Recording with out the built in mic.

[Zonbi44]

hi i recently made the switch to mac and used to use audacity. im trying to record audio from youtube and other sites but i don't want to use the built in microphone i want to record what ever is playing on my mac like i did on my pc how do i do that.

[kozikowski]

You can't use the microphone, either. I use WireTap. Your mileage may vary.

--Record Internet--
http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... etap#p6120

Koz

[Zonbi44]

actually that's all i can use.i don't want to use the mic cuz there's too much reverb oh and it won't let me export as mp3

[steve]

...oh and it won't let me export as mp3

You need to have "lame" installed - see the main website for details:
http://audacityteam.org/manual-1.2/exportmp3.html

[kozikowski]

Macs will not let you play and record at the same time like Windows will--or at least not easily. The software packages in that link will let you capture anything that goes through the Mac. WireTap will let you do it on a schedule while you're not there.

That's a minor annoyance, but we don't get the howling feedback and echo problems and nightmare routing issues that Windows users get. About 2/3 of the Windows questions aren't about Audacity. They're how to set the Windows Control Panel.

Koz

[Robert1014]

You can also try downloading and installing free system extension Soundflower, as well as free app Soundsource. See my description in this thread elsewhere on this forum:


http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1675

[somoffus]

You might want to open your Mac Systems Preference Panel and go to SOUND Preferences, where it'll allow you to choose input and output sources and/or check Audacity Preferences and check the appropriate DEVICE option. I found this out the hard way, when on playback I continued to hear my vocal frustrations, obviously being picked up by the mic, whilst I was attempting to record from a turntable through a USB.

[kozikowski]

<<<obviously being picked up by the mic>>>

And sometimes not so obvious. More than one person has recorded the room speakers with the built-in mic instead of the actual performance. "My show has echoes and is muffled..."

If OS-X has enough trouble getting an external digital device to work, sometimes it will throw it's little hands in the air and switch to a known good working system mounted device--like the microphone.

Koz