How to record your Mac's system audio without extra drivers

Since macOS 14.2 there has been a third option that needs neither a driver nor Screen Recording permission: a Core Audio process tap.

This guide explains all three — what you install, what macOS asks you to allow, and what goes wrong with each — so you can choose the one that fits what you are recording.

Why the Mac cannot just do it

macOS treats the microphone as an input and the speakers as an output. Apps that record, QuickTime Player included, record from an input. The sound other apps are playing never passes through an input, so there is nothing for a recorder to select.

Each method below gets round this in a different way.

The short answer

Method 1: A loopback driver

A loopback driver is a virtual audio device. You set it as your Mac's output, apps play into it, and it presents the same sound as an input that any recorder can select.

BlackHole is a widely used free one. Its documentation, as of September 2026, describes it as "a modern macOS virtual audio loopback driver" and offers it through Homebrew or an installer package, released under the GPL-3.0 licence. Commercial apps built on the same idea exist too, usually with a friendlier interface for routing.

Set one up

1. Install the driver. For BlackHole, either run brew install blackhole-2ch in Terminal or download the installer, close your audio apps, install it and restart the Mac, as its README says.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications › Utilities).
3. Click + at the bottom left and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
4. Tick both your speakers or headphones and the loopback driver. This is what lets you keep hearing the sound while it is recorded.
5. In System Settings › Sound › Output, choose the Multi-Output Device.
6. In your recording app, choose the loopback driver as the input.

What to know

• You have to remember to switch back. While the Multi-Output Device is the output, the volume keys may not control it. Many people switch the output back and forth by hand.
• Headphones change the setup. Plug in a headset and you usually need a second Multi-Output Device that includes it.
• It records everything the Mac plays. Notification sounds included. There is no per-app choice unless the tool you use adds one.
• The recording app sees a microphone. That is the strength of this method: any app that records an input, from QuickTime to a professional audio editor, can use it.

Method 2: The screen-capture APIs

Apple's ScreenCaptureKit framework arrived in macOS 12.3 for capturing the screen, and from macOS 13 it can capture audio as well. (Apple: capturesAudio, checked 25 September 2026.) Screen recorders and some audio tools use it to record what the Mac plays, including just one app's sound.

No driver is installed. The cost is the permission. Because ScreenCaptureKit is a screen-capture interface, the app has to be allowed in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording, and screen capture access lets an app see what is on your screen, not only hear it. Why some audio apps ask for Screen Recording goes into what that permission covers and why it matters to some people and their IT teams.

If the app you use records video of your screen anyway, this is the natural route. If you only want sound, it asks for more than it needs.

Method 3: A Core Audio process tap

In macOS 14.2 Apple added process taps to Core Audio. A tap lets an app capture the audio output of a chosen process, a group of processes, or everything, and use it like any other input. Apple's sample code says an app using a tap must explain why in its NSAudioCaptureUsageDescription, and that "the system prompts you to grant the app system audio recording permission" the first time it records. (Apple: Capturing system audio with Core Audio taps, checked 25 September 2026.)

What that means for you:

• No driver. Nothing is installed into the audio system, and your output device stays as it is.
• You keep hearing the sound, through whatever you have selected.
• Audio permission only. Apple's guide to the setting says you can allow apps to record "both your screen and audio, or just your audio". A tap needs only the audio part. (Apple: control access to screen and system audio recording, checked 25 September 2026.)
• Only apps built for it. A tap is not a device you can pick from a menu in any app. The recording app has to create it.

Recording system audio with Notey

Notey is a meeting recorder for Apple silicon Macs with macOS 26 or later. It captures what your Mac plays through a Core Audio process tap and never asks for Screen Recording. It records your microphone at the same time, on a separate track, so you get two files rather than one mix. Recording your microphone and your Mac's audio at the same time compares that with the other ways of getting both sides.

1. Download Notey and open it. No account is needed to record.
2. Allow Microphone when macOS asks, and allow audio recording for what your Mac plays.
3. For a call in Zoom, Teams, Slack, FaceTime, or a browser call in Chrome, Safari, Arc or Edge, the floating button says the call has started and asks. Nothing is saved until you choose Allow.
4. For anything else — a video, a webinar player, an app Notey does not detect — press Start.
5. Watch the Them meter on the floating button. If it moves when the Mac plays sound, system audio is arriving.

While it records, a red dot and the elapsed time show in the window, the menu bar and the floating button. The recording is transcribed on the Mac and kept on your disk. It is not uploaded to be transcribed.

Two limits: Notey is for meetings and anything spoken, not a general audio tool — it does not give you a device to route into a music app. And it needs Apple silicon and macOS 26, so on an older or Intel Mac a loopback driver is still the practical choice.

Check the recording has sound

Whichever method you use, a file that exists is not proof of a recording. Silence has bytes too. Before relying on a setup:

1. Play something with speech for ten seconds.
2. Stop and play the recording back.
3. Listen, or look for a moving waveform. A flat line means the input was wrong or the permission was never granted.

The usual causes are the wrong output selected (for a loopback driver), a permission that was denied once and never asked for again, and the sound coming from a device the method does not cover.

Which should you use?

• You want to record into an audio editor or any app that expects a microphone: a loopback driver.
• You are recording your screen as well as the sound: a screen-capture app.
• You want a call or a video recorded and transcribed, without a driver or Screen Recording: an app that uses a process tap, such as Notey. For the full meeting workflow, see how to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac.

Recording what other people say is also a question of consent and law, not just audio routing. Tell people when you record a call.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Mac record its own audio without installing anything?

Not with the apps macOS includes. QuickTime Player records a microphone, not the sound the Mac is playing. On macOS 14.2 and later, an app can capture system audio through a Core Audio process tap without a driver, but you still need an app that uses it.

Do I still need BlackHole on a modern Mac?

Only if the app you want to record into expects an input device, such as an audio editor that knows nothing about taps. For recording a call or a video with an app built for it, a process tap does the job without installing a driver.

Why does my Mac ask for Screen Recording when I only want audio?

Because the app is capturing audio through ScreenCaptureKit, which is a screen-capture interface. macOS grants that access under Screen Recording. An app that uses a process tap asks only for permission to record audio. See why some audio apps ask for Screen Recording.

Will recording system audio stop me hearing it?

Not with a process tap or a screen-capture app; you keep hearing the sound as usual. With a loopback driver you only hear it if you route the output to both the driver and your speakers, usually with a Multi-Output Device.