How Do I Record Streaming Audio on My Mac.
Let’s say you want to quickly download an unknown Internet radio song to your Mac, or perhaps record sounds coming from an application on your Mac. The first thing that comes to mind is using voice recording apps for iPhone or Android. And while they are running, the output sound will contain a lot of noise.
It turns out that you can record the audio playing on your Mac from the Mac itself. Best of all, you don’t need to buy an additional sound card. All you need is a virtual sound card that can convert the audio output to audio input. In this guide, we’ll take a look at two of the most popular ones. Let’s start.
How do I record streaming audio on my Mac
1. Soundflower
Soundflower is of course popular with Mac users, but it has its own challenges and challenges. Let’s take a look at how this works and also consider an alternative that is fairly easy to use.
Step 1. Install Soundflower
For the unknown: Soundflower is open source, available on GitHub, and the app itself is a virtual sound card for macOS. Sometimes installing Soundflower can be a little tricky. If you encounter an unsuccessful installation attempt, read, Fix Soundflower Installation Error.
Step 2. Configure Soundflower
After you finish installing Soundflower, you will need to configure it.
The app doesn’t have its own interface, but it integrates well with the system’s audio settings. Go to System Preferences Sounds to manage your audio input / output settings. You are mainly concerned with the output settings where you need to select the available Soundflower (2ch) channels.
Step 3. Configure QuickTime
Since there is no app interface for Soundflower, you need a QuickTime player or Audacity to record the output audio from the internet. To record audio playing on your Mac, open QuickTime and choose New Audio Recording from the File tab in the menu bar. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl + opt + cmd + N.
Then click the little drop-down arrow next to the record button and select the same Soundflower channel that is selected in your Mac’s audio output preferences, that is, Soundflower (2ch).
And it’s all. Now you can record any sound coming from your Mac. Just play the sound in any application, switch to Quicktime and hit the record button. When you’re done, press the red button again to stop recording, save the file, and reset your Mac sound settings to their original state.
But there is one catch: while recording audio, you cannot listen to what is being recorded until you reset the audio output to your speakers or headphones. This means that you need to change these settings every time you need to record audio from the Internet.
Even when audio has been recorded, you will need to reset your audio output settings in order to hear and edit what you have recorded. So let’s see if you run into installation problems. You need to change the system settings every time you need to record audio, then you will not be able to hear the audio during recording or even after that unless you reset the settings. Let’s see how to record internal audio on Mac without Soundflower.
2. The black hole
While Soundflower is great, development is currently stopped and if it stops working you can try Blackhole. It is exactly the same as Soundflower and you just need to install it on macOS from the website.
Step 1. Change the sound source
Blackhole has no user interface, so you’ll have to manually change it to select the internal sound. Go to System Preferences Sound Output select Blackhole.
Step 2. Record with QuickTime Player
Now go to QuickTime Player and start a new screen recording. In the Options section, you will find Blackhole as the audio input. Select it and start recording. That’s all you need to do to record audio with Blackhole.
Install Blackhole (Free)
3. Apowersoft Audio Recorder
The best alternative to Soundflower is Apowersoft Audio Recorder.
This is similar to any recording application, but includes a feature that allows you to install a virtual sound card to send the system’s audio output directly to the input drivers. The app fills in any gaps left by Soundflower. You get an interface for managing settings and libraries. And it allows you to hear the sound while recording. Let’s see how it works.
Step 1. Install Apowersoft Audio Recorder
Install the app from the link below and after a few minutes the icon will appear on the launcher. Open the app and you will see that the interface is pretty clean and intuitive. In the lower right corner, you will find the Sound Source tab, which currently does not display “System Sound” in the dropdown. This is because the virtual sound card has not been installed yet.
Install Apowersoft Audio Recorder (Free)
Step 2: Install the virtual sound card
Click the question mark icon directly above the Sound Source tab to see instructions for installing the virtual sound card. The pop-up window that appears contains a link to install a virtual sound card. Click on the link that says “click here” to begin the installation.
After the installation pop-up window appears, follow the six-step installation process as shown on the screen to complete the setup of your virtual sound card. You can simply click “Continue” until you see the finished window.
Step 3: Configure Apowersoft Audio Recorder
Restart the application and go back to the “Sound Source” tab in the lower right corner. This time, you will see “system sounds” as an option in the drop-down menu. Select “system sounds” from the drop-down menu and the setup process is complete.
To check your virtual sound card installation, you can open the audio output settings in System Preferences Sounds Output. You should see “Apowersoft_Audio Device” in the list of output devices. Unlike Soundflower, you don’t have to come back here again and again to change these settings. The app itself takes care of this when you select system sounds as the sound source.
Step 4: start recording
To record audio from the Internet, use the in-app record button in the lower left corner. The app allows you to record, manage and edit the recorded audio in the app itself, so you don’t need any other software for your needs. In fact, you can pause and record various portions of the audio playing on your system using the pause button.
Click “Library” in the center of the app to view a list of the recorded audio files. Click on the file that you want to edit and export and select “edit” from the options in the lower right corner of the application window.
Step 5. Edit the entry
Edit the audio file by dragging the bar, choosing time units, or even audio frames. As for the recording app, it’s free and has pretty good editing capabilities. When you’re done editing the audio file, click on export and save the file. The app currently only exports in m4a format, so you don’t have that option.
Final Words: Record streaming audio on my Mac
So these were two ways to record internal audio on Mac with and without sound flower. I prefer the second method, as it not only allows you to listen to the sound you are recording in real time, but also gives you the ability to edit it later. However, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Or, if you have any problems, email me.
How Do I Record Streaming Audio on My Mac