Sound and Microphone

Sound and microphone

ShadePlay guide › Using ShadePlay

The two sound choices on the settings page, and two Windows settings that change what ends up in your clips.

What you listen on

Pick the speakers or headset you hear your games on. Everything that plays there is recorded (the Desktop track): the game, voice chat, music, videos, system sounds.

• Windows default records the Windows default output, whatever it is at the moment. When you switch the default device in Windows, ShadePlay follows.
• The game and the Discord call are also recorded directly, whatever device they play on (the Game and Discord tracks). So a game on your headset is in your clips even if the Windows default is your speakers. Picking your headset here adds everything else you hear on it.
• A device you picked that is unplugged shows as Saved device (not connected) and is used again when it is back.
• Devices on the never-record list (advanced) are not offered here at all.

The line under the list says what is recorded: Your game, voice chat and everything else you hear are recorded.

Microphone

• Microphone: the Windows default microphone, or the one you pick. A picked microphone that is unplugged shows as Saved microphone (not connected).
• Record my mic: switches your microphone's track on or off. It is also part of the Mix.
• No microphone is fine. The status line then ends in (no mic connected).

Windows blocks the microphone

Windows can stop desktop apps from using the microphone (Windows Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone). Then your mic isn't recorded, the status says Recording, but Windows is blocking your mic, and the tray menu shows:

⚠ Windows blocks your mic – allow it…

Click it (or the notification Windows is blocking your mic): Windows' microphone privacy page opens. Turn on Let desktop apps access your microphone. ShadePlay keeps trying and picks the mic up by itself.

Game sound gets quieter during calls

By default Windows turns other sounds down while you are in a call ("communications ducking"). You hear the game quieter, and your clips record it quieter. When this setting is on, the tray menu shows:

⚠ Windows turns game sound down during calls – fix it…

Click it (or the notification Game sound gets quieter during calls). The Windows Sound settings open on the Communications tab: choose Do nothing and click OK. (Without ShadePlay: press Win+R, type mmsys.cpl and press Enter.)

Discord can also lower other apps during calls. In Discord, set Voice & Video > Attenuation to 0 %.

When your default output isn't recorded

If Windows switches your default output to a device on the never-record list (for example a bass shaker that carries game vibration rather than sound), sound from the default output isn't recorded. The tray menu then shows:

⚠ Sound from your default output isn't recorded – fix it…

Click it: the Windows Sound settings open on the Playback tab. Set your speakers or headset as the default device.

ShadePlay's own sounds

The tick, the chime and the low tone play on the Windows default output, even if you listen on another device. While the Desktop track records the default output, ShadePlay takes its own sounds out of your later clips.

Switch the sounds off in advanced mode: Play sounds on the General page, or the tray menu's Sounds and notifications > Sounds.

Something missing from a clip?

• No game sound: is the game detected? A windowed game outside a game library folder may not be. Give it a clip name and it counts as a game (Games and clip names), or pick the device you hear it on under What you listen on.
• No voice chat: the Discord track records the Discord desktop app, not Discord in a browser.
• More in Troubleshooting.

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Next: The tray menu and notifications

See also: Audio tracks · Audio settings · Troubleshooting