I’ve been trying to figure out how to stream video/audio to Twitch or YouTube using a piece of software called OBS – short for Open Broadcaster Software. It’s a super powerful piece of software that’s absolutely free to use. Pretty incredible. But most of the users seem to be Windows based and so there isn’t as much documentation/tutorials on the Mac side.

What I’m trying to accomplish is this:

• Send video and audio of a game (Minecraft) to Twitch.
• Send video from my Logitech C920 webcam to Twitch.
• Send audio from my Heil PR40 mic attached to a Onyx 1620i mixer to Twitch.
• Send audio from a Discord or Skype call with a friend to Twitch.

All at the same time.

If you check out my Twitch channel, you should be able to see a few videos there showing what I mean. I seem to have gotten the first 3 items working ok – it’s just when I add in an audio call with someone that it breaks down. The audio call works fine and I can hear them, they can hear me. I just can’t get their audio to be piped through to OBS and out to Twitch/YouTube.

Screenshot of OBS and Other Software Settings

Links to Software I’ve Tried

• iShow U Audio Capture – free and seems to work except for the last issue.
• Sound Siphon – this seems to work ok except it doesn’t seem to quite work.
• Loopback by Rogue Amoeba – They were very helpful in attempting to figure out some of my issues. It didn’t seem to help and for $75USD (currently over $100CAD), it seemed unlikely to be helpful in my situation.
• Audio Hijack by Rogue Amoeba – is what I might try next if I can’t figure out a way to get iShowU Audio Capture to play nicely with everything else. Audio Hijack would also give me the benefit of being able to record my audio in case I wanted to do an audio podcast with whatever I’m streaming.
• Wirecast would likely work and probably take care of it all for me. But it’s $495USD (almost $700CAD) and this is a hobby for fun. 1

Hopefully someone can chime in in the comments below with some suggestions. Or let me know if you have questions about using OBS, Audio Hijack, or any other streaming on a Mac issues. I might not get my issue solved but at least we can help each other figure this stuff out.