Screen Record On Mac Laptop

  • Part 1: How to Record Audio on Computer with FoneLab Screen Recorder (Internal & External)
  • Part 2: How to Record Audio on Computer with Audacity (App & External)
  • Part 3: How to Record Audio on Computer with Voice Recorder (External)
  1. Your Mac comes with its own screen-recording feature on macOS Mojave and higher. Open the app or window you want to record, then press Shift+Command+5 to open the system’s screen capture tool. From the bottom toolbar, you can opt to capture the entire screen, just the selected window, or a selected portion of the screen.
  2. You can record the whole screen, or click and drag your mouse cursor to record just a specific part.
Record Screen Now

Select a capture mode. The default option, Capture any full screen application, will automatically detect your game as long as you play it in full-screen mode. If you keep the default, know that switching away from the full-screen game (such as when you press Alt+Tab ↹) will black out the screen until you re-open it.

Capture video, audio, online tutorial, etc on Windows/Mac, and you can easily customize size, edit the video or audio, and more.

  • Screen Recorder
  • Mac Video Recorder
  • Windows Video Recorder
  • Mac Audio Recorder
  • Windows Audio Recorder
  • Webcam Recorder
  • Game Recorder
  • Meeting Recorder
  • Messenger Call Recorder
  • Skype Recorder
  • Course Recorder
  • Presentation Recorder
  • Chrome Recorder
  • Firefox Recorder
  • Screenshot on Windows
  • Screenshot on Mac

Generally speaking, recording audio from computer can be divided into three situations.

  1. Record sound coming from your computer, such as songs, live streaming audio, audio calls, background music of your favorite video and more.
  2. Record audio on Windows or Mac with your voice. Usually, you can use a headphone or external microphone to record voice on computer clearly.
  3. Record not only streaming audio on computer, but also your voice over at the same time.

Which kind of audio do you want to record on your computer? Not all audio recording software can meet your demand completely.

Guide List

Before recording computer audio and microphone, you need to figure out what you can get first. Luckily, this article will show you the detailed introductions and tutorials of audio recording.

FoneLab Screen RecorderAudacityVoice Recorder
PlatformWindows, MacWindows, MacWindows
Record Internal Audiox
Record External Audio
Record internal and external audio simultaneouslyxx
Audio editing toolx
User-friendly interfacex

1. How to Record Audio on Computer with FoneLab Screen Recorder (Internal & External)

Is it possible to download and record audio from YouTube, Amazon Music, iTunes, SoundCloud and other media platforms? Of course, the answer is Yes. You can record streaming audio on your computer without quality loss. No background noise will be captured. There is no maximum time limit. Thus, you can record a playlist as MP3, WMA or other formats.

If you only want to record sound on computer only, you can enable the microphone recording feature only. FoneLab Screen Recorder will record what you are speaking through the connected microphone only. So you can record a lecture, interview or other conversions.

For people who want to record both internal and external audio on computer, you can set to record on computer from all audio sources. The audio recorder will recognize available audio coming from software, browser, microphone and more smartly. If you want to add voice over along with background music, you can not miss this audio recording software.

  1. Record internal audio on computer without microphone losslessly. You can make a copy of live streaming audio in a noisy environment.
  2. Record external sound on computer. Only audio throughout your external microphone can be recorded.
  3. Record audio playing on computer and from microphone at the same time.
  4. Save audio recording files as MP3, WMA, AAC, M4A or CAF format.
  5. Trim your audio recording with custom start and stop time.
  6. Compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7 and Mac OS X 10.10 or above.
FoneLab Screen Recorder

FoneLab Screen Recorder allows you to capture video, audio, online tutorial, etc on Windows/Mac, and you can easily customize size, edit the video or audio, and more.

  • Record video, audio, webcam and take screenshots on Windows/Mac.
  • Preview data before saving.
  • It is safe and easy to use.

Step 1Run FoneLab Screen Recorder

Free download, install and launch FoneLab Screen Recorder. This section will show you the Windows version. To record audio on Windows computer, choose Audio Recorder in the main interface.

Step 2Record audio on your computer

Record internal audio: To record audio from video or music on your computer, turn on System Sound. Make sure Microphone is turned off. Only the sound coming from your computer will be recorded. Then adjust the volume bar below.

Record

Record external audio: If you want to record voice on computer, you can turn on Microphone and turn off System Sound. Thus, the internal audio will be ignored.

Record internal & external audio: During this time, turn on both System Sound and Microphone options. As a result, you can record system sound and your voice simultaneously.

Step 3Adjust audio recording settings

MP3 is the default output audio format. If you want to make changes, you can click the More settings on the top right corner. Here you can set the audio format and quality.

Step 4Record computer sound

Click REC to start recording audio on your Windows computer. You can pause and resume audio recording to skip unwanted parts. Click Stop to stop recording sound on computer. Later, click Save followed by Next to export the audio recording file.

FoneLab Screen Recorder

FoneLab Screen Recorder allows you to capture video, audio, online tutorial, etc on Windows/Mac, and you can easily customize size, edit the video or audio, and more.

  • Record video, audio, webcam and take screenshots on Windows/Mac.
  • Preview data before saving.
  • It is safe and easy to use.

2. How to Record Audio on Computer with Audacity (App & External)

Audacity is a free and open-source audio recorder and editor. It is supported to record audio from apps and webs, such as WhatsApp, Skype and other system sounds. Well, you can record a mix with Audacity as well. Moreover, you can customize multi-audio tracks with Audacity. In a word, you can record and edit audio on computer with Audacity for free.

Step 1Run Audacity. Click the down-arrow icon. You can see MME by default.

Step 2Select Windows WASAPI to record internal audio with Audacity on your computer.

Step 3Click the drop-down icon beside. Choose Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (loopback). Thus, you can record audio coming from your computer.

Mac Laptop Screen Repair

Step 4Click Transport on the top toolbar. Select Transport Options. Remove the checkmark before Software Playthrough.

Step 5Click the red Record icon to start recording audio from computer in Audacity.

Step 6Stop recording on computer. At last, unfold the File list. Select Export followed by Export as MP3. Now you can record audio on computer as MP3.

Note: Audacity is not always good to use. You still need to install plugins and encoders to get advanced features. The complex interface and unstable bugs are not friendly to beginners.

FoneLab Screen Recorder

FoneLab Screen Recorder allows you to capture video, audio, online tutorial, etc on Windows/Mac, and you can easily customize size, edit the video or audio, and more.

  • Record video, audio, webcam and take screenshots on Windows/Mac.
  • Preview data before saving.
  • It is safe and easy to use.

3. How to Record Audio on Computer with Voice Recorder (External)

Audacity is a free and open-source audio recorder and editor. It is supported to record audio from apps and webs, such as WhatsApp, Skype and other system sounds. Well, you can record a mix with Audacity as well. Moreover, you can customize multi-audio tracks with Audacity. In a word, you can record and edit audio on computer with Audacity for free.

Step 1Run Audacity. Click the down-arrow icon. You can see MME by default.

Step 2Select Windows WASAPI to record internal audio with Audacity on your computer.

Step 3Click the drop-down icon beside. Choose Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (loopback). Thus, you can record audio coming from your computer.

Step 4Click Transport on the top toolbar. Select Transport Options. Remove the checkmark before Software Playthrough.

Step 5Click the red Record icon to start recording audio from computer in Audacity.

Step 6Stop recording on computer. At last, unfold the File list. Select Export followed by Export as MP3. Now you can record audio on computer as MP3.

Note: Audacity is not always good to use. You still need to install plugins and encoders to get advanced features. The complex interface and unstable bugs are not friendly to beginners.

FoneLab Screen Recorder

FoneLab Screen Recorder allows you to capture video, audio, online tutorial, etc on Windows/Mac, and you can easily customize size, edit the video or audio, and more.

  • Record video, audio, webcam and take screenshots on Windows/Mac.
  • Preview data before saving.
  • It is safe and easy to use.
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Laptop

QuickTime has screen recording feature, which you can totally depend on for Mac screen capture.

Regardless of your Mac model, desktop or laptop, you must need to record the screen of it for different reasons from now and then. Even you haven’t had such requirement before, knowing how to record Mac screen is also a basic skill that you should master in case under some accidental circumstances, you are not equipped with such skill to quell something.

The simplest way to capture Mac screen is to utilize the macOS-bundled screen recorder whose name is QuickTime. This versatile media player, similar to top-notch VLC, provides screen recording feature to meet the potential video capture needs. With it, you can select any specific region or the whole desktop to record, with audio coming from mic or not. Internal system sound cannot be grabbed due to the copyright and piracy issue. However this is a workaround…

How to Use QuickTime Player to Record Mac Screen

The workflow is quite easy and you can follow the steps below:

Step 1: Open up QuickTime, navigate to File menu on the top toolbar and click “New Screen Recording”.

Step 2: The related screen recording prompt will pop up. For macOS Mojave or Catalina users, a brand-new Screencast app shows up (which can also be called out by pressing Shift-Command-5). While for earlier system users, it’s the QuickTime-style “Screen Recording” control.

Step 3: Define the target recording area through ready-made options (shown below) and mouse. Then set the Microphone source, Save to path, Timer, and others like whether to Show Mouse Clicks or not during recording.

Earlier Screen Recording panel works a little bit different. By clicking the down arrow, you are only given Microphone and Options. Recording region selection is available after tapping the record button.

Step 3: Start and end QuickTime screen recording. Note that the stop button is located in the menu bar.
Step 4: Utilize the thumbnail to trim, save, or share.

Many users get troubled in stopping the QuickTime capture, like they don’t know “how to stop QuickTime screen recording” or the “stop button on menu bar can’t stop recording” exactly. In view of this, you are suggested to try button and shortcut methods back and forth. Below are some shortcut details for QuickTime screen recording on macOS 10.15 & 10.14.

ActionShortcut
New screen recordingControl-Command-N
Open Screenshot appShift-Command-5
Capture the entire screenShift-Command-3
Capture a portion of the screenPress Shift-Command-4 to select
Capture a window or the menu barPress Shift-Command-4 -> Space bar to choose with camera pointer
Capture a menu and menu itemsPress Shift-Command-4 to choose the menu item with pointer once you opened the menu.
Capture the Touch BarShift-Command-6.
Stop the RecordingCommand-Control-Esc

Why do Some Screen Recordings of QuickTime Have No Sound?

QuickTime creates no-audio recording is a normal phenomenon, because as is mentioned above, QuickTime doesn’t feature capturing screen with the sound coming from computer. It means, when you haven’t input your voice via Microphone, no matter what’s going on on the desktop, QuickTime won’t record the sound from it at all, unless the volume of internal audio is so high that Microphone has received its signals.

QuickTime offers no way to grab sound from system and built-in apps like QuickTime itself, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube, then how to walk this through? Just keep your patience to move on.

How to Record Mac Screen with Internal Audio?

Mac Laptop Screen Size

The screen audio recording limitation of QuickTime paves the way for both third-party virtual audio driver and Mac screen recorder with audio. In other words, you have 2 ways to achieve a regular screen recording with internal audio.

Way 1 – User Third-party Mac Screen and Audio Recorder

Standalone desktop screen recording software comes in handy and is the most recommended way to make screencast. For one thing, screen recorder is more powerful than amateurish QuickTime screen recording by offering more flexible settings and effects. For another, without seeking for any third-party driver setup, the program itself is able to handle audio capture perfectly. Here we take how RecMaster works as the demonstration.

RecMaster is an easy but slick screen recorder with intuitive interface. It supports any kinds of screen video recordings like game capture, entire screen capture, certain app capture, a fixed area capture, webcam capture and pure audio capture. To help create more engaged and eye-catching footage, RecMaster enables you to superimpose front camera face into screen at any position and size for explanation, to show and highlight mouse cursor for demos, as well as make annotations for instructions. Now please download and install it on your Mac machine for easier screen recording.

How To Screen Record On Mac Laptop

Steps on how RecMaster records:

Step 1. Prepare your capture content and open RecMaster for Mac
Step 2. Choose the right mode. When heading over to the secondary window, check and alter the presets if it’s necessary. You are free to customize video format, quality, frame rate, webcam mix, audio source and recording length.

Step 3. Click record button to make the capture happen. Note that the annotation feature will come to RecMaster for Mac soon.
Step 4. Stop the recording. Then play and do easy edits.

Way 2 – Use QuickTime Plus Third-party Audio Driver

How Can I Screen Record On My Mac Laptop

Once you install any kernel extension like Soundflower, the extension will route audio from any app to another. Thus, QuickTime is empowered to grab app sound. There are also many Soundflower-alike virtual audio drivers, such as Blackhole and Loopback.

How To Screen Record On Mac Laptop

Final Words
All in all, QuickTime player is a nice choice if you are going do some basic recording without internal sound. However, if you are a video nerd and will frequently document screen videos for your vlog, work or so, adopting a decent and affordable application like RecMaster is a wiser choice.