How to Record PC Gameplay Series – Part 3

Part 3 in our “How to record PC gameplay” series will run through audio and how to utilize it properly in your own videos. Audio is just as important as the visuals in a video. Having bad audio quality will drive away viewers just as quickly as bad video quality. No one is going to put up with a bad mic or badly recorded in-game sound for more than a few seconds.

Recording In-game Audio

If you’ve been following our series so far you would of set up your OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) properly in the last part. But to double-check if you’ve got audio on, click on Settings – > Encoding and make sure that audio is being recorded in the video. Then make sure in the Audio settings that the right device and microphone are selected from the drop-down menus.

Now adjust your volumes on your computer and run a little test by recording your in-game sounds and microphone for a few seconds. Watch the video that comes out and you’ll be able to hear if the audio levels are correct.

Voice Over and Commentary

The majority of Youtube gameplay videos have some sort of commentary or voice-over which provides insight or entertainment to the video. It is rare to see video of gameplay without any explanation because no one will be able to tell what’s going on.

To provide high quality commentary you will need to buy a good microphone or use a headset which has a good mic on it. While editing and software can make your mic sound better, it is really hard and sometimes impossible to make a bad microphone sound pleasant. If you are serious about starting to record PC gameplay for others to watch on Youtube or other sites, you will eventually need to do your own voice-overs or commentaries.

Audio Editing

If you are going to record your own voice-overs we recommend that you use an audio program such as Audacity to do so. Instead of recording your voice straight into the video using OBS, using Audacity lets you edit the recording and gives you much more flexibility. If you are new to Audacity, the video will run through how to set up the program to record and go through some filters and effects you can use to create a professional sound.

Once you’ve recorded the audio, you can sync up the audio to your video later using video editing software such as After Effects, Sony Vegas, etc.

Music

Theme or background music is essential for keeping interest, except when you are recording a tutorial, such as our videos. If you want to record PC gameplay for others to watch, you can purchase royalty free music from audiojungle or search for free background tracks on the internet. If you are doing tutorials or instructional videos you might not want

to use background music as it could make it hard to understand what you are saying on your video.

If used correctly, theme or background music can add a lot of emotion and feeling to your videos.

Record PC Gameplay Audio

This is a quick introduction to help you get better audio on your own videos. If you really want to record PC gameplay and share it with others, at some point you are going to have to go beyond simply recording in-game video and sounds.