Record sounds on Mac

Record different sound sources with QuickTime Player and Audio Hijack

- Carrie Marshall

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN How to capture any audio on your Mac

YOU’LL NEED Audio Hijack, macOS 14.4 or later

Your Mac can play all kinds of sounds from all kinds of sources, but how do you record and store them for personal use? For things plugged into your Mac, such as microphones and audio interfaces, you can use QuickTime Player or, if you want to adjust the sound, GarageBand. But to record from apps, online audio, or even from multiple sound sources at once, Audio Hijack ($77, about £70, rogueamoeba.​com) is even better. We use it for all kinds of things, such as recording phone and FaceTime interviews; saving audio from videos we need to refer to later, and for recording from all kinds of apps.

Audio Hijack can also do something very clever – it can transcribe audio files and turn them into text you can edit, copy and paste. If you want transcription but don’t need Audio Hijack’s power, there’s a more affordable transcription app: MacWhisper (goodsnooze.gumroad.​com), which is free and works really well with recorded audio from apps such as QuickTime Player.

HOW TO Record different audio types

1 Do it QuickTime

Launch QuickTime Player from Spotlight or your Applications folder, then select File > New Audio Recording to create a new recording. In this case, we’ll use our MacBook’s built-in mic but any connected audio device will work.

2 Start recording