Head to the BBC Sounds website Just visit bbc.co.uk/sounds on your computer’s internet browser. Here are just some of the things you can do on the website. SoundCloud is a music and podcast streaming platform that lets you listen to millions of songs from around the world, or upload your own. Start listening now!
Whether you are using a Windows 10/8/7 PC or Mac, you can find the specific quick tutorial below to capture any sound on your computer. Best Audacity Alternative - Screen Recorder. Easily record any audio on Mac/Windows PC with high sound quality. Record computer audio from system audio card and microphone/speaker.
While the daily usage of your computer, you will frequently have the need to capture audio. For instance, you may want to record online lectures, broadcast, voice chat, video game background music, or favorite songs. So it’s quite necessary to find a good audio recorder to capture sound from computer microphone/speaker.
Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder. This multi-track recording software enables you to record audio on Windows, Mac, Linux and other operating systems with ease. So when you want to record computer audio, Audacity can be a great choice.
Here is a detailed guide on how Audacity record computer audio. Whether you are using a Windows 10/8/7 PC or Mac, you can find the specific quick tutorial below to capture any sound on your computer.
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- Easily record any audio on Mac/Windows PC with high sound quality.
- Record computer audio from system audio card and microphone/speaker.
- Capture computer screen/webcam, record audio and take screenshots.
- Record online videos, 2D/3D gameplay, webcam, video/audio chats, music and more.
- Powerful editing features to better edit captured video and audio file.
Part 1. Audacity Record Computer Audio on Windows 10 PC
Audacity is a free and multi-track audio recorder which can help you record computer audio with high sound quality. This free audio recorder allows you to capture any audio on your computer and then save it in AC3, M4A/M4R (AAC), WMA or other formats based on your need. It also carries some basic editing functions like Cut, Copy, Splice and Mix Sounds Together. This part will show you how to record computer audio with Audacity in Windows 10.
Step 1. Download Audacity for Windows. First, you need to go to Audacity official site (https://www.audacityteam.org/) to free download Audacity for Windows on your computer. After downloading, you can follow the on-screen instructions to install and run this free audio recorder.
Step 2. Make sure Windows can recognize microphone. Before recording computer audio, you need to check the playback device and ensure Windows can recognize the microphone. Right-click on the sound or volume icon on the bottom-right corner. Then choose your microphone under audio input devices. During this step, you can also adjust audio input properties to improve the sound quality.
Step 3. Set Audacity to recognize microphone. Then you need to make sure Audacity is set up to recognize your computer microphone. Click the “Edit” option on the menu bar and then choose “Preferences”.
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Click on “Devices” from the left menu and then choose “Windows WASAPI” from the drop-down menu. Here you can choose the default device that has been enabled in your sound device settings. For capturing computer audio, you need to ensure the default playback device “Speakers” or “Headphones” is selected, and leave the channel set for 2 Channels. Click “OK” to confirm the operation.
Step 4. Record computer audio. After all these settings, you can start to record computer audio with Audacity. This is a concise toolbar designed in this free audio recorder to give you full control of the audio recording. You can click the “Record” button to start recording computer audio in Audacity. When the audio recording is over, you can click “Stop” button.
Step 5. Preview and save captured audio. Audacity is equipped with many editing features. So after the audio recording, you can edit the captured audio file. Adobe after effects cs5 for mac os x 10.13. If you want to add some sound effects to the recorded audio, you can use the “Effect” feature and then apply the specific effect to it.
When you are satisfied with the audio, you can save it on your computer. Click the “File” option on the menu bar and then choose the “Save Project As” from the drop-down list.
Here you can also click “Export” and then select your preferred output audio format like MP3, WAV, or OGG.
Audacity is an all-featured audio recording tool which can help you capture live audio through a microphone or mixer. It highly supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. What’s more, it offers many editing features and effects to better edit the captured audio and export it in popular audio format. But you have to admit that, Audacity is a little bit difficult for new users to record computer audio.
Part 2. How to Record Computer Audio with Audacity on Mac
If you are a Mac user, you can navigate to the official site of Audacity and download the Mac version of this audio recorder. After that, you can take the following guide to record Mac computer audio in Audacity.
Step 1. Set Mac sound settings. First, you need to install Audacity on your Mac. Then click “Apple” icon on the menu bar and choose “System Preferences” option. Click the “Sound” icon and then click “Input” tab. Select the “microphone” option from the available options.
Step 2. Set Audacity to recognize microphone. Run Audacity on your Mac. Click “Audacity” in the main menu then choose “Preferences” option from the drop-down list.
Click “Devices” on the left and then ensure that the selected microphone is set for your Mac microphone.
Step 3. Record Mac computer audio. After all these settings, you can start to capture audio on your Mac. You can play the audio you want to record and then click on the “record” button to begin the sound recording. Click the “stop” button to stop the recording.
After the audio recording on computer, you can click the “play” button to listen to the audio file you just created. It will play the captured audio through your computer's speakers or headphones.
Step 4. Add sound effects. If you want to apply some sound effects to the captured audio, you can use the “Effect” feature. As you can see, this free audio recorder for Mac provides you with many effect options. You can click “Effect” option and then select specific effect you like from the drop-down list.
Step 5. Edit the recorded audio. As a full-featured audio recorder and editor, Audacity carries many basic and frequently-used editing features like Cut, Delete, Duplicate, Copy and more. If you have the need to edit audio, here you can click Edit and then use the editing function according to your need.
Note: Considering that the operations and changes you made in Audacity are irreversible, you’d better save a copy of the captured audio file before editing or adding any effects.
Step 6. Export the captured audio. When you are satisfied with the captured audio, you can click “File” and then choose “Export Audio” or “Export Selected Audio” option to save it on your Mac. Here you can choose to export it as the MP3 file.
To quickly record computer audio in Audacity, you can use the keyboard shortcuts. When you view the captured audio on Mac, you can also use the following shortcuts to get full control of the process.
The powerful Audacity is designed with many useful recording and editing features. You can try them one by one while or after the recording. You need to practice more to use Audacity for recording a high-quality audio on computer.
Conclusion
Here in this post, we have mainly talked about how to record computer audio in Audacity. As a free and powerful audio recorder and editor, Audacity can help you capture audio on your Windows 10/8/7 PC or Mac with high quality.
However, many new Audacity users don’t know how to set various audio settings on computer. You can follow the detailed steps shared above to capture sound from computer microphone or speaker with Audacity. If you still can’t use it properly, you can try the recommended Screen Recorder.
Compared with Audacity, it can offer you an easier audio recording experience. It has the capability to capture audio from both microphone/speaker and system audio card. What’s more, it enables you to record videos with exactly the original image and sound quality. Just free download it and have a try.
If the sound on your Mac has stopped working, there are a number of possible explanations and solutions. The first thing to check is that the sound definitely is not working. Below we'll explain what to check.
No sound on Mac? Check these things first
1. Check the volume
Ntfs for mac 14. As simplistic as it may seem, the first thing to check is that the volume hasn’t been muted intentionally. Tap the volume up (F12) key to turn up the sound level.
Pro tip: If you hold down Option+Shift when you press F12 or F11 to increase or decrease the volume, it will move in smaller increments than the full step changes that occur when you use the keys on their own.
2. Is it an app problem?
It may be that there’s no sound on your Mac because it won’t play audio in a specific app. If, for example, you can’t hear sound from a video in Safari, make sure the audio isn’t muted, by clicking the volume control in the video. You should also check other sound sources, like iTunes and QuickTime movies to find out if they can play sound.
Tip: if you’re fed up with websites you visit automatically playing video with sound when you’re working, go to Safari>Preferences and click the Websites tab. Click Autoplay, and in the bottom right of the window, choose Stop Media with Sound.
3. Check for hardware issues
Next, check there’s nothing plugged into the headphone/line out port and look to see if there’s a red light on that port. If there is, it could be there’s a problem with the port, or something blocking it. Try blowing on it to clear dust, if that’s the case.
4. Are you running the latest version of macOS?
If there’s still no sound on your Mac, Apple’s advice is that the first thing you should do is make sure you’re running the latest version of macOS.
To check which version of macOS your Mac is running, click the Apple menu and then About this Mac. The window that opens will have the name of the version of macOS currently installed at the top. Now the latest version is macOS High Sierra. If you’re not running High Sierra, you should consider installing it by going to the App Store app, and clicking on it in the sidebar on the right hand side of the main window.
If you don’t want to install High Sierra, at least make sure you’re running the latest update to whichever version of the OS is installed. To check that, click Software Update in the About this Mac window. That will check for updates and let you know if there’s one available. If there is, install it.
Before you install either a new version of the OS or an update, backup your Mac using Time Machine, or whichever backup tool you normally use.
5. Run Maintenance scrips
If you’ve determined your Mac’s sound definitely isn’t working, consider running CleanMyMac X’s Maintenance scripts. These optimize the performance of your Mac by running a number of routines such as repairing disk permissions, verifying your startup disk, and rebuilding the launch services database.
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Here's how to run Maintenance scrips:
Download CleanMyMac X here (it's free to download).
- Launch the app.
- Click Maintenance.
- Choose Run Maintenance Scripts and click Run.
Following this link, you can get CleanMyMac at 20% off.
How to check your sound settings
If you’re running the latest version of macOS and your sound still isn’t working, the next step is to check your Sound settings.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.
- Click on the Sound pane.
- Select the Output tab and choose Internal Speakers. If that’s not available as an option, contact Apple Support.
- Check if the volume slider is low, if so slide it to the right and check the sound again.
- Make sure the Mute box isn’t checked.

If, when you check your sound settings, you see a USB device selected rather than Internal Sound, and you can’t change it, disconnect all USB devices from your Mac and try again.
Is there an app interfering with the sound?
Some applications, like screen recorders, install their own audio output drivers so that when you record the screen you can direct your Mac’s output to the recording app. It’s possible that if you’ve installed an app like that, its driver could be interfering with your Mac’s sound output.
- Go to System Preferences and choose Sound.
- Click on the Output tab.
- If there’s an output option that looks like a software app and it’s selected, that may be why the sound is not working on your Mac.
The best thing to do in that instance is to uninstall the app. You could just drag the app to the Trash, but that won’t uninstall it properly or remove all the files the app has placed on your Mac. To do that, you should use a dedicated uninstaller like CleanMyMac X.
CleanMyMac makes it very easy to completely uninstall any app so that it doesn’t leave any fragments or stray files behind. By using CleanMyMac, you can be sure you’ve deleted all the files associated with the app and that it hasn’t left anything behind. You can download CleanMyMac for free here.
Restart the sound controller
If there are no software audio drivers interfering with your Mac’s sound output, nothing plugged into the headphone jack, USB, or Thunderbolt ports, and your sound still doesn’t work, the next step is to restart the sound controller. This requires launching Activity Monitor and quitting a process, but don’t worry, it’s not too scary!

- Go to Applications>Utilities and double-click on Activity Monitor to launch it.
- In the search bar, type 'coreaudiod’ to locate the Core Audio controller.
- Click on coreaudiod, then click ‘X’ in the tool bar to quit it.
- Coreaudiod will restart.
Mac volume not working and stuck on mute?
If the volume control is not working on your Mac, either using the keyboard or the slider in the menu bar or System Preferences, it could be ’stuck’ on mute. The most common occurrence of this problem is on pre-2015 Macs that had a digital audio output support in the headphone jack.
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On those Macs, there was a sensor in the port that detected whether a headphone jack or a digital audio device was plugged in. The Mac would then change the output to headphones or digital output accordingly. However, sometimes the sensor failed to recognise when a digital audio device had been unplugged and so the audio output remained locked on digital output, with no way to change it. With no digital audio output connected, there is no way to change the volume or hear sound.
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The solution in that case is to plug the cable back in to the socket and remove it again. Try it a few times, if necessary, to ‘trip’ the sensor and make the Mac recognise the digital audio device is no longer connected. If that doesn’t work, there could be some gunk blocking the socket. Try blowing on it to remove any dust. If that doesn’t work, buy a can of compressed air and, carefully, spray the socket to bow out the dust.
If that still doesn’t do the trick, buy a foam-tipped swab (don’t use a cotton bud as these leave tiny threads behind) and dip it in rubbing alcohol. Put the swab into the headphone jack and clean it, wiping away as much of the link as possible.
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Bluetooth sound not working on Mac

Your Mac can play audio wirelessly via Bluetooth, so if you have Bluetooth speakers or headphones, you can use those to listen to music, or anything else on your Mac. Sometimes, however, they don’t work.
Make sure Bluetooth is switched on.
- Go to System Preferences and click the Bluetooth pane.
- If it says Bluetooth turned off, turn it on.
Make sure your headphones or speakers are connected.
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- Look in the list of devices in the main window to see if your headphones or speakers are listed.
- If not, put them in pairing mode (you’ll need to refer to their instructions to find out how to do that) and when they appear, click Connect.
- If they are listed but not connected, make sure they’re switched on and Control-click on them in the main window and choose Connect.
Tip: If you check the box labelled Show Bluetooth in menu bar in Bluetooth preferences, you can connect from the menu bar item.
Once your headphones or speakers are connected, click on the volume control in the menu bar and choose them. If you don’t have the volume control displayed on the menu bar, go to System Preferences, choose Sound and then the Output tab and select the Bluetooth speaker or headphones. While you’re there, it’s a good idea to check the box labelled Show volume in menu bar — it’s in the Sound Effects tab.
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To conclude, there are a number of reasons why the sound is not working on your Mac. If you follow the guide above and take it one step at a time, you should be able to fix the problem. If none of the steps above work for you, the next step is to contact Apple support and, if possible, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple Store. If that’s not possible, Apple will advise you on the best course of action to get your audio working again.
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