Issue Recording from Mac directly into Audacity

Hi there,

My Mac operating system is Mojave. I’ve downloaded Audacity 2.3.2 and when I record directly into Audacity by pressing Record, it is a loud squeal sound.
Attached is a screenshot of the recorder and a few seconds of recording.

Thanks for your help!
Screen Shot 2019-07-15 at 12.10.13 PM.jpg

If you are recording with a microphone, you cannot monitor the recording with speakers, only headphones. If the sound from the microphone is coming from your speakers, that will create a “feedback loop”.

So are there settings I can change to be able to record directly into Audacity without an external microphone?
Even with typical Mac a headphones / mic set plugged in, I get the same feedback noise.

How do i prevent the feedback loop? (I don’t see any options to select from.) Thanks

What are you wanting to record?
What sort of Mac are you using?

I want to record a song - singing with guitar, or spoken word. Right now the only option is to record onto my iphone, then transfer to the computer, convert to MP3 and open in Audacity to edit. I’d like to record directly into Audacity

I have a 2018, 13" Macbook Air with Mojave OS - Version 10.14.5

I turned the speaker volume down completely to 0 and recorded a brief test audio.
When i play it back there is no feedback squeal, I can hear the spoken voice clearly but the sound is distorted with a vibrational buzz.
Is Audacity designed to be able to record directly into it using a laptop inbuilt microphone or does there have to be an external microphone?
(I thought I used to use Audacity this way with my older Mac but perhaps I am completely mistaken !?)

Audacity can record from either a laptop’s inbuilt microphone or an external microphone, however, it is becoming very rare for laptops to have reasonable quality built in microphones or sound cards. Most laptops these days have very poor quality recording hardware.

That’s quite possible. Some old Macs had very good built-in microphones. These days it’s more common for them to be adequate for Siri and Skype, but not much more.

Perhaps your recording level is too high. If the recording level is too high, it will be distorted.
Aim for a recording level that creates a maximum level of about half the height of the audio track. The waveform should not touch the top or bottom of the track.