Recording Two Imputs at Once

[sweetietweet]

Hi. I've been Googling this issue for a little while and haven't found a specific answer to my problem, so apologies if this thread is redundant.

I'm using the latest version of Audacity to record myself commentating over a video game I'm playing, with the video recording in a separate program. I'm having trouble syncing the game audio with my commentary, so I was wondering if it was possible to have Audacity record my microphone input and the system audio at the same time, perhaps in two separate tracks? I've messed around with preferences, but haven't figured out a way to do this. Thank you for your time.

[kozikowski]

You may not be doing this. There is a single-line sound pathway through the machine and you have two different branching sounds. You would need to record from two different sound devices at once, the folded back game sound and the straight-through microphone sound. Can't do that without convoluted custom software. Audacity will only record from one device at a time, so you get to pick which is the reason you couldn't Google it.

You can use the Multitrack, Overdubbing system to get there. Record the game clean in one pass and then then play that to your headphones while you add commentary. There's no video when you do this. Audacity doesn't directly support video.

This is the same process that you would use to record drums and then go back and add guitar and then go back and add vocals, etc. etc.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/man ... rdubs.html

You might be able to do it with two computers or one computer and an external sound mixer and USB adapter.

Koz

[DVDdoug]

There might be another way to do it... Although you can't mix recording inputs, you can mix outputs, and with some soundcards you can record the output (what's coming out of your computer speakers). The instructions on this page show you haw to record "What-U-Hear", or "Stereo Mix", etc. (If your soundcard/driver don't support these options, you are out of luck...)

Once you are recording the output, you just need to double-click the speaker icon to bring-up the playback-mixer, and enable the microphone. Now the game sounds (usually "WAVE" in the Windows Mixer) and the sound from the microphone should be coming out of the speakers. So when you record the output, you will record both.

You need to monitor with headphones so that you don't get feedback from the speakers to the mic.

[kozikowski]

Let us know if you get it to work. You're not the only poster who wanted to know something similar. This is a dialog, not a help desk.

Koz