Many screen recorders don’t have audio capabilities, resulting in muddled, noisy audio – not ideal! Let’s talk about how to record a screen on a Mac and a few alternatives to make a QuickTime screen recording with audio that’s clear and crisp.

Soundflower is a free plugin for macOS that creates a virtual audio output that you can use when playing a video in QuickTime to record your screen with audio. To get started, you’ll need to download Soundflower:

1. Open the Soundflower download page in your preferred browser.

Go to the Soundflower download page

2. Click the green Safe download button. Your download will begin automatically.

3. Click on the Soundflower DMG file at the bottom left corner of your browser window, or you can find it in your downloads folder by opening holding ⌥ (Option) + ⌘ (Command) + L.

4. Once you click on the Soundflower DMG file, your installer will open. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.

5. When the installation is complete, restart your computer, and you’ll be all set to make your first QuickTime screen recording with audio.

Now that you’ve downloaded and installed Soundflower, you’re almost ready to record your screen and audio together. Whether you’re recording a Zoom meeting, online video, or a video in Quicktime, to record your screen with audio, you’ll need to set up your audio input and output. Here’s how to use Soundflower with QuickTime:

1. Open a Finder window and go to your Applications folder.

2. Scroll down and click on Utilities.

3. Double-click to open the Audio MIDI Setup app.

4. Click on the + at the bottom left corner of the window.

5. Select Create Multi-Output Device.

6. A list of audio devices will appear. Click the box to the left of Soundflower (2ch). A checkmark should appear in the box. At this time, you should also ensure that the box for Built-in Output is checked.

7. You’ll also notice boxes to the right of the audio devices list labeled Drift Correction. Make sure that only Built-in Output is checked in this section.

8. Click the Settings cog at the bottom left of the screen and select Use this for Sound Output.

Now your settings are adjusted, and you’re ready to use QuickTime to record your screen with audio. To take a QuickTime screen recording with sound, follow these steps:

1. Open QuickTime Player. You can find it in your Applications folder.

2. Click on the File menu and select Open File to open the video that you want to record in QuickTime.

3. Navigate to the clip you want to record. Then, click on the File menu in QuickTime again and select New Screen Recording.

4. A rectangle with a dashed outline and a menu at the bottom will appear on your desktop. From the menu, you can choose to record your full screen, select a portion of the screen to record or record a selected window. You can also use this feature to take a screen capture of a window or part of the screen with the QuickTime recorder, as well.

5. Click Options from the menu and choose Other location to select where you want to save your screen recording.

6. Once you’ve chosen the QuickTime Player window to record your video, click Record.

7. While your video is recording, look at the top menu bar of your Mac. You should see that a Stop button has appeared along with any other icons present on the right side of the menu bar. Click this whenever you’re ready to stop recording.

8. After you stop the recording, your new video will open automatically.

When using QuickTime to record your screen, your output video will automatically save to your Documents folder, but you can change the destination for your video. Just click on Options before you start recording, select Other Location, and browse your computer to choose where you want to save your file. If you forget to do this step, open a finder window and search for Screen recording. The most recent recording should be the video you’re looking for, and you can rename and relocate it for easy access later.