1. Screen Record On Mac With Internal Audio
2. Windows Record Screen With Audio
3. Mac Record Audio From Computer

While the daily usage of your computer, you will frequently have the need to capture audio. For instance, you may want to record online lectures, broadcast, voice chat, video game background music, or favorite songs. So it’s quite necessary to find a good audio recorder to capture sound from computer microphone/speaker.

Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder. This multi-track recording software enables you to record audio on Windows, Mac, Linux and other operating systems with ease. So when you want to record computer audio, Audacity can be a great choice.

Click 'Record System Audio' to capture the sound playing on your Mac Click 'Record Microphone' to record your voice Click 'Record Camera' to record your FaceTime camera Select the area of the screen. The screen audio recording limitation of QuickTime paves the way for both third-party virtual audio driver and Mac screen recorder with audio. In other words, you have 2 ways to achieve a regular screen recording with internal audio. To record your screen with the audio intact on a Mac, your best bet is to use a Mac screen recorder with audio support already built into it. This will avoid the unnecessary hassle of installed third-party kernel extensions and jumping back and forth between your System Preferences panels. Click a circular icon in the menu bar to record the screen. Choose a microphone to record system audio and audio from your microphone. Hit the red button to start recording. Hit it again to stop recording.

Here is a detailed guide on how Audacity record computer audio. Whether you are using a Windows 10/8/7 PC or Mac, you can find the specific quick tutorial below to capture any sound on your computer.

Best Audacity Alternative - Screen Recorder

1. Easily record any audio on Mac/Windows PC with high sound quality.
2. Record computer audio from system audio card and microphone/speaker.
3. Capture computer screen/webcam, record audio and take screenshots.
4. Record online videos, 2D/3D gameplay, webcam, video/audio chats, music and more.
5. Powerful editing features to better edit captured video and audio file.

Part 1. Audacity Record Computer Audio on Windows 10 PC

Audacity is a free and multi-track audio recorder which can help you record computer audio with high sound quality. This free audio recorder allows you to capture any audio on your computer and then save it in AC3, M4A/M4R (AAC), WMA or other formats based on your need. It also carries some basic editing functions like Cut, Copy, Splice and Mix Sounds Together. This part will show you how to record computer audio with Audacity in Windows 10.

Step 1. Download Audacity for Windows. First, you need to go to Audacity official site (https://www.audacityteam.org/) to free download Audacity for Windows on your computer. After downloading, you can follow the on-screen instructions to install and run this free audio recorder.

Step 2. Make sure Windows can recognize microphone. Before recording computer audio, you need to check the playback device and ensure Windows can recognize the microphone. Right-click on the sound or volume icon on the bottom-right corner. Then choose your microphone under audio input devices. During this step, you can also adjust audio input properties to improve the sound quality.

Step 3. Set Audacity to recognize microphone. Then you need to make sure Audacity is set up to recognize your computer microphone. Click the “Edit” option on the menu bar and then choose “Preferences”.

Click on “Devices” from the left menu and then choose “Windows WASAPI” from the drop-down menu. Here you can choose the default device that has been enabled in your sound device settings. For capturing computer audio, you need to ensure the default playback device “Speakers” or “Headphones” is selected, and leave the channel set for 2 Channels. Click “OK” to confirm the operation.

Step 4. Record computer audio. After all these settings, you can start to record computer audio with Audacity. This is a concise toolbar designed in this free audio recorder to give you full control of the audio recording. You can click the “Record” button to start recording computer audio in Audacity. When the audio recording is over, you can click “Stop” button.

Step 5. Preview and save captured audio. Audacity is equipped with many editing features. So after the audio recording, you can edit the captured audio file. If you want to add some sound effects to the recorded audio, you can use the “Effect” feature and then apply the specific effect to it.

When you are satisfied with the audio, you can save it on your computer. Click the “File” option on the menu bar and then choose the “Save Project As” from the drop-down list.

Here you can also click “Export” and then select your preferred output audio format like MP3, WAV, or OGG.

Audacity is an all-featured audio recording tool which can help you capture live audio through a microphone or mixer. It highly supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. What’s more, it offers many editing features and effects to better edit the captured audio and export it in popular audio format. But you have to admit that, Audacity is a little bit difficult for new users to record computer audio.

Part 2. How to Record Computer Audio with Audacity on Mac

If you are a Mac user, you can navigate to the official site of Audacity and download the Mac version of this audio recorder. After that, you can take the following guide to record Mac computer audio in Audacity.

Step 1. Set Mac sound settings. First, you need to install Audacity on your Mac. Then click “Apple” icon on the menu bar and choose “System Preferences” option. Click the “Sound” icon and then click “Input” tab. Select the “microphone” option from the available options.

Step 2. Set Audacity to recognize microphone. Run Audacity on your Mac. Click “Audacity” in the main menu then choose “Preferences” option from the drop-down list.

Click “Devices” on the left and then ensure that the selected microphone is set for your Mac microphone.

Step 3. Record Mac computer audio. After all these settings, you can start to capture audio on your Mac. You can play the audio you want to record and then click on the “record” button to begin the sound recording. Click the “stop” button to stop the recording.

After the audio recording on computer, you can click the “play” button to listen to the audio file you just created. It will play the captured audio through your computer's speakers or headphones.

Step 4. Add sound effects. If you want to apply some sound effects to the captured audio, you can use the “Effect” feature. As you can see, this free audio recorder for Mac provides you with many effect options. You can click “Effect” option and then select specific effect you like from the drop-down list.

Step 5. Edit the recorded audio. As a full-featured audio recorder and editor, Audacity carries many basic and frequently-used editing features like Cut, Delete, Duplicate, Copy and more. If you have the need to edit audio, here you can click Edit and then use the editing function according to your need.

Note: Considering that the operations and changes you made in Audacity are irreversible, you’d better save a copy of the captured audio file before editing or adding any effects.

Step 6. Export the captured audio. When you are satisfied with the captured audio, you can click “File” and then choose “Export Audio” or “Export Selected Audio” option to save it on your Mac. Here you can choose to export it as the MP3 file.

To quickly record computer audio in Audacity, you can use the keyboard shortcuts. When you view the captured audio on Mac, you can also use the following shortcuts to get full control of the process.

The powerful Audacity is designed with many useful recording and editing features. You can try them one by one while or after the recording. You need to practice more to use Audacity for recording a high-quality audio on computer.

Conclusion

Here in this post, we have mainly talked about how to record computer audio in Audacity. As a free and powerful audio recorder and editor, Audacity can help you capture audio on your Windows 10/8/7 PC or Mac with high quality.

However, many new Audacity users don’t know how to set various audio settings on computer. You can follow the detailed steps shared above to capture sound from computer microphone or speaker with Audacity. If you still can’t use it properly, you can try the recommended Screen Recorder.

Compared with Audacity, it can offer you an easier audio recording experience. It has the capability to capture audio from both microphone/speaker and system audio card. What’s more, it enables you to record videos with exactly the original image and sound quality. Just free download it and have a try.

We enjoy browsing YouTube or other websites and watching music videos online. Live music, broadcast, even talkshows and live FM. That would be perfect if we can record those online music or shows down to local and import to iPhone or iPod.
Is that possible to record system audio on Mac like the system audio recorder working on Windows PC? How Mac record system audio and how it help us with creating our own albums. We are going to introduce you 4 ways to record all the audios you want easily.

Solution 1: How to record system audio with QuickTime on Mac

You may already found the screen recording function on QuickTime and use it as a video recorder. Can it also record system audio Mac? Sure! The QuickTime Player on Mac is much more powerful than its Windows version. Recording system audio is not a big deal. All you need is to install Soundflower first. Follow us and check how to record system audio by QuickTime with Soundflower.
Step 1: Download and install Soundflower
Download and open the Soundflower install package. If you already installed an old version, click 'Uninstall Soundflower.scpt' to clean it first before you install. Mount the DMG and install Soundflower, then reboot the Mac to complete installation.

Step 2: Setup Audio Output
Under the Codecs tab, you need to select output audio codec and output audio format container. You could even adjust the audio parameters including Sample Rate, Mode, Encoding Mode, Bitrate, etc. If you want to save recordings to WAV format, select WAV on the drop-down panel.

Pull down the Apple menu and open 'System Preferences', then go to 'Sound'. Under 'Output' select 'Multi-Output Device'. (For testing purposes, adjust this later for your own needs on a per application basis.) If you choose 'Soundflower (2ch)' only, the audio will be output to QuickTime when you record the audio but you cannot hear any voice from speaker.

Next, under 'Input' tab, select 'Soundflower (2ch)'

Step 3: Start recording system audio
Run QuickTime Player and chick 'File – New Audio Recording'. Click the down-arrow and select the Microphone as 'Soundflower (2ch)'. And click on the record button before you start to play your music video.

Step 4: Stop and save
Click 'Stop' button once you finish the audio recording. Then you can preview the untitled music audio and click 'file – save' to rename and save the file to local folder.

Now, the system audio on Mac would be saved in M4A file format. You could go to the directory to open and view the recorded system audio files on Mac computer.

Solution 2: How to record system audio with Leawo Music Recorder for Mac

Leawo Music Recorder for Mac is a functional app for Mac OS X that allows you to convert your Macbook into a recording machine, taking inputs from any connected devices, the built-in microphone, or even the system audio. As a professional music recording tool, Leawo Music Recorder could help you not only record system audio on Mac, but also record online audio, external audio, etc. It provides easy-to-use and useful solution for Mac users to record music and manage the music files smartly. It’s actually quite an easy job for you to realize the dream to record music from any online media.

How to Record System Audio on Mac with Leawo Music Recorder for Mac?

You need to download and install Leawo Music Recorder for Mac on your computer. Then launch it for recording. You should prepare your system audio files beforehand for recording as well.

Leawo Music Recorder for Mac

Step 1: Get ready for the Leawo Music Recorder for Mac
Click the mic icon on the bottom left corner and choose 'Record Computer Audio' option since you need to record system audio files.

Screen Record On Mac With Internal Audio

Step 2. Set output format
Click the Clock icon on the left bottom, go to format panel and choose the output format. You can pick M4A, MP3 or MAV as you need. Then adjust the audio codec, bit rate and sample rate for the target file. And you can click on 'General' to select the output folder for the audios.

Step 3: Set recording directory

Next, go to the “General” tab to set recording directory in the “Output” box. You could also switch the program language here.
Step 4. Start recording system audio on Mac
Click the record icon, it will be ready for record sounds from Mac. Once you play the online resource or local file, Leawo Music Recorder will start recording process automatically till you click the stop button. If you are recording a song, it will download the match music tag and album picture for it.

Step 5. Edit your audio music files
Go to the library, all your recorded songs will list there. Right click on the song and choose 'Edit Music Tags' to input the music information manually.

Windows Record Screen With Audio

With Leawo Music Recorder, you could not only record system audio on Mac, but also get song tags automatically to recordings if you are recording music. This makes it quite special since it makes it easier for you to manage recordings, especially song recordings.

Mac Record Audio From Computer

Solution 3: How to record system audio with Audacity for Mac

If you want to record system audio on Mac and then make some editing to recorded system audio, Audacity would be a wonderful choice. Compared to Leawo Music Recorder, which focuses on recording and adding song tags, Audacity, as a wonderful free audio recorder and editor, provides more audio editing features. It enables you to record any sound from your microphone and provides quite a few editing features to enrich your audio effect. With the help of SoundFlower app, Audacity could easily capture and record your system audio on Mac and export to MP3 or other audio files. It’s available for multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.

The below steps would show you how to record system audio on Mac with the help of Audacity and Soundflower:
1. Download and install Audacity and Soundflower on your Mac.
2. Configure Soundflower as mentioned above.
3. Open Audacity app on Mac, go to “Preferences > Devices” tab to select Soundflower (2ch) as the Recording device.
4. Next switch to the Recording tab. Click the red button and right afterwards play back system audio to start recording. To stop recording, click the red button again.
5. Click the “Export” button and then follow the on-screen notifications to export recordings to MP3 or other audio file after recording is done.
Though Audacity is totally free of cost, it’s more complicated for you to complete system audio recording on Mac computer. You have to complete a lot of configuration staff before you could finally get your system audio recorded. Leawo Music Recorder is much easier to use.

Solution 4: How to record system audio with GarageBand

If you have already configured Soundflower on your computer as recording device, GarageBand is another wonderful choice for you to record system audio on Mac. GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations for macOS and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. Its music and podcast creation system enables users to create multiple tracks with pre-made MIDI keyboards, pre-made loops, an array of various instrumental effects, and voice recordings.

Do the following steps to record system audio on Mac with GarageBand:
1. Configure Soundflower on your Mac computer as recording device.
2. Launch GarageBand program from “Finder > Applications” tab and choose 'Create New Music Project' option.
3. Name the new project and set an recording directory for it on the pop-up window.
4. You can click on the red button on the pop-up piano interface. And next go to 'Track' in the menu bar at the top to choose 'New Track' option.
5. Pick 'Real Instrument' as your audio recording device and click 'Create' button.
6. Next the track with the microphone icon should be highlighted blue. Click on the Grand Piano icon to make it green, go to 'Track' in the menu, and then 'Delete Track' option. Keep the Track Info as 'Basic Track' to capture audio from inside system on Mac without any effect.
7. Click on the record button and next play back system audio to start recording. Click the red button again to stop recording.
The recorded system audio will be saved in the folder you have set previously.
Conclusion
QuickTime Player, Audacity, GarageBand and Leawo Music Recorder all provide you feasible solutions to help you record system audio on Mac. You have to configure extra app Soundflower to enable QuickTime Player, Audacity and GarageBand to complete system audio recording task on Mac, while Leawo Music Recorder requires no extra plugin. Leawo Music Recorder is a ready-to-use software and lets you edit the music tags in details. It offers easier but at the same time more practical audio recording solutions for you.