You’ve likely found yourself in this position more than once: Your Mac is playing audio you’d love a permanent copy of, but the application you’re using doesn’t provide a way to do that.
While you could turn to one of the few commercial Mac applications that perform this task, there’s a way to go about it that won’t cost you a cent.
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Step by step: Freely capture your Mac audio with Soundflower
1.
2. WHAT YOU NEED
VITAL INFO
You’ve likely found yourself in this position more
Device: Mac
than once: Your Mac is playing audio that you’d
love
Difficulty: Beginner
Time required: 5 mins
What you need:
Soundflower (free;
cycling74.com)
a permanent copy of, but the application you’re
using doesn’t provide a way to do that.
While you would turn to one of the few
commercial
Mac applications that perform this task, there’s a
way to go about it that won’t cost you a cent.
3. 1 Getting prepared. The first thing you need is a copy of Cycling 74’s
Soundflower, which you can get from cycling74.com. Click on the Free
Download link, choose the appropriate version for your Mac, click on the
installer link and it will be downloaded to your Mac. Install Soundflower
and, if asked to, restart your Mac.
4. 2 Sort out the settings. Now move to System Preferences, select the
Sound preference, and in the Input and Output tabs, select Soundflower
(2ch). Doing this takes the audio playing on your Mac and routes into
the Mac’s audio input circuitry, allowing you to then capture it. Quit
System Preferences.
5. 3 Choosing the player. To perform the capture, launch QuickTime
Player, choose New Audio Recording from the File menu, and in the
window that appears, click on the small triangle on the right-hand side.
To ensure the audio is heading in the right direction, make sure that
Soundflower (2ch) is selected under the Microphone heading.
6. 4 Quality choices. In the Audio area below you have two options – High
and Maximum. Both produce an AAC file encoded at 256 kbps. The
difference is that High quality records at a resolution of 44.1 kHz and
Maximum records at a higher quality of 48 kHz. Select your preferred
option, play the audio you wish to record and hit record in QuickTime
Player.
7. 5 Listen up. One thing you’ll immediately notice as you record is the
sound of silence. To hear what your Mac is recording, launch the
Soundflowerbed application, which, when the Soundflower application
was installed, was placed inside the SoundFlower folder, now inside
your Applications folder. A new menu will appear in the Mac’s menu bar.
Click on it and choose the output you’d like to monitor from –
headphones jacked into the Mac’s headphone port, for example.
8. 6 Capture and save. Now go about your capture and, when you’re
finished, click QuickTime Player’s Stop button. Close the window to
name and save it as an audio file. This will save your recording as a
256kbps AAC file. And that’s it, capturing your Mac’s audio on the
cheap.