TL;DR
Knowing how to record screen with audio comes down to one distinction: microphone audio (your voice) and system audio (what your computer plays). Every built-in recorder captures the first. Only some capture the second, and on Mac, none of the built-in tools do without a workaround.
This guide is the audio companion to our how to record your screen walkthrough. That post has the click-by-click steps for each tool. This one covers the part that goes wrong: which tools capture which audio, the Mac system-audio fix (with a real timed test of BlackHole), Windows and Chrome specifics, and a troubleshooting tree for the "there is no sound" moment.
Table of Contents
- The two kinds of audio, and why Mac is the trap
- What each built-in tool actually captures
- System audio on Mac: the full guide
- System audio on Windows
- Tab audio in Chrome
- iPhone, iPad, and Android
- Troubleshooting: no sound in my recording
- Best screen recorders with audio (comparison table)
- Five habits for better audio
- FAQ
The two kinds of audio, and why Mac is the trap
Screen recording without audio is a tutorial nobody can follow. Half the value is what you say while you do it; the other half is the sound the app makes - the video you are demoing, the call you are documenting, the notification that proves the workflow worked.
- Microphone audio is your voice. Every screen recorder captures it. This is the easy one.
- System audio is everything coming out of your speakers: app alerts, video playback, the other people on a call. This is the hard one.
If you only narrate over your screen, microphone audio is enough. If you need to demo a video, capture a Zoom call, or show anything that depends on app sound, you need system audio too. Most built-in tools handle one. A few handle both.
The trap is macOS. Apple does not let apps capture system audio output through the classic audio APIs, so the Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime record your voice and nothing else. Windows is friendlier (Game Bar captures both by default), and Chrome is the cleanest case because tab audio is part of the browser API. Most guides on how to record screen with audio bury this; it is the reason you are here.
What each built-in tool actually captures
Step-by-step click paths for every one of these live in the how to record your screen guide. Here is the only thing that post does not spell out, and the part that decides how to record screen with audio successfully: what each tool does with audio.
| Tool | Platform | Microphone | System audio | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshot toolbar (Cmd+Shift+5) | Mac | Yes, pick it under Options | No | Needs BlackHole for system sound |
| QuickTime Player | Mac | Yes | No | Same limitation, same workaround |
| Snipping Tool (Win 11) | Windows | Yes, toggle before Start | No | Mic only |
| Xbox Game Bar (Win+G) | Windows | Yes, click the mic icon | Yes, by default | Will not record the desktop or File Explorer |
| Clipchamp | Windows | Yes | Browser-tab only | Whole-screen recordings drop system sound |
| iOS Screen Recording | iPhone/iPad | Long-press to enable | Yes, by default | Mic is off unless you long-press |
| Android Screen Recorder (11+) | Android | Yes | Yes | Choose "Media sounds and microphone" |
| Chrome tab capture (extensions) | Any | Yes | Tab audio, yes | Depends on the extension honoring it |
Read the pattern: Mac built-ins, mic only. Windows Game Bar, both. Mobile, both. If your recording needs system sound on a Mac, keep reading; that is the rest of this post.
System audio on Mac: the full guide
This is the section most guides on how to record screen with audio skip, and the one Mac users actually search for.
Apple blocks classic apps from capturing system audio without a virtual audio driver. The Screenshot toolbar, QuickTime, and most older recorders cannot record what comes out of your speakers. Three routes exist.
Option A: BlackHole (free, open source)
BlackHole is a free virtual audio driver that creates a fake audio device other apps can record from.
- Download BlackHole 2ch from existential.audio and run the installer. Grant the permission prompt in System Settings > Privacy & Security.
- Open Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities). Click + (bottom-left) and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
- Tick both Built-in Output (so you still hear sound) and BlackHole 2ch (so the recorder can capture it).
- Set that Multi-Output Device as your system output: System Settings > Sound > Output.
- In QuickTime or the Screenshot toolbar, choose BlackHole 2ch as the microphone input. The recording now captures system audio.
The downside: this routes ALL system audio through BlackHole, and you lose the volume slider because Multi-Output Devices do not have one. Many people use it once and never again.
What BlackHole actually feels like: our timed test
We ran BlackHole 2ch (build 0.6.1, verified 2026-05-17) on a 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 running macOS 15.4 Sequoia. The goal: record a 90-second walkthrough of a web app with a YouTube video playing in the background and mic narration on top, captured by QuickTime via a Multi-Output Device.
Setup time, end to end:
- Download, install, permission grants: 3 minutes 40 seconds. The kernel-extension permission sits in System Settings > Privacy & Security and needs a restart on first install only.
- Multi-Output Device creation: another 2 minutes, mostly figuring out which device gets ticked, which gets the master clock, and why the speakers went silent until the new device was set as system output.
- First recording: success. Both the YouTube audio and our mic landed in the QuickTime file.
What we hit that nobody else writes about:
- You cannot hear your levels while recording. No volume slider on a Multi-Output Device means recording in the dark. Our first take had the YouTube audio 12dB louder than our voice; we re-recorded with the video attenuated in its own player.
- Notifications crash the party. A Slack DM arrived 35 seconds in. That chime is now permanently in the recording. BlackHole 2ch has no per-app routing: everything sent to system output goes to the file.
- You forget you changed the output. Two hours later we tried to play music. Silence. The Multi-Output Device was still active, and BlackHole has no speaker. Every BlackHole user we have heard from has done this at least once.
- It is stereo only. BlackHole 2ch (the build 90% of guides link to) drops anything beyond two channels. A 16ch build exists for multichannel work and adds another setup step.
The capture itself was fine: 48kHz/24-bit, no drift, no clicks. BlackHole does what it says. The problem is that macOS audio routing was not built for a virtual capture device, and BlackHole inherits every rough edge.
Option B: a recorder that uses ScreenCaptureKit
Apple quietly solved this for developers in macOS 12.3 (2022): ScreenCaptureKit exposes system audio to apps that adopt it. A recorder built on it captures speaker output natively - no driver, no Multi-Output Device, no permanent change to your audio routing, no missed Slack pings in your demo.
vyds (our product) uses it directly; the same 90-second test took 4 seconds to set up: click the menu bar icon, choose screen plus system audio plus mic, record. OBS Studio can also capture Mac system audio natively on recent versions, though its setup is built for streamers and takes real time to learn. If you record system audio once or twice a year, BlackHole is annoying but free. If you do it weekly, the setup-and-cleanup tax adds up fast, and a ScreenCaptureKit recorder pays for itself; vyds is free to try and the free tier is long enough to confirm system audio capture works on your machine.
Option C: SoundFlower (deprecated, do not use)
SoundFlower is the older virtual driver old guides still recommend. It has not been updated for modern macOS and does not work at all on Apple silicon. Use BlackHole instead.
System audio on Windows
Windows is the easy platform for this, with one trap per tool.
Xbox Game Bar (Win+G) captures system audio by default and your microphone once you click the mic icon. It is the best built-in answer to how to record screen with audio on Windows. The catch: it records app windows only - not the desktop, not File Explorer. Click-path steps are in the Windows section of the main guide.
Snipping Tool (Windows 11) records the screen with microphone audio only. Toggle the mic on before you press Start; there is no system-audio option at all.
Clipchamp (bundled with Windows 11) has a recorder inside the editor. It captures system sound only when you record a browser tab and tick "Share tab audio"; whole-screen recordings come out with mic only. Fine for a browser demo, wrong tool for a desktop app walkthrough. If you are weighing it against a dedicated messaging recorder, our Loom vs Clipchamp comparison covers the trade-off.
Tab audio in Chrome
Chrome is the cleanest case because tab-audio capture is part of the browser's screen-share API. The variable is whether the extension you install actually uses it: some free tiers disable audio capture until you pay, some watermark the output, and some upload your recording to their server before you can download it.
Four things to check before installing any Chrome recorder: does the free tier capture audio, does it watermark, is there a time cap, and where does the file go. Our Chrome screen recorder extensions comparison answers all four for the popular options. The vyds extension captures tab audio and microphone together on the free tier and can save straight to your own Google Drive, which matters if you would rather not have your recordings sitting on a vendor's server; screen recorders that save to Google Drive covers that model.
iPhone, iPad, and Android
Mobile is where how to record screen with audio is easiest, because both platforms capture app sound by default.
iPhone and iPad. Add Screen Recording to Control Center (Settings > Control Center). Then long-press the record button - a tap starts recording with app audio only. The long-press reveals the microphone toggle; turn it red for narration. Recordings save to Photos. App sound (system audio) is on by default; the mic is the thing people miss.
Android 11 and later. Quick Settings > Screen Recorder, then pick your source: Media sounds, Media sounds and microphone, or No audio. Choose the middle one for narration over a video. Older Android versions need a third-party app, and most of the popular ones paywall audio capture or watermark the output, so check the free tier first.
Troubleshooting: no sound in my recording
You followed a guide on how to record screen with audio, and the file is silent. Most "no audio" complaints come down to one of five things. Run this list before blaming the tool.
"I recorded my screen but there is no sound." Check three settings: microphone permission (Mac: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone; Windows: Settings > Privacy > Microphone - the recorder must be on the allowed list), the selected input (often "None" or a disconnected device), and whether the source app was muted (it records silence faithfully).
"My voice is too quiet." Move within 6 to 12 inches of a built-in mic. Check the input meter in Sound settings while speaking normally; if it sits in the bottom third, raise input volume. A USB or headset mic, even AirPods, beats a laptop mic.
"There is an echo." Your speakers are feeding your microphone. Wear headphones. If you are routing through BlackHole, make sure it is the output for the source app, not the system-wide output.
"The mic works in other apps but not this recorder." Quit and relaunch; microphone permission sometimes fails to register on first launch. On Mac, toggle the recorder off and on in the Microphone privacy list.
"I get system audio but no microphone (or the reverse)." The recorder probably supports one input at a time. Built-in tools often do; vyds, OBS, and most paid recorders capture both simultaneously.
Best screen recorders with audio (comparison table)
Pricing and limits verified 2026-08-21 from each vendor's live site; the built-in tools are free with their operating system.
| Tool | Mac mic | Mac system audio | Windows mic | Windows system audio | Chrome | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshot toolbar / QuickTime | Yes | No (BlackHole required) | n/a | n/a | n/a | Free, no cap |
| Snipping Tool | n/a | n/a | Yes | No | n/a | Free, no cap |
| Xbox Game Bar | n/a | n/a | Yes | Yes | n/a | Free, no cap |
| Clipchamp | n/a | n/a | Yes | Tab only | Tab only | Free, watermark-free 1080p exports |
| OBS Studio | Yes | Yes, with setup | Yes | Yes | n/a | Free, no cap |
| Loom | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 25 videos total, 5 min each; Business $18/user/mo |
| ScreenPal | Yes | Requires ScreenPal's audio plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | 15 min per recording, 10 hosted videos, no watermark |
| vyds (our product) | Yes | Yes, no driver (ScreenCaptureKit) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unlimited recordings, 5 min each, no watermark; Plus $7/mo |
Notes: Loom's free tier is a lifetime cap, not monthly - is Loom worth it has the breakdown. OBS is the most capable free option and the slowest to learn. The vyds free tier caps each recording at five minutes, not the count; pricing has the full structure. For the wider free field with the same dated verification, see free screen recorders without watermarks.
Five habits for better audio
The tool matters less than these.
- Wear headphones. Kills echo and stops your speakers feeding your mic. If you do nothing else, do this.
- Close everything that pings. Quit Slack and Mail, turn on Do Not Disturb (Mac: Control Center > Focus; Windows: Settings > System > Notifications). Our BlackHole test above is the cautionary tale.
- Test your levels first. Record 10 seconds, play it back. Quiet: raise input. Clipping: lower it. Thirty seconds that save a five-minute re-record.
- Speak about 20% slower than feels natural. Pause between sentences. It reads as confidence and is easier to follow.
- Soft start, soft end. Three seconds of silence at each end gives you clean trim points.
The screen recording tips guide goes deeper on framing, pacing, and editing.
FAQ
Can I record screen with audio for free? Yes. Every major OS ships a free recorder that captures microphone audio (Screenshot toolbar on Mac, Snipping Tool or Game Bar on Windows). For system audio too, Windows Game Bar does it free; on Mac you need BlackHole (free, fiddly) or a ScreenCaptureKit-based recorder such as OBS or vyds, both free to start.
Why does QuickTime not record system audio on Mac? Apple blocks classic apps from capturing system output; QuickTime can only record input devices (microphone, line-in). To capture system sound you either install a virtual driver like BlackHole that registers as a fake input, or use a recorder built on ScreenCaptureKit - see the Mac system audio section.
What is the difference between system audio and microphone audio? Microphone audio is your voice. System audio is everything from your computer's speakers: app sounds, video playback, the other side of a call. Most built-in tools capture only the microphone by default; capturing both takes a recorder that supports two inputs at once.
How do I record screen with audio on Mac without BlackHole? Use a recorder that captures system audio natively through ScreenCaptureKit. OBS Studio does it with some setup; vyds does it with no setup. Most other free Mac tools either skip system audio or send you to BlackHole.
Why is there no sound in my screen recording? Three usual causes: no microphone permission, no input device selected, or a muted source. The troubleshooting section has the full checklist.
Can I record a Zoom or Google Meet call with audio? Yes, but check your local laws first; many jurisdictions require all-party consent. With consent, any recorder that captures both microphone and system audio will get the call: system audio carries the other participants, the mic carries you.
Does Loom record screen with audio for free? Loom's free Starter plan captures both microphone and system audio, but caps you at 25 videos total and 5 minutes each (verified 2026-08-21 from loom.com/pricing). Removing the cap means Business at $18/user per month.
Can I record screen with audio on a Chromebook? Yes. ChromeOS has a built-in recorder (Shift + Ctrl + Show Windows) that captures microphone audio, and Chrome extensions work on ChromeOS the same way they do on Mac or Windows, including tab audio.
The short version
Every platform can record screen with audio for free, and how to record screen with audio well comes down to one question: does your tool capture system sound? Mac is the trickiest because of the system-audio block; Windows is the most flexible because Game Bar handles both inputs out of the box; Chrome is the cleanest because tab audio is part of the browser. If you only record occasionally, the built-ins are fine. If you record often enough that routing audio through BlackHole feels like a tax, a ScreenCaptureKit recorder removes the whole problem.
Your video is saved the moment you hit stop, with mic and system audio on by default. Download vyds free.
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