Capturing Game Audio Separately Using ShadowPlay and Voicemeeter Banana

When it comes to recording gameplay, having high-quality audio can be just as important as capturing crisp video. One way to achieve this is by using ShadowPlay, a feature built into NVIDIA GeForce Experience that allows for easy game capture with minimal performance impact. Combined with Voicemeeter Banana, a virtual audio mixer for Windows, you can record your game audio in one track and your desktop/mic audio in another. In this article, we'll walk through the steps to set up ShadowPlay and Voicemeeter Banana to achieve this.

First, let's start by setting up Voicemeeter Banana. Follow the 'Quick Startup Guide' from the Voicemeeter Banana User Manual to get started. The Banana version is more advanced than other versions of Voicemeeter, which we'll take advantage of in this setup. Voicemeeter is a virtual audio mixer that allows you to mix and route your audio inputs and outputs.

Once you have Voicemeeter Banana set up, the next step is to configure ShadowPlay. In NVIDIA GeForce Experience, enable ShadowPlay and select your output device (speakers or headphones) as the A1 Hardware Out. Next, set Windows to output to one of the Voicemeeter Banana inputs.

Now it's time to set up the virtual audio inputs in Voicemeeter Banana. Rename the second virtual input to 'Desktop' and enable A1 and B1. This is where your game will output its audio to. Rename the first virtual input to 'Game' and enable A1 only. Select your mic as the first hardware input using the WDM option, rename it to 'Mic', and enable B1.

With Voicemeeter Banana set up, you can now open the overlay using ALT+Z. Enable recording audio to separate tracks and have it always enabled. This will allow you to record your game audio in one track and your desktop/mic audio in another.

By following these steps, you'll be able to capture high-quality game audio separately from your desktop/mic audio using ShadowPlay and Voicemeeter Banana. With this setup, you'll be able to easily edit and mix your audio tracks for your gameplay recordings.

Shadowplay recording