System Audio Recorder

[Rick Cornish]

Hey folks......
I do a lot of transcribing of music I find here and there. To that end, AnyTune has been invaluable to slow things down if needed and even transpose (excellent and useful app). However, AnyTune will not recognize streaming audio formats (Apple Music, etc.), so I need to be able to grab a chunk of those tunes another way. On my old Intel machine, I used something called Piezo, which worked great, but required an added system hack, which—now that I'm on Sonoma—is more hacking than I'd care to do. I see a couple system audio recorders listed on the App Store, which I suspect would be Apple compliant. Does anyone have any experience with them, or any system audio recorder that doesn't require ACE or SoundFlower or some other hack.

Thanks.

[stubbsonic]

I use Audio Hijack (Rogue Amoeba) but I think it does use ACE.

I also hesitate to recommend it since I continue to struggle with issues with my Firewire interface-- issues of which Rogue Amoeba & ACE may have nothing to do with, but I just don't know.

Still, I use it, and like you, I can grab audio, throw it into IRCAM TS 2 and tune/time/transcribe to my heart's content.

I wonder though if you could use AudioMIDI setup to create some kind of aggregate device? I think the trouble is being able to access an OUTPUT device and use it as a source for an input.

[James Steele]

I use Audio Hijack (Rogue Amoeba) but I think it does use ACE.

Seconded. I find it to work fairly well and it's kept updated for Apple Silicon Macs.

[Rick Cornish]

Yep… I see a few of those out there and I’m sure they work, but—with all the audio stuff I do on my Mac (not to mention the security requirements of Sonoma)—I don’t want to risk running ACE or SoundFlower.

I’m off to a gig tomorrow morning, so I won’t do anything on this until Monday. Unless someone here has a strong recommendation, there are two apps on the App Store I will try next week and report back on how they work. Meanwhile, if anyone has another suggestion, please let me know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[James Steele]

I can understand that. I've had Audio Hijack and ACE installed for months in the background with no ill effects. It might be that you could capture whatever you need to capture and then just run the Audio Hijack uninstaller (I think it provides for that) which will remove ACE. Then just reinstall if you need to capture a stream?

I really haven't tested to see if having ACE installed has affected my DAW performance negatively. Maybe I should, but I really haven't noticed a problem.

[mikehalloran]

Recording system and internet audio was an important part of my church work during lockdown and I couldn't have done my virtual choir work without being able to record and send demos etc.

I have a number of apps for this and, for the most part, they all sucked big time. Audio Hijack works but is too time consuming so I no longer use it. The following worked consistently:

QuickTime Player can be used to record audio, movie or your screen. It's part of the macOS but it's become overly convoluted so I don't use it to record anything. Playback and export, OTOH, are great.

Easiest way I know is to record system and internet audio is to record the screen. When done, open the resulting file in QuickTime Player and select Export Audio in the dropdown menu.

Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 3.33.33 PM.png (588.04 KiB) Viewed 815 times

There are a number of ways to record the screen (including QT).

Zoom will record your screen and is really easy once you get used to setting it up. Click on Share Screen and check the boxes for Share Sound and Stereo High Fidelity in the dropdown menu. Record the "meeting" even if just you (you can do this before you set up screen sharing).When you stop the meeting, it will save your meeting to a file (do not Quit till it's done). Double-click the file, it will open in QuickTime, export audio as above. The only downside is that the free version quits after 40 minutes and doesn't let you begin again till some time has lapsed.

Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 3.01.01 PM.png (879.68 KiB) Viewed 818 times

Although Soundflower is depreciated with Sonoma, it still installs with the latest version of Roxio's Toast and is used by the application suite. I use Live Screen Capture from this suite. Upon Record, it switches the output to Soundflower which mutes my audio. To monitor the audio and playback, I keep the Settings/Sound window open and click to the playback device I want. Again, it saves the recording to a file that you double-click to open in QT and export as audio.

Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 3.16.12 PM.png (186.92 KiB) Viewed 818 times

[James Steele]

I would also add that in order to "intercept" an audio stream, tools like that might likely have no other option to install sort sort of kext or whatever they're called these days in order to tap in to an OS-level function like that? Just a guess.

I just saw Mike posted an option. Haven't read his post yet, but maybe that will work.

[mikehalloran]

Many apps install .kxt files on the System drive. MOTU Audio Installer and Zoom both do, for example. I was surprised that Toast still installed Soundflower over Sonoma and it worked.

As we learned a couple weeks ago, many types of .kxt files will not install on boot drives attached to Apple Silicon meaning that MOTU Audio Installer doesn't work. I'm not going to take the time to install Toast on my test drive but it wouldn't surprise me if Toast didn't work there either.

I wouldn't buy Toast just to get Live Screen Capture but I still burn CDs and both apps still work.

If QT is too fiddly, the Zoom meeting app is not and works beautifully for this once set up and configured. During lockdown, I sent AV files of my senior choir members and bell ringers from three churches for participation in massed group sings. Every one of them learned how to use it successfully to listen to their cues and record their voices/instruments.

.

[Phil O]

There's the hardware option as well. You could invest in a cheap audio interface (or if you have an older unit kicking around). Select the device as system output and run patch cables from output to input. Then record input in DP. I used this method for a while after giving up on buggy software options. I now have a Motu M6 which has this functionality built in.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[bayswater]

I used Soundflower for this for years and it worked OK. I replaced that with Black Hole when updates to SF stopped. That was fine for a while, but now, after about 15 minutes, there seems to be a timing drift that distorts the audio. I’ve used JackOS for other reasons and might give that a try.

I noticed there are a few newer apps developed for Podcast production that will capture system audio and any number of other sources from apps so these can be mixed and broadcast. I have a free version of one of them (Caster) and it seems to work OK for applying plugins to system audio, but it’s interface is not simple.

When maintaining an all-digital sign path does not matter, I just patch the second headphone out from the audio interface back into a pair of inputs.

[HCMarkus]

When I play back stuff from the web, it routes right into DP. I can record directly in DP without an analog connection by simply recording from the main stereo output.

It has been years since I set this up; I'd have to review the 828ES matrix and my DP setup to recall how. Just know: it can be done.

If anyone really needs this, let me know and I'll review when I have a chance.

[stubbsonic]

I don't really need it, but am strongly curious.

[Phil O]

HC, I would also be very interested in your set up for this.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[HCMarkus]

HC, I would also be very interested in your set up for this.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

Inquiring minds, eh?

I've in the midst of a very busy week, but will attempt to explain ASAP... screen shot of my 828ES Matrix and DP Bundles will be forthcoming.

[Rick Cornish]

Finally got around to fussing with this today.

Got nothing from QuickTime (sorry Mike, but I can't get QT to record any system audio).

So I downloaded System Audio Recorder from. the App Store for $7.99.

Likes:
Works great right out of the box. No Soundflower or ACE needed.

Dislikes:
Only records as M4A (not really a problem, but Wave or MP3 would be nice)
Record volume is a bit low and there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust it

Overall, color me happy.