Recording microphone input as a second input with Fraps

Question

I do game commentaries with Fraps, and the biggest thing I miss from Camtasia (which isn't an option for many fullscreen applcations) is multiple audio tracks.

Using Fraps to record both system audio and microphone input results in a single track, with extremely loud system audio and standard volume mic audio. It's very hard to get the audio level for system audio low enough (sometimes impossible, since I have to change it via in-app settings, Fraps ignores system volume levels), and it's all in one track so I get no shot at post editing.

Is there a way I can record a second audio track at the exact same time (ending at the exact same time) as the Fraps recording? I've seen multiple forum threads where the suggested solution is to start Fraps, then start Audacity (or another audio recorder) and sync up the audio files in post. Starting the recordings at different times makes it extremely hard to sync them up, and I'd rather deal with the volume issue than deal with audio sync issues.

Is there some way I can start Fraps and record audio externally, starting and ending both programs at the exact same time so they're in perfect sync? I unfortunately can't map multiple recording programs to the same hotkey, and pressing two buttons can result in unsynced A/V.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, even if you script a trigger for both apps at the same time they will not reliably be synced, so you are better off planning to sync in post production.

This can be very easy if you use a clapperboard or similar- this gives a sharp sound which is ready to line up in any editor ( some will do it automatically ) and takes very little time.

Answer 2

E: I didn't read the question properly, to fix the problem of too loud in-game audio either level down the game audio and get your voice and game on one sound level before recording or enable multi-channel recording and enable surround sound in your game (even if you dont have a surround sound setup), then you will have many of the game sound in seperate channels and mostly have game dialougs on the center channel where fraps will also put your mic recording. In any editing application you will then have the ability to level each channel seperately. Down side of that is that you will miss out on some game sounds (on our side) during the game session if you dont happen to have a surround audio solution for your gaming PC.

---

Fraps offers dual audio recording, to record mic input and game/program audio at the same time. This will only work on Windows 7 though and games that use the Windows Audio Mixer (which are nearly all games out there). The "Record Win7 sound" option will record everything that is visible in the sound mixer (click on the sound icon in the taskbar and then on mixer). Nearly all games and programs that have sound output in any way will be listed there. Then just choose your microphone in the "Record external input".

Answer 3

Here is a nifty program I wrote for this very purpose. Syncing is not "reliable" do to the fact that the audio isn't part of the fraps avi file but it should be pretty darn close, making it easy to sync up perfectly in your video editor.

https://github.com/MJLaukala/FMATC/tree/Release/FMATC