OBS Studio is open-source software, which means that almost anyone can develop add-ons and plugins for it. For streamers, this can be incredibly helpful. Sometimes a streamer needs additional functionality that isn’t built directly into OBS Studio, so the open-source functionality of OBS Studio lends itself well to this need.
With that said, there are plenty of options for add-ons and plugins depending on your needs. So let's talk about our choices for the three best OBS plugins!
A developer who goes by the name Palakis has created a plugin called “OBS-NDI” available here.
What this plugin does is allow a TWO PC stream setup without having to buy any capture cards or adapters. If you were looking to up your streaming setup game, OBS NDI is a very easy and free way to do so. The basic requirement for any of the PCs used with NDI is any CPU that supports Supplemental SSE3 instruction set (SSSE3). If you’d like to check if your CPU supports this instruction set, head on over to CPUworld , search your model CPU, and look under “Extensions and Technologies.”
Wavasour is a feature rich audio editor, and is a very good free software to reduce noise from audio. Noise reduction is not a native feature on this software, however you can reduce noise from audio with the help of a plugin. The plugin is known as ReaFIR VST plugin. I don't have it and haven't demoed it, but that is a common copy protection, a noise such as static will go off every so often, put in place by some developers on their demos. Sonnox Restore is a set of three plugins designed to restore sound from a well-known company. These are advanced algorithms and new functions that allow you to quickly and extremely efficiently remove stamping, clicks, cracks, scratches, hum and background noise from almost any recording without damaging the important “desired” audio content.
If this plugin sounds familiar, it's because we have a complete guide on setting it up! If you’d like to check out this plugin, feel free to check out our guide!
Palakis has developed yet another OBS plugin, and this one is called OBS Websocket.
The OBS Websocket plugin allows other programs to control the scene selection, source selection, etc. /free-808-drum-machine-vst.html. What this means is you can gain functionality similar to what an Elgato Stream Deck offers by utilizing this plugin in combination with a program called Touch Portal!
The only requirement to use it is a compatible Android or iOS device to turn into your low-cost Stream Deck alternative!
OBS Websocket link here
Touch Portal website link here
Install instructions
Click the download button on the page from the link above
Windows
Using the installer (recommended, works only with combined 32/64-bit installations) : download it, launch it and follow the instructions.
Using the obs-websocket-4.6.1-Windows.zip archive : copy the contents of the archive to the root of your OBS Studio installation folder (either C:Program Filesobs-studio or C:Program Files (x86)obs-studio).
Vst Noise Removal Plugin
The bottom of the page lists the following:
Select the version that applies to you (most likely the Windows-Installer one) and follow the above instructions.
Then for Touch Portal, they provide their instructions right here.
You can also find many additional tutorials and guides for Touch Portal usage right here!
A big part of streaming is making sure your audio sounds as good as possible. No matter what, if your audio is sub-par, people won’t want to stay. Many people say that the most important part of good video is excellent audio, and this stands true with streaming as well. OBS Studio includes many great audio filters already, and configuring them can yield some fantastic results. However, this article is about plugins and VST Plugns for audio can take things to another level beyond what OBS Studio is capable of without plugins.
VST Plugins can allow you to control microphone EQ, compression, control peaking, control background noise, and generally clean up and improve your audio. One of the most popular sources of free VST plugins is Reaper, available here. You’ll want to make sure to download the “ReaPlugs VST FX Suite” and download the correct 32-bit or 64-bit package that is compatible with your OS. More than likely it’ll be 64-bit.
Once downloaded, go ahead and run through the installer. Adding a VST plug-in through your OBS microphone device filters will now show a drop down list of the ReaPlug VST plug-ins!
Waves Plugins
At this point, you can test the different VSTs and see what mix of ReaPlug VSTs and at what settings can get you the best sounding audio out of your microphone! For additional information on VST plug-ins, Reaper/ReaPlug, and how to set them up, there are additional tutorials available here and here.
OBS.Live - Monitor, Control, Integrate, and Interact with your Stream!
You may have noticed the integrated Activity Feed and Chat window above or in some of the screenshots or linked tutorials. The OBS.Live plugin for OBS Studio by StreamElements does all of this and more!
OBS.Live lets you see how many viewers you have, Activity Feed, skip/replay/manage Alerts, refresh your Overlays, Media Request controls, set what game you’re playing, set your stream title all in OBS Studio..so much good stuff! The plugin is available to download right here:
Happy Streaming!
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It’s always best to mitigate noise in your audio recordings before it can be picked up by a microphone. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and it’s necessary to soften up that signal noise in post production. Most modern DAW’s (digital audio workstations, AKA audio production programs) use plugins to help with this process. And some DAW’s make finding those plugins a bit of a challenge. That’s why I’ve decided to post a quick tutorial on how to do noise reduction with the ReaFir plugin for Reaper.
Most unwanted noise in audio recordings tends to be constant throughout the length of the piece. Usually, these artifacts come from something in the environment such as a cooling fan or an electrical issue between the microphone and the sound input. When you have this type of continuous noise in a recording, noise-reduction plugins can come in handy as you’ll usually only need to set them once, and then they’ll apply the noise reduction to the entire track or noisy section.
To get started with noise reduction in Reaper, click the FX button on a track that’s got some unwanted noise. This will bring up the Add FX box, which shows all of the plugins and effects available to your Reaper installation. In the Filter list box at the bottom, type in “Reafir.”
Next, double-click the listing for the VST: ReaFir Dynamics Processor plugin. This will add the ReaFir plugin to your track and automatically open the plugin’s settings box.
From here, you’ll want to change the Mode drop down menu to Subtract and tick the checkbox next to that menu labeled “Automatically build noise profile (enable during noise).” These settings tell ReaFir that you want to remove certain frequencies from your recording and that you’d like the plugin to identify those frequencies automatically.
Now, align Reaper’s playhead so it’s at the beginning of a section of noisy audio but make sure that section doesn’t contain any speech or other wanted sounds. Otherwise, the plugin will think that the sounds you actually want to preserve are part of the problem and it’ll do it’s best to remove those, too! I also like to solo the troublesome track at this point, just so it’s easier to monitor when setting up the plugin.
Once the playhead is in place, click the play button (or press the space bar) and let the playhead go over at least twenty to thirty seconds of the recorded signal noise. Be sure to stop playback before you reach any of the desired sounds that are the intended focus of the recording. (If you were unable to stop playback in time, click the Reset button and start the process again.) Now, ReaFir has built a noise profile and automatically created a filter based on that profile.
Untick the checkbox next to the Mode menu but leave all of the other settings alone. Now, when you listen back to that track, you should no longer hear the unwanted noise.
Posted by Shawn Thorpe