Recording the system audio during a Quicktime Screen Recording

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Level 2

269 points

Recording the system audio during a Quicktime Screen Recording

I thought this would be a no-brainer, but can't seem to figure this out.

I'm on an older MacBook Pro running OS 10.11.6 (El Capitan). I wanted to do a screen capture of a music application on my mac. I want to do a screen capture using Quicktime of the music application's window and the audio/music output from it. From the screen capture dropdown, I only see options for input that relate to a microphone, and Line-in, which in my case is irrelevant, since I just want to capture the application's audio. Additionally, I do have Soundflower installed on this mac as well.

I've tried multiple combinations and I still can't record the audio from this application. In the screenshot above, the ONLY time audio is recorded is when it's set to Built-In microphone and Quicktime is recording what it's hearing from my speakers into the microphone. :)

Can someone provide some information on how this can be accomplished? Appreciate it.

Posted on Aug 15, 2025 03:17 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 18, 2025 06:37 PM in response to John Ghadimi

to record the mac's internal sound with quicktime (or also “shift-command-5”) you need additional software. i use the free BlackHole Virtual Audio Driver. then you can choose "BlackHole 2ch" in the recording options instead of "Built-in Microphone."

or for an audio recording, choose "BlackHole 2ch" in the audio recording controls.

you will also need to set up a multi-output device in your audio MIDI setup utility to be able to both hear and record the internal audio at the same time.

to set up a multi-output device:

Open Audio MIDI Setup: (found in /Applications/Utilities)

hit the '+' button in the bottom left corner and select "Create Multi Output Device"

then in the panel that appears on the right, in the Multi-Output Device tab, select "Built-in Output" AND "BlackHole 2ch". (and, if you want, any of your other connected devices.)

once you do that, (and BEFORE recording) you can choose "BlackHole 2ch" or "Multi-Output Device" in your menubar "sound options".

to both hear the speakers and record the audio at the same time, choose "Multi-Output Device". before choosing multi-out, set the internal speakers' volume to a comfortable level first. you cannot control the volume once you are in multi-out mode.

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Answer 2

John Ghadimi Author

Level 2

269 points

Aug 16, 2025 10:20 AM in response to John Ghadimi

After LOTS of experimentation, I finally landed on the combination of using iShowUInstant + iShowU Audio Capture. It works perfectly 👍

Incidentally, iShowU Audio Capture can be used in QuickTime but unfortunately you can’t monitor the audio while screen capturing.

Hope this info is useful to others who are struggling with this.

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