How to make your stream sound good

Viewers will forgive a blurry 720p stream. They will not forgive audio that's quiet, echoey, or blown out. Sound is the fastest thing to fix and the most commonly ignored — and most of the fixes cost nothing.

1. Move the mic closer. Much closer.

This is free and it beats buying a better microphone. Most beginners have the mic a foot or more away, which is why they sound distant and roomy.

• Aim for roughly a hand's width from your mouth — about 6 to 8 inches.
• Speak across the mic rather than directly into it, to avoid popping your P's.
• Get it off the desk. A mic arm stops keyboard thumps and desk knocks transmitting straight into your audio.
• Closer mic means you can use less gain, which means less room noise. These compound.

2. Set your gain properly

Gain is how much your mic signal is amplified. Too low and you're inaudible; too high and you clip, which is permanent distortion no filter can repair.

1. Talk at the volume you'll actually stream at — including when you get excited, which is louder than you think.
2. Watch the OBS audio meter. You want it bouncing in the yellow, peaking around -12 to -6 dB.
3. It should only touch red rarely, if ever. Red is clipping.
4. If you have to shout to reach yellow, raise gain. If normal speech pins the meter, lower it.

3. Dynamic vs condenser — why your room matters

This explains most "why does my expensive mic sound worse than my friend's cheap one" confusion.

• Condenser mics (Blue Yeti, most USB mics) are sensitive and detailed — and they pick up your keyboard, your PC fans, your air conditioning and the room's echo. Great in a treated, carpeted room. Rough in an empty one.
• Dynamic mics (RØDE PodMic, Shure SM7dB) ignore almost everything that isn't directly in front of them. They need more gain, but in a normal untreated bedroom they usually sound dramatically better.
• If your room echoes and you're buying a mic, buy dynamic. See the gear finder for both types.

4. Add filters — in this order

In OBS, click the gear next to your mic in the Audio Mixer → Filters. Order matters, because each filter processes what the previous one hands it.

Noise Suppression

Removes constant background hum — fans, air conditioning, distant traffic. Use RNNoise for a good balance of quality and CPU. Don't overdo it; aggressive suppression makes your voice sound underwater.

Noise Gate

Mutes the mic entirely when you're not talking, so your keyboard and breathing vanish between sentences. Set the close threshold just above your room's noise floor and the open threshold a few dB higher. If your first word keeps getting cut off, lower the open threshold.

Compressor

Evens out your volume so quiet mumbling and excited shouting sit at similar levels. This is what makes streams sound "produced." A ratio around 4:1 with a few dB of output gain is a sane starting point.

Limiter

The safety net. Set it around -3 dB and it will catch the moment you scream at a jumpscare, preventing you from blowing out your viewers' headphones. Put this last.

5. Balance your mix

Your voice is the show. Everything else supports it.

• Game audio should sit clearly below your voice — if a viewer strains to hear you over gameplay, the mix is wrong.
• Music lower still, and make it stream-safe or your VODs get muted.
• Use push-to-talk for Discord if you're in calls, so private side-conversations don't reach your stream.
• Watch your own VOD back with headphones. It is the only reliable check.

If you only do three things

1. Move the mic to a hand's width from your mouth.
2. Set gain so you peak around -12 to -6 dB.
3. Add noise suppression, a gate, and a limiter.

That costs nothing and fixes the majority of beginner audio. Next: the full pre-stream checklist.