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Why is there an echo on my stream?

Short answer: Can I fix an echo on my stream myself? Yes, usually in a minute. An echo means your microphone picks up something that's already on your stream: your stream playing on another tab, phone or TV, read-aloud or alerts coming out of your speakers, a second mic that's still on, or the same mic added to OBS twice. Find which one it is and turn it off.

An echo means your microphone hears something that's already on your stream, so viewers get it twice, a moment apart. You usually can't hear it yourself, which is why chat tells you first.

It's almost always one of four things. Check them in this order: the first one is the most common.

Your stream is playing out loud somewhere

Your stream open in a browser tab, on your phone or on a TV plays your own voice back a few seconds late, and your mic picks it up. This is the most common cause, especially when you check how the stream looks or stream from a second device.

  1. Close or mute every tab, phone and TV that has your stream open.
  2. Ask chat if the echo is gone.

Read-aloud, alerts or music come out of your speakers

Chat read out loud, alert sounds or music played from your speakers reach the mic, then go on stream a second time.

  1. Play them inside OBS instead of on your speakers: add them as a Browser source and tick Control audio via OBS.
  2. With the Multistream app's read-aloud, that's the TTS audio link, added to OBS that way. The voice then goes straight into your stream.

Two microphones are on

A webcam mic and a headset mic, or a phone and a PC both picking up the room, each send your voice, a fraction of a second apart.

  1. Look at the Audio Mixer in OBS while you talk. Every bar that moves is a mic.
  2. Mute all of them but one (the speaker icon next to it).

The same mic is in OBS twice

Adding your mic to a scene and also to a scene inside it (or keeping it in OBS's own audio settings and as a source) sends it twice.

  1. In the Audio Mixer, look for your mic's name twice.
  2. Remove one of them from the scene, or set one to Disabled in Settings → Audio.

Questions, answered

Can I fix an echo on my stream myself?

Yes, usually in a minute. An echo means your microphone picks up something that's already on your stream: your stream playing on another tab, phone or TV, read-aloud or alerts coming out of your speakers, a second mic that's still on, or the same mic added to OBS twice. Find which one it is and turn it off.

How do I hear chat read-aloud and alerts myself without an echo?

Wear headphones instead of using speakers. In OBS, right-click the source, open Advanced Audio Properties and set its Audio Monitoring to Monitor and Output: you hear it in your headphones and the mic doesn't.

I hear myself in my headphones. Is that the echo?

That's OBS monitoring your mic. In Advanced Audio Properties, set your mic's Audio Monitoring to Monitor Off. Viewers aren't affected either way.

I checked all four and there's still an echo on Windows. What else?

Windows may be playing your mic on your speakers. In Windows sound settings, open your microphone's properties and turn off Listen to this device.

Can Multistream remove the echo?

No. Multistream sends your stream to every platform exactly as OBS made it, so the fix is in OBS or in what's playing near your mic. The upside: fix it once in OBS and it's gone on every platform.

I stream from two devices at once. How do I stop them echoing each other?

Keep only one device's mic on, and keep the other device's sound off. Or send both pictures from one OBS: see how to stream horizontal and vertical at the same time.

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