# How to Record Your DAW With Audio, Mic and Screen

Canonical page: https://homeinstruments.com/learn/how-to-record-your-daw/

You want a video of making music, not a microphone recording of your speakers. Start by deciding what you want to keep: a planned tutorial, the last few minutes of a session, or a live show. Those jobs need different recording setups.

## Pick the job before the app

| What are you making? | Start here | What to preserve |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A tutorial you can perform again | Screen recorder with DAW audio and narration | Readable controls and a voice you can edit |
| A beat-making moment you might notice late | Rolling capture | Enough recent history to include the beginning |
| A livestream | OBS or another broadcast tool | A complete picture and mix that work live |
| A walkthrough of a finished song | Screen video plus the song's audio export | Matching playback and an obvious sync point |

For the direct instructions, choose [FL Studio](/learn/fl-studio/screen-record-fl-studio-with-audio/) or [Ableton Live](/learn/ableton-live/screen-record-ableton-with-audio/). If the moment already happened, go straight to [what you can still recover](/learn/rolling-recording/record-after-it-happened/).

## Build a recording you can actually edit

Think of the session as four ingredients: music, voice, screen and camera. You do not need all four. A sound-design clip may only need music and screen; a keyboard performance benefits from a hands camera; a lesson needs clear narration.

Keep commentary outside the DAW's music mix when you want to remove it later. If you speak through a mic routed into the Master, your voice is already in the music before the recorder sees it. Adding a second mic source creates another copy.

Picture composition has the same consequence. A normal OBS scene records the arrangement you see in its preview. Recording separate screen and camera sources gives an editor more freedom afterward. Neither choice is inherently better: live shows need a finished composition; later edits benefit from keeping the ingredients.

[Session Eye](/sessioneye.php) takes the second approach. It keeps rolling DAW, screen, camera and separate mic capture, then lets you save a moment and choose the edit. The preview below shows the camera moving inside a horizontal composition after capture.

## Make your first test a musical one

1. Open a small project with a recognizable drum loop. Play it and check the DAW's final output meter.
2. Select the screen or window you want to show. Open a floating plugin too; it may be a different window.
3. Add one music source in the recorder. Play the loop with your microphone muted. The recorder's music meter should move.
4. Add narration only if you need it. Stop the loop and say a sentence.
5. Save ten seconds containing both tests. Open the file and listen before starting the real take.

That last step catches errors a running timer cannot. A meter proves that sound reached a source; the saved file proves your output settings kept it. The [OBS quick start][obsstart] covers the basic scene workflow.

On Windows, ASIO may carry music somewhere Desktop Audio cannot hear. Seeing the same interface name in FL Studio and OBS doesn't mean OBS is hearing FL Studio. Use the [ASIO routing guide](/learn/windows/screen-record-asio-audio/) when that is the missing connection. On Mac, start with the [native audio capture steps](/learn/mac/record-daw-audio-on-mac/).

## Decide what the viewer needs to notice

Keep the meaningful control readable at the final size. An entire ultrawide desktop shrunk into a phone video is rarely useful. Show the session for context, then frame the synth, fader or gesture that changes the sound.

Let the musical before-and-after play long enough to hear. A fast edit can accidentally remove the evidence for the point you are making. With narration, lower the music while explaining, then bring it back for the comparison.

Keep the source session until the export has been checked on its destination. A finished clip, an editable recording and a DAW project solve different problems; keeping one does not automatically preserve the other two.


## Illustrations

- [The camera position can change in the Session Eye editor after capture.](https://homeinstruments.com/assets/sessioneye/2026-09-25/horizontal-motion-poster-v1.webp)

[obsstart]: https://obsproject.com/kb/quick-start-guide