Recording system audio with Audacity

Windows users have the easiest route and most do not know it exists. In Audacity's device toolbar, change the Audio Host from MME to Windows WASAPI.

The recording device list then changes. Alongside your microphones you will see entries ending in loopback, one for each output device. Choose the loopback entry matching your speakers or headphones and press record. Audacity captures exactly what Windows is playing.

Nothing needs installing, the quality is a direct digital copy rather than anything re-recorded, and you can still hear what you are capturing while it happens.

One quirk: with WASAPI loopback, if the source is silent, Audacity records nothing rather than recording silence. A flat line at the start usually means playback had not begun, not that the setup failed.

macOS offers no supported path from an output device back into a recorder, so Audacity on a Mac cannot see system audio on its own. You have to add a virtual audio device that pretends to be both.

BlackHole is the usual free choice. Install it, then open Audio MIDI Setup and create a Multi-Output Device that includes both your real speakers and BlackHole. Set that as your system output, so sound goes to your ears and to the virtual device at the same time.

In Audacity, set the recording device to BlackHole and press record. Without the multi-output step you will capture perfectly and hear nothing, which is the mistake almost everyone makes first.

Set your system output back to your speakers when you finish. Leaving it on the multi-output device is how you end up on a call where nothing sounds right.

PulseAudio and PipeWire both expose monitor sources by default, which are loopbacks of each output. Nothing to install.

Set Audacity's host to ALSA or PulseAudio, then look for a recording device with Monitor in the name. Selecting it captures that output's playback.

If the monitor sources do not appear in Audacity's list, start recording anything and then use pavucontrol to reassign Audacity's input to the monitor while it runs. The Recording tab lets you change the source live, which is often quicker than getting the device list right beforehand.

Set your system volume to a normal level rather than maximum. With loopback capture, the system volume affects what you record, and recording at full volume risks clipping with nothing gained.

Match Audacity's project rate to the source. A mismatch produces audio that plays at the wrong speed or sounds subtly wrong, and 48,000 Hz is the safe default for anything from a browser.

Turn off notifications before you record. System alerts go through the same output and land in your capture, and a message arriving forty minutes into an hour-long recording is a genuinely annoying thing to edit around.

Recording system audio makes a perfect copy of whatever is playing, which is exactly why it is worth being careful. Music, films and most streaming content are protected, and technical ease is not permission.

For a call or an interview, consent rules vary by country and by state, and in several places every participant must agree. Ask before you record, and say so on the recording.

The uncontroversial uses are your own material: a video call you are hosting with everyone's agreement, audio from something you made, a stream you are entitled to capture.

If the goal is recording a remote conversation for a podcast, recording each person separately at their end gives far better results than capturing the mixed call audio. Hilite does that in the browser and we make it, so weigh that accordingly.