How to Set Up OBS Scenes and Sources for Streaming

In OBS Studio, a scene is a layout you can switch to during a stream. Sources are the items inside it, such as a webcam, a game or screen capture, a microphone, an image or text. A typical streaming setup uses a few scenes: a starting screen, a main live scene, a be-right-back screen and an ending screen. This guide covers building them, testing the result and fixing the usual problems.

Before you start

OBS Studio is a desktop application that composes and records video locally on your computer. Building scenes, previewing them and recording do not require an account. Streaming does. You need an account on the platform you broadcast to, such as Twitch, and either a connected account in OBS or a stream key. Some sources also use the internet, such as browser sources that load alerts or chat overlays from a third-party service.

• A current version of OBS Studio. Menu labels and some source names differ between versions and operating systems, so follow the labels you see on screen.
• Your camera, microphone and any capture card connected and working in other apps.
• On macOS, permission for OBS to use the camera, microphone and screen recording, granted in the system privacy settings. Without these permissions, capture sources stay black or silent.
• Any images, logos or video clips you plan to show, saved in a folder you will not move or rename. OBS finds these files by their path.
• A rough plan of which scenes you need and what each one should show.

Verify privacy details rather than assuming them. Scene files, logs and recordings are stored on your computer. Anything a browser source loads comes from an outside service. A display capture shows everything on that monitor, including notifications and open messages.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Set the canvas and frame rate first

Open Settings, then Video. Base (Canvas) Resolution is the size of the layout you design on. Output (Scaled) Resolution is the size that gets encoded and sent. Set the frame rate under Common FPS Values. Decide these before arranging sources, because changing the canvas later means repositioning items in every scene. If you are unsure, the Auto-Configuration Wizard in the Tools menu can suggest starting values for your hardware and connection.

2. Create your scenes

In the default layout, the Scenes and Sources docks are at the bottom of the main window. In the Scenes dock, click the plus button, enter a name such as Starting Soon, Live, BRB or Ending, and confirm. Clear names help once you switch scenes with hotkeys. For a different show with its own layouts, create a separate scene collection from the Scene Collection menu.

3. Add sources to a scene

Select a scene, click the plus button in the Sources dock and pick a source type. Choose Create new for a fresh source, or Add Existing to reuse one from another scene. A reused source shares its settings, so a webcam you adjust once looks the same in every scene.

• Video Capture Device: a webcam or capture card.
• Display Capture: an entire monitor.
• Window Capture: a single application window, which keeps the rest of your desktop hidden.
• Game Capture: a full-screen game on Windows.
• Audio Input Capture and Audio Output Capture: a specific microphone or playback device.
• Image, Media Source and Text: logos, background videos, intro clips and labels.
• Browser: a web page or an overlay from an alert or chat service.
• Scene: another scene nested inside this one, useful for elements that repeat across layouts.

4. Arrange layers and positions

Sources render in list order. The item at the top of the Sources dock appears in front of everything below it. Drag items to reorder them, for example webcam above gameplay and text above webcam. In the preview, drag a source's red bounding box to move or resize it. Hold Alt (Option on macOS) while dragging an edge to crop. Right-click a source and open Transform for exact options such as Fit to screen or Edit Transform. The lock icon prevents accidental moves, and the eye icon hides a source without deleting it.

5. Set up audio

OBS can use global audio devices, set in Settings under Audio, which appear in the Audio Mixer in every scene. You can instead add an Audio Input Capture source only to the scenes that need it. Do not use both methods for the same microphone, or it will be captured twice. Speak and watch the meter. It should move clearly without staying in the red. Right-click an audio source and open Filters to add noise suppression or a noise gate. Advanced Audio Properties controls monitoring if you need to hear a source in headphones.

6. Add transitions and hotkeys

The Scene Transitions dock sets how OBS moves between scenes, such as Cut or Fade, and the duration. In Settings under Hotkeys, assign a key to each scene so you can switch without clicking. Studio Mode, toggled from the Controls dock, shows a preview next to the live program output. You can edit or prepare the next scene there before viewers see it.

7. Connect to Twitch or another service

In Settings under Stream, choose the service. For Twitch, you can connect your account or paste the stream key from your Twitch creator dashboard. Treat the stream key like a password. Never show it on screen, and reset it on the platform if it leaks. Settings under Output holds the encoder, bitrate and recording format. Simple mode shows a short list of options, and Advanced mode exposes more encoding settings. Check the platform's current recommendations for bitrate and resolution instead of copying numbers from older guides. Keep the bitrate within what your upload connection can reliably sustain.

If you use Streamlabs Desktop

Streamlabs Desktop, formerly called Streamlabs OBS, uses the same scene and source model with its own interface, plus widgets and themes tied to a Streamlabs account. It has offered an option to import an existing OBS Studio setup during onboarding. Menus, source names, and which features need a sign-in or paid plan differ from OBS Studio, so verify them in the version you install. Scenes edited in one app do not stay in sync with the other.

Check the output

Make a test recording before you stream. Click Start Recording, switch through every scene, speak into the microphone, play some game or desktop audio, then stop. Show Recordings in the File menu opens the output folder. Play the file in a separate player and check the following.

• Each scene shows the intended sources, nothing is cropped incorrectly, and no private window or notification is visible.
• Microphone and desktop audio are both present and balanced, with no echo or doubling.
• Motion looks smooth at your chosen frame rate. Blocky or smeared frames in fast scenes suggest the bitrate is too low for the resolution.
• The webcam picture stays in sync with your voice.

While recording or streaming, the Stats dock reports missed and dropped frames. Frames skipped due to encoding lag mean the encoder is overloaded. Frames missed due to rendering lag mean the scene itself is too heavy. Dropped network frames point to the connection or the bitrate. A local recording does not test your upload, so run a short test broadcast if your platform allows one. If you record in MKV, which survives an interrupted recording better than MP4, use Remux Recordings in the File menu to convert it to MP4 without re-encoding.

Common problems and next steps

Black screen from a capture source

On laptops with two graphics processors, Display Capture or Game Capture can show black when OBS runs on a different GPU than the captured content. On Windows, the usual fix is to assign OBS to the matching GPU in the system graphics settings. You can also try Window Capture instead. On macOS, confirm the screen recording permission and restart OBS.

Webcam missing or not working in some scenes

A camera can usually be used by only one application at a time, so close video call apps that may be holding it. To show the same device in several scenes, add it with Add Existing instead of creating a new source each time, which can cause conflicts. The Deactivate when not showing option in the device properties releases the camera while its scene is hidden, at the cost of a short delay when the scene returns.

Audio doubled, missing or echoing

Check that no microphone is set as a global device and also added as a source in the scene. Echo often comes from desktop audio picking up your own monitoring or a call. Mute or remove duplicates in the Audio Mixer, and set monitoring to Monitor Off unless you need to hear that source.

Images or videos missing after moving files

OBS links image and media sources to file paths. If you moved or renamed a file, open the source properties and select it again. Before reinstalling or moving to another computer, export the scene collection from the Scene Collection menu and copy the media folder along with it.

Next steps

Once the basic layout works, put shared elements such as a webcam frame or logo in their own scene and nest it in your other scenes, so one edit updates every layout. Duplicate the scene collection before major changes so you can roll back.