OBS Audio Tracks: Separate Game and Mic, Keep a Full Mix

You finish recording a game, open the video, and hear the action but not your voice. That can mean the microphone was never captured. It can also mean the player is listening to a different audio track.

For a recording you can both watch immediately and edit later, put the game and microphone together on track 1, then keep game-only and microphone-only copies on tracks 2 and 3. You must assign the sources to those tracks and enable the tracks in the recording settings. OBS's multitrack recording guide explains this two-part setup and why an ordinary video player normally plays only one track at a time.

This is a documentation-based guide for local recording on Windows 11 with OBS Studio 32.x. It assumes your picture already records correctly. The routing plan and listening test below are a procedure for your own setup, not a report of hands-on OBS testing.

Three tracks, two different jobs

Think of track 1 as the version you can listen to without rebuilding the sound. Tracks 2 and 3 are the ingredients for editing: lower the game during a spoken explanation, repair a microphone interruption, or replace a section of commentary without changing the game track.

Here is the routing plan for this guide:

Leave all other track checkboxes off for these two sources; tracks 4–6 are unused in this example. This numbering is a practical convention, not a rule OBS imposes. Write down the map so you can recognise the tracks in an editor that labels them differently.

A track is not the same thing as a left or right channel. A stereo game track can contain both left and right sound while remaining separate from the microphone track. OBS's audio mixer guide describes the channel meters; do not pan the microphone left and the game right as a substitute for separate tracks.

There is an important limit: assigning one already-mixed source to two tracks makes two copies of that mix. It does not separate the sounds inside it. If game audio and a voice-chat app arrive through one Desktop Audio source, give them separate capture sources before you expect separate editing control.

Start with one capture path for each sound

Make these changes while you are not recording or live. Note your current audio devices, output mode and track assignments first. Changing global audio settings can affect other scenes, so a successful test of one scene is not enough for a whole production.

Launch the game and make it produce a recognisable sound. In the Sources dock, use + to add Application Audio Capture, select the game's window, and give the source a clear name such as Game audio. The source may be labelled Application Audio Capture (BETA) in your build. OBS's application audio capture instructions document the window selection and matching options.

The same guide describes Capture Audio inside Game Capture or Window Capture properties. That is an alternative route, not another source you need to enable for the same game. Choose one method and check that the corresponding meter moves when the game makes sound.

For the microphone, keep an existing working Mic/Aux source, or add Audio Input Capture and select the actual microphone device. Do not capture that same device both globally under Settings → Audio and as a separate scene source. OBS's audio sources reference warns that this duplication can produce an echo.

Once the individual sources work, disable the global Desktop Audio capture under Settings → Audio for this per-application setup. OBS recommends doing so to avoid capturing the same application through a second path. Review other desktop/output capture sources too; disabling one global entry does not remove every possible duplicate.

At this point, stop and look at the mixer. Speaking should move the microphone meter. Game sound should move the game meter. Do not start routing a silent or incorrectly identified source and hope that extra track checkboxes will fix it.

When the game source stays silent

Check the selected window and the game's own volume first. If the executable or window changes after a launcher closes, recheck what the source is matching. Application volume controls can affect what OBS receives, as the mixer guide explains.

Some applications send audio in ways that the per-application capture source cannot capture. OBS documents this limitation, including cases involving in-game voice chat. Do not assume a new audio driver or virtual cable is automatically necessary. Confirm that capture is the failing step before following the guide's alternative routing procedure.

A temporary Desktop Audio source can help establish whether the sound reaches the selected output device, but it is not an isolated game track. It may include notifications, music and other applications. Do not leave that wider capture enabled unnoticed in the final setup.

Enable the recording tracks as well as the routing

Open Settings → Output, select Advanced for Output Mode, and open the Recording tab. For this guide, use the standard recording output and enable audio tracks 1, 2 and 3. Check the recording path and review the video encoder settings before applying a changed output mode; this is not a reason to replace a video configuration that already works.

OBS's advanced recording guide documents the available recording tracks and the distinction between selecting tracks and assigning sources. Both parts must agree.

Choose a recording container that supports multiple audio tracks. MKV is a suitable deliberate choice for this test; Hybrid MP4 is another option when it fits your editor. Do not use FLV, which supports only one audio track. The OBS format reference explains the container and codec restrictions.

Older instructions may describe MKV as the default. OBS changed new profiles to Hybrid MP4/MOV in its 32.0 release. A working Hybrid MP4 setup does not need to become MKV merely to follow an older screenshot. Keep the format choice and the audio-routing task separate.

Now open Edit → Advanced Audio Properties and set the checkboxes to match the table above. The menu route avoids relying on an old screenshot's gear-button position: OBS redesigned the Audio Mixer in 32.1, including its layout and monitoring controls.

For the game, select 1 and 2, not 3. For the microphone, select 1 and 3, not 2. Leave other sources out unless you deliberately want them in the recording. Apply the output settings and close the properties window.

The useful question is now precise: does the recorded file contain the mix and the two intended isolated sources? Moving meters establish that OBS is receiving sound, not that this exact file contains the tracks you meant to save.

Make a short recording with an unmistakable listening test

Use headphones for the test so loudspeaker sound is less likely to enter the microphone acoustically. Keep volumes comfortable. The point is to identify the sources, not to stress the audio hardware.

Record roughly 30 seconds in three sections. These durations are simply a convenient test plan, not an OBS requirement.

First section: play a recognisable game sound without speaking. Second section: pause or silence the game and say “microphone-only check.” Third section: restore game sound and speak over it. Stop the recording normally and wait for the file to finish writing.

Inspect the original recording in a player with an audio-track selector or in your intended editor. Select or solo one track at a time:

“Microphone only” does not promise a silent room. If you hear the game faintly through that track, distinguish sound picked up by the physical microphone from a duplicate software capture path.

Do not stop after confirming that three tracks exist. Three identical mixes would pass that count check and still fail the editing goal. Listening to each deliberately different section tests the routing itself.

Finally, repeat a short check after switching to another scene you will use, and after relaunching the game. A scene-specific source or window match that worked once may not cover the next part of the session. Keep the settings notes until those checks succeed; restore the previous configuration if the new route fails and you need to record immediately.

Avoid adding the full mix back on top of its ingredients

Import the test into your editor before trusting a long recording. Depending on the editor's import settings, you may need to expose or map the other audio streams rather than accepting the first waveform it displays.

For an editing session built from the isolated game and microphone tracks, mute the full-mix track. Track 1 already contains those sources. Playing it alongside tracks 2 and 3 adds the same material again, which can make the result unexpectedly loud or produce other audible differences.

Conversely, a straightforward clip that needs no separate audio adjustments can use the full mix on its own. The two approaches serve different jobs; you do not need all three audible in the final timeline.

Export a short finished clip and listen to that output too. The recording test establishes what OBS saved. The export check establishes what the editor delivered. Keep the source recording until both results are right.

When the recording still sounds wrong

Only the game is audible in a player. Select another audio track before declaring the microphone lost. Then check track 1: if the microphone exists on track 3 but not in the mix, revisit the microphone's track-1 assignment. A player that selects another track by default needs its own playback choice checked.

There is only one audio stream. Revisit Settings → Output → Recording, not just Advanced Audio Properties. Check the container too. A source can be assigned to a track that the recording output never saves.

Several tracks exist, but they all contain everything. Check whether every source is ticked on every track, or whether the supposed game source is actually a whole-desktop mix. Extra tracks do not undo an upstream mix.

The voice echoes or the game sounds doubled. Look for the same device captured globally and in a scene, simultaneous application and desktop capture, or a full mix playing alongside its isolated tracks in the editor. Change one suspected duplicate at a time, then repeat the short test rather than making several unrelated changes together.

The editor refuses the MKV file. Keep the original and use File → Remux Recordings to make a compatible container copy, then check the tracks again. Jitsumi's guide to remuxing an OBS recording without re-encoding explains that workflow and its codec limits. Remuxing cannot create microphone audio that was never recorded.

The check to keep before every important session

Save one known-good short recording and its routing notes. Recheck after changing your microphone, scene collection, capture method, output mode or editing workflow.

You are ready when the full mix sounds complete, each isolated track contains its intended source, and the editor can use those tracks without doubling them. That is a more useful finish line than “all the meters are moving.”

Sources and further reading

Official documentation checked on 1 November 2026. Interface instructions are documentation-based; the listening test is a proposed validation procedure for your own equipment.

• OBS: multiple audio track recording.
• OBS: application audio capture on Windows.
• OBS: audio input and output sources.
• OBS: advanced recording and track assignment.
• OBS: audio mixer and channel meters.
• OBS: container and audio-format compatibility.
• OBS: 32.0 recording-format changes and 32.1 mixer changes.