Record Separate Audio Tracks in OBS for Adobe Audition

Recording separate audio sources—such as your microphone, game audio, and voice chat—onto individual tracks is essential for professional post-production. This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure OBS Studio to output multi-track audio files and how to seamlessly import those individual tracks into Adobe Audition for isolated editing and mixing.

Step 1: Configure OBS Recording Settings

To record multiple audio tracks, you must switch OBS from the simple output mode to the advanced output mode.

  1. Open OBS Studio and click Settings in the bottom-right corner.
  2. Select the Output tab from the left sidebar.
  3. Change the Output Mode dropdown at the top from “Simple” to Advanced.
  4. Click on the Recording tab.
  5. Choose a Recording Format that supports multiple audio tracks, such as MKV (recommended to prevent file corruption if OBS crashes) or MP4.
  6. In the Audio Track section, check the boxes for the number of individual tracks you want to record (e.g., check boxes 1, 2, and 3).
  7. Click Apply.

Step 2: Route Your Audio Sources

Once the tracks are enabled in your settings, you must assign your specific audio inputs to their own dedicated tracks.

  1. In the main OBS window, look at the Audio Mixer dock.
  2. Click the gear icon (or the three dots) next to any active audio source and select Advanced Audio Properties.
  3. Locate the Tracks matrix on the far right of the window.
  4. Uncheck all boxes and assign one source per track to keep them isolated. For example:
    • Track 1: Check only for Desktop Audio (Game/System sound).
    • Track 2: Check only for Mic/Aux (Your microphone).
    • Track 3: Check only for Discord/VoIP (Voice chat).
  5. Close the Advanced Audio Properties window.

Step 3: Remux the Recording to MP4

Adobe Audition cannot natively import MKV video files. If you recorded in MKV for safety, you must convert it to MP4 using OBS’s built-in tool, which preserves all separate audio tracks without losing quality.

  1. In OBS, click File in the top-left menu and select Remux Recordings.
  2. Click the … button under “OBS Recording” to select your recorded MKV file.
  3. Click the Remux button at the bottom. OBS will instantly generate an MP4 file with your isolated audio tracks intact.

Step 4: Import and Extract Tracks in Adobe Audition

With your multi-track MP4 file ready, you can now bring the individual audio channels into Adobe Audition.

  1. Open Adobe Audition.
  2. Go to File > New > Multitrack Session, name your session, and click OK.
  3. Drag and drop your remuxed MP4 video file into the Files panel on the left.
  4. Drag the imported video file from the Files panel directly onto the Multitrack timeline.
  5. Adobe Audition will automatically scan the video file, extract the separate audio tracks you configured in OBS, and place them onto individual, perfectly synchronized tracks in your multitrack timeline.

You can now mute, solo, adjust volumes, and apply effects to each audio source independently.