How to record system audio and your microphone together on Windows

You can record the sound your computer plays and your own voice at the same time on Windows, with no cable, no second device and no Stereo Mix. Windows lets a recording app take the sound going to your speakers or headphones directly, and the recorders that come with Windows use it: Xbox Game Bar has a setting for it, and the Snipping Tool can add PC audio and a microphone voice-over. OBS Studio records the two as separate sources and can keep them on separate tracks. Focal, a screen recorder for Windows, sets your microphone and system audio in a small panel before each recording, keeps your choices for next time, and corrects your microphone’s delay so your voice lines up with the picture.

My name is Vince. I make Focal, and I have narrated more than one perfect demo to a microphone that was not recording, so this one is personal. It is also why Focal now tells you when Windows has your microphone muted. Everything below about Windows’ own tools and OBS Studio comes from Microsoft’s and the OBS Project’s own pages, checked on 2026-11-02.

What system audio is, and why Stereo Mix is not the answer any more

System audio is everything your computer plays: a video in the browser, the sound of the app you are demoing, the other people on a call, a notification chime. People also call it internal audio, desktop audio or computer audio. Whatever the name, it is the same thing.

For years the advice was Stereo Mix, a recording device some sound drivers add that hands whatever the sound card plays to any app as if it were a microphone. Where it exists it is usually disabled and hidden, it depends on your sound driver, and plenty of computers do not have it at all. If you have ever spent an evening following an old forum thread to a device your computer does not have, that was Stereo Mix. It also takes everything the sound card plays, with no way to leave one app out.

The good news is that you do not need it. Every recorder in this guide asks Windows for the sound going to your output device directly.

Xbox Game Bar: one setting called All

Game Bar comes with Windows 10 and 11. Press Windows key + G to open it, or Windows key + Alt + R to start and stop a recording without opening it. It records the game or app you are in.

Which audio it records is a setting. Microsoft’s page on Game Bar capture settings lists three choices under Audio to record: Game only, All, which takes your mic, background music and system sounds, and None, which leaves out game and system audio but still records your mic. For system audio and your voice together, the one you want is All. Windows Settings > Gaming > Captures has matching switches for recording audio with a clip, a choice of audio quality, and sliders for the system and mic levels while you record. Windows key + Alt + M turns the microphone on and off during a recording.

Game Bar’s Audio widget has two parts. Mix picks your output speakers and shows a volume level for each running app, which you can turn up or down. Voice sets the default input microphone and lets you test it with visual feedback. Microsoft’s page suggests making volume adjustments right in Game Bar, and Mix is where you do that when one app drowns out your voice. Game Bar is built around games, which the name makes no effort to hide. For what it can and cannot record outside them, see every built-in way to record your screen on Windows 11.

Snipping Tool: PC audio and a voice-over

On Windows 11 the Snipping Tool records video. Press Windows key + Shift + R, or open it and select Record, then New, drag a rectangle over the part of the screen you want, then select Start. Since version 11.2307.44.0, Microsoft’s Windows Insider announcement says it can optionally record your PC audio and a voice-over from your microphone. Its settings choose whether new recordings include audio by default, and if you have more than one microphone you can pick one before you start. When you stop, you can save the clip as it is or open it in Clipchamp.

It is the lightest way to get a clip with both sounds in it, and I mean that as a compliment. If you see no audio options, check the app’s version against that number.

OBS Studio: separate tracks

OBS Studio captures your desktop audio and your microphone by default, and its Audio Mixer shows a meter for each, Desktop Audio and Mic/Aux. If a meter does not move, or the wrong device is picked, choose the devices yourself in Settings > Audio.

What OBS does that the built-in tools do not is keep the sources apart. In Advanced output mode it can record up to six audio tracks: open Advanced Audio Properties from the Audio Mixer, give each source its own track, then enable those tracks in Settings > Output. Its knowledge base recommends MKV for this, since not every container holds more than one audio track, and warns that standard video players play only one audio track at a time. If the file goes straight to viewers without an editor, put everything on track 1 as well. Otherwise a viewer may get the app’s sound and none of your voice, and assume that was the plan. For one app’s sound on its own, OBS Studio 28 and later has an Application Audio Capture (BETA) source.

If you need your voice and the app’s sound as separate tracks for a video editor, OBS Studio is the better tool, and Focal does not do that. OBS is also a broadcasting tool with scenes and sources to set up first. I compare the two for demo videos in Focal vs OBS Studio.

Recording system audio and your microphone with Focal

I built Focal for recordings that get published, so the sound is something you set up once and then stop thinking about:

1. Install Focal from the download page. Recording and editing are free with every feature, with no time limit, no card and no account, and exporting needs a license.
2. Press Print Screen. If another program owns that key, Focal uses Ctrl+PrtSc and tells you.
3. Drag a region, click a window to snap to it, or press Enter for the whole screen.
4. A small panel sets the microphone, system audio, camera and keystrokes before each recording. Your choices are kept for next time, except Everything for keystrokes. If Windows has the microphone muted, the panel says so before you start.
5. On Windows 11, you can record the system audio of one app only, or of everything except one app. Recording only the app you are demoing keeps a chat notification or a music player out of the video.
6. A countdown runs, then a small control bar shows the time, with pause and stop, and whether the microphone and system audio are recording. A level bar beside the microphone rises as you speak, so one that hears nothing shows in the first seconds rather than at the end. The microphone and speaker on the bar are buttons too: click the microphone to mute it through a sneeze or a doorbell, and the speaker to mute system audio when a chat app picks that moment to ping; click again to bring either back. The muted stretch is recorded as silence, so the sound stays in sync. Stop, and the editor opens.

Focal mixes the microphone and system audio sample for sample. When both are loud at the same moment, it limits them softly instead of letting the peak clip into distortion.

In the editor, voice cleanup, two switches in the Audio tab, removes background noise and evens out loudness to the level web video is mixed at. The same tab has change pitch and mute, and you can add background music that gets quieter while you talk. Clips you speed up or slow down on the timeline keep your voice at its normal pitch, so speeding through the slow part does not turn you into a chipmunk. Focal runs on Windows 10 version 21H2 or later, and only the one-app options need Windows 11.

Getting the voice to line up and sound clean

Every microphone hands over its sound a little after you speak, and the delay is not the same for a USB microphone, a headset and a webcam. You notice it most when your camera is on and your lips move before the words arrive. Focal measures each microphone’s delay while you record and corrects it, so voice and picture line up, which is what keeps the camera bubble in sync with what you say.

Audio interfaces bring their own trap. Many show up in Windows as one two-channel device, with your microphone on input 1 and nothing on input 2. A recorder that averages the two gives the silence an equal say and puts your voice at half its level. Focal records the input the microphone is on instead.

The rest applies to any recorder:

• Wear headphones. With speakers, the microphone picks up the system audio a moment late and the recording gets an echo. Headphones keep the two sounds apart.
• Check the level before you record. In Windows 11, Settings > System > Sound > Input has Start test: speak normally, stop the test, play it back, and move the Input volume slider if needed. Then record ten seconds in your recorder and listen before the real take.
• Pick the right input device. A webcam, a monitor and a headset can each add a microphone, and the default is not always the one in front of you. Check the name in Sound settings and in your recorder.
• Watch for the meeting app that takes the microphone. A meeting app left open can hold the microphone, mute it or change its level. Close it before you record. If the microphone goes silent only while one app is running, open More sound settings, then the Recording tab, your microphone’s Properties and Advanced, and clear the box that allows applications to take exclusive control of the device.

A good voice track is most of what makes a screen recording watchable. For the rest of the job, from the script to the export, see how to record a product demo video on Windows.