How to record internal audio on a Mac

By Dan Murtagh, mix engineer and audio educator · Updated 4 October 2026

A Mac’s built-in recorders capture a microphone, not the sound the Mac itself plays. The exception is macOS 27, whose screen recorder adds an Include System Audio option, though what you get is a movie of the screen. To get the sound itself as an audio file, use an app that records system audio. On macOS 14.4 and later those need no driver; on older Macs you need a virtual audio device like BlackHole plus a recorder.

“Internal audio” (or system audio, or computer audio) means whatever your Mac sends to its speakers or headphones: a song in your music player, a video or lesson in a browser tab, a podcast, a webinar. Recording it used to mean an evening in Audio MIDI Setup. Since macOS 14.4 it doesn’t have to.

The options at a glance

Prices in US dollars, checked 4 October 2026.

Can a Mac record its own audio without extra software?

Only on macOS 27 or later, and only as part of a screen recording. Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot toolbar, choose to record the screen or part of it, then open Options and choose Include System Audio. You get a movie file with the picture and the sound together. Apple describes it on its screen recording support page.

On macOS 26 Tahoe and earlier, the only audio choice in that menu is a microphone. QuickTime Player’s New Audio Recording and the Voice Memos app also record from a microphone. Holding a mic up to your speakers works in a pinch, but you also record the room, the fan and anything else in it.

Does screen recording on a Mac record audio?

It records your microphone if you choose one in Options, and on macOS 27 or later it can also include the Mac’s own sound. On earlier versions, a screen recording of a video or a call comes out silent unless you add a microphone, which picks up the room rather than the clean audio. That’s why so many people find their screen recordings have no sound.

If what you want is the audio, not the picture, a screen recording is the long way round: you get a large movie file to trim and convert. An audio recorder gives you the sound as a file straight away.

Record internal audio without a driver (macOS 14.4 and later)

macOS 14.4 added a way for apps to record the sound of other apps, or of the whole Mac, once you give them permission. Nothing gets installed in your audio system, your output stays the same and your volume keys keep working. PrintBus, Piezo and Audio Hijack all use it.

With PrintBus it goes like this:

1. Open PrintBus from the menu bar and press the record button once. It flashes while it waits for sound.
2. Allow it the first time macOS asks. The permission lives in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.
3. Play anything. A take starts on the first sound and saves itself when the audio stops, trimmed to a half-second of silence at each end.
4. Drag the file from the takes list into a DAW, a folder or onto the desktop. Songs from supported music players are already named “Artist - Title”.

Piezo works on the same principle with a simpler, manual flow: you pick the app to record and press record and stop yourself. Audio Hijack does far more, letting you combine sources, effects and a microphone, at the cost of building a session first.

Record internal audio with BlackHole

BlackHole is a free virtual audio device. It doesn’t record anything itself: it gives your Mac a pretend output that other apps can record from. It’s the classic route on older macOS versions, and it’s still useful for routing sound from one app into another.

1. Install BlackHole 2ch from Existential Audio.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications → Utilities), click + and choose Create Multi-Output Device. Tick your speakers or headphones and BlackHole 2ch, so you can hear while you record.
3. In System Settings → Sound, choose the Multi-Output Device as the output. Your volume keys stop working while it’s selected, so set the level first.
4. In QuickTime Player (New Audio Recording), Audacity or your DAW, choose BlackHole 2ch as the input and record. It records in real time, so a four-minute song takes four minutes.
5. Trim the silence, rename the file, and switch your output back when you’re done.

Our BlackHole guide covers the setup in more detail, including the problems people run into.

Which should you use?

• You want the picture too: the built-in screen recorder on macOS 27, or OBS Studio.
• You want songs, references or talks as audio files you can use straight away: PrintBus. It’s built for exactly that: one press, then a named, trimmed file for every track.
• You’re recording a podcast, mixing a mic with app audio, or want effects and schedules: Audio Hijack.
• You want the cheapest simple recorder and don’t mind naming and trimming files yourself: Piezo.
• You need to send audio from one app into another (a DAW into a call, for example): a routing tool like BlackHole or Loopback. See Loopback vs BlackHole.

Getting a clean recording

• Turn on a Focus mode so notification sounds don’t land in the middle of a take.
• Set the player to its best quality. A recorder captures what the app plays, so a low-quality stream records as a low-quality file.
• Match your session’s sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz) and record at 24-bit, so nothing gets converted on import.
• Check the level. A loudness meter in LUFS tells you how loud a reference is before it goes next to your mix.