Audio Tracks

Audio tracks

ShadePlay guide › Your clips

The five sound tracks in every clip, what each one holds, and how the Mix counts every sound once.

The five tracks

Every clip has up to five sound tracks, in this order:

#	Track	What it holds	Can it be switched off?
1	Mix	Everything below in one track, with every sound counted once. This is the track players play.	Yes, in advanced mode (the other tracks are still saved)
2	Desktop	Everything that plays on the device you listen on (What you listen on: the Windows default output unless you pick one).	No, always recorded
3	Game	The detected game's own sound, whichever device it plays on (for example your headset).	No, always recorded
4	Discord	Your Discord call, whichever device it plays on.	Yes, in advanced mode
5	Mic (mono)	Your microphone.	Yes: Record my mic on the settings page

The Game track is left out of a clip in which no game was detected. The Mix is marked as the default track, so a player that plays one track plays the Mix.

Counted once

The game and Discord often play on the same device you listen on, so they are in the Desktop track already. If the Mix simply added the Game and Discord tracks on top, you would hear them twice.

So ShadePlay listens, second by second, where the game and Discord are actually playing:

• Playing on the device you listen on: the Desktop track already has them, so the Mix leaves the Game or Discord track out for those seconds.
• Playing only on another device (for example the game on a headset while the Windows default is a speaker): the Mix adds the Game or Discord track, because the Desktop track doesn't have it.
• Silent: the last decision holds, so the Mix doesn't flip back and forth.

The result: one Mix in which every sound is heard once, even when the game, Discord and your speakers all use different devices. The separate tracks are never changed by this; they always hold their full sound.

Good to know:

• The check runs once a second, so for a moment after the game switches devices the Mix can miss or double it.
• If the game plays on the device you listen on and on another device at the same time, the Mix keeps the Desktop track's copy. Advanced mode then shows the warning Game plays on two devices (Mix may double it): send the game to one output device.

The game's sound

The Game track follows the game ShadePlay detects: a fullscreen or borderless program on the recorded monitor, a program in a game library folder (Steam, Epic, Xbox, Riot, Battle.net and others), or a program you gave a clip name. Recording never depends on it: without a game, the Desktop track still has everything you hear. How a game is detected: Games and clip names.

A game that plays on a headset that is not the device you listen on is recorded only through the Game track. If such a game is not detected (a windowed game outside a game library folder), give it a clip name and it counts as a game.

Voice chat

The Discord track records the Discord desktop app (Discord.exe, and the PTB and Canary versions), whichever device the call plays on. Other people's voices are in it, and in the Mix. Discord in a browser is not on this track; if the browser plays on the device you listen on, the call is in the Desktop track and the Mix.

Your voice

The Mic track records the Windows default microphone, or the one you pick on the settings page. Record my mic switches it on and off. More in Sound and microphone.

ShadePlay's own sounds

The tick and the chime play on the Windows default output. While the Desktop track records that device, ShadePlay removes its own sounds from later clips' Desktop track (and so from the Mix).

Using the tracks in a video editor

Most video editors show all tracks and let you pick or mix them: for example the game louder, your mic quieter, or the call left out. Most players and upload sites play only the first one, the Mix.

Formats

Track	AAC bitrate (the default)
Mix	320 kb/s
Desktop, Game, Discord	256 kb/s
Mic	160 kb/s, mono

AAC plays everywhere. Advanced mode offers Opus, and FLAC (lossless, large), plus each track's volume, timing and bitrate: Audio settings.

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Next: HDR clips

See also: Sound and microphone · Audio settings · Games and clip names