I'm having trouble capturing good sound while capturing a screen recording.

Moderator, please redirect this if necessary.

I recently captured a series of interviews from the net and, as usual, I used QuickTime Player to capture them, and I just depended on the built-in speakers and microphones to pick up the sound. Doing it that way has been "good enough" in the past, but this time all that talking yielded unacceptably low-quality sound, so I thought I’d experiment with something else.

My iMac has audio ports for earphone output and for mic input. Plugging in for earphone output shuts off the built-in speakers, as expected. Plugging in for mic input (and selecting "Line in" for sound input) sounded reasonable to me, and I thought that jumpering the two ports with a single cable would send the earphone output to the sound input and I’d be home free with higher quality.

I was wrong. No sound got recorded. I didn’t care because it was just Trump bellowing about something. I did care because my idea didn’t work.

Can someone tell me what I did wrong?

I use Capto. It is a neat little program that will capture anything on the web from video nad audio to screenshots. It will cost $30 but it does a great job. I have used it to capture videos that were playing on my screen and it get the audio and video perfectly. It has its own audio capture driver. There is a free trial too.

Lisa

I have used Audio Hijack Pro for this in the past. I must admit though that I find the interface for the current version less than stellar but that may be just me. I suggest checking out the RogueAmoeba site. I've linked to a program called Piezo that looks promising.

Slydude: I'm talking about capturing a video along with the accompanying sound. Rogue Amoeba seems to be concerned only with audio. Is there something you're not telling me?

Iclev: $30 doesn't bother me. I'll probably do the free trial first. Thanks.

Anybody else: I'm perfectly willing to try other software packages, but I would like an opinion or two about the simple solution I thought I had. Can someone tell me why it doesn't do what I expected?

The secret is that I had one of those dunce cap moments. When I typed my response I completely forgot you were capturing both audio and video as opposed to simply grabbing audio.

I have a suspicion I know what's wrong. I'll give it a try in a bit and post back. When you did the recording was the input set to mic or line in.

OK. I just tested your method on my 2008 MacBook Pro running El Capitan and it works. I didn't use my iMac because I think it uses one of those combined audio in/out ports. I assume that you have heard the audio (before recording) and it has good sound. Here are a few things to check.

1. When you connect the audio cable from headset to mic port as you usually do make sure that it is the right size cable. There is one where the tip is slightly smaller and it does not work. You've probably checked that but others nay not have.
2. Open the Sound preference pane and make sure the Output sets itself to headphones. The input should set itself to line in. I also set the output level to about 2/3 of max though that might not be necessary.
3. When you launch QuickTime Player choose to make a screen recording. Right next to the record button is a small triangle. Click there and make sure the audio setting is line in.

If this does not work for you let us know exactly which iMac and OS X version you have. Are you running any other audio software/extensions?

Sly, we make a good team, although that dunce cap moment lasted a bit longer than you think. In my OP I indicated that I had the input set to Line In, and your last question was already answered in my profile on the left. I forgive you, though, because you gave me hope. (And you saved me $30.)

I did have the input set to Line In, although I didn't know about the handy triangle next to the record button. I did notice that, while plugging the output port did automatically change from built-in speakers to earphones, the same is not true for plugging the input port -- apparently you must change that manually. What I did try was various combinations of input and output volumes, and that did the trick. Now, all I have to do is refine my testing with smaller variations of the two settings, and I should be on my way.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Glad you are on the right track. This is my second dunce cap moment in this thread. That has got to be a record even for me.

I honestly don't remember if the line in setting changed automatically or whether I had to change it. I think you are right about needing to change that setting manually in sound preferences. Once it is selected there QuickTime player should recognize the change but it is nice to know about that triangle for times you might want to use a different setting for whatever reason.

If experimenting with the output setting still does not yield satisfactory results, it should be possible to boost the audio levels using a free Audio program. Audacity comes to mind but there are other ways as well. Post back if need be and I can give you an idea or two.

Air Shou and BB Rec Can Help with Better Microphone

Yes, it is quite possible to get noice while recording the screen. There are different ways using which you can record screen of your iOS device nowadays. One is through using a QuickTime Player and a Mac Computer and that does not need any microphone for better sound quality. Whereas, there are some other apps that will not require the computer like QuickTime Player. They are BB Rec and Air Shou. I am pretty sure that they will help you record without noice not even without using any mic or microphone. I suggest you this. You can try and let me know about the experience. Thank You.
Post your doubts if you have any.

Note: Above Guidelines can help you on iOS devices like iPhone or iPad and iPod Touch.

Coming to Macbook Pro/Air or iMac, QuickTime Player with a Good Microphone is a better choice to get good sound quality and without noice.

@BudVitoff I read your last post right before going to bed last night. One think I should have mentioned in my response. There are programs that can be quite helpful when downloading a video from an internet source. They usually grab the audio and video based on a url and then download the video rather than you playing back the video and recording the screen. the sound quality is usually equal to whatever it was on the original video.

I use a program called ClipGrab . Most of these program advertise working with Youtube but will work with many other video services.