The Only OBS Audio Filters You Actually Need
The Only OBS Audio Filters You Actually Need
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Brandon's practical OBS chain: Expander → Compressor → EQ → optional Noise Suppression → Limiter.
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Brandon prefers an expander over a hard noise gate for most streaming setups.
A gate behaves like an on/off switch. An expander turns quieter sounds down more naturally, which helps prevent cut-off word endings and awkward silence between phrases.
A ratio around 3:1 is a useful starting point, but the threshold needs to be set for your actual room and microphone.
Start around 4:1 and adjust the threshold while speaking normally and loudly.
Compression reduces the difference between quiet and loud speech. After that, use makeup/output gain to restore the overall level.
The simple three-band example in the video starts around:
That is not a universal preset. Use it as a demonstration of what the controls do, then tune for your own voice.
RNNoise can be useful for a noisier room.
If your room and mic placement are already controlled, Brandon prefers leaving suppression off because every additional cleanup process can remove some natural detail from your voice.
A limiter around -1 dB provides a final ceiling so sudden peaks do not clip.