The exact OBS audio settings that maximize live caption accuracy — noise gate values, compression settings, sample rate, and StreamTranslate browser source configuration.
Add Captions to Your OBS StreamStreamTranslate and our industry-leading speech AI are only as good as the audio they receive. These OBS settings clean your signal before it ever reaches the transcription engine.
In OBS, go to Settings > Audio > Sample Rate and set it to 48kHz. This is the broadcast standard and what StreamTranslate is optimized to receive. The default 44.1kHz works but can introduce subtle resampling artifacts. 48kHz gives our industry-leading speech AI the cleanest possible input signal. Apply the change and restart OBS to ensure it takes effect.
Add a Noise Gate filter to your microphone source in OBS (right-click mic source > Filters > plus icon > Noise Gate). Recommended settings: Close Threshold -45dB, Open Threshold -30dB, Attack Time 25ms, Hold Time 200ms, Release Time 150ms. The noise gate mutes your mic during silence — preventing keyboard noise, fan hum, and room ambiance from being transcribed as phantom words. Test by watching the mic meter while not speaking — it should read zero when the gate is closed.
Add a Compressor filter after the noise gate. Recommended settings: Ratio 3:1, Threshold -18dB, Attack 6ms, Release 60ms, Output Gain 0dB, Sidechain/Ducking Source: None. This evens out volume differences between your quiet and loud speech — ensuring our industry-leading speech AI receives a consistent signal level. Without compression, whispered words transcribe poorly and shouted words clip. With it, caption accuracy is consistent regardless of how animated you get.
OBS includes a Noise Suppression filter. Set it to RNNoise (not Speex — RNNoise is significantly better). Place it between the noise gate and compressor in your filter chain. RNNoise uses a neural network to separate voice from background noise. In rooms with HVAC noise, mechanical keyboard sounds, or light background music, RNNoise can meaningfully improve advanced AI transcription accuracy. Do not use it if your room is already quiet — it can occasionally introduce slight voice artifacts.
Enable monitoring on your microphone source (right-click > Advanced Audio Properties > Audio Monitoring: Monitor Only or Monitor and Output). This lets you hear yourself through headphones exactly as OBS is capturing your audio — including all filters. If you hear clear, consistent voice with background noise removed, StreamTranslate will transcribe accurately. If you hear room noise, echo, or clipping, fix those before going live.
Add a Browser Source in OBS (Sources panel > plus > Browser). Paste your StreamTranslate URL. Set Width to 1920, Height to 1080 (or your canvas resolution). Check "Shutdown source when not visible" and "Refresh browser when scene becomes active." Position the browser source at the bottom of your scene stack. In the source transform settings, set position to 0,0 and size to match your canvas. StreamTranslate captions will render in the bottom portion of the overlay with the styling you configured in your StreamTranslate dashboard. Full setup guide.
OBS applies audio filters in order from top to bottom in the Filters window. The correct order for caption accuracy is: 1) Noise Suppression (RNNoise), 2) Noise Gate, 3) Compressor, 4) any remaining EQ or gain filters. Putting the noise gate before noise suppression means the gate might close on sounds RNNoise would have removed anyway — you lose the benefit of RNNoise. Putting compression before the gate means you are compressing noise as well as voice.
Test your filter chain by watching the StreamTranslate caption output during a test stream. Speak at your normal volume, then stop talking and make normal desk/keyboard sounds. Captions should appear when you speak and go silent when you stop. If you see phantom transcription during silences, tighten your noise gate open threshold by 5dB increments until it stops. StreamTranslate pricing.
The noise gate filter has the single biggest impact — it prevents background noise from being transcribed during silences. Set close threshold to -45dB and open threshold to -30dB. The compressor is the second most impactful setting, ensuring consistent voice level for our industry-leading speech AI.
Set OBS audio sample rate to 48kHz in Settings > Audio. This is the broadcast standard and gives our industry-leading speech AI the cleanest input signal. Apply and restart OBS after changing the sample rate.
Use RNNoise noise suppression if your room has consistent background noise (HVAC, keyboard, ambient sound). Place it first in your filter chain before the noise gate. Skip it if your room is already quiet — it can add minor artifacts to an otherwise clean signal.
In OBS Sources panel, click the plus icon and select Browser. Paste your StreamTranslate URL. Set width to 1920 and height to 1080 (matching your canvas). Enable "Refresh browser when scene becomes active." Position the source at the bottom of your scene stack.
Your noise gate open threshold is too low — background noise is triggering the mic and advanced AI is transcribing ambient sounds. Raise the open threshold in your noise gate filter by 5dB increments until phantom transcriptions stop. Also check if your mic gain is set too high in OBS or your audio interface.