In short
To record both your voice and the sound of a call on a Mac, you need two inputs: your microphone, and something that captures what the Mac is playing. There are three common ways to put them together. QuickTime Player on its own records only one input.
An aggregate device combines a microphone and a loopback driver into one device, usually heard as one mix. A two-track recorder captures each source separately and keeps them as separate files.
Which one you want depends on what you will do with the recording. For a quick listen, a mix is fine. For a transcript that knows who said what, the tracks need to stay apart.
The short answer
| QuickTime alone | Aggregate device | Two-track recorder | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Records your voice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Records the call | No | Yes, with a loopback driver | Yes |
| Install a driver | No | Yes | No, on macOS 14.2 or later |
| You and them kept apart | — | Only in apps that record channels separately | Yes, always |
| Setup each time | None | Switch output and input | None |
Option 1: QuickTime Player
QuickTime Player's File › New Audio Recording records from one input. Click the arrow beside the record button to choose which microphone.
That is enough for a voice memo or an in-person conversation. For a call it records only your side, because the other people's voices come out of the Mac rather than going into it. The microphone may pick up some of their voices from your speakers, faintly and with the room's echo, but not in a way you would want to transcribe.
Option 2: An aggregate device
An aggregate device is built in Audio MIDI Setup. It combines the inputs of several devices into one, so a recording app that can only pick one input gets them all.
You need something that presents the Mac's output as an input first — a loopback driver such as BlackHole. Recording your Mac's system audio covers installing one and creating the Multi-Output Device that lets you keep hearing the call.
Build the aggregate device
- Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications › Utilities).
- Click + at the bottom left and choose Create Aggregate Device.
- Tick your microphone and the loopback driver.
- Turn on Drift Correction for the device that is not the clock source. Two devices keep slightly different time, and without it they drift apart over a long recording.
- Set your Mac's output to the Multi-Output Device that includes the loopback driver.
- In your recording app, choose the aggregate device as the input.
What you end up with
The aggregate device presents all the channels at once — for example, the loopback driver's two channels and the microphone's one. What happens next depends on the recording app:
- A simple recorder that expects a stereo input records the first channels it sees, or a mix of them. You get one file with everyone in it, or sometimes only one side. Test before relying on it.
- A multitrack audio editor lets you assign the channels to separate tracks. That gives you you and them apart, at the price of setting up a session each time.
The costs
- Setup before every call. Output to the Multi-Output Device, input to the aggregate device, and back again afterwards.
- Headsets need their own versions. Plug in different headphones and the devices you built may no longer include them.
- Call apps may object. Some call apps pick their own microphone and output, and can switch away from the devices you set.
It works, and it works with any app. It is also the method most likely to fail silently on the day it matters, because one setting was left from the last time.
Option 3: A two-track recorder
A two-track recorder captures the microphone and the Mac's output itself, in the same app, and writes each to its own track. On macOS 14.2 and later it can take the Mac's output from a Core Audio process tap, so there is no driver and no device to switch.
Keeping the tracks apart does more than tidy the files:
- Every line knows its side. Whatever arrived on the microphone track is you; whatever arrived on the output track is them. A transcript can be labelled without voiceprints. Why a meeting recorder should keep you and them on separate tracks goes into this.
- One side can fail visibly. If the call audio stops arriving, the recorder can see it rather than recording a half-meeting that looks whole.
- Levels stay independent. A loud colleague does not bury your quieter microphone in the mix.
With Notey
Notey is a two-track recorder for Apple silicon Macs with macOS 26 or later. It records your microphone as You and what the Mac plays as Them, transcribes both on the Mac, and keeps the audio on your disk.
- Download Notey and open it. You do not need an account to record.
- Allow Microphone, and allow audio recording for what your Mac plays. Notey uses a process tap, so it never asks for Screen Recording.
- Start the call. In Zoom, Teams, Slack, FaceTime, or a browser call in Chrome, Safari, Arc or Edge, the floating button asks whether to record; nothing is saved until you choose Allow. For any other app, press Start.
- Check the two meters on the floating button. You should move when you talk, Them when the other side does.
A red dot and the elapsed time show in the window, the menu bar and the floating button while audio is being kept. The transcript fills in as you talk, with each line credited to the track it came from. If several people spoke on the other side, a pass after the recording stops tells their voices apart, and you name them. How to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac walks through a whole call, from the prompt to the notes.
What Notey does not do: give you the raw tracks as a multitrack project for an audio editor, or run on Intel Macs or older macOS versions. For music or podcast production, an aggregate device and an audio editor are still the tools.
Headphones matter more than the method
On speakers, your microphone hears the other side as well as you. The call app's echo cancellation hides this from the people on the call, but a recorder capturing your microphone gets both. In a mixed recording that sounds like an echo. In a two-track recording, it puts the other side's words on your track.
Wearing headphones fixes it at the source. If you cannot, Notey lets you move a line to the other side afterwards. The other side is on my track has more on why it happens.
Test before the call that counts
- Start a recording with your chosen setup.
- Say a sentence, then play ten seconds of a video with speech.
- Stop and play it back. Check that both are there — and, for a two-track setup, that each is on the right track.
A file of the right size can still be silence. Listening is the only check that proves anything.
Which should you use?
- A voice memo or an in-person conversation: QuickTime alone.
- Both sides into an audio editor, with full control of routing: an aggregate device and a loopback driver.
- A call you want transcribed, with you and them apart and nothing to set up each time: a two-track recorder such as Notey.
However you record, tell the people on the call. A recorder on your Mac is not visible to them.
Frequently asked questions
Can QuickTime record a call on a Mac?
Only your side of it, unless you add a loopback driver. QuickTime Player records one input, and the sound of the call is an output. With a loopback driver and an aggregate device you can give it both, mixed together.
What is an aggregate device on a Mac?
A virtual device you create in Audio MIDI Setup that combines the inputs of several real or virtual devices into one. Recording apps see it as a single device with more channels.
Why record the microphone and system audio as separate tracks?
Because each line of a transcript can then be credited to you or to the other side by which track it came from, without learning anyone's voice. It also lets you fix levels on one side without touching the other.
Do I need headphones to record both sides of a call?
Not to record, but they make a cleaner recording. On speakers your microphone also hears the other side, so their words end up on your track as well.