Ringing in all sound tracks

[PixelSage]

I am currently trying to record with three audio tracks: a mic, a video capture device (capture card), and Discord audio.
When listening back to a recording, there is a slight ringing in all of them. This is not too bad on their own, but when combining all three together, it sounds quite bad.
In my previous recordings, this never happened - it has only started recently and I'm not sure why.

This is a short test recording to show what I mean (there is no discord audio but the track still exists):

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tomasz Góral]

You capture sound from the speakers, the sound appears when you move the cursor over the element.

 

[PixelSage]

You capture sound from the speakers, the sound appears when you move the cursor over the element.

I'm confused. What does this mean?
I'm not capturing any sound from my speakers to my knowledge - 'Desktop Audio' is off and the audio device is set to my headphones. It seems to happen no matter where my cursor is, I think I had my cursor over the 'Start Recording' button during the video.

 

[Tomasz Góral]

I'm confused. What does this mean?
I'm not capturing any sound from my speakers to my knowledge - 'Desktop Audio' is off and the audio device is set to my headphones. It seems to happen no matter where my cursor is, I think I had my cursor over the 'Start Recording' button during the video.

Watch on video, every time we hear 'tick' the border changes.

 

[PixelSage]

Yes, that tick is a built-in sound effect that is supposed to happen on the switch.
I'm talking about a light ringing noise in the background - you might need to turn up the volume to properly hear it.

 

[Suslik V]

If there is sound in the recording, then it has been digitized.

Usually, caused by interference or power fail. Younger people hear high pitch sounds much better. For example, I din't noticed constant boozer (noise) at background until turned volume up. If all tracks affected - PC is feeling bad. At least, check all connections including grounding (if there any) and shielding. It sounds like noise from the power supply or CPU at half load.

 

[PixelSage]

If there is sound in the recording, then it has been digitized.

Usually, caused by interference or power fail. Younger people hear high pitch sounds much better. For example, I din't noticed constant boozer (noise) at background until turned volume up. If all tracks affected - PC is feeling bad. At least, check all connections including grounding (if there any) and shielding. It sounds like noise from the power supply or CPU at half load.

Ah, that's unfortunate.
I don't know much about PCs, so if it is the power supply or CPU, please let me know if you know how I could prevent this.

 

[Suslik V]

Perform few tests.
Make new Scene Collection, disconnect mic and any external hardware from your PC (printer, UPS, headphones, speakers, USB drives etc - all that is not needed for recording itself - you will be recording silence). Add only Audio Output Capture source to OBS, do not play any music, do not click anywhere during recording, make simple recording about 10 sec long. Open file in audio editor (Audacity 3.0.2 + FFmpeg, for example) and add Amplification effect about 30..50 dB to center part of the track. Compare it to your previous recordings. Then run few background dummy tasks to load your PC up to 100% and make a new recording. Compare recordings again. If noise level is the same then your PC need maintenance and maybe repair (tech specialist required).

Dummy task example (Win7 - Win10). This is source code for .bat or .cmd file, idle priority, single thread, endless loop (can be treated as malicious software by security software because it do literally nothing, only makes load to your CPU - in this case add it to whitelist of your security software). To stop process after you launched it - simply close opened cmd window:

wmic process where name="cmd.exe" CALL setpriority "idle"
@echo off
:loop
goto loop

Note. Above code may not work for for Win 11 because "wmic" may be unavailable for this OS, in this case two .cmd files can be used (one file runs another file, both lies in the same folder):

start_the_loop.cmd:​

start /LOW "dummy process" "cmd.exe" /C "the_loop_itself.cmd"

the_loop_itself.cmd:​

@echo off
:loop
goto loop

Or look for other solutions online.