vMix Audio Mixer
An essential part of any great video production is quality audio. Fortunately, vMix includes flexible and powerful audio tools and controls. To see how it all works, start by adding a dedicated audio source. Audio can also be included on all common video inputs. Still, you may also want to add stand-alone audio sources like microphones, audio interfaces, and mixers.
Click on Add Input and look toward the bottom of the left-hand column for Audio Input. Click on that, and you can select the live audio source you wish to use. From the dropdown menu, choose the source. Before you click OK and leave this screen, look for the Mute in Headphones checkbox. This is useful for any source that you do not want to monitor in your headphones. For instance, when using a live microphone to narrate a video production, some operators would rather not hear their own voice in the headphone mix.
The next thing you may want to do is click on the gear icon on this new audio input source and go to the audio settings menu. The input settings are different from the Audio Settings but inside the input settings you can click Audio Settings to access the unique Audio Settings. You can also access audio settings by clicking the input settings cog inside the audio mixer.
Now, as you look at your input in the input source window, you should notice a green Audio button at the bottom right. That button will be green whenever the audio is on. If the audio source is sending a signal, you will also see that the levels next to the input are showing up as green bars and inside of the audio mixer. You can click on the Audio button to mute or unmute the audio. When you do this the button will turn gray, and the level meters will turn gray.
Inside Audio Settings you will have the option to adjust gain and delay for your source. You can also adjust the headphone volume or click the green headphones to turn headphone audio off for this input. There is a checkbox you can click remove the input from the audio mixer. This is helpful to clean up your audio mixer and only keep the input you need. The Audio Settings area also gives you controls over Gain, EQ, Compressor, Noise Gate, a Channel Mixer and a Channel Matrix. The VST 3 Plugins options will be reviewed in the next chapter.
By default, all the activated audio inputs go to the master audio in vMix. If you have an active audio source, you will also see levels for the master audio mix shown next to the transition bar.
By default, the Audio Mixer is located on the right-hand side of vMix. If you do not see it on the bottom right portion of your interface, look for the gray Audio Mixer button. If you click it, it will turn green, and the mixer will appear below it. Any input that you add will show up here with its own volume slider. It will have the same name as it does in the input window. This entire audio mixer can be undocked and moved. This is great if you are working with multiple audio sources and need more space.
The audio mixer enables you to adjust the volume of each individual source. You can also see the levels that will match those from the source over in the inputs area. Also, when you click the green audio button to turn off the audio on the input, you will notice the green speaker also turns off in the mixer area for that source, and the levels turn blue there as well. It works both ways. If you click the green speaker, you can toggle the audio from that source on and off. That will be reflected both in the mixer and on the input. This audio mixer is also where you will find the master audio for which you can also control the volume.
Some other options found in the audio mixer include the settings cog, which gives you access to the advanced audio settings for that input. These include audio effects and control of the delay, which can be useful for syncing your audio with your video. Audio sync issues are common and vMix makes it very easy to apply audio delay to individual inputs in order to sync your audio and video.
If you have audio sync issues, it is most likely an issue that audio delay can fix. Depending on your computer and audio-visual connections latency between video and audio inputs can vary. Usually video sources can take just a little more time to process than audio due to higher bandwidth requirements. To fix this issue, try adding a delay to your audio inputs in increments of 25 until the issue is resolved.
Pro Tip: Included in the online course you will find an Audio Video Sync Tool. This is a video that you can use to determine the exact amount of latency you should apply to your audio sources.
Below the gear is the S or Solo button. This allows you to listen to an individual source in your monitors or headphones, which is helpful when you need to hear one source separated from the other audio. Below the Solo button you will find the “Automatically Mix” button represented by two arrows. This button will automatically mute and unmute the audio of an input as it enters the output area. Next in the list you will see a quick mute and unmute button represented by a speaker. At the bottom, you will see an M button. That stands for Master. It means that this input is being routed to the Master audio for the production. If you have additional audio outputs set up you will be able to route audio to those outputs with these buttons. For example, you may want to set up a second audio output to send audio to a video conference software like Zoom.
One of the most significant issues facing new vMix users is understanding how to control whether an audio source is active all the time or only when that video input source is active. For example, you may have some sources, like a host’s microphone, that should be active all the way through a production. On the other hand, you may have a video with audio that should only become active when switched to the output window. vMix makes it very easy to choose how the audio for each source will function. It is also very easy to change the preference for each source. You can do this by going to the input settings for an input source and checking or unchecking the Automatically Mix Audio box. You can also toggle this on and off on the mixer by clicking the button with two arrows.
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