Audio Clicking / Popping

Audio Troubleshooting Guide for VDO.Ninja

Common Issues and Solutions

Bluetooth Microphone Clicking/Popping

Bluetooth microphones can cause clicking or popping sounds. Consider using a wired microphone for better reliability.

Sample Rate Mismatch

VDO.Ninja uses 48kHz audio (48000hz). To ensure maximum compatibility:

• If different sample rates are used, conversion may cause issues in rare situations.

High Sample Rate Devices

Devices like FiiO DAC can sometimes have very high audio sample rates, potentially causing buffer underruns and clicking problems.

Recommended Audio Settings:

• Set playback audio device and microphone capture device to 48000hz.

• Use no more than 24-bit audio depth.

• Disable any Audio Enhancements in your audio drivers

• Ensure to only use mono or stereo audio with your devices; surround can cause issues.

• Adjust these settings in Windows audio settings.

Buffer Size Issues

• Increase audio buffer packet sizes for any virtual audio cables or pro audio gear.

• Small audio buffers on mic preamps or virtual audio cables can lead to clicking or distortion.

System Overload

• Restart OBS or address heavy CPU load to prevent buffer underruns.

• Ensure the computer isn't running near 100% load.

• Consider running OBS Studio in admin mode.

• Consider reducing video resolution and bitrate to free up CPU resources for audio processing.

OBS Studio Issues

• Restarting OBS or addressing heavy CPU load may also help prevent buffer underruns, which sometimes appear in the OBS logs as a max buffer reached error.

• Make sure the computer isn't running near 100% load to ensure it's not just overloaded.

  • Do not rely on the OBS CPU usage value, but instead use Windows Task Manager to judge CPU usage

• Consider running OBS Studio in Administrator mode, if on Windows

Surround Sound Headphones

Some surround sound headphones (e.g., Logitech, Corsair) can cause audio problems:

• Symptoms: robotic noises, distortion

• Solutions:

  • Disable surround sound / DTX mode

  • Disable Enhanced Audio settings in your Windows audio driver

MacOS-Specific Issues

Ensure your Mac is plugged into a power outlet, not running on battery power.

• If an older Macbook, 2016-era for example, overheating is very likely.

• Consider having the guest join with &meshcast&q=2, to reduce CPU load,

Network-Related Issues

Wi-Fi vs. Ethernet

• Avoid using Wi-Fi for streaming high-quality music.

• Use wired Ethernet connections on both ends to prevent packet loss and clipping.

  • Sometimes changing Ethernet cables can help, or actually even switching to WiFi oddly

• Using cellular (tethered / hotspot), might validate if a network issue

Bandwidth Usage

• Keep bandwidth usage below 80% of total upload capacity.

• Using 100% of bandwidth can cause packet stalling and audio clicking.

• https://vdo.ninja/speedtest can help you judge your max bandwidth

Packet Loss Solutions

1. Enable TCP transfer:

   • For WHIP/WHEP services, configure to use TCP instead of UDP.

   • Use a VPN service like Speedify.com with TCP transfer mode.

   • For VDO.Ninja, add &relay&tcp to the publishing link.

2. Use a TURN relay server in TCP mode:

   • Add &relay&tcp to the VDO.Ninja publishing link. Example: https://vdo.ninja/?webcam&relay&tcp

3. Enable RED audio mode:

   • Add to &audiocodec=red the viewer-side links

   • This will switch from OPUS Forward Error Correcting to OPUS Redundancy mode

Additional Troubleshooting Steps

Audio Processing tweaks

Try adding these URL parameters to viewer and sender links:

• &noaudioprocessing

  • This disables web-audio nodes, which disabling will break some functionality of VDO.Ninja

• &samplerate=48000

• &micsamplerate=48000

Further Resources

For issues with audio distortion or robotic voices, you can see this article.