OBS: Q4 2021 updated

This is a rude list of settings I use in OBS for my use cases. I typically only use OBS to handle my Discord video and audio, as well as for convenient recording from my screen or Nikon D3400 HDMI capture.

Software

Hardware

Profiles

720pDiscord

  • Video:
    • Canvas resolution: 1920×1080
    • Output resolution: 1280×720
    • FPS: 30
  • Audio:
    • Monitoring device CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)

I downscale the canvas output to 720p as I have to zoom and crop my 1080p webcam feed to hide parts of my room. This would result in a pixelated mess at 1080p so nothing of value is lost. Discord webcam feeds don’t do 1080p anyway unless you pay for Nitro.

Audio monitoring is active for my audio sources and send to the virtual cable, which is then selected as the microphone input in Discord. This adds some latency to the audio signal, so a video delay is required to sync both us again. This differs per video input device. For getting the video into Discord I use Discord’s virtual camera as my webcam in Discord. Together OBS has full control over your audio and video in Discord.

Recording (duplicate for 1080p60, 1080p30)

  • Output:
    • Path: G:/streaming/OBS/obs recordings (SSD dedicated for recording and OBS assets)
    • Quality: High quality, medium filesize
    • Format: MKV. Use remux function to convert to MP4 for Premiere usage.
    • Encoder: NVENC
  • Video:
    • Resolution: 1920×1080
    • FPS: 60, 30fps

All other settings are stock.

Scenes

  • Face
    • Samson meteor mic
    • Aukey webcam
  • Nikon
    • Samson meteor mic
    • USB Video (USB HDMI capture deivce)
  • Screenshare L
    • Nested scene: [n] facecam
    • Samson meteor mic
    • Left monitor grab
  • Screenshare R
    • Samson meteor mic
  • [n] facecam
    • Alter this scene to move the small facecam instantly on ALL other scenes that use it. Also contains shadowbox image.
  • [n] facecam_mask
    • Webcamfeed with image mask applied. Move webcam capture on the canvas to re-allign it

Microphone settings

With these settings my voice sounds natural and can be used up to 40cm away from the mic. Best results: have mic positioned 10cm away from mouth, facing sideways. I stopped using a large circular pop filter and replaced it with a screen type popfilter instead. It’s less effective, but more compact and doesn’t block my face from view.

  • Expander:
    • Gate
    • Ratio 4:1
    • Threshold: -50dB
    • Attack: 10ms
    • Release 250ms
  • VST: Reaea-standalone (EQ):
    • Gain: 0dB
    • 1) High pass, 40Hz, 0 dB, 2.2oct
    • 2) Band, 140Hz, 9.6dBm 2.5oct
    • 3) Band, 735Hz, -3.2dB, 1.2oct
    • 4) Band, 5065Hz, 2.9dB, 1.5oct
    • 5) Low pass, 15000Hz, 0dB, 1.15oct
  • Compressor:
    • Ratio: 4:1
    • Threshold: -18dB
    • Attack: 6ms
    • Release: 60ms
    • Gain: 3dB
  • Limiter:
    • Threshold: -10dB
    • Release: 60ms

Lighting

  • Aim the desk light against the wall, facing straight down. The light will bounce off the wall and not create any flaring in to the webcam. For webcam use set dimming around 70%, for DSLR 40%.
  • Ceiling light can be set to anything when using the DSLR, but with the webcam it’s best to set it to white at 100% intensity.
  • Kallax LED strips and Philips bloom lights can be anything I want.

For aesthetics I like to set the ceiling light to purple, Philips bloom lights to orange and the Kallax LED strip to green. This totally isn’t Evangelion unit 01 inspired or anything.