My partner and I are running Manjaro and very new to it. Trying to switch as much as possible over to daily use with Manjaro. We have pipewire, not pulseaudio
We record multiple times a week on OBS, and my partner and I are in the same room. We have two mics side by side both inputs going into my PC. Linux, and therefore OBS, are recognizing the two mic inputs separately as you might expect.
OBS can set up both of these separate inputs, but the issue is we’re having significant problems with echo and the noise suppression/noise gates are not sufficient.
This was not an issue on windows, where we used Voicemeeter to combine our inputs into one mic for OBS. I am looking to emulate that on Linux to see if it solves our problems.
We have tried a mic merge sink, but it creates an OUTPUT device, not an input device.
Y’all need carpet on the floors, maybe something on the walls, and to be facing each other from across the table with cardiod mics. You also need good mic discipline (get close to the mics/have them at an angle to avoid plosives/put dead cats on them), and need to avoid crosstalk.
No this is not our issue, but thanks for the responses.
We have excellent mics and set up, and we run this set up for years just fine on windows. So all the assistance I am looking for is how to combine our inputs into one on Manjaro.
My partner’s other post says more which I might as well not repeat: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40171565/19201729
You were depending on heavy real time post processing in software that Manjaro, AFAIK, does not have. I should’ve clarified that I understood the question, but I am offering a real solution.
Even if you don’t like this solution, it is what is going to give you the most long-term success. If you are serious about recording decent audio, you need to start with mic placement, then look at hardware, then look at software last.
If you want to compromise, then y’all just need to record straight into Zoom or something. Or use a browser based solution like Zencastr, Squadcast, etc. and run their echo suppression. That might work. YMMV and you may end up with tin.
Let me ask this: what are you recording for? That often informs the best solutions. OBS cannot do this for you no matter what.
A software solution is fine for us. We cannot change mic arrangement any more than it already is due to physical restraints in room. The mics are faced away from each other. They are good quality XLR mics and run through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.
Are you talking about Voicemeteer?
We play TTRPGs online via Discord and FoundryVTT, and record the sessions. We use OBS to capture webcams on Discord, the virutal tabletop, desktop audio for other people’s voices/music from the vtt, and mic audio for our voices.
On Windows, we used Voicemeteer to combine our mics. We could use this resulting combination for both OBS and Discord. Since we cannot find similar software so far for linux, we came across the solution I linked above. It works for getting our mics to be combined into one for Discord, but doesn’t show up as an input in OBS. We cannot get OBS to “listen to” the combined sink output.
So, instead, we just set them up as two different mics in OBS. This would be fine, except the recording as the echo problem. Over Discord, I assume because it’s getting Krisp noise suppression applied, there is no echo. But after listening to the OBS recording, there is echo. So, a software solution to noise/echo suppress might be what we need as well, but that’s why we’re asking for help.
I guess what I don’t understand is the Krisp situation. So is that not available on discord with Linux Or it just doesn’t seem to be working?
TBH that’s not what it’s for in the first place So are you sure it was what was doing the heavy lifting in the first place? Voicemeteer also seems to be a mystery to y’all. Do you know what function it was playing? At the end of the day you have too many things to troubleshoot from afar. You probably need to rethink your entire set up from start to finish, as opposed to try to duplicate what you had in Windows, an operating system you are no longer using. For all we know it was doing its own thing or you had other software you forgot about.
I don’t appreciate your condescending tone, tbh. If you are not interested in helping us, you can stop replying.
Voicemeteer was taking our two mics and turning them into a single source that we could then feed to Discord and OBS. That should be it. I’m not completely sure it wasn’t applying some other kind of filters, but I don’t think it was, that’s not what it’s supposed to do. So let’s say we have Mic Source 1 and Mic Source 2. Voicemeteer took the input from both of those and combined them into Combined Source. We then pointed OBS and Discord to use Combined Source. That’s all we’re trying to achieve on Linux right now.
Krisp is a feature of Discord. It is available on Linux. We have used this post to accomplish what we want to do with Discord, but this solution does not work for OBS. On Discord, others on call do not report hearing this echo effect. It only appears in OBS recording when we use Mic Source 1 and Mic Source 2. I am not convinced that Krisp is a factor here, as we have tested with it off, but I felt it was worth mentioning. It seems to have confused the situation though.
It’s not condescending - you have said in multiple comments that it may be doing more than you realize, which means it is a mystery to you. I am being clinical and focused about this, not condescending. I am actually talking to you as if you know what I am talking about. If youwould like me to change my tone that is fine, but I’m in the business of trying to help people solve audio problems. Too much handholding generally leads to confusion.
Again, you keep saying you don’t fully know what it was doing. So it behooves you to look it up. This is not me being condescending or patronizing, this is me telling you what you need to do after you literally said you don’t know what it was or was not doing. You need to isolate every single thing you were doing before, every single thing you are doing now, and understand how each step was/is impacting your audio. This is troubleshooting 101. Until you do that, nobody can help you. Unless you want to completely depend on luck or start from scratch.
You came here looking for technical answers, I have been doing nothing but offering you technical solutions. We are clearly missing information, whether you know it or not, and I’m doing the best with what I have. I’m sorry this is frustrating for you, I have been there many many times and I get it. But I am not your enemy. I am someone with almost 20 years of audio production experience trying to assist. For free.
(reposting this in a higher comment for other people to potentially see)
The room is not professionally treated for sound, but we do have one wall (behind the mics) 90% covered with 2" sound dampening foam. Lots of stuff on the other walls, rugs, etc. It is not a bare-bones room. Our mics are good quality cardioid mics and while our setups are not 180° back-to-back, the mics point away from each other when in use. I don’t know if I can explain well enough with words, but we sit side-by-side with the mics between us on arms. They swing down between us, stretch out towards us, and point away from each other. They are about 1.5 to 2 feet apart from each other, pointed away, when in use.