protonscr

Game Recording: Can't change audio recording settings

steamopen Feature RequestSteam client
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#11047 · opened 2024-06-28 by AtomToast · updated 2026-07-04 · 13 comments · github
AAtomToast 2024-06-28 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): 1719532075 (Fri, Jun 28 01:28 UTC -08:00)
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch Linux
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

When in the Game Recording Settings, in the Audio Recording section. The "All System Audio" Button is not clickable to configure it. I would expect that this let's you limit the recording to only the game being recorded.

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I am running pipewire under x11 with dwm.

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2024-06-28 github

Hello @AtomToast, I'm marking this as a feature request because it's accurately telling you that this currently is not configurable on Linux, and there's room for improvement in the future.

JJohnTheCoolingFan 2024-07-27 github

This would be much appreciated. I sometimes play games and in a voice chat with some people and their voice gets recorded, fine for clips that I will just keep locally but for something I want to share this is not acceptable, as people might not want their voice to be recorded in there or something confidential is being discussed. And even if one would want to keep the voice chat voices, the player's microphone isn't being recorded and it just makes the discussion incomplete.

I hope this feature has high priority among game recording features, would improve it tremendously.

Aabonander 2024-08-12 github

Conversely, it's not very useful for gaming clips if it records Teamspeak but not my own microphone. Then you only hear one half of the conversation.

LLumarious 2024-12-24 github

Just bumping cuz I have the same problem and the same reasons for wanting this as everyone else. I don't want desktop audio, friend's mics or whatever else I'm listening to in my recordings.

Am on Linux(pop os)

FFlat 2025-01-15 github

For anyone that does not want to wait for valve to implement the setting inside steam, you can still set the program or device that is recorded via pipewire rules or graphically with qpwgraph

NNitue 2025-02-04 github

Conversely, it's not very useful for gaming clips if it records Teamspeak but not my own microphone. Then you only hear one half of the conversation.

Not sure how long it has been available, but you can now record your microphone input.

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For anyone that does not want to wait for valve to implement the setting inside steam, you can still set the program or device that is recorded via pipewire rules or graphically with qpwgraph

Would you like to write short instructions what a possible workaround setup would look like with pipewire rules or the qpwgraph graphs?

Aabonander 2025-02-05 github

Not sure how long it has been available, but you can now record your microphone input.

It does now, but the functionality still lacking. There's no control over relative volume or the ability to record the microphone to a separate track, so there's not really much you can do to balance the audio out if you're editing a gameplay clip for publication--even if it's just to share with friends, I'd still like to make it pleasant to watch, e.g. add a noise filter, dynamic range compression, etc. The microphone volume is set just right for Teamspeak, but in the recording it's much too loud.

FFlat 2025-02-07 github

Would you like to write short instructions what a possible workaround setup would look like with pipewire rules or the qpwgraph graphs?

Here is an example of how you would set the game recording to only capture the game, using Tokyo Xtreme Racer as an example with qpwgraph:

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You will have to either set exclusive mode in qpwgraph or configure this when you launch the game every time. If you setup rules you won't have to do this, but I have not done so myself so I cannot provide an example there.

OOfficialRenny 2025-04-30 github

It'd be great if this feature were added.
As a workaround for this, I've used Pulsemeeter myself (using pipewire-pulse), and can change which output Steam is recording (Applications -> Inputs -> Steam, when running a game) - though this is also something that needs to be set every time you launch a game, if your game audio is not on the default output.

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WWidowan 2025-11-23 github

Since this is still an issue, I hope my workaround helps anyone: https://github.com/Widowan/steam-wire/

This is a script for pipewire's wireplumber that automatically changes input to wine64-preload for steam input. Only works with proton games, but I hope that still helps people

Mmaia-s 2026-02-24 github

This feature would be greatly appreciated

PPissenlitVert 2026-03-22 github

new things for that ?????

PPorkingMane 2026-07-04 github

Any news for that? This is really needed feature, because steam recording is now easier and better for quick clips than OBS

Nothing extracted yet.