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jtr210  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, December 15, 2020 3:17:00 PM(UTC)
jtr210

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I've been using vMix Call every day for several months and have come across many issues, but today I encountered a brand new one that is somewhat perplexing. I work with a host who has had an issue the last few days where all her microphones (Shure condenser mic w/ Scarlett 2i2, AirPods, laptop mic and Logitech 930e camera mic) sound very buzzy/noisy on vMix Call coming through Chrome on her Macbook Air. I hear an abnormal amount of background noise when she's not talking, then when she speaks I get much more noise and a prominent buzzing sound with each word.

However, they all sound clean on vMix Call through Firefox, as well as through Zoom.

Great, right? Problem solved! Not so fast...

On Firefox the audio and video are approximately one to three seconds out of sync. Not usable.

I've restarted the computer, updated browsers, refreshed vMix Call browsers endlessly, and keep getting the same behavior. The fact that it's coming from a wired mic, bluetooth mic, internal computer mic and external USB mic rule out the mics themselves, but the different browser issues are perplexing.

She is on a Macbook Air purchased a few months ago, Big Sur OS installed a few weeks ago (fine until now), 120 down/22 up hardwired internet.


Also, the last week or so her Logitech 930e webcam has been acting very funny in vMix Call, but totally okay in Zoom. This camera always defaults to widescreen with vMix Call, which is fine, but when I use the Logitech Camera Control software now to toggle from 'widescreen' to 'standard', it changes the shot in the camera software, but the video freezes in vMix Call. This occurs in Chrome and Firefox. If I use the '+' and '-' arrows to zoom in however, it does not make the video in vMix Call freeze. Very strange. Tested this dozens of times in the past week.

Coincidentally, the camera control software has been crashing a lot, which never used to happen.

I upgraded her to Big Sur a few weeks back because she was having so many issues with dongles and her USB webcam, Scarlett, ethernet and power reliably passing through the dongles ($80 models), and I read that Big Sur is supposed to have better support for all these dongles Apple now forces everyone to use. We just got her a brand new $250 self-powered thunderbolt dock to hopefully alleviate these dongle headaches once and for all.

Does anyone have insight in to what might be happening here? OS/hardware/software version mismatch? Bunk Macbook Air? We have had so many problems with her setup I would have to start a dozen more threads just to address them all.

Thanks y'all!
mjgraves  
#2 Posted : Friday, December 18, 2020 1:39:40 AM(UTC)
mjgraves

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MacBook Air is very possibly worst choice possible for this sort of thing.

There was a time when OSX (Catalina I think, or maybe Maverick) mistakenly mixed the mic and speaker audio at the OS level, resulting in echo that could not be eliminated. They eventually fixed that.

It just seems crazy to me to have all that outboard gear connected to a device that's underpowered and port-shy.

That said, I have no such trouble with my 2016 Mac Mini (i3) which has been upgraded to an SSD and running the latest OSX. I used USB-connected headsets, like the Sennheiser SC-60.
jtr210  
#3 Posted : Friday, December 18, 2020 1:55:13 AM(UTC)
jtr210

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Thanks for the insight mjgraves. The host started with an iPad Pro, but was moved over to a Macbook Air so we could have more flexibility with peripherals and remote access. Her eyeline was always off with the iPad, as in landscape mode the camera is off to the side.

A Macbook Pro wouldn't help with the lack of ports and the need for dongles, though it would be more powerful and likely be a more reliable machine.

Yesterday I reset Core Audio through the terminal and that didn't help. Confirmed all her mics buzzing through Zoom, vMix Call Chrome and vMix Call Firefox.

She has a second Macbook Air that behaved better than the first with her various microphones. I went back to the original laptop and got vMix Call working nicely with Firefox (normal vMix Call, stereo audio) with her condenser mic > Scarlet 2i2.

With the troubleshooting I find problems, go through each step, then sometimes land right back where I started. Inconsistent results that don't totally make sense. 🤷‍♂️

I hope today's show goes well. 🤞
mjgraves  
#4 Posted : Friday, December 18, 2020 9:10:40 AM(UTC)
mjgraves

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Upon further reflection, mic buzzing sounds like an analog phenomenon. Might not have anything to do with the computer at all.

The only analog bits are the Mic <> Scarlet connection. I'd check cable and ensure a solid ground.
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