Video

This page was written based on this video script! The video took quite the bit of effort to make, and provides a lot of visual aids that the following text may lack.

OBS Studio Beginner’s Setup Guide (Gaming and Facecam)

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a fully functional OBS setup for screen recording and facecam, with independent audio tracks and optimal encoding settings-so your recordings are easy to edit and look great.

Who is this for?
This guide is beginner-friendly and especially suited for gamers. The only expectation is that you’ve already downloaded and installed OBS from obsproject.com.

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Pre-requisites

Windows Users:
Before opening OBS, right-click the shortcut, go to Properties → Compatibility, and enable “Run this program as an administrator.”
This isn’t always necessary, but it can prevent issues with capturing certain games.

Open OBS. If you see the setup wizard, you can close it-we’ll configure everything manually.

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Initial Audio and Video Settings

By default, OBS adds your microphone and system audio as “global sources” (included in all scenes). I personally dislike this.

For more control:

1. Go to Settings → Audio.
2. Set all global audio devices to Disabled (especially system audio - we’ll add it a better way later).

Video Settings:

• Go to Settings → Video.
• Set Base (Canvas) Resolution to your monitor’s native resolution (e.g., 2560x1440 for 1440p).
• Set Output (Scaled) Resolution to match (unless you want to downscale).
• Set FPS to 60.
• Click Apply and OK.

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Scene Setup

Scenes are collections of sources (game, webcam, mic, etc.) for different recording needs.

1. Gaming/Main Scene

Add Game Capture:

• In the Sources box, click the + and select Game Capture.
• For most games, use “Capture specific window”. Some games may work better with Window Capture.
• In Game Capture settings, enable “Capture audio (BETA)” to capture audio from your game without any interference from other apps.

Add Facecam:

• Click + → Video Capture Device.
• Select your webcam and set its resolution.
• Resize and move the webcam in the preview.
  • Crop: Hold ALT and drag the edges.
  • Reset: Press Ctrl+R.
  • Fit to screen: Press Ctrl+F.
  • Precise pixel-perfect crop: Use Filters → Crop for exact values.

Layering:
Sources at the top of the list appear in front of those below - like layers in an editing program.

Add Microphone:

• Click + → Audio Input Capture and select your microphone.
• Speak normally and check your levels - aim for the yellow range. With the idea of recording and editing in mind, it's much better to edit your audio in post-production, as you will be able to tweak settings and make mistakes harmlessly.

Separate Audio Tracks:

• Right-click the volume mixer, select Advanced Audio Properties.
• Assign each source to its own track (e.g., gameplay on Track 1, mic on Track 2).
• Deselect all other tracks for each source.

Add More Audio (e.g., Discord):

• Add Audio Application Capture and repeat the above steps.

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2. Facecam Scene

For talking directly to your audience or thumbnails:

• Add your camera and mic as before (OBS lets you reuse sources).
• Use Ctrl+F to fit the camera to the canvas.

Advanced: Embedding scenes to apply filters independently:

1. Create a Dedicated Scene for Your Source

• In OBS, click the + button in the Scenes list and create a new scene (e.g., “Camera Scene”).
• Add your camera (or other source) to this new scene.
• Apply any filters you want (e.g., crop, color correction, LUTs) to the source in this scene.

2. Embed the Scene in Other Scenes

• In your main scenes (e.g., “Gameplay”, “Facecam”), click the + in the Sources list.
• Choose “Scene” as the source type.
• Select your dedicated “Camera Scene” from the list.Now, your camera appears in this scene as a nested source, with all filters applied from the dedicated scene.

3. Create Multiple Dedicated Scenes for Different Filter Sets (Optional)

• If you want different filter setups (e.g., one cropped, one with a LUT), create multiple dedicated scenes (e.g., “Camera Cropped”, “Camera Color Corrected”).
• Embed the appropriate scene in each main scene as needed.

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Output and Recording Settings

Go to Settings → Output and set Output Mode to Advanced.

Recording Tab:

• Recording Format:
  • MKV (recommended-safe from crashes, easy to recover).
  • Hybrid MP4 (if you want direct compatibility with Premiere Pro).
• Encoder:
  • NVIDIA GPU: NVENC (best for games, low impact).
  • AMD GPU: AMF.
  • Intel: QuickSync.
  • No GPU: x264 (CPU; not ideal for gaming).
• Audio Tracks:
  • Select the tracks you assigned earlier (e.g., 1 for gameplay, 2 for mic, 3 for Discord, etc.).

I personally recommend that you use MKV, and then remux the footage later for Premiere.

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Encoder Settings

• Bitrate Control:
  • Default (CBR): Not recommended for recording - wastes space, potentially poor quality in fast scenes.
  • Use CQP (NVIDIA/AMD) or CRF (CPU):
    • Dynamically adjusts bitrate for consistent quality.
    • CQP Value: 18–22 (lower = better quality; higher = smaller files).
    • Don’t go too low - YouTube will compress your video anyway.
• Preset:
  • If you get “encoder overload” errors, try a faster preset.
  • For more quality, try a slower preset (if your PC can handle it).

For more details, see NVIDIA’s NVENC documentation.

Audio Tab:

• Name your tracks for clarity (e.g., “Game”, “Mic”).
• Set bitrate to 320 kbps for best quality.

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Monitoring and Testing

• Enable the Stats Dock (View → Docks → Stats) to monitor dropped frames, CPU/GPU usage, and disk space.
• Always start with plenty of free storage and aim for zero dropped frames.

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Editing and Remuxing

If you recorded in MKV and your editor (like Premiere Pro) won’t open the file:

• Go to File → Remux Recordings in OBS.
• Select your MKV files and convert them to MP4.
  (This is fast and lossless - no quality loss.)

If you dislike remuxing, try Hybrid MP4 as your recording format.