By Harpal Singh · · 5 min read
You pressed record, talked through the whole thing, and played it back to discover the video you were demonstrating was silent. Or the opposite: the app's sound is there and your voice is not. Both are the same problem. A Mac has two completely different kinds of sound, and the tools that record the screen treat them differently.
This guide sorts out which is which, what each built-in route captures, and how to get both.
What kinds of audio can a screen recording have?
Microphone audio is your voice, or whatever the microphone hears. It is the sound that is easy to record, because a microphone is an input like any other.
System audio is what the Mac itself is playing: the video in a browser tab, a notification chime, the sound a product makes when a task completes. It never passes through a microphone, which is why it is the part people lose. Some guides call it internal audio or computer audio. It is the same thing.
A good recording usually wants both, balanced so the voice sits on top.
Does QuickTime Player record sound?
QuickTime Player records the screen with a microphone, if you choose one. Open File > New Screen Recording and pick a microphone: depending on your macOS version it is under Options in the Screenshot toolbar or in the arrow beside the Record button. The recording is saved as a .mov that plays your voice with the picture.
What it does not offer, on versions of macOS before 27, is system audio. Apple's documentation lists a microphone as the audio option, and nothing else, so a recording of a video playing in a browser will show the picture and none of the sound. To check, open the Options menu and look: if only microphones are listed, that is the whole set.
How do you record sound with Shift-Command-5?
- Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot toolbar.
- Click Options.
- Under Microphone, choose the microphone to use. Choosing None turns it off, so a screen recorder with mic audio needs a choice here.
- Choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion and click Record.
Apple's page also tells you what to do about echo: if you get audio feedback, lower the volume or use headphones with a microphone. That tip matters more than it looks. If the microphone can hear the speakers, whatever the app plays will appear on your voice track, slightly late and slightly roomy.
How do you record system audio on a Mac?
Apple documents an Include System Audio option in the Options menu from macOS 27. On that version and later, the Screenshot toolbar can capture what the Mac plays alongside your microphone.
On earlier versions there are two routes. The traditional one is a virtual audio device, sometimes called a loopback driver: you install it, route the Mac's output through it and point the recorder at it as though it were a microphone. It works, and it needs a setup you have to remember to undo. The other route is a recorder that captures system audio through macOS directly. ReScreen does this on macOS 13 and later with no driver, and how to record system audio on a Mac without a virtual driver explains the difference in detail.
Which route captures what?
| Route | Microphone | System audio | Separate tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickTime Player screen recording | Yes | Only from macOS 27 | No |
| Shift-Command-5 toolbar | Yes | Only from macOS 27 | No |
| Virtual audio driver plus a recorder | Yes | Yes | Depends on the setup |
| ReScreen | Yes | Yes, macOS 13 and later | Yes, in the project; the exported file has one mixed track |
How do you record your screen and microphone with ReScreen?
- Choose what to capture: a display, window, application or region.
- Switch on the microphone and check the live meter moves when you speak.
- Switch on system audio if the app's sound matters.
- Press ⌥⌘R to start. ⌥⌘M mutes and unmutes the microphone mid-take.
- Press ⌥⌘R again to stop. The editor opens with the microphone and system tracks separate, and the exported MP4 or MOV carries them mixed at the levels you set.
System audio starts quieter than your voice, so the narration sits on top by default. Each track has its own volume, mute and fades, so none of those decisions is made while you are talking. Why separate audio tracks save your screen recording shows the failures this prevents.
What if the recording is already made and the sound is bad?
If the sound was captured as separate tracks, a quiet voice or a loud notification is a slider. If it was captured as one flattened track, the options are narrower: a high-pass filter and a gate can reduce steady noise, but a sound that overlaps your voice cannot be separated again. How to fix bad audio in screen recordings walks through each case, and how to remove background noise from a video is honest about the limits.
Voiceovers, sound from the internet and a Mac with no microphone
A MacBook or any other Mac records the microphone you choose. To turn audio on, open Options in the Screenshot toolbar and pick a microphone; to include the sound the computer plays, you need system audio as described above.
Voiceover. The best screen recorder with sound is the one that captures the sources you need and keeps them apart. To screen record on a Mac with a voiceover, choose the microphone, or mic, and narrate as you go, which keeps your words in step with the clicks. Narrating afterwards means recording the audio separately and combining the two in an editor, which is slower and easier to get out of sync.
Sound from the internet. Audio from a video or a call playing in a browser is system audio, not a microphone, so you need Include System Audio, a virtual device or a recorder that captures it.
A desktop Mac with no built-in microphone needs an external microphone or a headset before the microphone list offers anything to choose.
An older Mac running Mac OS X, often written OSX, offers a microphone only in the built-in tool, so record internal audio there with a virtual device or a recorder that captures it.
Troubleshooting a screen recording with no sound
Work through these in order. Is the microphone set to None? Is the input level moving? Is the app's sound the thing missing, which means system audio? Are headphones plugged in and routing sound somewhere the recorder cannot hear? The table above shows which route captures what.
Which should you use?
For a quick clip where only your voice matters, the built-in recorder is enough: choose a microphone and record. When the sound of the app is the point, as in a product demo, a software tutorial or a recorded lesson, you want a recorder that captures it, keeps it apart from your voice and lets you balance the two. See camera and audio for what ReScreen captures, then pricing or download ReScreen for macOS if it fits.
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