Transcription
Do you want to record your screen like this for free? In this video, I'll show you how to use OBS Studio step-by-step, even if you've never used it before. Hi everyone, I'm Kevin, and let's dive in.
To get OBS, head to the official website right here, and you'll find a link at the bottom of the screen. So, what exactly is OBS Studio? OBS stands for Open Broadcaster Software, and it's a completely free open-source tool that lets you record your screen or live stream to platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and more. It's perfect for recording tutorials, gaming, or even Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and here's the best part. There are no watermarks, no recording limits, and no subscriptions. You get full professional level control entirely for free.
Choose your operating system and then run through the install process. Once you finish installing and launch the app, you'll land here in the main interface. The first time you open it, you’ll see a setup wizard popup. OBS calls this the auto configuration wizard, and it's great if you want to get started quickly without diving into some of the more advanced settings. Now, right here, choose whether you're focused on recording or streaming. For this video, I'll select optimize just for recording. Now, keep in mind, you can always change this later on. Once you make your selection, down below, let's click on next.
Next, OBS will ask what size your screen should be inside the app. This is what they call the base canvas resolution. Think of it like drawing on paper. It's how big your paper is. Usually, it's the same size as your computer screen. If you're not sure, just leave it how it is. I'm picking display two. But don't worry, this isn't what your final video will look like. We'll set that part up a little bit later. Underneath that, we have something called FPS. That's how many frames per second your recording will capture. Basically, how smooth your video looks. I recommend choosing either 60 or 30 but prefer 60 when possible. If you're recording something fast moving, like gameplay or animations, 60 FPS will look much smoother. For basic tutorials or static screens, 30 FPS is usually fine and uses fewer resources. Once you make your selections, click on next.
After that, OBS runs a quick test and applies some recommended settings. Right here, you'll see a summary screen showing the encoder, the recording quality, the base and output resolutions, and FPS. If everything looks good, just click apply settings to continue. You can always tweak these later in the settings menu if needed, and we'll look at how you could do that later on.
Once that's done, you'll see the main OBS interface. And I know it might look a little bit intimidating, but I'll guide you through it all step-by-step. And if you ever want to revisit the auto configuration wizard, you could find it by going to the top menu and clicking tools, and right here, you'll see auto configuration wizard.
To record your screen, you'll first need to create what's called a scene. Think of a scene as different layouts or setups. Right here, you'll see that we already have a scene. You can right click on the name or you could press the F2 key and then you can give it a new name. I'm going to call mine screen recording.
Next, we need to add a source to that scene. A source is what OBS will actually capture. Let's click on the plus icon under sources. You'll notice that there are lots of options here. We have things like audio, gameplay, a video capture device, or basically what you could think of as a webcam, a specific window on your computer and more. OBS can capture almost anything on your computer, but for now, we'll stick with display capture since it's the simplest and also the most reliable way to grab your entire screen. I'll stick with the default name.
OBS will now ask you which display you want to record if you happen to have more than one monitor. I'll click on this dropdown, and I want to record this display right here. I'll select that. Now, you might notice that we get this infinite mirror effect. It's kind of like a screen within a screen that just keeps repeating. To avoid this, it's best to capture your second monitor if you have one. Put OBS on one monitor and then capture your second monitor or simply minimize OBS once you start your recording. I'll make sure to capture my cursor. That way I get all of my different mouse movements. Once you make your selections, down below, let's click on okay.
Once it's added, you'll see your full screen appear in the preview window. Now you could click on it to drag it and reposition it or over here, you click on the edges, and you could also resize it. But by default, it should already fill the full screen, so there's nothing else you should have to do.
If you want to record your voice while capturing your screen, you'll need to add a microphone. To do that, let's once again go down to the sources box and then click on the plus icon. On this list, at the very top, we have an option for audio input capture. Let's click on that, and here we can give it a name. I'll call my microphone and then click on okay. At the very top, you can choose your device or your microphone. I see a few different options. I’ll select this microphone right here. If you have a USB microphone, you should see it in this list. Once you make your selection, down below, let's click on okay.
And look at that, there's our microphone in the audio mixer. As you speak, watch for movement in the volume meter. If you see green bars moving, you're pretty much good to go. Now, if it's too quiet or maybe too loud, you can also adjust the slider right here, but I'm going to leave it set right to where it was. Now, if you click on this three dot menu, you could also go down to filters, and here we have all sorts of different audio filters that you can add. Like I said, OBS is an extremely powerful app. Down below, let's close out of this view.
Now, you might want to record the sound coming from your computer too, and not just your microphone. For example, maybe you have system audio, maybe you're playing music or maybe you want to capture in-game sound. How do we do that? Well, we just add another source. Just like we've been doing, click on the plus icon, and at the very top, we have the option for audio output capture. The reason why is we want to capture the audio that's being output by the computer. We'll click on this, you can give it a name, I'll stick with the default, then click on okay. Right up above, you can choose your speakers or whatever your output device happens to be. Over here, I'll select my speakers. Then, once you select that, down below, let's click on okay. And just like that, you can now record both your voice and your computer's audio.
Let's now take a look at your recording settings to make sure everything is set the way you want it. In the top left-hand corner, let's click on the file menu and then click on settings. Over on the left-hand side, click into output. Over on the right-hand side, let's scroll down a little bit and we'll focus on the recording section. At the very top, we have something called the recording path. This is the folder where all of your recordings will be saved. Now, over here, you could click on browse, and you can choose a different location, like maybe you want to put all of your files on your desktop or any other folder that you want.
Right down here, I'll leave the quality set to high. Next, we can choose a recording format. I recommend using either MKV, MP4, or there's now a new option called fragmented MP4. So, what's the difference and why choose one over the others? Well, many people choose MKV, which is one of the safest choices. It'll save the video even if OBS crashes. MP4 doesn't do that, but there's now a newer option called fragmented MP4. It combines the safety of MKV with the wide compatibility of MP4. So, if your version of OBS supports it, fragmented MP4 is a great all-around choice. Otherwise, you might want to stick with MKV for safety. Now, you can always go up to the file menu and you can convert from MKV to MP4 later on.
For the encoder, OBS usually selects the best option for your system. If you have a dedicated graphics card, like let's say an NVIDIA GPU, go with a hardware encoder like NVENC. That'll give you better performance. I'll select this option.
Over on the left-hand side, let's now click into the video tab. Right over here, your base canvas resolution should already match your monitor. We configured this earlier. That's what OBS will capture. Under that, you can choose your output scaled resolution. This is the size of the final video your viewers will see. To save space or to reduce lag, you can lower this. Or if you wanted to match your screen exactly, just set it to the same as your base resolution. Next, we have FPS, and we talked a little bit about this earlier. This controls how smooth your video looks. Use 30 for most tutorials or 60 for fast-moving content or gameplay. And if your webcam records at 29.97 FPS, try matching it here to keep everything in sync. Trust me, it'll make editing a lot easier later on.
Once that's all set, click Apply and OK, and hey, you're now ready to record.
Now that everything's set, you're ready to start recording. Head to the control panel in the bottom right-hand corner and you can now click on Start Recording. Over here, I can now minimize OBS, and I could go about and record my screen. To pause your recording, here you could click on this pause icon and that'll temporarily pause the recording. And then here, I can unpause it. Once you're all done recording, simply click on Stop Recording and your recording is now all done.
To find your video, go up to the top left-hand corner and click on the File menu, and here, you have the option to Show Recordings. When you click on that, here you can see all of your different recordings. You can now double-click on it just to make sure that everything looks and also sounds the way you would like it to. And that's it. You've officially recorded your first screen recording with OBS. Congratulations and nice work.
Finally, we'll look at a few bonus tips to take your screen recordings to the next level. First, let's look at how you could add your webcam alongside your screen recording. To do that, let's go down to Sources, click on this plus icon and let's click on Video Capture Device. You could give it a name, but I'll stick with the default and then click on OK. Right up here, you can now choose your device. And here, it's already selected my webcam. Hi, everyone. So here, I'll select my webcam and down below, let's click on OK.
Now, I see my webcam overlaying the screen recording. Here, it's at the top of the sources list, so it's also the topmost layer. Over here, I can now move my webcam to a different position. I'll place it right here in the corner. You could also resize it and get the positioning exactly where you would like it. Over here, you could also show or hide different sources on the canvas.
Next, OBS lets you assign hotkeys to quickly start and stop recording. Up in the top left-hand corner, click on the File menu, go to Settings, and then click into Hotkeys. Here, as an example, you could set a key to Start Recording and then also to Stop Recording. There are also some other helpful hotkeys. For example, you could set it to Toggle Mute. Now, these are super helpful if you don't want to show OBS while you're capturing.
And just like that, you've mastered the essentials of OBS. If you're ready to move on to editing, check out my video on DaVinci Resolve right there. It's a powerful free video editor that works great with OBS recordings. If this video helped you, please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing for more tutorials just like this one.