- Best Screen Recording Software For Mac Free
- Screen Recorder For Mac Download
- Screen Recorder Apps For Mac Free
Although there are a lot of audio recording programs out there claiming to record almost any sound play on computer, the fact you should always keep in mind is that only a few of them promise capturing high quality audio. Therefore, if you care much about the quality of your recordings, choosing a proper high-powered audio recorder could really matter. Are you just looking for such recording tool but with a low budget? Luckily, among the numerous audio recording software available on internet, we are glad to see most of them are offered for free. To help you quickly pick up the best free audio recorder online, we complied a list of top 5 most popular free audio recording software that can record streaming music, radios, in-game sound, music in videos, and any other sound play on Mac and Windows with high quality.
Jul 17, 2017 List of 15 Free Best Screen Capture Apps for MAC 1. Copernicus doesn’t just take screenshots, it’s a virtual photo gallery too. Take as many pictures as you. One of the best screen capture app your MAC, so easy to take the screenshot of your MAC drag and re size.
Top 1. Audacity (Mac & Windows)
As a well known open source audio recorder, Audacity is capable of recording and editing anything you throw at it, including audio through microphone and sound card all in a few clicks thanks to the clean interface. It also allows users adjust pitch, bass, and treble, or normalize noise and add effects like reverb and phasing to the recordings. In addition, it supports multi-track capturing to save a lot of time for you. And unlike most other free audio recorders which are free for a limited time or free with locked features, Audacity is a real free of charge audio recording application offered in full free version. Overall, Audacity offers one of the most robust packages available among free recording programs.
- Best Free Screen Capture & Video Recording Software. TinyTake is a free screen capture & video recording software for Microsoft Windows & Mac. With TinyTake, you can capture images and videos of your computer screen, add comments and share them with others in minutes. TinyTake is built by MangoApps and is available for free.
- Jan 01, 2019 ScreenRec is the only free screen recorder and screenshot annotation tool that works on Windows, Mac and Linux and comes with FREE 2GB cloud storage that gives you instant and private sharing for your recordings!
- VideoProc (software) comes with a screen recorder with facecam feature that allows you to record screen and webcam on Window (7/8/10) and Mac. Record gameplay or tutorial video on your computer/desktop while a small window of facecam is also shown.
Pros:
1. Totally free and extremely easy to use;
2. Support recording any sound on computer;
3. Edit recorded audio's quality with many effects;
4. Support multi-track recording.
Cons:
1. Require plugins to accomplish optimal functionality;
2. Can't export audio recordings to MP3;
3. Effect editing is destructive to original audio track.
Top 2. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder
Differing from Audacity or other desktop audio recording tools, Apowersoft Audio Recorder is a free online recording solution that needs no plug-in on Windows or Mac. It allows you record any sound from system sound card and microphone in high quality within 3 steps only. It fully supports capturing streaming music, radio stations, music in games, voice chats, etc. playing via devices like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, iTunes, Tablets, Chromebook, Android smartphones, iPhone, Windows Phone and more. Besides, it offers additional recording functions like converting audio records to MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, OGG, adding ID3 tags, sharing recorded audios online, playing recordings in real time, etc.
Pros:
1. Free and no need to install setup file on computer;
2. Support any sound sources;
3. Save recordings in multiple popular formats;
4. Support extensional functions for recording.
Cons:
1. Can't edit output audio quality;
2. Multi-track recording not supported.
Top 3. Ardour (Mac & Windows)
Ardour DAW is another great open-source audio recorder with professional music recording features and no cost. Developed by Paul Davis, Ardour is aiming at providing powerful recorder for studios who are at low budgets. Featuring highly versatile multi-track audio recording, Ardour can record and edit audios non-destructively or destructively. Its use of Jack, an underlying sound server, makes it compatible with a number of outside applications as well. With the release of third edition, Ardour is supposed to import video for film scoring purpose and record, edit MIDI without a hassle. However, unlike most of other free DAWs, Ardour comes with a confusing graphical user interface which is inaccessible for beginners. It's more like a professional tool developed for musicians or audio engineers.
Pros:
1. Free and professional;
2. Support multi-track recording;
3. Edit recorded tracks non-destructively.
Cons:
1. It's complex and difficult for newbie;
2. No built-in effects or instruments.
Top 4. Aktiv MP3 Recorder (Windows)
If you are looking for a free streaming music recorder that can convey CD, tape, DVD, live performance, TV, Internet radio, streaming music, video games and any other sound source into popular audio formats like MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF, then you can't miss Aktiv MP3 Recorder. As a full-featured audio recorder, the big difference between Aktiv and other free recording tools is that it comes with recording scheduler which provides you the ability to record streaming audio at certain times according to your requirements.
Pros:
1. Free streaming audio recorder;
2. Support most popular output formats;
3. Provide schedule recording tasks.
Cons:
1. Available for Windows only;
2. Installer contains some extra software.
Top 5. Traverso DAW (Mac & Windows)
Traverso DAW is another cross-platform free multitrack audio recording and audio editing suite with support for CD mastering and non-linear processing. Traverso is different with other in UI as it offers a unique user interface using both the mouse and the keyboard together for precision and speed. In addition, Traverso includes non-destructive editing, the ability to use plugins and make edits without changing the actual recorded sample. Also it is offering full support for ALSA, Jack and PortAudio, and lockless real-time audio processing.
Pros:
Best Screen Recording Software For Mac Free
1. Fullfeatured free recording app;
2. Innovative keyboard and mouse shortcuts;
3. Support non-destructive audio editing.
Cons:
1. Take some time for users to get used to the shortcuts;
2. Need plugins to edit audio non-destructively.
Conclusion & Suggestion
As you can see, all the above recording tools are free of charge to meet most of your recording needs with options of recording audio, adding effects, and cutting waveforms, as well as other basic recording tasks. To conclude, if you are referring an all-in-one application that combines easy operation and high performance, Audacity and Aktiv MP3 Recorder could be the best options. But if you concern more about the professionalism and quality, you are suggested to go for Ardour or Traverso DAW that are more professional oriented. Or alternatively, Apowersoft Audio Recorder could be a great choice if you don't want to install any software on your computer. If you still have no idea which one to choose, simply try them out one by one and decide which works best for you.
More Professional Audio Recorder for Low Budget
Of course, no piece of free software is without its shortcomings. So do those free audio recorders. They are not as advanced as other paid software in functionality. In case you are searching for such paid recording products with reasonable price, we highly recommend a quick alternative solution to you. The renowned program is called TunesKit Audio Capture. It's available for both Mac and Windows platforms. It costs $19.95 but with more powerful features, including multi-track lossless recording, automatically fulfilling ID3 tags, editing output quality, splitting or merging recorded tracks, etc. You can download the free trial versions as below to test it out by yourself. For complete tutorial, visit this user guide.
Nick Orin is a review writer, software geek and Mac OS enthusiast. He spends all his free time in searching useful software and gadgets to share with others.
There are no shortage of free screen recording programs for Windows, but when it comes to macOS, most screen recording apps are paid. Yes, you can use the in-built QuickTime to record your screen (which is what I was using so far) but if you do a lot of screen recording than QuickTime is not the most efficient way to go about it. Why? Well, to start with, there is no keyboard shortcut, no video editor, and no auto saved. Sometimes QuickTime just doesn’t work unless you restart it.
In short, if you do a lot of screen recording on your macOS, you need a third-party screen recording software. So, here are some alternatives to QuickTime to record a screencast on Mac for free.
Related: Best Video Editing Software for YouTube — A YouTuber Perspective
Best Screen Recorder For Mac
1. Apowersoft Screen Recorder
Apowersoft Screen Recorder is one of the popular free screen recording tools on any platform. Once installed on your mac, select a region and start recording. In the screen recording frame, you can click on the drop-down option to pick up a resolution like 720p, 1080p, iPhone, iPad etc. This free app allows unlimited screen recording with no watermark, however, the paid version has a Video Converter and Video Editor. You can set the recording quality from 15-60 fps, depending on whether you want to use on the web or make a professional video.
Apowersoft also offers a web-based screencast software which means you can record your screen without downloading any software, you need to install a launcher though if it’s the first time.
Verdict:
Mar 11, 2014 Click here to check out the updated list for 2016. In no particular order, here are my favorite free apps for Mac OS X: Caffeine: Lightweight app that runs in the background and prevents your Mac from going into sleep mode. Google Chrome: Lightweight and fast web browser from Google. Mozilla Firefox: Web browser that has a plethora of useful add-ons. Jan 12, 2015 2014 was a slow year for us as far as Mac apps were concerned. We found some really great ones though, and with the year over, we went back to see which were the best of them all. The list is short, but it’s got some great apps, some to boost your productivity, and some to make your Mac look a little better. Check out our round-up for last year.
Apowersoft screen recorder is a free app for unlimited screen recording, no watermark or time restriction. However, once you stop the recording, it asked where you want to save it (just like QuickTime), so depending on the situation it might be a bit time-consuming. However, the app does not support taking or editing screenshot neither can it automatically upload to cloud. In my opinion, it’s a decent screen recorder but, there are better options available.
2. Screen Recorder Robot Lite
Screen recorder robot lite is a bit more powerful than Apowersoft screen recorder.
The unique thing about this screen recorder is, once you stop your recording it opens that clip in the built-in video editor, where you can trim, crop, rotate, change the playback speed etc. From here you can either edit your video in the video editor or just close the window and the recording will be saved in your Pictures folder on your Mac.
Screen Recorder For Mac Download
The only issue with this video recorder is – every time you stop the recording, it shows a pop saying the lite version only records for 600s (or 5 mins), and to get rid of it, you need to click cancel each time.
The apps support keyboard shortcut for – start, stop, pause the recording and can also capture screenshots.
Verdict:
Screen recorder robot lite is definitely one of the best feature-rich screencasting apps out there. If you need a build in video editor with your screen recorder then look no further. However, the only limitation to the app is – 5 mins of free recording, if you want more than that, its $7.99 for the full version.
3. Recordit: Instant Screencasts & GIFs
This app is not for everyone. Unlike all the other screen recording app in the list, which saves the recording to the local drive of your computer, Recordit uploads the video to the cloud storage. It’s meant for sharing videos quickly with remote co-workers.
So, here is how it works, once installed, you’ll see a tiny Recordit icon on the top menu bar of your macOS, click on that to record any area of your screen and when once done, click the stop button, seconds after that, you’ll get a link to share your screencast.
Once the video is uploaded it automatically copy the link of that video to your clipboard, and store it on the server for the unknown amount of time. so you can always go back and find the link by right-clicking on the app. however, there is no naming, so you’ll have to rely on time date stamp.
One thing to keep in mind is – you need to have a good upload speed if you are planning to use this. I recorded a 3 min full-screen video on my 5k iMac and it took the app 4 minutes to upload it to the server. I’ve 8 Mb/s upload speed. And the final size of the video was 35 MB, so it’s safe to assume they are compressing the video footage.
Recordit also has a video to gif option on their website. So, if you want to quickly share a small screencast on Reddit, this will make it a lot easier.
Verdict
Recordit is for people who want to quickly share their screencast with other people. The recordings are limited to 5 mins only in the free version. And there is no paid version of this app.
However, there is one major problem with the app – it doesn’t keep a local copy of your recording, which means if the internet goes down for some reason, the video’ won’t be uploaded and you have to start all over.
Overall it’s perfect for sharing an image or video quickly. But not if you want to use the screen recording in some other video.
4. OBS (Open Broadcaster Software)
It’s hard to figure out how to install and use OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) at first. But after bit Google search, I was able to figure out how it works.
Once installed, the app gives you auto configuration pop-up, asking you whether you want to configure it, go for 1080p, etc. It’s basically meant for streaming, but if you want to use it not for streaming then you can configure it in the start pop page.
Verdict:
OBS is a popular screen recording software among YouTuber gaming channel. It’s free, open source and highly customizable. However, it’s difficult to setup and use. If you are not a geek, you might have a difficult time to set it up and the given that better version is available, I guess you should skip this one.
5. Monosnap
This is one of the best screen recording software available out there for free. Just after using this software for 5 minutes, I know my search for best screen recording app for Mac has ended.
Like every other software in this list, it lets you capture full screen or just part of the screen. But on top of that, it also lets you capture a particular window with a webcam in Picture-in-Picture mode.
Although, there is no video editor for screen recording. Monosnap does provide an image editor for your screenshot where you can add arrows, annotation, text etc. and once you are done you can either save your video in the local storage or upload it cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote. However, these services are paid for $8 in-app purchases. You can upload it for free on Amazon s3 or R0emote FTP server though.
But the feature that really blown my mind is – the built-in image editor (mini photoshop) i.e. say, you have screenshot that you want to quickly edit or a picture that you find on the Internet, then you can just copy that picture to your clipboard and then right-click on Monosnap in toolbar and select open in the clipboard, this will open the image directly in Monosnap editor.
There is also an option to convert your video to gif.
Verdict:
Overall, if you are looking for an advanced screen recorder for Mac, then look no further. Monosnap is best you can get for free. It can do everything a paid screen recorder does. The only limitation is – you can not edit your video.
Comparison table
Screen Recorder Apps For Mac Free
Best Screen Recording Software For macOS | |||||
Apowersoft Screen Recorder | Screen Recorder Robot Lite | Recordit: | Monosnap | Open Broadcaster Software | |
Record | Region, Full Screen or Web Camera | Region, Fullscreen | Region, Fullscreen | Region, Full Screen with PIP Face Cam | Region, Fullscreen |
Record Audio From External Source | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, with audio mixer |
Keyboard Shortcuts | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Recording Quality | Low to High (15-60 fps) | Low to High (1-30 fps) | Decent video quality for web upload | Low to High (1-30 fps) | Low to High (1-30 fps) |
Edit Video | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Capture Screenshot | No | Yes | No | Yes (support basic image editing) | Yes |
Cloud Backup | No | No | Yes, upload video to Recordit server | Yes | Yes |
Price | Free – no watermark or time limit | Freemium, Free for 5 mins, | Free for 5 mins only, no paid version | Mostly free, except Cloud Backup | Free and Open source |