Best Way to Record System & Mic Audio on Your Mac/PC Computer [2026 Updated]

January 20, 2026Louisa White

In 2026, recording both System Audio and Mic Audio will become a fundamental requirement, whether for producing high-quality online course videos, recording important remote meetings, or capturing exciting moments in games.

Although both macOS and Windows come with basic recording tools, achieving a perfect integration of "internal playback" and "external recording" often requires advanced skills or professional software. This guide will provide you with a detailed introduction to three mainstream solutions: from Aiseesoft Screen Recorder designed specifically for professional screen recording, to Audacity, an open-source audio processing tool, to QuickTime Player native to Mac, helping you easily handle computer recording.

Record Audio on Mac or PC

Part 1. Why You Need a Professional Audio Recorder?

In various scenarios, we need a way to record audio on Mac or PC computers, especially capturing internal and external audio simultaneously. For example:

• Teaching and demonstration: When recording tutorials, both microphone explanations and capturing background music or software prompt sounds played on the computer are required.

• Content creation: Podcasters and bloggers need to simultaneously capture the voices of connected guests (system sound) and their own commentary (microphone).

• Remote conference archiving: Fully record the speeches of all parties in the video conference to ensure that important information is not missed.

Part 2. 3 Ways to Record Audio on Mac or PC

Way 1. Aiseesoft Screen Recorder for Windows/Mac Audio Recording

Best for: Easy and fast recording for everyone

Apart from Sound Recorder and Audacity Windows version, here we sincerely recommend another professional audio recorder to help you capture audio on PC. Whether it is streaming audio, system audio or internet audio, this audio recording software - Screen Recorder, can capture them with high sound quality.

Moreover, it can work as a powerful screen video recorder to record online video or any activity happened on your computer. With this powerful screen capturing functions, you can record your favorite movie and music as long as you want.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder

Downloads

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder

  • Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is the professional video and audio recording software, which can capture songs, online videos, games, podcast, webinars, lectures, presentations, Skype calls, online conference, webcam videos, etc. with high-quality image and sound quality.
  • Record streaming audio, online audio, microphone voice with high sound quality.
  • Capture any sound on your computer from system audio or microphone according to your need.
  • Provide "Blu-light" real-time HD video encoding technology to ensure excellent image and sound quality for YouTube videos.
  • Support capturing pictures from screen.
Free DownloadFor Windows

Secure100% Secure. No Ads.

Free DownloadFor macOS

Secure100% Secure. No Ads.

Now let's see how to record voice on PC with Screen Recorder.

Step 1.
Launch audio recorder.

Double click on the download button above to free download, install and run this powerful audio capture tool on your computer. When you enter the main interface, choose the "Audio Recorder" option.

Audio Recorder
Step 2.
Play the audio you want to record and begin to record sound.

You can choose record "System Sound" or "Microphone". If you select "System Sound", play any movie or music you want to capture, then adjust the red border of this audio recording software to frame your audio image. And click "REC" to start capturing audio.

Record Sound from System Audio

• We need to tell you that "Digital Audio(S/PDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)" can have different names due to different computers. This HD Audio Recorder for PC shows the name of your system microphone here.

• If you choose "Digital Audio(S/PDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)", you can just turn off "System Audio" by clicking the button. Also, you can choose them both if you want to record GoToMeeting, or want to use it as Skypy Recorder to capture all conversations both from your friends and you. But we suggest you not to do that when you want to capture music online, as there will be noisy sounds from your system and microphone.

• When capturing your voice from microphone, you need to plug the male end of the jack splitter in the audio output port of the computer (often colored green). And insert one end of the loopback cable into the jack splitter and other end into the line-in port on the computer (often colored blue). Finally, plug your microphone jack into the other female port of the splitter.

Step 3.
Finish audio recording.

Tap the stop button to stop recording. In the pop-up previewing window, you can easily and then save your recordings.

The above tools show you how to record audio on Windows computer and Mac. If you want to record sound outside, then you can refer to: top sound recorders.

You can learn the detailed steps about how to record audio from the video below:

Video Record Any Online Videos play-button

With the recommended audio recorder, you can handily capture sound on your Windows PC. As you can see from above, it also offers a Mac version. So you can also rely on it to capture any sound on Mac. It guarantees you a smooth audio recording experience and high-quality output audio file.

Way 2. Audacity for Windows/Mac Audio Recording

Best for: Professional audio editing and post-production

Lots of people have more advanced requirement, they want to capture their voice step by step or record streaming audio from their computer and internet on Mac, so just try Audacity! Audacity is a free and open-source sound recorder to record, edit, and convert sound. So, how to record audio with Audacity on Mac or PC? You will not miss this by reading the article below.

Step 1.
Download Audacity and run it.
Step 2
Start to record audio with microphone.

Press the red button and it will automatically recognize your system microphone to grab your voice. While recording, you can also pause recording.

Record audio with Audacity
Step 3
Stop recording sound and edit voice files.

Click the stop button to stop recording. And you enable to playback your own sound as you like. Then you can cut, copy, and paste your audio. In addition, you can adjust audio peaks and remove noise in "Effect-Amplification" or "Noise Removal".

Stop recording audio with Audacity
Step 4
Save your sound as MP3/WAV file.

Click "File > Export" to save your audio as MP3/WAV format by your choosing.

Before you save audio files as MP3 format, the plugin "Lame" needs to be installed. Just tap "Edit > Preferences > Libraries", click "Locate" for checking that the "Location Lame" shown here is the installed path of LAME.

Expect for recording audio though microphone, you are also allowed to record streaming audio and sound from your computer.

Just open Audacity and set the recording input as "Built-in Input". Then play any media or music file on your Mac or websites, and begin music recording. You can learn more about it on Audacity Website.

Way 3. QuickTime Player to Record Audio on Mac

Best for: Just recording internal audio for Mac users

As QuickTime can capture sound as you want, it allows you to make some ringtones for music enjoyments, leave a voice message/note, record a conversation, or record audio due to other reasons. Following the steps below, you will find recording audio is an easy and funny thing.

Step 1
Launch QuickTime from the "Finder" > "Applications" on your Mac.
Step 2
Click "File" and choose "New Audio Recording".
Start Quicktime
Step 3
Start capturing voice.

After click "New Audio Recording", there shows one simple interface. You can click the red button to record sound from the microphone.

Start to record audio with Quicktime

Note: You can select "Built-in Microphone" and quality in the pull-down menu.

Step 4
Stop capturing voice and save your sound files.

If you want to stop the audio recording on Mac, just click the red button again. After that, tap "File" at the top menu, and choose "Export" to save your voice file as MOV format.

Save audio file with Quicktime

The recorded sound file can be M4A file, a high-quality audio format, You can play it on your Mac/Windows computer, iPhone/iPad/iPod, and Android devices. What's more, you have the chance to trim your audio files with QuickTime. See, QuickTime Player can be the easy audio recording software for Mac.

If you want to record computer audio on Mac without Soundflower, you can read: 7 Ways to Record Internal Audio on Mac [Mac Sequoia Supported]

Part 3. FAQs on Recording Audio on PC/Mac

Does screen recording on Mac record audio as well?

By default, only microphone input is recorded, not system internal sounds. When using the shortcut Shift + Command + 5 or QuickTime Player for screen recording, click "Options" to access microphone settings.

What is the best way to record audio on a Mac?

It depends. If you only want to record microphone sound on Mac, QuickTime Player is free and convenient to use. However, if you need to capture internal audio or both, Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is a great way to meet various audio-recording needs.

How can I record internal audio on a Mac?

Although QuickTime can only record micro, you can record internal audio on Mac via QuickTime Player + BlackHole. But the setup is complex for casual users. Or, use the professional third-party software like Aiseesoft Screen Recorder, which is easy and efficient.

Conclusion

We have talked about how to capture sound on Mac/PC in this post. Several great audio recording tools are introduced to help you get the audio recorded. Whether you want to record audio on Mac or Windows PC, you can find suitable audio recorder from this page. Leave us a message if you still have any puzzle.

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Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is the best screen recording software to capture any activity like online videos, webcam calls, game on Windows/Mac.

Free DownloadFor Windows

Secure100% Secure. No Ads.

Free DownloadFor macOS

Secure100% Secure. No Ads.

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