OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) is free, open-source software for live streaming and screen recording widely used by content creators, gamers, educators, and professionals. The current stable version is 32.1 (2026), which introduced a redesigned Audio Mixer, WebRTC Simulcast, and pinnable audio sources. OBS's scene-based workflow — composing layered scenes with multiple video and audio sources, applying real-time filters, and switching instantly — is what sets it apart from simple screen recorders. Understanding encoding settings, audio routing, and resource management is essential to avoid dropped frames or poor quality output, and the plugin ecosystem extends OBS far beyond its default feature set.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 25 focused tables and 182 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Scene Management
Scene-based workflow is OBS's core concept — mastering scene organization, nesting, and Studio Mode before anything else makes every other feature easier to manage. Scenes are containers; sources are the building blocks inside them.
| Concept | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
Create "Starting Soon", "Main Gameplay", "BRB" scenes | • A container that holds multiple sources arranged in a specific layout • switch between scenes instantly during live recording or streaming | |
Export scene collection as .json file | A saved group of multiple scenes that can be exported, imported, or duplicated for different projects or computers. | |
Edit preview scene before going live | Enables preview and program split-screen workflow — edit scenes in preview without affecting live output, then transition when ready. | |
Add "Webcam Overlay" scene as source in "Main" scene | A scene used as a source inside another scene, allowing reusable elements across multiple layouts without duplication. |