Is the same PC running both zoom and obs? That may be the issue. But Kazar is right you will want to check to see if obs for some reason is set to different sample rate. That can also cause issues.
Yup. The computer is running:
* Zoom - pulling audio from the mixer USB interface and OBS virtual camera
* OBS (1st instance) to manage two camera feeds that I toggle between for Zoom (no audio though)
* OBS (2nd instance) to manage the Youtube stream that pulls audio from the mixer USB interface and a screen-shared document
Running system resources monitor shows that there doesn't seem to be an overload in CPU or RAM (it's got 16G) running all of this.
You might be the first person I've met who runs two instances of OBS at the same time.
You might be the first person I've met who runs two instances of OBS at the same time.
Yeah I think that may be the problem?
I know zoom has the ability to stream to youtube so you don't have to run a separate stream for both.
However I also believe you can stream to youtube from OBS and then just screen share the obs feed on zoom.
There should be no need to run OBS twice. It's probably why you are having audio issues.
Could very well be. The reason we're doubling up on the OBS instances is that the video feed from the cameras is private.
We are streaming multiple camera views on Zoom and are using the OBS virtual camera to quickly toggle between them depending on which view we want. However, only Zoom attendees are allowed to see the video.
The Youtube stream shows the meeting notes and has the audio only. Since Youtube is public and since we can't control who sees it, we agreed that we would not stream the cameras there.
Now, we could do with just the Youtube OBS instance and use Zoom to switch between cameras. This would certainly help us identify whether the two instances of OBS are the issue.
Yeah definitely try just one OBS.
I am doubtful that it is as only one instance of OBS is doing any encoding. The other is just a virtual webcam. My bet is still a sample rate mismatch or an audio buffer being too small.
What microphone noise cancellation software is the best these days?
I use Nvidia Broadcast for its microphone noise cancellation feature. Used to use RTX Voice. They are the best option I’ve tried in this space.
Broadcast has always been a bit unstable and crashes but lately it doesn’t crash but it stops working in discord and no one can hear me. Restarting Broadcast fixes the issue.
With a little searching I haven’t found anyone else online reporting the same issues.
Broadcast hasn’t had updates in over a year. Maybe Nvidia has given up on it?
In Discord I can enable Crisp instead which is not as good but still useful. I’d prefer an option like Broadcast that works with all voice software tho. Crisp has that too but it’s worse and not free. If it was as good I might have already just went that way.
Is there a better alternative these days? Maybe one that doesn’t require a modern Nvidia video card so I can also use it on my laptop.
We are streaming multiple camera views on Zoom and are using the OBS virtual camera to quickly toggle between them depending on which view we want.
I've done something similar with hybrid meetings, except we're using an ATEM Mini Pro from Blackmagic Design to switch the local cameras rather than inserting another layer of software.
I believe the hardware can stream to YouTube while also functioning as a webcam, but I don't think it will let you send a different view to the two destinations. It might be possible in the ATEM software control, which is the same one that drives their huge professional gear, but the buttons on the device won't.
I had similar issues with Nvidia. I currently use the Elgato one that works with the Elgato Wave. For a long time I used a vst (reaplugin maybe) and ran my audio through OBS.
USB cable question: I recently bought a Samsung T7 external drive to use as a spare SSD for Steam games. The drive came with two USB cables. I plugged it in to my USB 3.1 port (oval connector to oval connector) and it worked fine for a couple of weeks and then started to get connection errors. It was disconnecting and reconnecting to the computer every few minutes. Wiping and reformating the drive to NTFS didn't do anything to solve the problem.
So I decided to use the use the other USB cable that the drive came with. This one was an oval to original rectangle cable. My motherboard also had a USB 3 outlet in the original rectangle style. The problems went away for about a week and then came back. I never touched or unplugged the cables during this time.
So, I changed out that cable for a $25 Thunderbolt cable. It seems to be working fine now, maybe even transferring data faster than it was before. But, I don't know if it is going to keep working or if it will mysteriously die in a few days.
Is this a common experience? Should I just anticipate that pack-in USB cables may be junk and that I'm going to have to buy mysteriously expensive cables off of Amazon? Why do these things die so quickly? I guess I have the old-school mentality that a cable is like an electrical wire and if it works when it is plugged in, it should continue to work for the next 20-50 years.
It doesn't seem like this is a really sustainable practice for the industry. I would think that they would be getting killed on hardware returns from customers who don't understand why their drives aren't working.
Is this a common experience?
Absolutely not. I'd guess that you have something else going on here. Cables shouldn't just mysteriously die like that, unless you're frequently un/replugging them, or causing strain on the connectors or wires themselves.
One other possibility is that your PC might not correctly reconnect to the drive after it wakes up? Or maybe the drive itself goes to sleep after inactivity and failed to wake up initially? Did you try simply un/replugging the same wire into the same port when it happened?
Sounds to me like Samsung might have been skimping on their included cables...
You could try uninstalling the USB drivers in the Device Manager and rebooting to cause a reinstall. Also, there's a setting in the Device Manager USB driver Properties that allows the computer to turn the device off after a few minutes to save power... Disable that. And in the Power Options, there should be two USB Selective Suspend options. Disable those as well.
Just some ideas.
One of my best tech purchases ever was the Arctis Steelseries headset I bought in 2019. Ostensibly for online gaming, but when the pandemic hit I got more use of it than expected (<- understatement).
But with work becoming more intense (in a good way), and maybe just as I'm getting older I get a lot of headaches and general fatigue when my work day contained a few online meetings - and they usually do.
Ideally, I would like an ergonomic way to both have a quality microphone (maybe something on a mic stand?) while also having the audio come out of the speakers behind me. So I can avoid wearing the headset for every Teams meeting.
Is that a pipe dream, or is there a way to filter out the other side's speech before it starts reverbing and echoing?
Plan B would be earplugs, but those have other ergonomic issues for me, and would still require a microphone.
You could just hang the headset around your neck and tilt the mic on it near where it usually is.
Budget solution but also something I've done usually in meetings where I'm not expected to talk much, if at all.
FWIW, I have one too. The wired version. I usually can go up to 2 hours or so at a time wearing it. But it's tremendous.
You can get some pretty decent usb mics and put them on a scissor arm and the use ear buds to avoid echo issues.
Does Teams not have good software echo cancellation? I've piped Zoom meetings through an auditorium's sound system and it worked beautifully with no fiddling on my part. Well, it did once I got both the in-room mic>Zoom and Zoom>room speakers running through the same client connection. When we were trying to do it through 2 different computers we got all kinds of echo and feedback.
Have had similar results over Discord. I can have my USB microphone right beside my speakers and there's no issue at all, but if my wife and I are both on speakers in the same channel in the same room we get a lot of cross talk.
So unless Teams is way behind Zoom and Discord's audio tech, or you have multiple connections in the same room, you should be able to do speakers and microphone without having to worry about it.
Ideally, I would like an ergonomic way to both have a quality microphone (maybe something on a mic stand?) while also having the audio come out of the speakers behind me. So I can avoid wearing the headset for every Teams meeting.
How about pairing a condenser mic on an arm with a pair of lightweight, on-ear, open back headphones?
On my work desk, I have a FIFINE 683 mic on a scissor arm.
Wearing something light and open like the Koss Porta Pros or Audio-Technica ATH-P1s might be less headache-inducing than wearing an all-encompassing closed-back headset like your Arctis.
I bet just switching from closed back to open back headphones would make a difference. I wear my Sennheiser 558s as my work desk meeting headphones. Even though they're around-ear, the open back makes them much less isolating or pressuring. Sadly, closed back headphones have become the overwhelming norm lately, it seems.
Teams noise cancellation is great until the source of the noise is within a foot or so of the mike. That's when it decides it's coming from the person speaking and throws it in. At least, that's been my experience.
Might want to look into a dynamic mic since they usually don't pick up room noise (in this case your speakers). With echo cancellation it should sound pretty good. Either way, use push to talk and you should be covered under most scenarios.
Another alternative is a shotgun mic. They are good at picking up sound from a particular direction. Not sure how they would work with speakers though.
Thanks guys! Seems like the logical first step is to test it the way Stele proposes: headset around my neck, and sound coming out of the speakers. I can test this in an internal 121 meeting and take it from there.
A decent mic on a scissor arm could be next step, if the test goes right. That would also avoid having to manually reconnect or reactivate each time a new call/meeting happens.
Will keep you posted 
dejanzie wrote:Ideally, I would like an ergonomic way to both have a quality microphone (maybe something on a mic stand?) while also having the audio come out of the speakers behind me. So I can avoid wearing the headset for every Teams meeting.
How about pairing a condenser mic on an arm with a pair of lightweight, on-ear, open back headphones?
On my work desk, I have a FIFINE 683 mic on a scissor arm.
Wearing something light and open like the Koss Porta Pros or Audio-Technica ATH-P1s might be less headache-inducing than wearing an all-encompassing closed-back headset like your Arctis.
I bet just switching from closed back to open back headphones would make a difference. I wear my Sennheiser 558s as my work desk meeting headphones. Even though they're around-ear, the open back makes them much less isolating or pressuring. Sadly, closed back headphones have become the overwhelming norm lately, it seems.
This is the way
I use a usb desk phone for all my calls (Teams, Zoom, etc) and I rely on its speakerphone. People say I sound fine and the sound from it is perfect. Never have any issues and it’s great for being able to sit on long calls
Yealink MP50 USB Phone Handset Certified for Microsoft Teams Skype for Business, Built-in Bluetooth Turn Mobile into Desktop Phone, Work for PC, NOT Support Registration of SIP Account to VoIP System https://a.co/d/g3Z41dx
Also the fifine mics sound really good for the price! I was shocked when I first heard a voice recording using one.
Thanks guys! Seems like the logical first step is to test it the way Stele proposes: headset around my neck, and sound coming out of the speakers. I can test this in an internal 121 meeting and take it from there.
A decent mic on a scissor arm could be next step, if the test goes right. That would also avoid having to manually reconnect or reactivate each time a new call/meeting happens.
Will keep you posted :-)
Test completed succesfully! With a cheap borrowed Logitech mic, and sound coming out of my speakers, I apparently sounded better according to my colleagues 
Turns out my Arctis headset was failing already...
More good news: I got permission to expense a decent mic, got this one on a Black Friday sale. I don't need studio quality, this one seems to have a nice price/quality ratio.
I will keep the Arctic headset around for those few occasions where my daughters are playing Lego's while I work, but mostly I will put the old reliable gear to rest.
Test completed succesfully! With a cheap borrowed Logitech mic, and sound coming out of my speakers, I apparently sounded better according to my colleagues
Were you on Bluetooth or the 2.4G connection? Bluetooth audio quality really sucks when you’re sending and receiving over the same connection, so the headset might be fine.
Well, less “fine” and more “functioning within spec”…
dejanzie wrote:Test completed succesfully! With a cheap borrowed Logitech mic, and sound coming out of my speakers, I apparently sounded better according to my colleagues
Were you on Bluetooth or the 2.4G connection? Bluetooth audio quality really sucks when you’re sending and receiving over the same connection, so the headset might be fine.
Well, less “fine” and more “functioning within spec”…
The Arctic Steelseries has its own hub, not sure which protocol it's using. But the quality has been degrading in the last few weeks/months apparently.
The new mic already arrived yesterday, I removed the Steelseries hub (3 cables saved in total!) - connected the headset to Bluetooth for those rare occasions with room noise. The TC40 works perfectly, really happy so far!
I wanted to follow-up with the solution I found to my OBS problem originally detailed here:
https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...
It turns out that the person who originally set up the OBS configuration for us (and that I inherited when I volunteered to do the AV for this group) had configured a Noise Suppression filter on the microphone input. Not being an OBS expert, I didn't think of looking closely for that kind of thing and when I experimented with OBS on my personal PC, no such filter existed in the default configuration. The organization being what it is, the person who did the original configuration is long gone and wasn't available to contact for more historical information...
I completely understand why this person would have thought adding a Noise Suppression filter on the audio input was the right thing to do. However, as it turns out, we need exactly the OPPOSITE of that. Instead of filtering out faint noises like you would want to do with a studio recording or something, we want to capture ALL audio so that people remotely can have the same experience as being there.
The process of reproducing this error was really vexing. It only occurred when we have a lot of people in a room talking simultaneously and that's really hard to set up unless we're actually doing that meeting. Me testing the equipment with one other person didn't cause the issue to come up. Finally, and completely randomly, we tried playing a Youtube song on our phones into the microphone and THAT caused the issue to pop up. I was able to keep removing variables until I was the sole person playing a song on my phone that was being captured by the laptop's built-in mic. The problem persisted right down to that point and that's how I FINALLY discovered that a Noise Suppression and Compression filter was installed on that specific microphone input channel.
In any case, I disabled the filter and I was able to record complex audio streams without any cutting out. I re-enabled everything including the external mixer input AND the dual instances of OBS and everything continued to sound great. I'm going to have to see what the audio sounds like after the next meeting in January to see if there are any new issues that I need to address but I've got high hopes!
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