SOLUTION
The Catalina Terminal workaround as posted in FAQ>Tutorial>Audacity Manual in this forum doesn't work, as far as entering those specific commands in Terminal. Which is to say, it didn't work for me on Catalina 10.15.1 with Audacity 2.3.3 - Terminal wouldn't recognise any of it, as is.
This workaround was posted:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=107162
BUT despair not, The Audacity Terminal launch workaround for MacOS Catalina will work automatically using Finder:
This solution is newbie-level simple; No typing anything in Terminal,,,and should have Audacity recording from Microphone/USB device - as well as allowing audio through to the computer's speakers/headphone jack (to live-monitor your recording) if you want.
Open a Finder window, click:
>Applications
>Audacity (the app- if you located it here as per default install)
Then on the top bar of window select the button with the cog.
On drop-down menu select "Show Package Contents"
A folder called "Contents" appears, by itself in the finder window
Click to open it, then click to open:
>MacOS
Then double-click:
>Audacity (the black-looking exec. file) - which should open a Terminal window and then proceed to
automatically launch the Audacity app.
(can alternatively be opened by clicking the cog button>Open With>Terminal)
Wait for a Microphone Permission terminal box to appear to approve permissions (only need to do this the first time) * [see note below]
Audacity will now record with microphone/USB device!
(NOTE if you're using one, your USB device should be already plugged in
prior to app launch in order to appear as a recording input option under 'built-in microphone' menu - if not there, plug USB device in and quit Audacity and Terminal, and relaunch as per above method).
IMPORTANT : You have to keep the Terminal window open in background while app is running, otherwise the App will quit too. Also, if you quit the Audacity app, it must be opened via this Terminal workaround again, each time, for it to be able to record anything.
OPTIONAL
To get audio to play through so you can live-monitor what you're recording...
Inside Audacity App:
go to Transport (top of screen)
>Transport Options
and select "Software Playthrough (on/off)" (should have a tick)
This allows audio to output through computer speakers / headphone jack
while recording from the microphone/USB device.
This would only be good turned off if audio output from speaker was interfering with your recording e.g. Speaking live into a microphone. (you could also just mute volume on computer)
Hope this helps someone, as it took me some time to figure this all out when nothing else seemed to work.
Hopefully Audacity will upgrade soon and all this won't be necessary.
* NOTE : this all requires Terminal to have Microphone permissions in System Preferences.
Check it if you still have an issue:
System Preferences app
>Security & Privacy
>Privacy (tab)
>Microphone
Terminal should be on the list with green tick. Unlock the padlock in lower left corner of window to make changes.
This forum is for Audacity on macOS 10.4 and later.
