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I randomly learned OBS a while ago for doing some twitch streams in the evenings. I'm so glad I did. I run a 6,000 people company during the day and have OBS s

by xal 7y ago

I randomly learned OBS a while ago for doing some twitch streams in the evenings. I'm so glad I did. I run a 6,000 people company during the day and have OBS setup to push into Google Meet. I've done townhall with live on-screen Q/A voting, hosted podcast discussions, done PIP product reviews. I use its video record feature to react to figma prototypes and post the MP4s in the respective channel for discussion. OBS is an amazing tool and its worth learning. Even simple things like adding a compressor to an audio stream can make a huge difference to the quality. As one of our coaches recently said "Video quality is the new presence in 1:1s". On windows its reasonably easy to output OBS to a virtual camera for video conferencing software through a plugin. I've posted a bounty of $10k recently to make this a native feature and it's getting lots of traction. https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1242641154576965634 https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1242641154576965634 https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/issues/2568 https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/issues/2568 https://github.com/obsproject/rfcs/pull/15 https://github.com/obsproject/rfcs/pull/15

Osiris 7y ago
Can you recommend any resources for learning OBS? My daughter wanted to record some videos of her playing a web-based game. I found the interface to OBS unintuitive. I managed to figure out how to capture a specific area on the desktop, but it was unexpectedly difficult to resize the output to match the input. I found some way of doing it that I can't remember. A few months later I had to do it again and that time I couldn't find the option to resize the output to match the input. I'd love to find some resources to help her learn how to setup OBS for recording or streaming.
- julianlam 7y ago
  Instead of streaming the entire desktop (or a portion of it), you'll actually want to set up the ["Game Capture" source](https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide#game-capture https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide#game-capture), and configure it to automatically attach to any fullscreen application. Then add an audio stream, and you're good to go.
- zahrc 7y ago
  The official obs website has a wiki and a forum, that’s probably the best place to go. I can also help you set it up if you want!
- ogjunkyard 7y ago
  Osiris, there are a lot of tutorials around learning OBS. One of the best ones that I've come across is EposVox's OBS Studo Master Class 2018. It helps you figure out what you want to learn and covers a large swath of the various OBS functionalities. EposVox's OBS Studio Master Class 2018 YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzo7l8HTJNK-IKzM_zDicTd2u20Ab2pAl https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzo7l8HTJNK-IKzM_zDic...
- meestaahjoshee 7y ago
  try obs streamlabs or twitch studio - they're a lot more beginner friendly and built with OBS if your daughter just wants to record or stream.
  - jachee 7y ago
    I'll say that StreamLabs was better before they changed their monetization model. I was lucky to download and install a few sets of overlays a few months ago that, today, would cost a minimum monthly fee to access.
- bakedbeanz 7y ago
  Check out "Gaming Careers" on YouTube, it's a channel dedicated to teaching all the various aspects of streaming from the ground up, assuming little or no previous knowledge.
tomphoolery 7y ago
I was just thinking about this, but mostly to route the audio through OBS so I can play my teammates some sweet synth music while we wait for others to join the standup.
mkl 7y ago
Are there any existing plug-ins for virtual microphone? I want to use OBS'S realtime noise suppression and noise gating in another app (mainly online lecture platform Echo360). I got it working using VoiceMeeter in what seems like a hacky way, but only with high latency so far.
- bschne 7y ago
  I think there should be software that provides virtual audio devices, so you could configure it as the output for OBS and the input for you other application - something like this: https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/ https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/
  - mkl 7y ago
    Yes, that's what VoiceMeeter does (same author).
- blattimwind 7y ago
  Use Equalizer APO with a noise-reduction VST. This is by far the best option on Windows if you are concerned about latency×compatibility×underruns as a figure of merit. It is far superior to using "virtual audio cables" and a VST host (like Lighthost or SAVI) or voicemeeter. It's not well known, but it really works spectacularly well compared to those other options. For me it never has had any audible buffer underruns (unlike Lighthost), no noticeable latency (unlike SAVI and Voicemeeter, even with small buffer sizes), no problems regarding exclusive mode (unlike voicemeeter) and it works with every single application. The UI is not terribly clear about this, but it can drive multiple devices independently, simply by adding several "Device" blocks to the configuration.
  - hhh 7y ago
    Do you have any recommendations for VST plugins to use?
    - mkl 7y ago
      Please see my sibling comment. The video I linked uses ReaPlugs (https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/) and I ended up without needing any explicit noise reduction, just noise gating and some other adjustments.
roel_v 7y ago
How do you do q/a and voting?
- AndrewHampton 7y ago
  Poll Everywhere (YC S08) has Q&A question support with voting. I'm a developer at Poll Everywhere and we use it during our weekly townhalls. Our company was 40% remote before the coronavirus crisis, and my experience with the Q&A poll as a remote worker has been great.
billjings 7y ago
Sadly, OBS is busted for interfacing with Google Meet on MacOS. :( Found this out the hard way Monday.
rexpop 7y ago
> "Video quality is the new presence in 1:1s". That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day. "Presence" in terms of 1:1s should be about listening to, understanding, and empathizing with the person opposite you. Performing "theory of mind," which has nothing whatsoever to do with video quality. This is exactly the kind of aphorism a cold, calculating executive would comfort himself with while orchestrating the hierarchical exploitation of 6,000 people arbitrarily his inferior.
- Mary-Jane 7y ago
  How is this comment not dead? It violates all the criteria for participating on this site.
  - rexpop 7y ago
    What has the world come to when you can't even trust the self-appointed oligarchs to enforce their arbitrary rules?
- kylemuir 7y ago
  You're replying to Tobi the CEO and founder of Shopify who recently and very publically posted about 40 hour work weeks and how Shopify lives and breathes work life balance which multiple employees confirmed. I don't know him from a bar of soap outside of what's shared publically but a cold, calculating executive is about as far from the mark as you could possibly be.
  - rexpop 7y ago
    Hm, I will admit I didn't realize the particular executive I was addressing, and that Shopify is off my radar in terms of executive abuses, but CEOs are all of a class, and 40-hour work weeks are still an untenable arrangement, and the Overton window for commonly acceptable work-life balance is far, far toward the wage-slavery side of things–to say nothing of the work-life balance for millions upstream of the Shopify supply chain, e.g. computer-mineral miners in the Global South. So I am not ready to give Tobi any humanitarian awards. In truth, I have long admired Shopify for their open culture, their tech blogs, and a product that empowers small businesses. None of these things are enough, however, to convince me that he's anything more than a wealthy Libertarian seeking (primarily) personal gain through economic exploitation, managerial coercion, and authoritarian hierarchies. > a cold, calculating executive is about as far from the mark as you could possibly be This is an indefensible exaggeration. You're telling me Tobi is a saint? A CEO? An absolute absurdity. Liberals love democracy until it comes to the workplace. You disgust me.
ljm 7y ago
I've just started learning how to use it and it's blown my mind how bloody useful it is, while also being open source. I've got it set up to record part of my screen and my webcam at the same time, and then I can chop it up in post using Resolve, no problem. Until I found OBS I was basically trying to record my screen and then narrate over it after the fact, but it just didn't jibe with me as there's basically no room for improv or failure at that point. And I personally prefer to leave my less egregious mistakes in the final cut to demonstrate that you don't always get things right the first time.
jgrauman 7y ago
Thanks for posting the bounty. Awesome! I wonder if it would make sense to add a virtual mic output as well so that the video and audio can be synced together, for ie when someone is using OBS to Zoom... I've gotten it to work via pulseaudio routing but the audio isn't automatically synced.

by xal 7y ago

Osiris 7y ago

Can you recommend any resources for learning OBS? My daughter wanted to record some videos of her playing a web-based game. I found the interface to OBS unintuitive. I managed to figure out how to capture a specific area on the desktop, but it was unexpectedly difficult to resize the output to match the input. I found some way of doing it that I can't remember. A few months later I had to do it again and that time I couldn't find the option to resize the output to match the input. I'd love to find some resources to help her learn how to setup OBS for recording or streaming.

julianlam 7y ago
Instead of streaming the entire desktop (or a portion of it), you'll actually want to set up the ["Game Capture" source](https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide#game-capture https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide#game-capture), and configure it to automatically attach to any fullscreen application. Then add an audio stream, and you're good to go.
zahrc 7y ago
The official obs website has a wiki and a forum, that’s probably the best place to go. I can also help you set it up if you want!
ogjunkyard 7y ago
Osiris, there are a lot of tutorials around learning OBS. One of the best ones that I've come across is EposVox's OBS Studo Master Class 2018. It helps you figure out what you want to learn and covers a large swath of the various OBS functionalities. EposVox's OBS Studio Master Class 2018 YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzo7l8HTJNK-IKzM_zDicTd2u20Ab2pAl https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzo7l8HTJNK-IKzM_zDic...
meestaahjoshee 7y ago
try obs streamlabs or twitch studio - they're a lot more beginner friendly and built with OBS if your daughter just wants to record or stream.
- jachee 7y ago
  I'll say that StreamLabs was better before they changed their monetization model. I was lucky to download and install a few sets of overlays a few months ago that, today, would cost a minimum monthly fee to access.
bakedbeanz 7y ago
Check out "Gaming Careers" on YouTube, it's a channel dedicated to teaching all the various aspects of streaming from the ground up, assuming little or no previous knowledge.

tomphoolery 7y ago

I was just thinking about this, but mostly to route the audio through OBS so I can play my teammates some sweet synth music while we wait for others to join the standup.

mkl 7y ago

Are there any existing plug-ins for virtual microphone? I want to use OBS'S realtime noise suppression and noise gating in another app (mainly online lecture platform Echo360). I got it working using VoiceMeeter in what seems like a hacky way, but only with high latency so far.

bschne 7y ago
I think there should be software that provides virtual audio devices, so you could configure it as the output for OBS and the input for you other application - something like this: https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/ https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/
- mkl 7y ago
  Yes, that's what VoiceMeeter does (same author).
blattimwind 7y ago
Use Equalizer APO with a noise-reduction VST. This is by far the best option on Windows if you are concerned about latency×compatibility×underruns as a figure of merit. It is far superior to using "virtual audio cables" and a VST host (like Lighthost or SAVI) or voicemeeter. It's not well known, but it really works spectacularly well compared to those other options. For me it never has had any audible buffer underruns (unlike Lighthost), no noticeable latency (unlike SAVI and Voicemeeter, even with small buffer sizes), no problems regarding exclusive mode (unlike voicemeeter) and it works with every single application. The UI is not terribly clear about this, but it can drive multiple devices independently, simply by adding several "Device" blocks to the configuration.
- hhh 7y ago
  Do you have any recommendations for VST plugins to use?
  - mkl 7y ago
    Please see my sibling comment. The video I linked uses ReaPlugs (https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/) and I ended up without needing any explicit noise reduction, just noise gating and some other adjustments.

roel_v 7y ago

How do you do q/a and voting?

AndrewHampton 7y ago
Poll Everywhere (YC S08) has Q&A question support with voting. I'm a developer at Poll Everywhere and we use it during our weekly townhalls. Our company was 40% remote before the coronavirus crisis, and my experience with the Q&A poll as a remote worker has been great.

billjings 7y ago

Sadly, OBS is busted for interfacing with Google Meet on MacOS. :( Found this out the hard way Monday.

rexpop 7y ago

> "Video quality is the new presence in 1:1s". That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day. "Presence" in terms of 1:1s should be about listening to, understanding, and empathizing with the person opposite you. Performing "theory of mind," which has nothing whatsoever to do with video quality. This is exactly the kind of aphorism a cold, calculating executive would comfort himself with while orchestrating the hierarchical exploitation of 6,000 people arbitrarily his inferior.

Mary-Jane 7y ago
How is this comment not dead? It violates all the criteria for participating on this site.
- rexpop 7y ago
  What has the world come to when you can't even trust the self-appointed oligarchs to enforce their arbitrary rules?
kylemuir 7y ago
You're replying to Tobi the CEO and founder of Shopify who recently and very publically posted about 40 hour work weeks and how Shopify lives and breathes work life balance which multiple employees confirmed. I don't know him from a bar of soap outside of what's shared publically but a cold, calculating executive is about as far from the mark as you could possibly be.
- rexpop 7y ago
  Hm, I will admit I didn't realize the particular executive I was addressing, and that Shopify is off my radar in terms of executive abuses, but CEOs are all of a class, and 40-hour work weeks are still an untenable arrangement, and the Overton window for commonly acceptable work-life balance is far, far toward the wage-slavery side of things–to say nothing of the work-life balance for millions upstream of the Shopify supply chain, e.g. computer-mineral miners in the Global South. So I am not ready to give Tobi any humanitarian awards. In truth, I have long admired Shopify for their open culture, their tech blogs, and a product that empowers small businesses. None of these things are enough, however, to convince me that he's anything more than a wealthy Libertarian seeking (primarily) personal gain through economic exploitation, managerial coercion, and authoritarian hierarchies. > a cold, calculating executive is about as far from the mark as you could possibly be This is an indefensible exaggeration. You're telling me Tobi is a saint? A CEO? An absolute absurdity. Liberals love democracy until it comes to the workplace. You disgust me.

ljm 7y ago

I've just started learning how to use it and it's blown my mind how bloody useful it is, while also being open source. I've got it set up to record part of my screen and my webcam at the same time, and then I can chop it up in post using Resolve, no problem. Until I found OBS I was basically trying to record my screen and then narrate over it after the fact, but it just didn't jibe with me as there's basically no room for improv or failure at that point. And I personally prefer to leave my less egregious mistakes in the final cut to demonstrate that you don't always get things right the first time.

jgrauman 7y ago

Thanks for posting the bounty. Awesome! I wonder if it would make sense to add a virtual mic output as well so that the video and audio can be synced together, for ie when someone is using OBS to Zoom... I've gotten it to work via pulseaudio routing but the audio isn't automatically synced.