in this video i'm going to show you how to record the screen on your Mac
with your Mac's internal audio using a free audio plug-in called BlackHole
now if you're running mac os 10.14 or later then you have access
to Screenshot the Mac's built-in screen recording software
works great except it won't record your Mac's internal audio
now i've made a couple of videos that show you how to overcome that problem
and in those videos i use a free audio plug-in called iShowU Audio Capture
but i recently discovered another free more
modern audio plug-in that's great for capturing my Mac's
internal audio for screen recording and a whole lot more
the plugin is called BlackHole and in this video i'm going to show you how to
use BlackHole to record your mac's internal audio for
your screen recordings with or without a voiceover let's jump
in all right to get started i'm first going
to download the free BlackHole plugin from this page
on Github i'll put the link to this page in the description below
BlackHole is developed by Existential Audio
now if you scroll down the page to the easy installation instructions
section you'll find a link to download the installer for the plugin but you'll
also find some important instructions and that is
to make sure that you close all running audio applications before
installing BlackHole i'll click the download link
and i'm brought to a page on the Existential Audio website
now in order to download the actual plugin you need to complete this form
with your name and email address and click the
subscribe button and the actual plugin download link will
be sent to the email address you put in the form so this plugin isn't
absolutely free it costs you an email address
now it might take a few minutes for the email to arrive
you may also want to check your spam folder to see if the email landed there
once you get the email from Existential Audio you just click this link right
here and you're brought to a download page on
Existential Audio's website where you can finally
download BlackHole by clicking this button here
then just follow the install instructions
once the install is finished the next thing we need to do is open up
audio midi setup on our mac so i'll hit command
space bar to bring up the spotlight search interface
then i'll start typing audio midi setup and there it is highlighted at the top
of the results i'll hit return and audio midi setup
opens all right to set up our screen recording
to include internal audio from our Mac we need to do some virtual wiring here
in the audio midi setup interface now if you installed BlackHole
properly you should see it here in the left panel
with your other audio sources so the first thing i'm going to do
is i'm going to go down and select this little plus sign
at the bottom left of the interface and from the drop down menu i'll select
create aggregate device an aggregate device allows you to group together
different audio sources so they can act as one audio source
in this case this aggregate device is going to allow us to group together
different audio inputs the different audio inputs i can group together
are here in this panel on the right now before i do anything i'm just going
to label my aggregate device screen recording
so i know what it is now if all you want to do is record your Mac's internal
audio select BlackHole 16 channel
in the list here i'm going to leave the sample rate set to 44.1 kilohertz for
this demo you can change it to 48 kilohertz which
is the standard audio sample rate for digital video if you want to just make
sure any other audio devices you're using use
the same sample rate i'm going to leave mine set
at 44.1 kilohertz for this it works just fine but let's say you
want to record a voiceover along with your Mac's internal audio
like for tutorial then you would add your microphone
to the aggregate device by also checking it
in the list now i'm using an xlr microphone
connected to my Scarlett Solo usb audio interface
so i'll check Scarlet Solo in this list to add my microphone and now i'll be
able to record my microphone sound along with my Mac's internal audio
now before i go any further i'm going to select the Scarlett Solo in the audio
devices list over here to make sure it's using the same sample
rate as the BlackHole plug-in which is 44.1
kilohertz back on the aggregate device for clock source I've found choosing
hardware like the microphone works best so
i'll select the Scarlet Solo all right that's it for the aggregate
device the next thing we need to do is go back
down to that little plus button select it
and this time from the list select multi-output
device the aggregate device is just capturing the computer sound and
the sound from my microphone it's the input i need to output those
sound sources in order for screenshot or quicktime
player to record them so to do that i need to create a
multi-output device now like the aggregate device there are
settings and devices i can add to the multi-output device but first
i'm going to rename the multi-output device
to screen record with comp for computer sound
next i'll make sure the sample rate for the multi-output device is set
to 44.1 kilohertz to match my other devices
then in the list of devices the first one i'll select
is built-in output checking this will allow me to monitor
the sounds coming from the computer while i play them back
and record them in Screenshot important if i need to stop talking
when the computer sounds play now i suggest you use
headphones instead of your speakers for monitoring the sounds to avoid unwanted
echo and feedback again i'll go over and make sure the
sample rate for the built-in output is set to 44.1 kilohertz to match my other
devices
next i'll go down and select BlackHole 16 channel
which is capturing and outputting the computer sounds
and i'll make sure its output is set to 44.1 kilohertz
to match the other devices now if all you wanted to do was
record your mac's internal audio you could leave
just these two devices selected in the multi-output device
then you could monitor your mac's internal audio while recording it
through BlackHole but if you're adding a voice over to
your screen recording like i'm doing in this demo
you need to add your microphone to the multi-output device
so your mic can be recorded and i'll do that
by just checking my microphone output the Scarlett Solo to add it to this list
again i'll go over make sure the sample rate for my microphone output
is set to 44.1 kilohertz to match my other devices
now for the best results make sure built-in
output is the first in the list here followed by BlackHole 16 channel then
your microphone now if you need to just deselect and reselect the devices in the
correct order also make sure master device
is set to built-in output all right we're done here in audio midi
setup so i'll close out of that next thing we need to do is go up to the
apple icon in the top menu bar select it
then select system preferences then go to sound
and select the output button now output is typically set to your
internal speakers or your headphones or whatever you have connected to your Mac
for audio output you want to make sure screen record
with comp that multi-output device we created
is selected then i'll select the input button and select BlackHole
16 channel now this slider down here adjusts the input level or volume of the
computer sound coming through BlackHole now i prefer to leave this all the way
up and adjust the volume of the computer sounds
on the sources themselves so if i'm playing a video i'll control
the volume of the video on the video player but you can adjust those levels
here if you want to if you want to set them a little lower
now if you're not hearing any computer sounds check this setting to make sure
the level is turned up now again if all you were
doing was recording your Mac's internal audio
you could move on to the next step from here
but if you're recording a voiceover along with the computer sound like i'm
doing in this demo you'll want to check your mic levels as
well with the input button still selected
i'll select my microphone source the Scarlett Solo
then i'll speak into my microphone at the level i'll use
while recording and adjust the gain on the Scarlet Solo until i get a good
level now if you're using a usb mic there would be a volume slider here
you would use to adjust your mic level and as i always say
don't set your mic level too high or the sound will be distorted
not pleasant for your audience with all that done
i'll close out of system preferences now we're ready to set up our screen
recording in Screenshot so to record my screen i'm going to
bring up Screenshot by using the keyboard shortcut shift
command 5.
now you can also open Screenshot through quicktime player
by going up to file and selecting new screen recording you'll get the same
Screenshot interface with the Screenshot interface open
go over and select the options menu under microphone select screen recording
the aggregate device we created in audio midi setup
now when i record my screen i'll be recording the computer sounds
and in my case my microphone for a voiceover
when you're finished recording be sure to switch the audio
output of your Mac from the screen record with computer sound that
multi-output device back to the default audio output the internal speakers or
the headphones now you can do that here in system preferences or
by just going up to the speaker icon on the top menu
selecting it and from the list selecting your default
audio output in my case headphones the reason you switch this back is so
that you can adjust your speaker volume again because when the multi-output
device is selected as the output you can't control the volume of
your speakers now just remember if you want to record your screen with computer
sound or computer sound and voiceover again
you need to switch your Mac's output back to that multi-output device
or this whole operation won't work and that's how you can use the free
audio plug-in called BlackHole to record your Mac's internal
audio with your screen recordings now if you
want to learn more about how to record your Mac screen
have a look at these other tutorials on my channel
thanks for watching and i'll see you next time