Quicktime Hangouts Recording (using soundflower for audio)

quicktime-hangouts-recording.md

Short link to this page: caseywatts.com/quicktime

Other gists & tricks: http://caseywatts.com/gists-and-tricks

Unrelated update: my book is out! Debugging Your Brain is an applied psychology / self-help book

Quicktime + Hangouts Recording

Scenario: You want to talk with someone over google hangouts (like for a user study), and you want to record BOTH:

• the system output audio (from them)
• the microphone audio (from you)

(screenshots below in a comment)

General Setup (do this once)

1 Install Soundflower

brew cask install soundflower

(if you don't have/use brew, then google soundflower and install it from their site~)

2 Make an aggregate device (for quicktime input)

This is for Quicktime to be able to record audio from both you and the other person.

• open the OSX system app Audio Midi Setup
• Create Aggregate Device
• Include both inputs:
  • Built-in Microphone
  • Soundflower (2ch)
• Name this one Dual Input for Quicktime (optional)

3 Make a multi-device output (for output)

This is so both you and quicktime (via the aggregate device^) can hear what's going on.

• open the OSX system app Audio Midi Setup
• Create Multi-Output Device
• Include all both outputs:
  • Built-in Output
  • Soundflower (2ch)
• Name this one Dual Output (optional)

Specific Setup (do this for each screen recording)

4 Choose system output

• alt-click on the volume icon in the taskbar
• choose your system
  • input = External Microphone (hangouts only needs one - quicktime will get both on its own)
  • Output = Dual Output (hangouts should output to both quicktime and your headphones)

5 Quicktime screen record

• Open Quicktime Player
  • (you may need to close and re-open this after configuring inputs)
• File -> New Screen Recording
• In the dropdown next to the record button
  • Microphone = Dual Input for Quicktime

Thanks for the tutorial. 🎉

I can confirm that without headphones it works it also works with my headset that is not apple.
Making it work is a real pain. :(

meet.google.com (Google's "Hangouts" for business) has a recording feature built-in that accomplishes all of this now 🎉
That's what I've been using lately, since we use gmail (etc) at Heroku 🙂

I installed soundflower and configured everything according to instructions, but unfortunately quicktime will only record my mic.

Wow. I have Soundflower installed on my Mac but never got to try this. I have been looking for a way to record two-way audio like this to no avail. Thank you so much for such clear and detailed guide. I set it up and it worked! Didn't know Soundflower is such an amazing tool. I confirm this works on Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6. The voice chat app I used is LINE, and I used earphones for my voice input.

I wonder if a similar tool/solution exists for Windows.

Again, I am so thrilled to have found this solution. Thank you for sharing your guide!

Thank you!!! It works on my macbook pro with headphones.

I want to use microphone + system audio (playing audio file) into Google Hangout Microphone Input. I also want to record Google Hangouts audio output + system audio output (audio file) + microphone on QuickTime. I want to be able to hear the audio file and the Google Hangout output. How can I achieve this on a Mac using SoundFlower. Any suggestions?

Works with Skype on Mac (Mojave) as well (using "Default Device" for input and output) 👍