There's no "video discussion" or "meta discussion" forum so I picked this one. Hope it's not too off-topic.

There's a soft, but distracting (to me) background static/clicking sound in the videos. I checked with a few different devices/headphone combinations and compared to some other Youtube videos to confirm this.

I've only watched the archive videos; I haven't compared to the live stream so I don't know if it's related to the mic/capture or to the youtube transcoding.

Casey, what kind of mic are you using?

Some people have been complaining about this in stream chat, I haven't noticed it though. It looks like he's using a microphone on a pair of earbuds, so maybe the clicking is the mic hitting something when he moves? Just speculating here.

Also gonna hijack this thread to point out that we should probably have a Meta Discussion section because there's a lot of threads here and in Code Discussion that aren't really about the game or code.

It looks like he's using a microphone on a pair of earbuds

If that's really the mic he's using, it seems like upgrading would be a great first step. That should give a noticeable boost in the overall sound quality.

From a bit of internet research it seems like the Audio-Technica AT2020 or Blue Snowball are solid choices.

Casey, if you're open to it, I'd be happy to donate a mic for Handmade Hero. Email me a mailing address or a paypal email (or I can just donate via Patreon).

maybe the clicking is the mic hitting something when he moves?

Nah, it's a very rapid sound, more like static or line noise. Clicking probably wasn't the right way to describe it.

I took about 1s of silence from where Casey wasn't talking during the most recent archive video (day 28), then amplified it to make the static sound obvious:

https://soundcloud.com/cespare/handmade-hero-static

I also confirmed that the sound is present in the Twitch archives, so it's not some artifact of the transcoding that happens before it hits Youtube.

Yes, major bonus points to anyone who figures out how to get rid of it (assuming we're talking about the same thing). I tried recording the mic input through Reaper, and the clicking isn't present. When OBS records the sound, however, the clicking is present.

So something OBS is doing in the recording, compression, or sourcing of the sound is adding this, and I do not know how to get it to stop :(

- Casey

cespare
Casey, if you're open to it, I'd be happy to donate a mic for Handmade Hero. Email me a mailing address or a paypal email (or I can just donate via Patreon).

I'm totally open to switching to a different microphone, but unfortunately I'm 99% positive this sound isn't coming from the microphone :( If there's some other aspect of the recording that would improved by switching microphones that might be a good idea, but if we're just talking about getting rid of the clicking, as far as I can tell it's strictly on OBS problem.

- Casey

Thanks for the info, Casey. I'd love to keep troubleshooting this.

Can you give me more info about your hardware configuration? In particular:

- What mic are you using?
- How does it connect to your PC?
- Any other hardware involved (sound card, etc)

Googling around, I've found a variety of leads. I'm going to see if I can reproduce the sound myself.

I'm totally open to switching to a different microphone, but unfortunately I'm 99% positive this sound isn't coming from the microphone :(

Okay, why don't we do that as well? It should help the overall quality a lot and there is some chance (although, as you say, quite slim) that it will solve the issue. At minimum replacing the mic eliminates one possibility for the cause of the problem.

Let me know what the most convenient way is for me to donate.

-Caleb

cespare
What mic are you using?

Etymotic HF2 headphones.

- How does it connect to your PC?

Through the standard front panel jacks. I have a Y splitter that takes the TRRS of the headphone plug and turns it into the two TRS plugs (headphone out and mic in).

- Any other hardware involved (sound card, etc)

Not that I know of.

Okay, why don't we do that as well? It should help the overall quality a lot and there is some chance (although, as you say, quite slim) that it will solve the issue. At minimum replacing the mic eliminates one possibility for the cause of the problem.

Let me know what the most convenient way is for me to donate.

Email me at [email protected] and let me know what you're proposing in terms of microphones.

- Casey

Thanks Casey!

- Are you using the latest OBS (0.638 Beta)?
- Did you change any of the audio configuration options? (For instance maybe you followed Twitch's handy OBS guide: http://help.twitch.tv/customer/po...1262922-open-broadcaster-software)
- In OBS's Settings > Advanced, what is Scene Buffering Time set to?

And a couple of things to try that probably won't help, but are easy and so are worth checking:
- Does the problem happen when no programs are running (besides OBS)?
- Can you try with the mic plugged into a different port (maybe a mic port directly on the mobo)?
- Do you have any USB mic you could try with?

Email me at [email protected] and let me know what you're proposing in terms of microphones.

I sent you an email.

-Caleb

cespare
- Are you using the latest OBS (0.638 Beta)?

Yes.

Did you change any of the audio configuration options?

Yes, although I cannot find any settings which affect this problem. Back when I first set it up, I noticed the problem, and I tested toggling and modifying every audio setting there was, and none of them affect the problem. Just now, due to this thread, I tried them all again, and did 11 separate tests, each one modifying a parameter, and none of them have any effect.

In OBS's Settings > Advanced, what is Scene Buffering Time set to?

700. Modifying it to 2000 had no effect.

Does the problem happen when no programs are running (besides OBS)?

Yes.

Can you try with the mic plugged into a different port (maybe a mic port directly on the mobo)? / Do you have any USB mic you could try with?

I can guarantee you it's not the port or the microphone :) If you record the audio from the microphone with any other program there is no clicking sound. It is strictly something introduced by OBS, presumably because of some bug in something that they're doing, but I don't know what :(

- Casey

I can guarantee you it's not the port or the microphone :) If you record the audio from the microphone with any other program there is no clicking sound. It is strictly something introduced by OBS, presumably because of some bug in something that they're doing, but I don't know what :(

Well, yes, the theory isn't that you have a bad port or microphone, the theory is that it's some weird interaction between the hardware, windows, and OBS, and so changing the hardware configuration might have some effect on it.

In the most similar forum posts I could find, some kind of hardware configuration change was most often the solution. (None of these exactly match the symptoms here, but it's what makes me think it's worth trying out.)

https://obsproject.com/forum/thre...-when-streaming-previewing.10527/
http://linustechtips.com/main/top...-with-obsopen-broadcast-software/
https://obsproject.com/forum/thre...ckground-noise.22210/#post-113256
https://obsproject.com/forum/thre...microphone-echo-and-static.21267/

Switching ports seems like an easy thing to try out, so why not check? I also think plugging in some kind of USB mic and hopefully cutting the analog mic ports out of the loop is worth trying. I agree that it seems like it must be OBS's "fault", but all we can really do is tweak the available variables until something different happens.

I happen to have a very similar headset to yours and I have a cheap TRRS splitter on order; I'll see if I can reproduce a similar problem to yours (a very long shot indeed).

While I'm waiting for that I'm planning on seeing if the OBS folks on the forum/IRC have any ideas.

-Caleb

So, I thought you were totally crazy for suggesting that somehow plugging it into a different analog port would work, but it appears to have worked. No idea why that would be, but if you take a listen to day 031, it appears that the clicking is gone???

- Casey

Wooo! Sounds fixed to me :) Thanks for giving that a shot.

For what it's worth, I think I've had an odd noise issue issue with analog ports, though I can't remember whether it was microphone or headphones. In my case I think it was front panel sound being lousy, presumably due to wiring and interference, and switching to the back panel worked fine.