Open Mic Tech Talk (Advanced) Connecting DAW to OBS to send audio / video to Zoom Using Reaper ReaStream

Hi Toby,
Yeah, - I saw a couple of typos in the old Forum guide. I thought of grabbing the content from here. But I wanted the whole semi consolidated thread without a bunch of editing. There is getting to be a lot of good discussion going on about how to best achieve this routing to Zoom. In a sense though, adding it into a PDF would make it messy as well.

All the best!
Lb

Hi,
A while back I was playing with basically the same setup as Toby has outlined. I also obtained the VB Audio Virtual Cable middleware/driver product via a YT video how to. Then, with the robust amount of routing channels available to me via my AI, I realized I did not need the VB Audio Virtual Cable “tool”. I found I could just simply do the routing via unused channels on/in the AI.

@TheMadman - You have a very capable AI from what little I know. Have you considered trying to eliminate the VB Audio Virtual Cable software driver and just use your channel routing in your AI?

Of course, for those folks with 1-2 channel AI’s, they are going to have to follow the guide and use the VB Audio Virtual Cable because of channel limitations.

Ta,
LB

Thank goodness. I was off to look for a rope and some sharp knives! :joy:

I’ll be happy if I can get zoom to work without freezing up on my phone as an audience member at the next OM.

2 Likes

@DavidP - I am not at my big DAW and AI at the moment. But I think the answer to your question has already been mentioned by @Majik. I can’t test this due to being “on the road”.

In OBS you would simply hit the plus at the bottom of the Source section. I think at that point you should be able to see or possibly drill down and see your 2 channels. If so, you would add each as a separate source. Once in OBS I would think thing you could apply Fx as needed to each channel source.

I will be home later today and check into this a bit further. Hopefully Keith will beat me to it! :sweat_smile:

All the best,
LB

Wow Sair - To me, depending on your phone. You are asking a lot of it. I don’t know what phone you have, but realize. Most of the talk here is about doing this on a full blown computer… To me the phone aspect probably deserves its own thread… I would think, keeping it as simple as possible would be your best bet.

Rock on!
LB

@LBro

Lbro I am leaving well alone now its up and running without any problems or latency. I am also currently using the dual virtual cable set up, so I can route Zoom audio and video back to OBS, which I could then use to capture my own OM set for example, without having the edit the full “show”. And it would be available immediately. I was going to compile a guide on that set up for folks here but there are plenty of tutorials out on YouTube and @Majik referred to one that uses the dual virtual set up, linked in his Topic here vvv.

I did get some initial latency on the new AI but changed the settings in Reaper and got it down to about 7ms combined.

So as I say, for now I am not touching anything, just in case :sunglasses:

Yes, I did a separate post on it here (as Toby has already linked).

In a nutshell, you need to use ASIO and an ASIO plugin for OBS.

Cheers,

Keith

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I can understand the concept of; “If it not broke, don’t fix it”. Though I think the routing method via the AI vs the use of the virtual cable is better as it cuts down on the drivers/software you run the signal through. - Great that it is working so well for you as you now have it! :smiley:

I think I know what you might have done in Reaper to cut your related latency down. You might share that as I would welcome another viewpoint on it and it may be informative. Additionally we have lots of Reaper users on here and they could possibly apply the knowledge to this setup or other related ones.

Keep rock’n and thanks!
LB

Just change the Reaper Latency Offset, if that is what you mean ? It would need a separate Topic I think not just added here, I’ll need to review the categories for a suitable home !

Hear what you are saying but I need to get from OBS to Zoom and back again. Without the cables I can’t. If it was just for video recording in OBS for sure, there are plenty of spare channels. But that is not the primary reason for the set up, that is the Zoom connectivity.

The PC is reasonably spec’d as well as its gaming biased and plenty of headroom, unlike the one that drowned. Reaper was forever crashing on the old one as it had no grunt. ! :sunglasses:

Routing it with JACK?

Yep!

It has been months or longer since I was messing with feeding Zoom with Reaper and OBS. Even longer since I looked at the Reaper Latency Offset. - I assume the L. Offset you are referring to is under preferences/recording? I don’t know if it is worth a topic of its own. Maybe play it by ear and if others are struggling with too much latency, go for it.

Understood. I was not trying to bring the Zoom session back into OBS. I will have to check into that with my AI. It could be you have to have the Virtual Cable on your setup with the Beringer AI. I have never seen the mixer software for it. On my RME AI I get a software mixer called TotalMix. They say you can route anything to any channel. I have to agree. It also has loopback functionality and I think in that, it very well could do what the Virtual Cable(s) are doing, if need be. Below is a quick screen grab of the TM mixer. Note the red circle that shows the LoopBack button enabled. This is on my 2 channel RME Babyface. I once tried a cheaper interface, but I missed TM so much I returned it and shelled out the big bucks for this AI. I have never regretted it. Kind of like your PC that died. Good riddance and glad to hear you got a new rig that is more capable!
:grin:

Ta and take good care,
LB

Jacks are wild?
:smiley:

LB

No software for the UMC1820 bar drivers, it just plugs in via USB and just seen as another audio device in Reaper. Reaper talks to OBS via a plug in called ReaStream. The virtual cables are just between OBS and Zoom. And yes the latency off set is in the Preferences. :sunglasses:

Yep, or Pipewire on newer distros.

Cheers,

Keith

I have pipewire (I’m on Arch), but I haven’t explored using it, yet. Have JACK working well for my use cases and just haven’t felt the need to move from it.

Ouch on there being no software mixer for your AI. I use the crap out of TotalMix on my AI. It is so strong I could bring my sub master child tracks out of Reaper and mix them in in the AI mixer, though I don’t.

I do thank you for the link to the video! Looks good and I will take that in. I have not messed much with trying to improve latency in Reaper that way.

Between what you and Majik have posted. There is a lot to help others in trying to route things to/from Zoom. Though I think trying to do that on a phone, to be near impossible if I understand it right. The phone option is probably worth a new thread in and of itself as many seem to use them to try and record stuff. Is it even possible to do the OM on a phone and do it half way well?

All the rock’n best,
LB

That looks interesting Toby. Now you got me thinking that I should be trying this out, may improve performance.

@LBro

I found that old forum thread I was referring to about latency but that was just a tiny part of a bigger discussion, which I think we can leave safely to one side. A great read after all these years and if anything epitomises the helpfulness of this community. It may jog some memories for you and Keith ! Boy have I moved on recording wise since then thank dog ! :scream:

https://justinguitarcommunity.com/index.php?topic=37247.50

Took in the video link on latency. Worked through the video and came up with a sample setting of -20! I am not sure what to make of the minus (-) value? Is that to imply my latency is 20 samples too far ahead? Strange on this one… Anyone have any clues on this?

Gosh, talk about a blast from the past with TB-AV and Scooter in there. Scooter helped me get going on recording & DAW work a great deal. Even Keith was there in that thread… I guess you could say the old salts were up to trying to help Toby! Yep, I think we have all advanced a bit since then! Too bad stuff like that will be toast when the old forum is nuked…

Toby - Did you mean to spell out your name wrong or is it a typo? Per below it seems a ‘J’ is missing???
[TheMadman_tobyenner]

All the best,
LB

Good catch LBro ! 20chars ma!