How to Capture Game Audio in OBS and Other Recorders

Jane Zhou updated on Apr 19, 2024 to EaseUS RecExperts

If you want to record the audio that plays while you are playing a game on your computer, this guide tells you how to capture game audio in OBS and its wonderful alternative. If you need more information about how does OBS capture game audio, you can find many available ones in this post.

While most computer games focus on giving users a thrilling visual experience, some games have better audio parts. Because of that, you might want to record the audio of these games on your computer. Luckily, you have multiple audio recording software to record the game audio.

OBS is one of the completely free and open-source tools to capture game audio on your computer. Besides it, other tools allow you to record and save your game audio as well. Here we take a look at how to capture game audio in OBS and some of its competitive alternatives.

Methods Effectiveness Difficulty
OBS Medium - Not friendly to beginners ⭐⭐⭐
EaseUS RecExperts High - Record video/audio with a few clicks
Icecream Screen Recorder Medium - Free version only supports 5 mins of recording
Bandicam High - Capture game audio and record many other items ⭐⭐
TinyTake Medium - Useful tool but not user-friendly  ⭐⭐

Also read:

How to Capture Game Audio in OBS

OBS Studio stands for Open Broadcaster Software, and it is a free and open-source screen recorder to help you capture your screen, record audio, and stream media. It is available for multiple platforms, which means OBS captures game audio on your Windows, Mac, and even Linux computers for audio capturing.

When it comes to recording game audio, you need to select the correct audio source for your games, and this tool will start capturing the game audio for you. Once that is done, you can then play around with your recorded file however you want.

🔥Features:

How does OBS capture game audio? Here is a detailed tutorial about how to record game audio with OBS Studio. You can follow it to have a try.

Step 1. Add a Desktop Audio Source to OBS

To capture your game audio, click the "+" (plus) sign under "Sources" and select "Audio Output Capture". Then, select "Add Existing", choose "Desktop Audio", and hit "OK".

Step 2. Configure Audio Settings in OBS

You might want to customize your audio recording options further to ensure the audio is recorded exactly the way you want. To access and modify OBS settings, click the "Settings" option to the extreme right on your screen. Then, select "Audio" from the left sidebar to view and modify your audio settings.

Step 3. Capture Game Audio in OBS

Click the "Start Recording" option on the right and accept any prompts to get on your screen. Make sure your game audio is being played in the background, and this will be recorded in OBS.

When you have finished recording, click the "Stop Recording" button to stop the game audio recording.

Step 4. Access Captured Game Audio in OBS

If you want to check the recordings, click the "File" menu at the top and select "Show Recordings". This will open a File Explorer window that lets you view all the recordings you have ever created with this software.

OBS is a great way to record game audio on your computers, but if game audio capturing is not the only task you need to do, you are better off using a less overwhelming tool. 

Record Game Audio with OBS Best Alternative

With EaseUS RecExperts, this outstanding screen recorder, you can effortlessly record both the Windows PC screen and its audio. If there is a built-in microphone or an external microphone connected to the computer, you can also capture your voice with this great voice recorder. This program is helpful when you have no idea about how to record Zoom meeting without permission.

As a powerful streaming audio recorder on Windows, it enables you to choose the audio sources freely. You can capture the system sound and audio from the microphone separately or synchronously. That's why you can easily record a voiceover when you are capturing the game audio.

If you want to trim the audio recordings, a pre-installed video and audio editing tool is available. And you can even schedule recording to make it start a recording task whenever you want.

🔥Key Features:

  • Provides up to 4K/8K video resolution
  • Record Resident Evil 4 or other gameplay with audio
  • Offers video/audio editing tools
  • Supports all popular formats
  • The auto-split feature makes will separate your recordings automatically

Before following the tutorial below, don't forget to download and install this software on your computer.

📌How to Record Game Audio with OBS's Alternative:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS RecExperts and choose "Audio" (looks like a speaker) from the left side of the interface. Select the sound source by clicking on the speaker sign (the system sound) or the mic sign (the microphone). Or, you can record them both at the same time.

Step 2. Hit "REC" button to start recording audio. To finish it, you just click on the red square icon to stop the recording.

Step 3. After that, the recording list window will pop up automatically. You can listen to or edit the recording with built-in tools.

Best Game Recording Software

If you want to capture the gameplay audio on Mac or other operating systems, those Top 16 game recorders may help you.

Other Game Audio Recording Tools Review

The tools mentioned above should meet almost all of your needs. However, if you are still looking for more options, the following are a few more tools for you to capture game audio on your computer.

1. Icecream Screen Recorder

🔎Compatibility: Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10

With this software, you easily capture the game audio, and you will have an abundance of features to play around with. You have customizable options to record your computer's screen, like choosing the area you want to capture.

Then, there is the option of audio recording, and you can use it to record your game audio on your computer. You can capture audio from your computer's mic as well.

⭕Pros:

  • Capture game audio and mic audio simultaneously
  • Record part of screen by choosing the recording area
  • Record your 3D games in full screen
  • Quickly upload your recordings to various cloud storage providers

❌Cons:

  • The free version only lets you record game audio for five minutes
  • You cannot have scheduled game recordings
  • You cannot use the tool in a commercial environment in the free version

2. Bandicam

🔎Compatibility: Windows Vista/7/8/10

If you have ever searched for tools to record your screen or record your online calls, you have likely seen Bandicam in your search results. This tool allows you to capture many items, including the computer screen, audio, and even your other devices' feed. You can use the tool's audio recording option to capture the audio of the game.

There are configurable options that let you change how you want to make your game audio recordings. You can choose the audio source for your game audio, add your mic audio to your recording if you want, and change various other options in the settings menu.

⭕Pros:

  • Capture game audio and record many other items
  • Add your mic recording to your game audio recording
  • Record streaming video in high quality
  • Several customizable audio recording options

❌Cons:

  • There are not many audio formats to choose from
  • No options to edit your files
  • Adds a watermark to your files in the free version

3. TinyTake

🔎Compatibility: Windows 7/8/8.1/10

TinyTake might not be as popular as other game audio recorders, but it is certainly one of the best tools for capturing game audio.

This tool comes loaded with several features, like the option to take a screenshot and record your screen, as well as the ability to record audio from your system. This latter option can be utilized to record audio from all of the games you play on your machine.

You can make really long recordings with this tool. Additionally, you can record from the webcam if you want to add a small overlay to your screen recordings. You can add custom shortcuts to make your tasks a bit easier. Once your recordings are made, you can upload them to a cloud service that is safe and secure.

⭕Pros:

❌Cons:

  • A bit overwhelming if you are only looking to capture game audio
  • It is not the most user-friendly software to use
  • The focus is only on on-screen recording and screenshots

FAQs about How to Capture Game Audio in OBS

Check the frequently asked questions related to this topic below.

1. Why does OBS not capture my game audio?

To solve this problem, try setting OBS as your default recorder.

  • Just click the dropdown menu at the "Desktop Audio Device" entry and set it to Default;
  • If it's already set to default, make sure you set it to the other device, which will appear on the menu.

2. Does Game Capture include audio?

No, Game Capture does not capture audio. It only captures video.

Conclusion

If you prefer OBS for your recordings, the above guide should teach you how to capture game audio in OBS on your machine.

There are actually some better tools available to do the task, like EaseUS RecExperts, making the whole job a lot easier and more convenient for you. You are free to make your own decision, but this tool is worth considering.