Streamlabs OBS Audio Sync Setup Guide

Streamlabs OBS Audio Sync: Measure and Fix Webcam Lip-Sync for Twitch

Start in Streamlabs with the same microphone source your stream actually uses. Streamlabs OBS uses the same source-level audio delay concept as OBS Studio, but the control is reached through Advanced Audio Settings instead of the OBS Studio Advanced Audio Properties table. In OBS Studio, you enter the value in the Sync Offset column; in Streamlabs OBS, you open Advanced Audio Settings from the audio mixer and enter the value in the Sync Offset column there. Knowing this distinction prevents the common mistake of looking for the control in the wrong panel and wondering why the recording is still out of sync.¹

Measure your offset with the 5-clap test before changing Streamlabs settings. The measurement gives you a millisecond value and a direction; when audio arrives before the matching video frame, enter that value as the Streamlabs Sync Offset for your microphone source. That positive value goes into the Streamlabs Sync Offset field for your microphone source.

Where to find the sync control in Streamlabs OBS

In Streamlabs OBS, click the settings icon near the top right of the Audio Mixer panel. Open Advanced Audio Settings, find the Sync Offset column for your microphone or other audio source, and enter your measured millisecond value. A positive Sync Offset delays the audio source by that number of milliseconds, compensating for a video stream that arrives later than audio.¹ Applying it to the microphone source rather than to a background music or game audio source ensures only the voice track receives the delay correction.

Adding Sync Offset in Streamlabs

To add Sync Offset, click the settings icon near the top right of the Audio Mixer panel, then open Advanced Audio Settings. Find the Sync Offset column for the audio source you want to delay, enter your measured value from the five-clap test, and close the settings window. The Sync Offset value is active immediately without restarting Streamlabs. You can verify the correction by recording a short clap test clip and checking whether the sound aligns with the visible hand impact before you go live.

Keep the settings window path in mind when you switch machines. The control sits in Advanced Audio Settings rather than the main settings menu, so a fresh Streamlabs install can hide it if you look in the wrong place. The fastest confirmation is still a short clap clip, because the alignment you see there is the same sync your live viewers receive from the Streamlabs output.

Common sync issues specific to Streamlabs

Streamlabs OBS and OBS Studio should be verified separately, so a value that works in one app may need a small adjustment in the other. If an OBS Studio offset looks correct in recordings but the same value in Streamlabs still shows slight desync, try nearby values in the Streamlabs Sync Offset column and verify with a test recording.

The second common issue is noise suppression. OBS documents Noise Suppression as an audio-source filter with methods such as RNNoise, Speex, and NVIDIA Noise Removal.² RNNoise's source defines a 480-sample processing frame, which is why noise suppression should be treated as an active processing stage rather than a passive setting.³ Any noise-suppression filter changes the audio processing path, so measure the offset with it active to capture the actual production offset including the suppression overhead. Disabling noise suppression for the measurement and re-enabling it for streaming produces an offset that is smaller than the actual production delay, resulting in a correction that under-corrects and leaves a visible sync gap. Run the five-clap test in the same software configuration your stream uses.

Noise suppression belongs in the measured path

If you use noise suppression, gate, compressor, or limiter filters on the microphone source, measure with RNNoise or Speex still switched on. Those filters add processing stages before the final Streamlabs output, so the measured offset must include them. Turning a filter off for the measurement and back on for the actual stream produces a correction that is too small, because the filter's own processing delay is missing from the number you entered. Keeping every production filter active while you clap gives you the true end-to-end delay that Streamlabs will apply to your live audio.

Verifying the sync in a Streamlabs test recording

After applying the Sync Offset value, record a 10-second test clip in Streamlabs. Use the built-in recording mode rather than a third-party recording application; recording through Streamlabs verifies the sync as it applies to your Streamlabs output, not to a separate capture. Play back the test clip and clap once during playback while watching the frame.

Building on this, the clap sound should arrive at the exact frame where your hands visibly contact. If the sound arrives a few frames before or after the visible impact, adjust the Sync Offset by a small amount and record again. A small number of iterations usually produces frame-accurate sync for most setups. CapyToolkit allows re-running the 5-clap test any time without closing the browser; refresh the page to reset the measurement.

Iterating the Sync Offset value between test recordings is the fastest path to frame-accurate sync in Streamlabs. After applying the initial measured value, record 10 seconds and clap once at the midpoint. If the sound arrives one frame early at 30 fps, add about one frame duration to the Sync Offset value; if it arrives one frame late, subtract about one frame duration. At 30 fps, one frame is about 33 ms, and at 60 fps it is about 17 ms.⁴ More typically the initial measurement produces residual error under one frame, and a small adjustment in the correct direction achieves alignment within the same session.

Fine-tuning Streamlabs after the initial measurement

The first measured value is the starting point, not the end of the process. After applying it, record a short clip and clap once at the midpoint. If the sound arrives one frame early at 30 fps, add about one frame duration to the Sync Offset value; if it arrives one frame late, subtract about one frame duration. At 30 fps, one frame is about 33 ms, and at 60 fps it is about 17 ms. More typically the initial measurement produces residual error under one frame, and a small adjustment in the correct direction achieves alignment within the same session.

When to use this

Run this test before first streaming with a Streamlabs OBS setup, after adding a noise suppression plugin to your audio source, after updating Streamlabs or its audio drivers, or when Twitch VOD review shows lip-sync drift that was not visible during the live broadcast.

Examples