How to Record Microphone and System Audio
Below is a detailed guide on how to record audio and configure the settings in oCam.
Recording System Audio by Default
When you start screen recording with oCam, system audio is recorded automatically by default. This includes all sounds played on your computer, such as video audio, game sound effects, and system notification sounds. This setting is applied immediately without any extra steps, making it very convenient for users who want to record only system audio. For example, when recording gameplay footage or creating software tutorial videos, you can capture only the system audio cleanly.
Recording Microphone Audio as Well
If you want to record microphone audio together with system audio, you only need to adjust the settings slightly in oCam. First, click the "Sound" button on the main screen of oCam. A pop-up window for sound settings will then appear. In this window, a list of available microphone devices is shown, and you can select the microphone you want to use. For example, if you are using an external microphone or a headset microphone, simply select and enable that device. Through this process, both system audio and microphone audio are recorded at the same time, which is very useful when creating lecture videos or recordings that require live narration.
Applying the Audio Recording Settings
Once you select the microphone and complete the settings, oCam immediately applies them. After that, when you start recording, both system audio and microphone audio will be recorded together. This feature is especially effective for situations where both your voice and system sound need to be captured at the same time, such as YouTube content creation, online classes, or game streaming. To make sure the settings have been applied correctly, it is a good idea to run a short test recording and check whether the audio is being recorded properly.
Disabling Audio Recording
Sometimes you may want to capture only the screen video without recording any sound at all. In that case, uncheck the "Record System Audio" option in the sound settings window of oCam, and select "Do Not Record Microphone" in the microphone settings as well. With this configuration, oCam records only the screen video without any sound, which is suitable for tasks where a silent video is needed, such as when you plan to add background music separately later.
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How to Improve Recording Video and Audio Quality in oCam
How to Improve Video Recording Quality
By default, oCam uses the
MPEG-4 video codec.
The MPEG-4 codec, which is used by default, provides medium-level video quality by nature. However, it is set as the default because it is suitable for recording on low- to mid-spec computers, does not use a hardware encoder, and offers good software compatibility ( it can be played in most video players ).
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card ( GTX 600 series or later for desktops, or GTX 650M or later for laptops ) or if your CPU performance is high, you can improve video quality by recording with the NVENC H.264 encoder or the Open H.264 encoder.
As shown below, click the Codec button in the oCam main window and select either NVIDIA NVENC H.264 ( your graphics card must support it, and if it does not, an error will occur and recording will fail when you start recording ) or the Open H.264 codec to record.
For the Open H.264 codec, you need to set Recording - General - Quality to Very High in the settings to get the best video quality, as shown below. ( In the case of the NVIDIA NVENC H.264 codec, the settings below do not apply. You can change its settings from Codec - Hardware Encoder Settings in the oCam main window. )
* In the case of the Open H.264 codec, setting the quality to Very High provides good video quality, but it uses a lot of CPU resources, so frame rates may drop significantly when recording games. If your system performance is not sufficient, we recommend using the MPEG-4 codec.
* In the case of the NVIDIA NVENC codec, because it is a hardware encoder, it causes almost no frame drops during game recording and offers the best recording performance among all built-in codecs in oCam. If your graphics card supports it, using the NVENC codec is the best option.
* When using the NVIDIA NVENC codec, some games use a large amount of GPU memory, and encoding also uses a large amount of GPU memory, so recording may fail if GPU memory is insufficient.
* The MP4 container was used in the example above, but it can also be used with MKV, M4A, MOV, and AVI containers.
How to Improve Audio Quality
By default, oCam uses the
AAC audio codec ( 192 kbps ).
To change the sample rate or bitrate of the audio codec, click the Codec button in the oCam main window, then click Audio Codec Settings.
Then the following window will appear.
As shown in the image above, the supported audio codecs are AAC, MP3, MP2, WMA, and Flac.
Personally, I recommend using the AAC codec because it is the most widely used and offers the best compatibility.
You can improve audio quality by changing the bitrate or sample rate.
For the AAC codec, the maximum supported bitrate is 512 kbps, and the maximum sample rate is 96000 kHz.
If you want to record losslessly, you can use the Flac codec, but the recording file size may become large.
To change the audio codec you want to use for recording, click the Codec button in oCam, select the container you want ( for example, assuming you are using MKV ), and then select a codec in that container that includes the audio codec you want before recording.