Guides

Guides — recording and transcribing meetings on a Mac

How to actually capture a conversation on a Mac, written by the person who had to make it work. Every guide names what each tool can and cannot do, with links to the vendor documentation so you can check.

By Ivan Stepanok, developer of Narada · Updated August 4, 2026

macOS makes recording your own voice easy and recording everyone else surprisingly hard. Most of these guides exist because of that gap: Apple’s own recorders offer a microphone and nothing else, so anything involving the other side of a call needs either a virtual audio device or an app holding the system-audio permission.

BlackHole vs Loopback, and when you need neither Loopback costs $99 and routes single apps; BlackHole is free but you wire it yourself. Soundflower's last release was 2014. And the case for needing neither. How to record a Google Meet call on a Mac Google Meet's own recording needs a paid Workspace plan and the host's cooperation. Here is what to do when you have neither, and how to capture both sides on macOS. How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting on a Mac Teams' Record button is gated by your Microsoft 365 licence and your admin's policy — and guests can't record at all. Here's how to capture a Teams call on macOS. How to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac — including the other person's voice Four ways to record a Zoom call on macOS, why QuickTime captures only your own microphone, and how to get both sides without a virtual audio device. How to record an in-person meeting on a Mac A room recording is a microphone recording — no system audio, no speaker labels, and a lid that kills the mic in hardware. Placement, power, and the consent line. How to record system audio on a Mac Why macOS won't let QuickTime record internal audio, how the BlackHole and Loopback route works, and how apps capture system output without a virtual device. How to record your microphone and your Mac's system audio at the same time Multi-Output Device or Aggregate Device: how to capture your voice and your Mac's output together, why you get one mixed track, and the two-track alternative. How to transcribe an audio file you already have on a Mac Apple's built-ins only transcribe what they recorded themselves. For an m4a, mp3 or wav already on disk: MacWhisper, Superwhisper, Aiko or whisper.cpp. Why your Mac recording plays too fast, too slow, or like a chipmunk A Mac recording plays too fast when the declared sample rate doesn't match the rate the samples arrived at. The arithmetic, the causes, and the one-command fix. Your Mac recording came out silent — how to find out why Your Mac recording came out silent. Six causes in order of likelihood, each with a test you can run in under a minute, and what you cannot fix afterwards. macOS 26 Tahoe and system audio — what changed, and what didn't Apple's built-in recorder is still microphone-only on macOS 26 Tahoe. What did change: the Screen & System Audio Recording panel, and documented Core Audio taps.

Start here if you are in a hurry

If you just want the other side of a Zoom, Meet or Teams call in a file, read how to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac first. The mechanics are identical for every meeting app, because none of them are involved — you are recording your Mac, not the meeting.

Try it on your next call

Narada records your Mac's audio and your microphone, transcribes on-device, and hands you the decisions and follow-ups. Free to use, no account, no bot in the meeting.

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