[Resolved] Screencasting Your Windows DAW with ASIO

Making a screencast of your DAW on a Mac is pretty easy. However, recording a DAW screencast on Windows DAW is a nightmare. I finally found a way to record screencast my DAW on Windows with ASIO.

I’ve done my homework. There is NO screencasting software on Windows that can record ASIO right from your DAW. Screencasting software like Camtasia, Microsoft Expression, or BBFlashback only records your system audio, which happens to be the crappy windows audio driver.

Here then lies the problem. WDM drivers is pretty crappy. It’s not going to give you a low latency performance on your DAW. At this point, I almost regretted switching from the Mac to PC.

Being a stubborn person I searched high and low for a solution to this problem and I finally found a method that works best for me. This method of screencasting your DAW on Windows is also free. Actually, there are few ways you can screencast your DAW on Windows, so let me explain.

The First Method – Recording Your DAW’s Output

This method requires you to download a plugin called Voxengo Recorder. The plugin is free. What the plugin does is it will record anything that goes through your DAW output. Leave the plugin recording and anything you play on your DAW while you screencast will be recorded by the plugin. The plugin will output a wav file to a chosen folder on your computer.

You can use any screencasting software. Just make sure that you are recording your microphone signal on your screencasting software.

Upon finishing recording your screencast, you then use a video editor to combine the wav file which is outputted from Voxengo Recorder. You’re done! A great-sounding screencasting with two audio channels.

This method of recording my DAW however felt a little tedious to me. So I opted for something else. And by the way, Voxengo Recorder is a 32-bit plugin that will only work on 32-bit DAW. I found the plugin to have complications when running it in Cubase 64-bit. A 64-bit wav recorder plugin that I found worked on my 64-bit DAW is the MRecorder by Melda Production.

The Second Method – Use Odeus ASIO Link To Route ASIO

I struggled with Odeus for a bit before having it to work. The interface can be confusing if you didn’t read the manual and jumped right into the application, like most of us do.

Odeus ASIO Link

Odeus was built for a simple reason – to use ASIO devices on multiple softwares at the same time. On Windows, using ASIO4all as an audio driver on your DAW means giving all exclusivity to that one software program. That means if you have ASIO4all as your output in your DAW, you won’t be able to hear any sound from other programs. Odeus was built to allow you to use your ASIO driver in more than one application.

Upon installing Odeus, simply select Odeus as your audio device in your DAW. In the Odeus application, enable the left and right channel in ‘ASIO Output to Stereo Mix’ and you should have your ASIO output routed into your system audio. Having successfully done that, your screencasting software will be able to record your DAW outputs.

I’ll be honest, Odeus works. The user interface isn’t pretty and Odeus will set you back 24.95AUD. Not a too hefty price to be able to screencast DAW tutorials I thought. But then I found a better solution. A FREE solution, with a nice user interface and is in fact a lot easier to set up and use.

The Third (Winning) Method – Screencasting With Voicemeeter

The best FREE method that worked for me when recording DAW tutorials on Windows. Voicemeeter allows you to route ASIO into WDM Driver. Perfect. Use your screencasting software to record system audio and you’ll get your DAW’s playback.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1 – Install Voicemeeter

It shows already installed because I already had Voice Meeter installed

Installing Voicemeeter is quite straightforward. Just download Voicemeeter and follow the necessary steps to install the app. The application is donationware, so feel free to donate a few bucks if you find the software useful. Just install the app and you’ll be ready to route your ASIO audio.

Step 2 – Launch Your DAW & Make Sure To Output To Voice Meeter

Set Voice Meeter in Audio Device

Here’s the important part. I usually have my driver set to ‘Komplete Audio’. I’m using the Komplete Audio 6 audio interface in my setup.

To screencast, set Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO as your audio device in your DAW. You should be able to do this in any DAW that you’re using. I’m using Cubase 7 but you should be able to change your audio device toe Voicemeeter in your DAW. If you can’t find Voicemeeter Virtual ASIO in the selection, consider restarting your computer or reinstalling the driver.

Step 3 – Set Routing in Voice Meeter

Voice Meeter Routing

Next, you want to set the routings in Voice Meeter. In hardware input 1, you can have your microphone input here. I had my microphone plugged into input 1 on my audio interface. Then in Voicemeeter app, select the microphone as your input.

The third track, Virtual Audio, is the output signal of your ASIO driver routed virtually into Voice Meeter. It’s possible to boost the volume, add some equalizing, and even play around with the panning.

In the master output track, you want to set A1 routed to your hardware audio interface (the komplete audio 6 in my case) and have A2 routed to Windows Audio (which in my case was, ‘Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio’ ).  So essentially right now you have your ASIO output routed into TWO outputs. The first output is your audio interface and the second output is Windows Audio.

Step 4 – Screencast Away

Here’s the final piece of the puzzle. I promised it was easy, didn’t I?

I’m using Camtasia Recorder as my screencasting software but you can use almost any screencasting software that records system audio. In the audio setup, you want to have a microphone audio source in which I selected the input 1 of my audio interface. Camtasia is able to record that. As for the second source of audio, simply have your software to record system audio as well. Hit record and do a short test run on your DAW. Hear your voice recorded through the microphone and DAW outputs recorded via system audio? Brilliant.

Camtasia screencasting ASIO4all

I hope you’ll be able to sort your DAW screen casting problems out with this post. Let me know if you have questions below!