How to Record Audio for TTRPG Sessions
General Tips
A few things to keep in mind regardless of how you record:
- Consider having a backup recording method or multiple participants record
- Background music is fine as long as it doesn't drown out participants
- MP3 is the preferred format, though all common audio formats are supported
- Recording each speaker on their own mic? You can get per-speaker labels in the transcript and more accurate analysis. See Multi-Track Recording.
In-Person Recording
The easiest setup is placing a phone in the center of the table.
Use one of these free apps:
- iPhone: Voice Memos (preinstalled)
- Android: Easy Voice Recorder or MyRecorder
Tips:
- Place your device on something soft to reduce table vibrations and dice-rolling sounds
- Turn on airplane mode to prevent interruptions from calls or notifications
- Ensure your device is fully charged or connected to a power bank
- Check that you have enough free storage for the entire session
Online Recording
For online sessions, capture audio directly from your voice chat software:
- OBS Studio (Windows/Mac) — set up to capture desktop audio and your microphone
- Craig bot for Discord — free and easy.
Tips:
- Ensure all participants are using headphones to prevent echo
- Ask participants to mute themselves when not speaking to reduce background noise
- If possible, have each participant record locally as a backup
Multi-Track Recording
If each speaker has their own microphone (or each player is on a separate channel), you can produce one audio file per speaker. Uploading those as multi-track gives you per-line speaker labels in the transcript and a noticeably more accurate analysis. See Multi-Track and Speaker Labels when uploading.
Discord with Craig bot
Craig bot records each user's voice as a separate file. After your session, download the multi-track zip (FLAC format) you'll get one audio file per participant. Upload those as multi-track audio.
Zencastr
Zencastr produces a separate audio file per participant by default. Download each participant's track and upload them as separate tracks.
OBS Studio multitrack
OBS Studio can record multiple audio sources to separate tracks in a single file. See the multi-track recording guide for setup. After recording, use a tool like Audacity or ffmpeg to split the tracks into separate files, then upload each as its own track.
In-person with per-player mics
If each player has a USB or lavalier mic plugged into a multi-channel audio interface (Focusrite, Zoom Podtrak, etc.), record each channel to its own file and upload one track per mic. Just make sure each speakers voice is sufficiently isolated.
Converting Audio Formats
If your recording is in an unsupported format, you can convert it to MP3 or FLAC using Audacity, a free and open-source audio editor available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Converting Video to Audio
If your session was recorded as a video, extract the audio track before uploading.
Using VLC Media Player (Windows & Mac)
- Download and install VLC Media Player
- Open VLC and click Media (Windows) or File (Mac) in the top menu
- Choose Convert/Save or Convert/Stream
- Click Add to select your video file, then click Convert/Save
- Select Audio - MP3 as the conversion profile
- Pick a destination for your audio file and click Start
Using Handbrake (Windows, Mac & Linux)
- Download and install Handbrake
- Open Handbrake and drag your video file onto the window
- Go to the Audio tab and confirm the audio track is selected
- In the Summary tab, set Format to MP3 (via the Matroska or MP4 container)
- Click Start Encode
Using OpenShot (Windows, Mac & Linux)
- Download and install OpenShot
- Import your video file and drag it onto the timeline
- Go to File → Export File
- Under File Type, choose Audio Only and select MP3
- Click Export Video
Ripping Audio from YouTube
For your own session videos that you've uploaded to YouTube. Don't rip audio from videos you don't own the rights to.
- OnlyMP3.co — browser-based, supports videos up to 3 hours
- yt-dlp — command-line tool, no length limit