How to capture audio with Soundflower | Macworld

5/20/12 12:31 PM

How to capture audio with Soundflower

Record any sounds coming from your Mac -- for free
by Christopher Breen, Macworld.com May 4, 2011 8:00 pm Your Mac is capable of producing sound as well as playing sound channeled from outside sourcesdevices plugged into the Macs USB- and sound input ports as well as audio streamed from the Internet. Wouldnt it be great if you could captures some of those sounds for later listening? You can. And you can for free with Soundflower. Heres how it works.

Step 1: Download Soundflower

The first step involves finding a way to grab audio playing in one applicationa Web browser, for exampleand route it to an application that can capture that audio. Cycling 74s free Soundflower is that way. Soundflower is a system extension that lets you channel audio from one application to another. For example, you can take the audio playing from a movie in your Web browser and channel it into QuickTime Players audio input where you then record it.

Step 2: Configure Soundflower

After youve installed Soundflower launch the Sound system preference and youll see evidence of Soundflower in the
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Output and Input tabs. Select the Output tab and choose Soundflower (2ch). Do this and any sound that would normally come out of your Macs speakers is now routed through Soundflower. Any is the key word here. If your Mac makes any soundnot just the sound youre trying to capture but also e-mail and Twitter alerts, for exampleit will route that too.

Step 3: Configure your capture application

You have a couple of applications on your Mac that can capture Soundflowers audioQuickTime Player and GarageBand. To configure QuickTime Player choose File -> New Audio Recording. In the Audio Recording window that appears click on the downward-pointing triangle to the right of the Record button. From the menu that appears choose Soundflower (2ch). When youre ready to begin your capture, just click Record. You set up GarageBand by launching the application and in the New Project window that appears choosing Acoustic Instrument. This creates a GarageBand project that contains a single digital audio track. Use the default tempo and time- and key-signature settings that appear in the New Project Template window and click the Create button. Open GarageBand's preferences, select the Audio/MIDI tab and from the Audio Output and Audio Input pop-up menus choose Soundflower (2ch). Close the Preferences window. If the Info pane for the track doesnt appear, choose Track -> Show Track Info. In the Browse tab of the Info pane choose Stereo 1/2 Soundflower (2ch) from the Input source pop-up menu. When your Mac makes sound you should see it register in the tracks meters. Click Record to capture the audio.

Step 4: Monitor the Macs sound

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When you choose Soundflower as your Macs audio output you can no longer hear it through attached speakers or headphones. In order for you to monitor whats happening, launch the Soundflowerbed application (found in /Applications/Soundflower). Click the Soundflowerbed menu bar item that appears and choose your speakers or headphones from the menu. Now, not only will your audio application capture what your Mac plays, but youll be able to listen to the source audio as well. (You may want to do this before setting up QuickTime or GarageBand to capture your audio, but that's up to you.) Again, any sound your Mac makes will be channeled through Soundflower so youll want to disable alert sounds or quit those applications that make them. Additionally, if you change your Macs volume, that change will be captured by the application thats recording Soundflowers sound. So, lay off the volume and mute controls. You can avoid both of these issues by using an application such as Ambrosia Softwares $69 WireTap Studio or Rogue Amoebas $32 Audio Hijack Pro. Each of these applications allows you to capture sound from specific applications. You can adjust volume or fire off system alerts all you like and they won't affect the audio the applications capture. (If you go the Audio Hijack Pro route consider purchasing the $50 Audio Hijack Pro/Fission bundle, which includes the Fission sound editor. WireTap Studio includes an editor.) Sort by:Oldest First|Newest First Resorting

By DCJ001

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This is good information. I have used Soundflower for since I upgraded to 10.6 for including my Mac's sound when doing screen recordings. The article said: "Additionally, if you change your Macs volume, that change will be captured by the application thats recording Soundflowers sound. So, lay off the volume and mute controls." If the Command and Shift keys are depressed when the volume is changed, no sound is made for the volume change. This might be helpful for some people. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By PaulGuinnessy I find however, that Soundflower can cause system crashes. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By AaronShep PaulGuinnessy said I find however, that Soundflower can cause system crashes. Macworld doesn't care about that. They'll recommend any program with spiffy features, regardless of how dangerous the underlying technology. They forget that not everyone enjoys spending hours troubleshooting their Macs. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

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By Chris Breen Editor AaronShep said PaulGuinnessy said I find however, that Soundflower can cause system crashes. Macworld doesn't care about that. They'll recommend any program with spiffy features, regardless of how dangerous the underlying technology. They forget that not everyone enjoys spending hours troubleshooting their Macs. Oh really? Have you been sitting in on our editorial meetings where we plot to make our readers' lives miserable? Silly and ill-informed accusation Aaron. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By Biallystock I have been using Audio HiJack for years to selectively record sound from my Mac. It works extremely well and does not capture extraneous noises nor is it affected by the volume control (it has its own). It seems to me that Soundflower is not a useful solution if you actually care about WHAT you capture. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By Chris Breen Editor Biallystock said It seems to me that Soundflower is not a useful solution if you actually care about WHAT you capture. Many people don't perform audio captures often enough to justify spending the price of Audio Hijack or Wiretap Studio. For them (and those who can control the sounds their Macs make) this free solution makes sense. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

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By JohnLawrencea5ap Thank you for this article. I ran into Soundflower for the first time today while trying to record a speaker, for posterity using a videoconferencing platform, and attempting to push audio content out to non-virtual audience. Soundflower showed up as an option but I had no idea what it was. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By moose_n_squirrel DCJ001 said The article said: "Additionally, if you change your Mac volume, that change will be captured by the application that s s recording Soundflower sound. So, lay off the volume and mute controls." s If the Command and Shift keys are depressed when the volume is changed, no sound is made for the volume change. This might be helpful for some people. The only key you need to press is the Shift key. The command key is not part of the shortcut. You're just pressing one more key than you have to. It's better, though, to go into the Sound Effects tab of the Sound preference and uncheck "Play feedback when volume is changed." THen you don't have to remember which key to press. Volume change feedback will be permanently silenced. Actually, what the Shift key really does is reverse that preference. If the volume feedback pref is on, Shift suppresses the sound. If the pref is off, Shift makes the sound happen. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

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By FredE.Miller Screenflow, not free, but a great value, allows you to capture sound, video, and static images. The sound track can be separated from the rest. The sound can be adjusted in Screenflow or exported to Garageband where more and finer adjustments, if necessary, can be made. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By spinoza2 The problem with Audio Hijack is they never upgraded it to work with the latest versions of Safari. You can only use it with Firefox, which I find very frustrating. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By mopar_mike spinoza2 said The problem with Audio Hijack is they never upgraded it to work with the latest versions of Safari. You can only use it with Firefox, which I find very frustrating. Audio Hijack Pro works great with Safari 5.0.5. However, there does seem to be a problem with the latest Firefox 4.0.1. At least on my iMac.

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Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By wilkinsb Chris Breen said Biallystock said It seems to me that Soundflower is not a useful solution if you actually care about WHAT you capture. Many people don't perform audio captures often enough to justify spending the price of Audio Hijack or Wiretap Studio. For them (and those who can control the sounds their Macs make) this free solution makes sense. I still use the free version of wiretap pro. It is still so much easier than what I read about Sunflower. you select the input then select which application to drop it into (I use Sound Studio which gives the best bang for the buck ever since it came with my eMac) as well as the folder it goes into. I realize this version of wiretap is no longer available but in the past if it has given me difficulty then I go in to Time machine and get a copy that last worked and replace it. I have only had to do that twice in 4 years. So simple and easy I don't need to follow complicated instructions about how to get it to work for me. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By DH wilkinsb said Chris Breen said Biallystock said It seems to me that Soundflower is not a useful solution if you actually care about WHAT you capture. Many people don't perform audio captures often enough to justify spending the price of Audio Hijack or Wiretap Studio. For them (and those who can control the sounds their Macs make) this free solution makes sense. I still use the free version of wiretap pro. It is still so much easier than what I read about Sunflower. you select the input then select which application to drop it into (I use Sound Studio which gives the best bang for the buck
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ever since it came with my eMac) as well as the folder it goes into. I realize this version of wiretap is no longer available but in the past if it has given me difficulty then I go in to Time machine and get a copy that last worked and replace it. I have only had to do that twice in 4 years. So simple and easy I don't need to follow complicated instructions about how to get it to work for me. I did this too along time ago.. but wiretap pro does not work with Snow Leopard and there is no free version that does. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By robertcoogan Chris Breen said Biallystock said It seems to me that Soundflower is not a useful solution if you actually care about WHAT you capture. Many people don't perform audio captures often enough to justify spending the price of Audio Hijack or Wiretap Studio. For them (and those who can control the sounds their Macs make) this free solution makes sense. A cheap way to record streaming audio is iNet Stream Archiver. I use it to record somafm all the time, into a temporary playlist which I then load onto my iPhone. It even breaks up the stream into separate .mp3 files. Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

By maclite Quicktime only allows me to save as .mov or other useless file types. Is there a way I can save the recording as an .mp3? Recommend Report Abuse | Reply

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