OBS Audio Output on Zoom and Google Meet
I have started to use OBS to create a virtual background for my Google Meet meetings. This has worked very well thus far. However, I’ve noticed a sync delay between the video and sound. One way to resolve this is to get the OBS to process the audio as well. Now I just need to get OBS audio output on Zoom and Google Meet
Read on to see how to get this working!
OBS Audio Output on Zoom and Google Meet
1. Install SoundFlower virtual audio device
To start, you will need to install a virtual audio device on your machine. On MacOS, you can use Soundflower to get this. The latest release can be found on this link. For Windows users, there is the VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device that can you use instead. They also have a Mac driver but Soundflower more popular within the MacOS community. If you want a advanced audio routing capabiltiies, you can also check out Loopback app.
As I am a MacOS user, the guide here will show the use of Soundflower. Do note that on MacOS Catalina, the first round of installation of Soundflower will fail. This is not a problem.
PLEASE READ! NEW SECURITY STEPS REQUIRED BY APPLE
Source: https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/tag/2.0b2
The first time you run the installer (Soundflower.pkg), it will ask for your admin password, and will FAIL! A security alert will appear, with a button to take you to System Preferences “Security & Privacy – General” pane. Once there, there should be an “Allow” button (**) that you will need to click on to give permission to use Soundflower (developer: MATT INGALLS). Then, RUN THE INSTALLER AGAIN. It should inform you installation was successfull.
(**) If you see an “Open Anyway” button in the Security Preferences, this is something different!!! Most likely because you tried (and failed) opening the installer by double clicking without holding down the control key. If so, click the “Open Anyway” button which will display another window. Then click the “Open” button in that window to launch the installer. Now you can follow the instructions above to get the “Allow” button to appear in the Security Preferences.
The cool thing about Soundflower is that it is an audio device that supports both audio input and output! Any audio that is fed into the Soundflower virtual audio device’s input can be routed as an output as well to another application.
2. Set the monitor device on OBS to Soundflower
OBS supports audio monitoring. This is typically used to monitor or hear the processed audio that is being broadcasted in the stream. Therefore, if you set it as the Soundflower virtual audio device, you can then use it as the mic input device on Zoom or Google Meet.
You can find the OBS Audio Monitoring Device settings as shown in the screenshot below.
3. Turn on monitoring on the OBS audio device
There is still one more step to get the OBS audio output on Zoom or Google Meet. By default, monitoring is not turned on for the audio devices. To do so, click on the advanced settings for your audio device.
I recommend using the Monitor Only option as there is no need to send the audio out to an output.
4. Set Zoom and Google Meet to use Soundflower as the mic
If everything is set up right, all you need to do is to just set Zoom and Google Meet to use Soundflower as the mic input. With that, you’re done!
Why all the trouble with OBS Audio on Zoom and Google Meet?
Its because you can do quite a fair bit of audio processing on OBS! One of the things I’m experimenting now is to enable a noise gate so that the mic is only turned on above a certain audio threshold.
There are a lot more that you can do here which I’ve yet to explore, especially with the support of VST 2.x plug-ins.
Hope this has been helpful to you! If it has been, please support the running of this blog by buying me a coffee. Thanks!
