Recording audio on a Mac
Let’s say you want to get audio from a program running on your Mac.
What might you want to record?
- movie played in Quicktime or VLC
- audio from iTunes [DRMed]
- audio from a flash animation on a website [songs from strongbad emails anyone?]
- etc.
On most current Windows PCs, I knew how to do this.
Basically, you just open up the recording volume controls and select the items that has your PCs audio. The title varies… something like “stereo mix” most of the time, I believe.
Then open up your audio recorder of choice, start recording, start the audio in the other program you want to record, and there ya go.
On a Mac, it is apparently not as easy.
There is no input to select that has the audio of stuff running on your Mac.
There are a few programs, that allow you to do this, but they cost money. They are pretty cool audio editors etc, in their own right[I’m referring to WireTap Studio and Audio Hijack Pro ]. But if ya just wanna record a little bit of audio, isn’t there a simple free way?
Yes* **.
*if you have a patch cable with 1/8” stereo phone plugs on each end
**If you don’t have one, you can order one from the site linked above for about $5 including shipping in the US.
Here’s how:
Download Audacity, a great free multi platform audio editor.
It’s easy to record in this program. After opening it, it automatically opens a new window. Just click the Red Circle record button, and it will start recording on a new track.
Now, just connect the cable mentioned above from the headphone, or out jack on your Mac to the Mic/Line In jack. Now, make sure the input selected in Audacity is Line In*, and record away. You may need to adjust the volume levels in Audacity, your audio source, or your Mac volume level.
[*if it is not set as Line In, go to the Audacity Menu, Preferences, and look in the Audio I/O section for “Recording” and select Built-in Input.]
One disadvantage.. since you have a plug in your headphone jack, it turns your speakers off [at least on my MacBook], so you can’t hear what you are recording.
Extra credit:
To fix* the disadvantage mentioned above, get this little doohickey instead of the standard patch cable. It will still be under $5, and you can connect your headphones as well.
*if you do this your headphones can also act as a microphone, but it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you are quiet. :)
PS I was inspired to discover this, because I wanted to hear what sounded like reversed speech audio in the second season of the TV show, Lost. Audacity has a reverse function. I just recorded the audio, reversed it, and voila, secret stuff that most TV viewers never hear[i assume..].
