Best OBS Studio Settings for RECORDING in 2026 (For Beginners)

[00:00] every gamer wants their recordings to

[00:01] look perfect and clear problem is the

[00:03] settings are confusing as heck so let me

[00:05] show you the exact OBS Studio settings

[00:07] to make your recordings look perfect

[00:09] first we'll go into OBS studio and then

[00:11] we'll go to the bottom right corner

[00:12] where it says settings and then we're

[00:14] going to skip over the general and skip

[00:16] over appearance and skip over stream cuz

[00:18] we don't need that we're going to go

[00:19] directly to the output tab once you're

[00:21] on the output tab we're going to change

[00:23] the output mode from simple to Advanced

[00:25] and that's going to give us more

[00:27] settings to access then we're going to

[00:29] change the Stream tab right here to the

[00:31] recording Tab and this is where the meat

[00:33] and potatoes really are going to hide

[00:34] now I know this looks a little

[00:35] intimidating but I'm going to explain it

[00:36] that anyone can understand even your mom

[00:38] first thing we got to worry about is the

[00:40] recording path this is where all of your

[00:42] recordings are going to save on your

[00:44] computer so you can hit the browse

[00:45] button and choose a location that you

[00:46] want all of your recordings to go to I

[00:48] will say you're going to want to pick an

[00:50] SSD or some kind of good solid state

[00:52] drive because I tried recording directly

[00:54] on a crappy hard drive before and it

[00:56] basically stuttered the recordings and

[00:57] it was bad so pick a nice solid state

[00:59] drive to record this to and then if you

[01:01] want you can transfer it over later and

[01:02] then for the recording format we're

[01:03] actually going to pick MKV and you might

[01:05] be thinking why the heck are we not

[01:06] using something like MP4 well MKV

[01:09] actually has a really useful feature

[01:10] whereas if your recording gets stuttered

[01:12] or your power goes out or for whatever

[01:14] reason it just like loses the progress

[01:16] then your recording file won't actually

[01:18] be corrupted you're actually going to

[01:19] keep all of the recording that you had

[01:21] before that incident happened unlike if

[01:23] you're using like MP4 because that whole

[01:25] file is going to be Mia and the neat

[01:26] thing is is if we actually go directly

[01:28] to the advanced tab here we can scroll

[01:31] down to where it says recording and then

[01:32] we're going to choose automatically

[01:34] remux to MP4 so what this will do after

[01:36] you enable it is when you end your

[01:38] recording it's automatically going to

[01:39] give you the MKV file which you can

[01:41] delete and then it's going to

[01:42] automatically give you the mp4 file as

[01:45] well so that way you can safely record

[01:47] an mp4 without possibly losing your

[01:49] footage if the power goes out or some

[01:50] stupid thing happens so this actually

[01:52] really helpful so highly recommend that

[01:54] well let's go back to the output Tab and

[01:55] we're going to move on to the video

[01:56] encoder a lot of people get confused on

[01:58] this but really there's only two options

[02:01] you have Nvidia enve which is people

[02:03] that have Nvidia cards like myself so

[02:05] you'll be using the Nvidia enve h264 but

[02:07] if you're an AMD user you're just going

[02:08] to pick the AMD equivalent in your video

[02:10] encoder it's that simple and then if you

[02:12] don't have either of those options then

[02:13] chances are your recordings are going to

[02:15] look pretty bad because you don't have a

[02:16] proper graphics card and then you'll

[02:18] have to use x264 which is going to eat

[02:20] up a lot of your CPU and your recordings

[02:22] are going to look really rough so it

[02:23] would highly recommend against using

[02:25] x264 unless you absolutely have to just

[02:27] know you're probably going to run into

[02:28] issues the audio encoder we're going to

[02:29] use FFM Peg fun to say the audio track

[02:32] this is actually really important and

[02:34] very helpful but it is a little complex

[02:36] so I'm going to save this for the very

[02:38] end of the video so stick around to make

[02:39] sure that you use this cuz it's actually

[02:41] a super helpful feature in recordings

[02:43] but there's some other stuff we got to

[02:44] tackle before we do that so we're

[02:45] actually going to scroll down to where

[02:46] it says encoder settings and if you

[02:48] remember the streaming tab we use CBR on

[02:50] here we're actually going to use cqp for

[02:53] the encoder rate control because it's

[02:54] going to be better for our recordings

[02:56] and then for the CQ level you can pick

[02:58] anything between 16 to 20 I prefer 17

[03:01] it's right in the middle but if you're

[03:02] experiencing issues you can lower it to

[03:04] 16 or if you want to go higher then you

[03:06] can go all the way up to 20 but that

[03:07] might be a little Overkill then the key

[03:09] frame interval I have it at two you

[03:11] could also have it at zero you might see

[03:12] both in other videos but either is

[03:14] really fine the preset can be anywhere

[03:16] between P5 and p7 if you got a really

[03:18] good computer I'd use p7 you got a

[03:20] really crap computer I'd pick P5 you got

[03:22] somewhere between P6 you can also switch

[03:25] this up as you go in case you running

[03:26] any issues just like the CQ level and

[03:28] the key for Interval if you need to then

[03:30] for the tuning multipass profile all the

[03:32] rest of the stuff you can just copy high

[03:33] quality two passes High pycho visual

[03:36] tuning zero and two it's really that

[03:37] simple and then you can hit apply and

[03:39] we'll move on to the audio tab at the

[03:41] very top not the one on the left but at

[03:42] the top change all these bad boys to 320

[03:44] to give you the best audio quality for

[03:46] all of them and then we're going to move

[03:48] to the actual audio quality but before

[03:49] we do that quickly hit okay if you're

[03:51] wondering why I got the starting soon

[03:52] screen it's actually my streamer starter

[03:54] pack which is linked in the description

[03:55] down below so you feel free to check

[03:56] that out we'll actually go back to the

[03:58] settings in the bottom right corner then

[03:59] we'll go to the audio tab on the left

[04:01] make sure that you have your desktop

[04:02] audio selected so that's going to be

[04:04] your headphones or your speakers that

[04:06] your audio is coming out of for

[04:07] everything and then pick your microphone

[04:08] from the first list here I'm using the

[04:10] road pod mic USB right there love this

[04:12] mic also linked in the description below

[04:14] simply hit apply make sure that goes in

[04:16] there then we'll go to the video Tab and

[04:18] you're going to change your base canvas

[04:19] resolution to whatever game you're

[04:22] playing I game at 1080P and my monitor

[04:24] is 1080p so my base canvas resolution is

[04:27] 1080 and then for the output you're

[04:28] going to want to change it to whatever

[04:29] you're going to record at I want to

[04:30] record at 1080p 60 frames per second and

[04:33] since these two numbers match here we

[04:35] don't need a downscale filter but if

[04:37] yours do not match you're going to

[04:39] change this downscale filter to lands

[04:41] Coast because it's going to give you the

[04:42] best quality and then the common FPS

[04:43] value we're going to pick 60 cuz I'm

[04:45] recording in 1080P 60 FPS moving on to

[04:48] the next app we got hot keys in case you

[04:49] want to use any of these like start stop

[04:51] recording with if you have an extra key

[04:53] on your keyboard or you got a stream

[04:54] deck or something like that but you can

[04:56] feel free to explore these on your own

[04:57] and also make sure to drop a like on

[04:58] this video if it's been helpful so far

[05:00] so other streamers can find this video

[05:02] so we can now hit okay and these will

[05:04] give you beautiful settings for your

[05:06] recordings but the last thing I wanted

[05:07] to touch on if we go to the settings in

[05:09] the bottom right corner click that go

[05:10] back to Output recording and then the

[05:12] audio tracks you can actually split your

[05:14] audio tracks so you can split your game

[05:16] audio and your mic audio so when you

[05:18] bring it into your video editor after

[05:20] you can actually have more control over

[05:21] both but I have an entire video covering

[05:23] that entire process which is right here

[05:25] to the side of me so give that one a

[05:26] watch my name is Cody and I will see you

[05:28] in the next one