Recording Sound on a Mac

Last night I needed to (quickly) find a way to record sound on my Powerbook.

With Google by my side, I quickly found Audacity:

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Once it was downloaded and installed, it was as easy as hitting the big red record button to begin recording sound.

Check out some screenshots, features or go download Audacity.

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I Like This Tip!

Written by Brad Jasper on November 14, 2005 at 1:56 pm - Recording Sound on a Mac has 9 comments - Categorized in Audacity Tips, Cool OS X Apps, Easy Tips

9 Responses to “Recording Sound on a Mac”

hal

Or you could use any of the free apps that come with your computer like garage band or sound studio. They're much easier for the novice and are 'quicker' since they require no searching at all. :) November 14th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Bill

Audacity will also edit MP3s....if, for some reason you needed to do such a thing. I know people who edit MP3s to use as their cellphone ringtones. Audacity is a nice, easy (and free) way to accomplish that. November 15th, 2005 at 11:18 am
Jason.Jordan

this script (below stars) will record for 32 minutes bbc radio 4
just change the 32 and URL to whatever you want :)
uses Audacity (free) and SoundFlowerbed (free)
**********************************************
tell application "Finder"
set volume 10
end tell
say "Audacity script is about to record radio!"
tell application "Finder"
set volume 5
end tell
tell application "Soundflowerbed" to activate
delay 2
tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Events"
get properties
tell process "System Preferences"
delay 2
click menu item "Sound" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
delay 2
set theRows to every row of table 1 of scroll area 1 of ¬
tab group 1 of window "sound"
set theOutputs to {} as list
repeat with aRow in theRows
if (value of text field 1 of aRow as text) ¬
is equal to "Soundflower (16ch)" then
set selected of aRow to true
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Preferences" to quit

tell application "Safari"
set URL of document 1 to "http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm"
end tell
delay 10
tell application "System Events"
set visible of process "Safari" to false
end tell

property the_wait : 32 * 60 -- seconds to wait before starting fade
tell application "Audacity" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Audacity"
keystroke "r"
end tell
end tell
delay 10
tell application "System Events"
set visible of process "Audacity" to false
end tell

delay the_wait

tell application "System Events"
set visible of process "Audacity" to true
end tell
tell application "Audacity" to activate
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Audacity"
keystroke "s"
end tell
end tell
delay 1
tell application "Safari" to quit

tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Events"
get properties
tell process "System Preferences"
delay 2
click menu item "Sound" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
delay 2
set theRows to every row of table 1 of scroll area 1 of ¬
tab group 1 of window "sound"
set theOutputs to {} as list
repeat with aRow in theRows
if (value of text field 1 of aRow as text) ¬
is equal to "Headphones" then
set selected of aRow to true
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Preferences" to quit
tell application "Soundflowerbed" to quit December 8th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Omer Zach

Whoa! That's really cool! Couldn't something more simple be done with Automator? December 8th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
James Koo

Installed Audacity on my MacBook with OS X (Tiger). Found can only record from the built-in mike - speaker combination for recording sound from web (like the BBC broadcasting mentioned here). Is there a way to record from the sound card directly to preserve the quality. Many thanks in advance. January 23rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Brad Jasper

James are you using a Mac microphone? A PC mic will not work on a Mac, you'll need a converter such as iMic (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic).

Personal note, I understand why Mac does this (for higher quality sound) but still find it extremely irritating. January 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
James Koo

Brad, thanks. I am using the built in mike taking the sound from built in speaker. Audacity only allows inputs from the built-in mike or (external) Line input (assume the iMic here). However found WireTap can get the input directly from the built in sound card. The program is quite expensive. Is there a Freeware can do the same? January 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Peter Weatherby

James - I've worked out a way to do it, using Audacity which is freeware.
1. In system preferences, change input and output audio devices to Soundflower2 or 16 (both must be the same).
2 In Audacity, go into preferences and set input to Soundflower2 or 16 or (the same as you have chosen) leave the output in Audacity to the speakers (which will let you hear what you are recording).
3. Set your soundcard input running - streaming audio etc
4. Record! February 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
jason

this is like the hardest thing to install in the world!! not recomended!! July 19th, 2008 at 6:32 am