OBS Studio Audio Format and Settings Guide
Best audio settings for OBS Studio. Codec, bitrate, and sample rate settings for streaming and local recording.
OBS Studio is the most widely used open-source software for livestreaming and screen recording. Its audio settings significantly affect the quality of your stream and your local recordings. Here is everything you need to set correctly.
OBS Audio Codec Options
For streaming, OBS encodes audio as AAC (the standard for Twitch, YouTube Live, and Facebook Gaming). For local recordings, OBS can use AAC or MP3 depending on your output container — or FLAC if you choose the MKV container with the FLAC codec for lossless audio.
Recommended Streaming Audio Settings
Bitrate: 160–320 kbps AAC. Twitch recommends 160 kbps for good quality. YouTube Live handles up to 320 kbps. Most streamers use 192 kbps as the balanced default. Sample rate: 44.1 kHz (standard for music and voice) or 48 kHz (standard for video production — use 48 kHz if you plan to edit recordings in a video editor). Channels: Stereo for music and gaming; mono reduces bitrate by half with minimal quality loss for talk-only streams.
Local Recording Settings
For recordings you will edit later, use MKV container with FLAC audio for lossless capture. This is ideal if you plan to post-process your audio in a DAW before uploading. For recordings you will upload as-is, use MP4 with AAC at 192–320 kbps. MKV + FLAC audio takes more storage but gives you full flexibility in post.
Audio Monitoring and Sync
OBS has an Audio Monitoring feature that routes audio to your headphones for real-time monitoring. Ensure your desktop audio and microphone are captured by OBS separately (not mixed together) if you want to process them independently in post. Set the microphone to a dedicated audio track in OBS's advanced audio settings — this records mic and desktop audio to separate tracks in the MKV file.
Processing Audio Before Streaming
OBS includes basic audio filters: Noise Suppression (RNNoise or Speex), Noise Gate, Compressor, and Limiter. Apply the Noise Suppression filter to your microphone track to reduce background noise. Set the Compressor with a -10 to -15 dB threshold and 3:1 ratio for voice. Apply the Limiter with a -0.1 dBFS ceiling to prevent clipping. These filters process audio in real time before encoding.