OBS Studio can record up to 6 audio tracks. That number gets repeated in forum threads constantly, usually with no source attached. It does have one: OBS's own knowledge base states it directly.
In the guide titled Advanced Recording Guide And Multi Track Audio, OBS describes what switching output modes gets you — "This will allow you to record multiple audio track (up to 6), as well as choose a different encoder from the stream encoder." (The singular "track" is OBS's own wording, quoted as written.)
One qualifier worth keeping: that page carries a stated date of 2021-11-23, and OBS does not restate the ceiling on its newer multi-track page. Treat 6 as the documented figure and confirm against your build's Settings → Output before planning a session around it.
The limits, at a glance
| Question | What OBS's documentation says |
|---|---|
| Maximum audio tracks per recording | "up to 6" |
| Where the multi-track options live | The guide tells you to "switch to the Advanced Output Mode at the top which will give you full control of all the settings" |
| How many tracks a normal player will play | One at a time |
| Which container to use for multi-track | "Not all recording formats (container) allow for multi track audio. We suggest using mkv (you can remux later to mp4)." |
| FLV | "only supports a single audio track" |
| How many tracks MP4, MOV or MKV each hold | Not stated per container — see official docs |
| Whether each track can use its own encoder or bitrate | Not stated — see official docs |
Every row above is quoted or paraphrased from OBS's knowledge base. The last two rows are blank on purpose: people write those numbers confidently all over the web, and OBS has not published them.
What the 6-track ceiling is actually for
Six tracks is not six microphones. It is six destinations you can route your existing sources into, so an editor can treat them separately afterwards.
OBS's own guide shows a layout that is worth copying verbatim, because it explains the logic better than any tutorial:
"In this example, I'm going to leave all my source enabled on "Track 1", because that is the default for the stream, and I want it to contain all sources."
"Track 2, only "comms" (discord, skype etc) is selected, so that I can add/remove, mute it later."
"Track 3, only has "desktop-game", because I might choose to change the volume, or change the speed."
"Track 4, only has "mic/aux" so that I can potentially change volume, or add effects/noise removal."
Note what track 1 is doing there: it holds everything, as a safety net, while tracks 2 through 4 hold the isolated stems. That is not a community trick — it is written in the official guide.
There is a second reason to split tracks that has nothing to do with editing. OBS's Standard Recording Output Guide notes that the Advanced view lets you choose which tracks get recorded at all, "which can be helpful if you have, for example, copyrighted music in your stream that you don't wish to have recorded."
Why a 6-track file can sound silent
Here is the consequence nobody warns you about until it has already cost you a recording. OBS puts it plainly in its Multiple Audio Track Recording Guide:
"all standard video players will only play back one audio track at a time so if you are not planning on processing every video through an editor before publishing it, send all of your audio sources to track 1"
So a file with six perfectly recorded tracks can open in a media player and sound like nothing was captured, if the thing you wanted is sitting on track 3. The audio is not lost. It is simply not the track your player picked.
The older guide phrases it slightly differently — "Most video players will only play a single track a time, but editors with support for multiple audio tracks will allow you to manage each track separately." Either way the practical rule is the same: if the file is not going into an editor, everything belongs on track 1.
If you have already landed in this situation, OBS recording has no audio walks through the diagnosis step by step.
Two screens, not one — the setup mistake that eats an evening
Enabling six tracks takes two separate operations in two different windows, and doing only one of them produces a recording that looks multi-track and is not. OBS's instructions, in order:
- "In the Audio Mixer dock, click the gear icon at the bottom left to open up the Advanced Audio Properties window" — OBS adds that "you can also access this from Edit in the menu bar."
- "Assign each of your audio sources to its own recording track."
- "Go to the Settings → Output window and enable the tracks that you would like to record."
Step 2 happens in Advanced Audio Properties. Step 3 happens in Settings → Output. Assigning a source to track 4 while track 4 is disabled in Output means track 4 never gets written. This is the most common way people end up convinced that OBS "only records one track."
What to do when a file only gives you one track
If you already have a recording and need to know what is on it, pulling the audio out is faster than loading the whole thing into an editor. Extracting to a lossless WAV keeps the waveform intact, so you judge the original levels rather than a second round of compression.
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
Be aware of exactly what this does. The extractor reads the first audio track only — under the hood it maps 0:a:0 — so it tells you whether track 1 has sound in it, and nothing about tracks 2 through 6. That is deliberate: pulling an arbitrary track needs a track selector, and silently grabbing the wrong one would be worse than not offering it.
If the audio you want is on a later track, you need a tool that lets you pick the stream — see extracting audio without re-encoding for the command-line route, where the stream index is something you choose. The browser version lives at extract audio from video, alongside the rest of the Clapr tools.
Container gotchas
The track ceiling is one limit. The container you record into is a second one, and it can quietly override the first.
- FLV caps you at one track, full stop. OBS's Audio/Video Formats Guide says FLV "has very limited codec support (H.264/AAC) and only supports a single audio track." No amount of Advanced Audio Properties work changes that.
- OBS recommends MKV for multi-track. Its guidance is direct: "We suggest using mkv (you can remux later to mp4)." The same documentation elsewhere notes that "MKV supports every single codec combination possible in OBS Studio," and that MKV has "Poor support in editing software" — which is why the remux step exists. OBS ships that conversion in-app under File → Remux Recordings.
- Beyond MKV and FLV, OBS does not publish a per-container track count. It only says "Not all recording formats (container) allow for multi track audio." Anyone quoting a specific number for MP4 or MOV is filling in a blank the official docs left empty.
- Defaults are ambiguous in the docs themselves. OBS's formats guide calls MKV the default container, while the same page labels Hybrid MP4/MOV as the platform defaults. Check what your build shows in Settings → Output rather than assuming. Which OBS recording format keeps multi-track audio goes through the container table in full.
FAQ
How many audio tracks can OBS record? Up to 6, per OBS's Advanced Recording Guide And Multi Track Audio, which describes Advanced Output Mode as letting you "record multiple audio track (up to 6)." That page states a date of 2021-11-23, so verify against your current build.
Do I have to use Advanced Output Mode for multiple tracks? OBS's guide tells you to switch to Advanced Output Mode to get these options, and its Standard Recording Output Guide confirms that choosing which tracks to record is an Advanced-view control. The documentation does not say whether other modes can or cannot do it, so treat Advanced as the documented path.
Why does my multi-track recording have no sound? Most likely the audio is on a track your player ignores. OBS states that standard players play one track at a time, and advises sending every source to track 1 if the file will not go through an editor first.
What format should I record in for multiple audio tracks? MKV — that is OBS's own suggestion, with remuxing to MP4 afterwards. Avoid FLV, which OBS documents as single-track only.
Can I set a different bitrate for each audio track? OBS's knowledge base does not state this either way, so check the official documentation rather than trusting a forum answer.
Does adding tracks hurt performance or file size? OBS does not publish figures for this. It does note, about Recording Quality in the Simple view, that "anything that is not Same as stream will take extra resources from your computer" — worth remembering if you record and stream at once.
Multi-track recording is simple once the two-screen setup clicks, and maddening until it does. If you are auditing what a recording contains, start with track 1, extract it, and listen — then work outwards. More specification breakdowns live in the limits section.
All quotations are from OBS Studio's own knowledge base, read on 16 September 2026. OBS describes that knowledge base as a work in progress; for current guidance start at obsproject.com/help.
