How to Set Up a Twitch VOD (video on demand) Track in OBS

If a Twitch VOD gets muted or a clip gets taken down, music is one of the most common reasons. You don't have to give up music on stream, just keep it out of the recording.

Twitch supports two separate audio feeds inside a single stream: one for live viewers, and one that gets saved as your VOD and clips. OBS calls this second feed the VOD Track. Streamlabs Desktop has the identical feature under the same name, "Twitch VOD," in its own Output settings.

Whatever audio is checked for that track ends up in your saved Twitch VOD. Uncheck your music from it, and it just isn't there when you go back and watch. The benefit is you still get to play music live, and your VOD comes out clean.

Make sure you have these in place before configuring anything.

• OBS Studio, with Output Mode set to Advanced
• Your Twitch account connected in OBS, under Settings > Stream

With the basics in place, here's how to configure it.

1. Go to OBS Settings > Output

• If Output Mode is "Simple" select Enable Custom Encoder Settings (Advanced), Twitch VOD Track
• If Output Mode is "Advanced" select Twitch VOD Track

2. Add your music player as its own source instead of folding it into Desktop Audio, using Application Audio Capture or a virtual audio device.

3. Open Advanced Audio Properties from the gear icon above the Audio Mixer.

4. Check Track 1 and Track 2 for every source except your music. For your music source, check Track 1 only.

5. Set your Audio Monitoring Device to your headphones, not a device OBS also captures.

Confirm it's actually working before you count on it during a real stream. Play a track you have the rights to use, like something from StreamBeats (name your own price on Bandcamp, including free, or stream it through your own Spotify account), during one of your streams, then jump to that timestamp in the VOD afterward to confirm it isn't there. Keep a local recording on a spare track too, just in case.

If you're capturing a console through a card like Game Capture 4K X, the console's audio arrives as one combined signal, so in-game music can't be separated from sound effects once it reaches OBS. Before going live, check whether the game offers a Streamer Mode that disables or replaces licensed music. If it doesn’t, look for a separate music or radio volume control and turn it down to keep the music out of your stream.

It's worth checking your VOD Track setup any time you add new audio sources, change devices, or update OBS, since those changes can reset your track assignments. If you're already running Wave Link, you can simplify the whole process by routing a dedicated music-free mix to a separate audio track in OBS and assigning that as your VOD Track.