Recording Apps For Mac
If you’re getting into creating online courses or simply YouTube tutorials, one of the easiest and most efficient ways to create your video content is via screencast videos.
- Best Recording Apps For Mac
- Video Recording App For Mac
- Best Recording Apps For Mac
- Audio Recording App For Mac
- Podcast Recording Apps For Mac
- Recording Apps For Macbook Air
When saving your recording automatically, your Mac uses the name ”Screen Recording date at time.mov”. To cancel making a recording, press the Esc key before clicking to record. You can open screen recordings with QuickTime Player, iMovie, and other apps that can edit or view videos. Here are some popular free choices that explain how to record audio on Mac. Many of these apps can also be used to record audio from computer Mac: Audacity – Audacity is a good app for recording sounds and it has an editing option so you can edit your Mac voice record. Today we’re going to be taking a look at several audio recording applications for OS X. Although GarageBand has become the bundled application for sound recording, we’ll also be investigating a number of smaller and more specialised pieces of software. If you ever need to record audio – be it for a podcast, interview, radio broadcast, or for any other reason – some of these apps may. The #1 screen recorder company. Try any of our screen recording software or apps for free. TechSmith gives you everything you need to record your Windows, Mac, and iOS devices. Record screencasts, webinars, tutorials, and more.
2 free screen recorders with step-by-step instructions!
These could be videos where you’re showing how to do something on the computer, for example how to edit a photo in Adobe Photoshop. Or you can create a slideshow-based video with any number of tools from PowerPoint and Keynote to Google Presentations.
To actually create the video, you’ll want to use a screen recorder app that records your screen and exports at HD resolutions.
OBS – Open Broadcaster Software
Mac & Windows (and even Linux)
Open Broadcaster Software is a free screen recording software perfect for Mac & PC users who want a quite robust piece of software. I’ve used it both on Mac and Windows machines, and can highly recommend it.
OBS isn’t as user-friendly as some other screen recorders. But it’s powerful. Here is how to do a basic screen record with OBS.
First, download OBS and open the application.
You’ll see a kind of viewer with all kinds of options at the bottom.
Best Recording Apps For Mac
The first thing you’ll need to do is actual set what you want OBS to record – which will be your screen.
Click the + (plus) button under sources and choose ‘Display Capture.’
Next, we’ll add the audio input so you can record yourself talking with your microphone.
Click the + (plus) button under sources again and choose ‘Audio Input Capture.’
In the next window that pops up, choose the microphone you want to record with.
Next, we’ll change some of the record settings to make sure we are recording a super duper high quality file that looks amazing.
At the bottom right of the main OBS window, click on ‘Settings.’ A new window will pop up with different tabs/menus on the left. Go to ‘Output.’
You can play around with these settings to find something you like. But I basically change the following:
- Video Bitrate to 5,000
- Recording Quality to Indistinguishable Quality, Large File Size
- Recording Format to mov (from flv which isn’t as friendly with some editing application)
And also feel free to change the ‘Recording Path’ to a folder of your choosing. This is where your recordings will end up.
Next go to the ‘Video’ tab and change the Output to your desired video resolution. I recommend at least 1920 x 1080 if you can. The ‘Base Resolution’ is the resolution of your screen itself. This changes depending on your computer or monitor being used.
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Back on the main OBS window, you should see some audio levels in green bouncing up and down under ‘Audio Input Capture.’ This is your mic’s audio.
Once you’re happy with your settings, click ‘Start Recording’ on the bottom right. Record until you’re done and then come back to the OBS app to stop and click ‘Stop Recording.’
Quick Tip: Make sure you test out your settings and do a recording to make sure it looks and sounds amazing before launching into your full lesson. I’ve made the mistake of doing this only to have a wrong setting that messes up my entire recording.
That’s OBS! Enjoy!
QuickTime Player
Mac Users
Every Mac computer comes with QuickTime player pre-installed. Usually, you only use this app to play video files on your computer. You can also do screen, webcam, and audio recordings with it.
Video Recording App For Mac
It’s super simple!
Just click ‘File’ then choose ‘New Screen Recording.’
A little video app will pop up with a red record button. To the right of the red button is an arrow that when clicked allows you to change the microphone input if using a USB microphone.
After clicking the red button to record, you can record your entire screen by clicking anywhere on the screen. Or you can select a specific part of your screen to record by clicking and dragging – to create a bounding box where Quicktime records.
After you are done recording, just click the ‘stop’ button that appears in your top menu. To save, just ‘File – Save’ to save as a full resolution Quicktime movie file. Or export it to a different quality by going to ‘File – Export.’ Then choose your export quality.
These are the two free and easy ways to record your screen on either a Mac or Windows computer.
Premium Screen Recorders
If you want a more robust screen recording application that also contains a built-in video editor so you can edit, add annotations, titles, music, and quickly polish your videos, I recommend the following premium options:
ScreenFlow for Mac – $99
This is personally what I use for most of my screencast tutorials and courses. I love it!
Camtasia for Mac & PC – $199
I used this while working at UC Berkeley on their Educational Technology Services team to create online tutorials.
Screencast-o-Matic – $15/year
This one is highly recommended by a few fellow online course creators, and is cheaper than the other two. So I felt like I should include it.
In Conclusion
Use what you can when you’re starting. Start with one of these free options if you don’t have money to invest in the premium ones. I still use Quicktime Player for quick screen records or audio recordings!
Cheers,
Phil
Macs have long been the computers of choice for creative professionals and hobbyists alike, so there is no surprise that it’s well served when it comes to software for recording audio.
Can you record audio on a Mac?
Can you voice record on a Mac? Sure. For very basic jobs, QuickTime Player is just fine, allowing you to record audio using your Mac’s built-in or an external mic and save the file. But you wouldn’t be able to create multiple tracks, edit the audio, or add effects.
For more complex jobs, you’ll need a tool with a bit more power, like n-Track Studio.
n-Track Studio is a fully fledged professional recording app on your Mac. This digital audio workstation allows you to make multi-track recordings, mixing them with custom effects. You can choose to record your masterpiece live or build it up, piece by piece, making multiple takes and using the step sequencer to create the result one section at a time. There’s also a built-in drum synthesizer, so you don’t need to worry about setting up a drum kit in your office.
Get recording tools for Mac
Download a set of apps to record audio on Mac trouble free. Strong enough to work for podcast recording.
But before you start recording audio, there are a few things to bear in mind.
Buy a good quality microphone
Modern software can work wonders when it comes to cleaning up audio, but it can’t add what wasn’t recorded in the first place. If you plan to podcast or make music regularly, even as a hobby, an external mic is a must. Good news that nowadays you can buy a decent quality USB microphone for less than $100. If you already have a microphone that uses XLR connectors, you could buy an audio interface with XLR inputs instead. And don’t forget about a good pair of headphones to monitor your recording process.
Consider a USB audio interface
Even if you don’t need XLR inputs for your microphone, a USB audio interface will allow you to record electric guitar or bass and use software to emulate the sound of your favorite guitar hero. Some audio interfaces can even control the audio input level and use hardware controllers to adjust faders and direct effects in software.
Choose your recording environment carefully
While you could choose just about any place, there’s no substitute for a small quiet room with thick walls that absorb sound rather than bouncing it back at your microphone. (Unless you want real-life echo or reverb as an effect.)
Consider how you set up the microphone as well. If you’re recording yourself, you’ll obviously sit in front of it. But when interviewing someone or recording multiple musicians, you’ll need an omni-directional mic, placed in the center of the group.
And now back to n-Track Studio. Fire up Setapp and install it. Once you’ve installed the application, you’ll need to set it up, but first make sure your Mac is ready to record audio from your preferred audio input.
- Open System Preferences from the Apple menu
- Click on the Sound pane
- Choose the Input tab
- If you have a USB microphone or audio interface connected, you should see it here
- Select the microphone you’re going to use
- Check the levels by speaking into the microphone and watching the meter in the System Preferences window, adjusting the volume accordingly
Now launch n-Track Studio. Click on the Settings menu and choose Audio Devices. Select Mac’s Default Recording Device. This will ensure the device you selected in System Preferences is the one used for recording in n-Track Studio. Make sure to disconnect or switch off audio input devices you’re not going to use.
To the left of the main window, you’ll see a level meter with the name of the current audio input above it. Test the microphone level and watch the meter. It should peak below the maximum (0db). If it’s too high, you’ll hear distortion on the audio track. So if it’s peaking at 0db, adjust the level.
You can now record your first track by clicking the Record Audio button in the quick start window that opened when you first launched n-Track Studio.
How to record system audio
If you need to grab music or audio that’s being played by your Mac rather than the audio you create, you’ll need a different tool. Capto is a screen recording app designed for making screen video tutorials. It can easily grab your Mac’s audio as well as video outputs. To record the audio, you would set Capto to capture your Mac’s screen, with audio input set to system audio. Then when you’re editing, you can split the audio and video tracks and delete the video one.
If you want to strip the audio from an online video and save it on your Mac, Elmedia Player — a player that can download video from streaming sites — can do just that.
Record audio notes [podcasts]
The biggest use case for audio recording in 2019 is, undoubtedly, a podcast. Your Mac can be a perfect machine for recording a podcast with an external mic and software for capturing audio notes.
Best Recording Apps For Mac
Apart from being an excellent assistant, Siri can also serve as a sound recorder you can use to take audio notes. While on the go, you can quickly dictate to Siri and it will save audio to Apple’s native Notes app. Unfortunately, it only works on mobile. On your Mac, you can use Evernote which adds audio to your text notes – a handy tool for research and interviewing.
For professional use, n-Track Studio will be a great tool to record voice. You can rely on the instructions described above to do podcasts with n-Track – it’s pretty simple to get started even for complete beginners. The beauty of it is you can additionally record intros and outros, adjust levels, and hone the sound of your podcast through built-in Compression, Pitch shift, Echo, and other effects.
Audio Recording App For Mac
Try all these apps for free
Podcast Recording Apps For Mac
Get a huge set of top apps for record audio on a Mac. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!
Recording Apps For Macbook Air
So whether you want to record a hit song, do podcast recording, or just grab audio that’s already playing on your Mac, Setapp gives your a perfect tool for every job.