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Windows Audio with nVidia ShadowPlay
nVidia ShadowPlay is a fantastic piece of software shipped with nVidia graphics cards that allows the recording of the screen. A user can record either their desktop, great for tutorial videos, or they can record their gameplay, nice for YouTube videos. ShadowPlay is so efficient that it only adds around 2% to the processor overhead on modern PCs.
While ShadowPlay is very good, there is one thing that annoys me with my videos, and that is the audio. I love recording my games, but don't want my chatter, or the chatter of others in them (unless I choose). To resolve this I have decided to use two audio devices on my computer, via a mixer. However I keep forgetting the settings, so I am documenting them here.
Hardware
The hardware for this is quite simple, I am using the the following:
- OnBoard Soundcard
- USB Mixer
- TurtleBeach Headset
The USB Mixer is connected to the PC via USB, the USB supplies Power, and the Mixer is also a Windows USB Audio Device (so works as a soundcard in it's own right).
The Onboard Soundcard output is fed in to the USB Mixer 2-Track input.
The Speakers and Headpohnes are connected so that I can switch between listening to my headset, or on a set of speakers.
Software Settings
This is the more tricky part. We need to force Windows and Shadowplay to route the audio where we want it. First setup the Windows Sound settings.
Windows Audio Settings
For the Playback settings, set the Headset (Turtle Beach Z22 in this case) to be the Default Communications Device
Set the Speakers (USB Audio Codec is the USB Mixer) to be the Default Device
For the Recording settings. Set the Microphone to be the Default Device