticed that my voice is kind of loud and cracking, compared to yours and with other streamers, I'm currently running a shure mv7 with a goxlr mini, imo the problem is comming from my GOXLR settings, by any chance do you have another video, or do you know what should be my EQ, Compressor, etc. in GOXLR?

[@Zidakuh]

Now all OBS needs for perfect audio is a master bus or a master bus for every audio track enabled, so we can finally glue compress and limit the entire audio signal instead of lowering the loudest peaking signal to -5dB. -5 seems to be the sweetspot to avoid inter-channel peaks clipping the combined output and translates to an about -2dB truepeak.

[@rqgerthat]

very in depth, and very helpful! thanks!

[@TheDkmariolink]

Thanks for this amazing tutorial!

[@Jason22Douce]

Trying to make my headset mic bearable has been challenging. Will implement these things and see what's what

[@cloudPES]

This was incredible advice man, thank you 😀

[@NoNameFoundTV]

Explanation about sound isn't the only amazing thing, the windows XP taskbar too! A nice retro touch. Much love brother, maybe you can explain how you did it! ❤ Keep it up! ❤

[@Karsteski]

I love you for this video. Thanks! :)

[@EposVox]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jin_raven192]

I think my highest priority is the EQ. As easy as this sounds I'm really struggling with boominess of my voice and trying to fix this. It's effecting my subwoofer which I noticed. Since every voice is unique I try my best to get a best voice from EQ!

[@TheMaster67-c1l]

this completely changed my youtube channel ty

[@zorgonec]

I really, really thank you man! First time, I set my expensive mic wrong, blindly following some youtuber, quite big, but it sounded horrible. I thought this is normal, even if i should have better microphone. No, it was completely wrong. I did the settings with you, after few weeks, it took some hours but now the sound is warm, crispy, radio style and clean as fuck. Like i have different mic. Thank you so much, you saved me! :)

[@ENunn]

is there a way i can sidechain two sources? my chat audio is separated from my desktop audio and when i sidechain both my mic and my chat, my desktop audio gets really quiet when my mic and chat audio are active at the same time.

[@Scotty_Elgin_Nunn]

You are awesome, I have been struggling with why my microphone was being muffled and I couldn't figure it out but with your walkthrough, I sound golden. I do have a question though, So with the 3-band equalizer is there a reason you'd use those two instead of something like Voxengo Marvel GEQ? I tried what you recommended and I almost like it's good but i have too much base. Either way great video

[@EposVox]

If you have an EQ VST you like, go for it.

[@Bayesic]

I've noticed when I follow the instructions here I still get a lot of weird clipping specifically with short a sounds like "cat" or "ow" type sounds like in the word "how" any idea why this is happening and is it just a problem with the mic? I'm using a Blue Yeti Again I'm not actually getting any clipping it's just those particular sounds that sound super janky

[@Bayesic]

Ok nevermind figured it out. What I did was lower the mic volume in the sound settings of windows 11. Had to drop it all the way down to like 30 before running through the gain stuff in this video. But thanks you're a life saver!

[@unfriendme8236]

thanks

[@eademsedaliter]

Thanks, this helped a lot. Second thanks for the clear instructions

[@Horrornextdoorgaming]

My Man! Thx for the vid

[@derpymoose9948]

Good information, well explained, thank you

[@Kevin700P]

21:04 Damn. I didn’t know that…. That’s so cool. Thx ❤

[@palomasgaming]

I need help - when recording I can hear when I pull air pretty loudly, and it makes me sound tired or short of breath at all times - I tried changing distance, angles, noise suppression levels, and still the same!!! Can anyone suggest what to do here? Take down the mids and lows maybe??

[@Kevin700P]

What mic are you using ? Using a noise gate or decreasing the gain help to decrease the noise.

[@Cwronaga216]

I don't seem to be able to affect my game audio in OBS. Changing volume, muting, or adding filters to my desktop audio doesn't have any effect on it. my game is still too loud in recordings at all times. is there a way to add game capture to the mixer?

[@JfilliaPlays]

thank you for this video man, it really helped me now i sound like a narrator from the history channel and its fantastic lol I just started using a webcam and applying filters after a year of streaming i feel reborn again lol P.S zero much

[@sheryzoneyt]

very nice video bro helps me a lot thx

[@Missbillie_jean3]

Thank you thank you thank YOU! Thanks to this video, I still have hair. Literal hero. 🙏🏻 "We are not worthy!"🙌🏻

[@Missbillie_jean3]

Hey Epos, So the sound has been great, but wondering if you could specify which area to potentially alter a "raspy" after voice. My voice has a tendency to get a bit of a raspy drag to it (Like if you were to vocally say "Uhhhhhhhhhhh" out loud). Not so much nasal, not really a low tone either. Not sure how to explain it. Anywho, if you could point me where to target (rather than sliding the levers all around and scrambling all the work you helped me achieve). If you can, would be extremely grateful! TTFN

[@paulkahler6373]

There is a pending PR for an 8-band Equalizer. Willing to tweak it a bit if there is useful feedback since it hasn't been accepted yet. Not sure if you can build from source to give it a try.

[@louaguado995]

Great info, thanks! Makes my cheap $20 mic sound so much better 😁

[@chrono32123]

I know this is a much older video but I'm finally trying to balance out all of my audio in OBS instead of doing most of it in WaveLink. For the mic itself, I'm using VSTs in Wave Link and applying the principles to gain and compression to their reaper counterparts. Is that a valid approach here? I suppose it doesn't necessarily matter WHERE I'm using the VSTs in so much that they're applied correctly and in the correct order. I'm still using OBS to set auto-ducking and stuff for those other inputs though. (basically wave link is a personal monitor at this point)

[@bryceyorkpm]

ever testing a circlular polarizer to hide the reflection in your glasses?

[@GrahamAndersonis]

Are you streaming your video and audio with NDI (within OBS). When I stream to Teams and Zoom, NDI video works great with OBS. In contrast, NDI audio seems glitchy and full of delay. I went back to streaming audio directly through my Octava/ DBX-286S/Focusrite -avoiding NDI and OBS in the pipeline to Teams/Zoom. Do you have a setup that works rock solid for you? Thanks for a great channel!

[@MrDyran21]

Have you used VST 2.x plug ? I wanna make sure I’m not using unnecessary things. My filters are VST, compressor, expander, noise suppression, upward compressor and limiter( in that order)

[@EposVox]

Well a VST could be any kind of filter - so the kind of filter it is matters still for the order.

[@MysticMylesZ]

Tweaking this again 5 or so months later now that I've upgraded everything except my mic (the most important part for audio 🤣🤣). I got a little pin on mic I got for college zoom meetings, it picks up fan and has it's own static without fan or any sound(in the dead of the night, not even bugs or a keyboard click). Can't gain first; So I put noise suppression first. Not sure if I should put noise gate before or after gain but I have it before currently. I have 2 speaking voice 1 can be really quite, somewhere near the middle. because of this and my mic being on my collar so not directly in front of my mouth I got the noise gate pretty low -55 close, -50 open; had it at -45 -40 but found that it cuts a bit when I'm quieter in the night or whispering. This will probably change when I get a better mic or dedicated room to I can psyc myself and talk slightly louder than normal or even louder knowing I won't disturb anyone.

[@MysticMylesZ]

Turns out my mic was turned down on... what I think is the Operating System audio mixer. I bumped it back up to 0.00 dB. Noise Suppression Noise Gate Upward Compression Compressor Limiter

[@stephennewhouse6271]

Do you have any suggestions on getting rid of loud crowd noises in the background? Like say at a convention.