# Recording sources to separate video files?



## unfa (Jan 10, 2017)

I capture my desktop with a webcam overlay. Sometimes I wish I had the desktop and the webcam recorded in separate files that I could overlay in post-production (using Blender) or make a cut (to full-screen webcam) or hide the webcam view for a while if it blocks an important part of the desktop.

Would it be possible for OBS to write selected sources to file along (or instead of) the original "composite" output?

I thought about overriding this by creating an atlas on a bigger resolution canvas, but I need to capture the desktop in 1920x1080 and that's the maximum canvas size so that won't work.


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## dodgepong (Jan 11, 2017)

OBS currently does not have multicording capabilities.


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## unfa (Jan 15, 2017)

Are there any plans on implementing something like this?

Anybody think that'd be useful for advanced post-production?


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## wallrik (Jan 16, 2017)

Can you not just run two instances of OBS with one recording the game and one recording the webcam? Or is it not possible to record with both? I haven't tried it myself.

Also, you _can_ change the canvas by manually typing in the field instead of using the drop-down.


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## dodgepong (Jan 16, 2017)

There aren't really any plans for it, as far as I know. It has been suggested in the past, and I acknowledge how useful it could be. The main issue it is that it increases the number of encoder instances that need to be running at the same time, which massively massively increases CPU usage. It may come someday, but it's not really a priority for the current core development team.


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## unfa (Jan 17, 2017)

I see it would still need a very powerful machine to handle this, even if it would be implemented.

Thanks! I'll try investigating the atlas option, since the canvas can be set to any size I want. :)


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## Vouk (Jan 20, 2017)

It would be great to have this feature.

I see why it is complicated to implement.
But what about if it just gets muxed in as a separate video stream? You could use the same encoder and everything.


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## dodgepong (Jan 20, 2017)

A separate video stream, by definition, requires a separate encoder.

Not to mention recording separate sources requires separate graphics contexts as well.


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## unfa (Feb 19, 2017)

Ok, so I can confirm that one can define any canvas size and place all the sources in an "atlas" and split them up in post production. The onvious problem is that it's going to require more resources to capture, process and store the video as 2 or 3 times the pixels than a standard 1920x1080 image.

So even though this worked, my captured video had the webcam image frozen a few times fro a couple of seconds.


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## Anurag (May 19, 2017)

Hi unfa/all,

I am looking at creating separate video and audio files for each source. Can you help me understand how you did this? Or anyone with any tips or suggestions will help.

Anurag


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## Riaan Eloff (Sep 24, 2017)

Hey folks, I was looking for this exact thing.  It is EXTREMELY disappointing to find out that this is not going to be implemented in OBS.  Such a bummer.  Yet, here's my workaround:  Multiple instances of OBS.  Simple as that!  The story about the multiple encoders using system resources etc and bogging down the system may or may not be valid, but, I use a simple i5 with 8GB RAM, and I'm running four different sources (via four different OBS instances) to four different video files.  I then import into Premiere Pro, and voila!  I am able to cut betwene "scenes" so-to-speak, in post-production.  Hope this helps.

Oh...yes....how to line up:  Simple start the recordings on all four different instances:, then do a simple CLAP (yup, clap your hands together) in place of the clapperboard that gets used in movies.  Now, it's rather simple to align.  Once you've dragged your files into software like Premiere, you simply look for the obvious "clap" waveform in the different audio tracks, align them as finely as you are able, and there you have it.  Videos are then aligned.  Now you either cut between audio as you cut between video, or, what I do, I use one of the video files as the "main" audio source, and remove all the other audio sources.  I also, then,. obviously unlink the audio and video after alignment, so that a cut to the "main" audio file's video track, leaves the audio intact.


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## digitalson (Oct 12, 2017)

well i just wrote a reply about this same question...basically you can put a ndi input on each source and send as independent output ...then from newtek's site download isocorder that will record and ndi source on the local network ...the free version can record 2 sources..and they are timecoded for editing software.....and if you have another pc on the network you can run another version of isocorder and do 2 more sources ,,,ndi looks and sounds great ..full 1080p with stereo audio


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## matrixebiz (May 1, 2018)

It wouldn't be that difficult to have each Recording source use ffmpeg as the encoder would it? I don't know how your program is built so not sure if that would be easy to implement or not and ffmpeg doesn't use too much resources to have 4 recording going at the same time.


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## Spacecowboy121 (Nov 5, 2018)

I would like to add that Screen flow can do this on my old MacBook air. So cpu does not seem to be a large issue for this not happening.


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## Surge42 (Aug 25, 2019)

I'm chiming in to also ask for this kind of functionality.  Separating the two files for export would be HUGE!


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## Dihelson Mendonca (Feb 7, 2020)

Wirecast does that. It can record each source independently to edit in post production, like on Adobe Premiere. So, I think it´s nothing that complicated to implement, using something like ffmpeg or another tournaround. Just need yo put this on the priority list. I´m also seeking a form to do that in OBS. Any help is welcomed.


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## keithphw (Jul 16, 2020)

Thank you Riaan Elof for your excellent advice:
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/recording-sources-to-separate-video-files.61173/post-317966
In addition, here's another method for combining all of your sources into one big resolution video file, which can then be edited in a separate in post-production with the different parts of the screen plonked wherever on top of each other or side by side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8w9x31FBUo
Although I haven't tried either method in OBS yet, I do like Riaan's method for how it saves the files separately.
Pity that OBS can't save the output files separately in the one instance. I've used Camtasia before and it does.


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## binba (Jul 28, 2020)

Instead of multiple instances of OBS, could you run multiple instances of ffmpeg to "grab" all the sources? Depending on the source really. In some cases you could in theory use ffmpeg's stream-copy mode to get the full quality with almost no CPU penalty.

I started a thread to discuss it at at https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/raw-source-recording-of-usb-uvc-webcams.127272/ .


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## SYTRopes (Dec 30, 2021)

I am trying to figure out exactly how I did it, but OBS is definitly capable of recording multiple video files at once. About a month ago while I was playing around with setting up my recordings and everything, I was getting very frustrated because I was having issues with my audio not saving to my video files. The further into my settings and folders I dove, I found out that I was somehow saving my display capture to one file, my webcam to another, and a third file was the my entire scene combination. I am trying my best to locate how I was able to do this before, but at the current moment, when I hit record on my OBS program it saves 2 video files. One with my webcam and the other with my set scene.

*EDIT*  Well that didn't take long to figure it out again.  What you can do is add a filter to your webcam, and choose the filter option "source record". From here you can choose a separate save location for the webcam save file. Tons of other settings in there to automate for streaming/recording as well.


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## dodgepong (Dec 30, 2021)

To be clear, "Source Record" is from a third party plugin: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/source-record.1285/


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