Audio

Audio

Flashback records the sound playing on your PC and, if you want, your microphone. From 0.8.0 every clip carries editable audio tracks by default: a Flashback mix that plays anywhere, plus separate tracks you can adjust on their own in a video editor. You don't need a microphone for any of it. This page covers every option in Settings > Audio.

The basics

Setting	Default	What it does
Record game and desktop audio	On	Records the sound playing through the selected output device: games, voice chat, music, browser audio.
Record audio from	Default output (follows Windows)	Which speakers or headset are recorded. See Choose the output device.
Include my microphone	Off	Adds your selected microphone to saved replays.
Microphone	Default microphone	Which mic to record.
Add editable audio tracks	On	Keeps a normal audible mix and adds a separate game and desktop track, plus a microphone track when the microphone is on.
Audio to leave out	None	Removes Discord, Spotify or browser audio from clips. Uses editable tracks; the microphone is optional.

Saved clips use AAC audio in the MP4.

What's in a clip

With Add editable audio tracks on (the default), each clip carries named tracks:

Track	Name in a video editor	Contains	When
1 (default)	Flashback mix	Game and desktop sound plus your microphone, the track every player plays	Always
2	Game and desktop	Game and desktop sound only	Always
3	Microphone	Your microphone only	When Include my microphone is on

Most media players, Discord and browsers play only the first track, the Flashback mix, so your clips sound right everywhere. A video editor that shows every audio stream lets you lower the game, raise your voice or drop either one. Discord copies and Flashback Cloud uploads carry only the Flashback mix.

The Flashback mix is at full level. Game sound and your voice are added together at their real volume, as the single mixed track was before, and a limiter only steps in where the two together would clip. Turning the microphone on or off doesn't change how loud the game is.

Why tracks are on by default. Each editable track is joined sample for sample across the replay buffer's segments, so there are no small gaps where segments meet. The recorder's single mixed track, used when editable tracks are off, starts every new segment with about 10 ms of silence; Flashback fades over those joins instead of letting them click, but the editable tracks have no join at all.

Upgrading from 0.7.x. The 0.8.0 update turns editable tracks on for everyone who records game and desktop audio. If you want one mixed track again, turn off Add editable audio tracks and apply. A game profile that turns game audio off also turns off the tracks for that game.

While recording, the separate tracks are kept as temporary files inside Flashback's private buffer folder, never in your clip folder.

Choose the output device

Record audio from decides whose sound is recorded:

• Default output (follows Windows): whichever playback device Windows uses, even when you switch it.
• A specific device, such as your headset: Flashback always records that one, whatever Windows' default is.

The list refreshes each time you open it, so a headset you plug in after Flashback started shows up without a restart.

If the device you chose is unplugged, it stays selected and shows its name with "· not connected" and a warning mark, for example "Headphones (USB DAC) · not connected". A device Flashback hasn't seen while it's been running shows as "Saved output device · not connected". Meanwhile Flashback records the Windows default output and says so, in Settings ("This device isn't connected. Flashback records the Windows default output until it's back.") and on the Replay tab. When the device comes back, Flashback switches back at the next segment boundary while no game is in front, so turning a headset back on mid-match doesn't empty your replay. A device that disappears switches straight away, since it has already stopped recording.

Switching devices while you record

With editable tracks on, if you switch or unplug the Windows default headset or speakers while recording, the next part of the replay records the device Windows uses now, within a couple of seconds. The replay history from before the switch is kept, so a save can still reach back past it.

Pick your microphone

1. Turn on Include my microphone.
2. Under Microphone, choose a specific mic, or Default microphone to follow whatever Windows uses as its default input.

If the mic you chose isn't plugged in, it stays selected and shows its name with "· not connected" and a warning mark ("This microphone isn't connected. Clips won't include it until it's back."), rather than Flashback quietly switching to a different one. Plug it back in and it's used again.

The microphone for voice commands is chosen separately, under Listening microphone, so you can record one mic and give commands on another. It keeps an unplugged choice the same way.

Clean microphone audio

Flashback 0.8.0 fixes the static some people heard on their voice in clips recorded with 0.7.22 through 0.7.41. Those versions placed each 10 ms block of captured audio by its timestamp, and USB audio interfaces and virtual cables report timestamps with a few milliseconds of jitter even when every sample arrives in order. The result was short silent gaps and skipped samples about a hundred times a second, loudest while you talked.

Flashback now writes captured audio back to back, joins segments sample for sample, and uses timestamps only for real gaps and slow clock drift. Clips already recorded can't be repaired, but new recordings are clean, with no Windows, driver or USB change needed.

When your microphone drops audio

If your microphone or Windows reports lost audio at least three times within a minute, Flashback says so:

• A "Your microphone is dropping audio" card on the Replay tab, with the count for the last minute and what to try.
• One tray notification per run of the app.

The note goes away after a full minute without dropouts. Only dropouts the device or Windows report count; starting or stopping the buffer, a muted mic or an app going quiet never raise it. These dropouts usually come from the device, its driver, its USB port or USB power saving rather than from Flashback. See Troubleshooting Audio.

For a saved clip, Capture health (the clip's ... menu in the Library) has a Microphone continuity line: how many dropouts the microphone reported while that clip was recording and how much audio was lost. Three or more dropouts, or 100 ms or more of lost audio, mark the clip as needing attention.

Leave Discord, Spotify or your browser out

Audio to leave out removes any combination of:

• Discord: keep your friends' voices out of clips.
• Spotify: keep music out (handy for copyright).
• Browser: the active browser family, such as a video playing in the background.

It uses editable tracks, with or without a microphone. Removed apps are left out of both the Flashback mix and the Game and desktop track. Game sound and your microphone stay. Flashback does this with Windows' per-app audio capture, and the extra per-app capture only runs for the apps you selected.

If a selected app restarts, spawns new processes or moves to another output device in the middle of recording, Flashback can't be sure it's still removing that app's sound. Rather than risk saving it, Flashback discards the affected stretch of the buffer and refreshes before anything is saved. You won't get that app's audio in a clip you thought was clean.

To remove an app reliably, keep it playing through the device Flashback records. An app that plays only on another device isn't in the recording anyway; one that plays on several devices at once is left in, and Flashback warns you.

Keeping sound in sync

Flashback times game and microphone audio against the audio devices' own clocks and lines them up with the video from the first frame. It also corrects clock gaps that some virtual audio cables produce. Replays built from several buffer pieces stay aligned at every join. If a clip ever sounds off, use Capture health from the clip's ... menu in the Library to check its timing and audio alignment. The details are on Audio-Video Sync.

Tips for clean audio

• Use headphones if you record your mic. Speakers let game sound leak into the microphone.
• Plug USB headsets and interfaces straight into the PC, ideally a port on the back, not a hub or front-panel port.
• Avoid "Stereo Mix" or mic mixers as your microphone. A virtual input that mixes desktop sound into your mic will put desktop sound in the Microphone track (and in voice command input).
• Clip sounds aren't recorded. Flashback's own save sounds change only what you hear, not clip audio.
• Your voice commands can be heard in clips if you record your mic, because the clip records everything the mic hears.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Try
No game sound in clips	Check Record game and desktop audio is on, and that the game plays through the device under Record audio from.
Settings says the chosen device isn't connected	Plug it back in. Until then Flashback records the Windows default output.
No microphone	Turn on Include my microphone and check the Microphone choice isn't showing as not connected.
"Your microphone is dropping audio"	Try another USB port on the back of the PC, update the device's driver and turn off USB power saving for it. See Troubleshooting Audio.
Only hear one track in an editor import	Some editors import only the first track by default; look for an option to import all audio streams.
Discord still audible	Choose Discord under Audio to leave out, and make sure Discord plays through the device Flashback records.
Sound drifts or echoes	Run Capture health on the clip, and make sure the same sound isn't routed to the mic through a virtual device.

More audio fixes are on Troubleshooting Audio.

Related pages

Voice Commands · Audio-Video Sync · Editor and Montage · Instant Replay