Ms16bit
Useful Idiot
**This guide is only for using free programs & QuickTime to record with, not other recording software.**
Hello everyone, I was sitting around browsing the forums and decided to make a sort-of guide for some of the gaming channels that use Macs out there that are starting out and may not know how to record their gameplay, especially if you don't want to spend a ton of money on an expensive screen recorder. Well fear not! This is the guide for you
Step 1: Recording Your Screen
First off, you need to record the gameplay itself. There are a fair number of games you can play that are available for Mac on the App Store and on Steam, plus you can emulate most older games. Many screen recorders out there (particularly the free ones) will not record your computer's audio. I will cover how to do that in step 2, though.
< The QuickTime Player Icon
Macs come with a program called QuickTime Player. If you want to record your gameplay, select "New Screen Recording":
(Like my wallpaper? >:3)
Once you do this, you'll get a thingamabob that looks like this:
When you click the record button, you can choose to either record your entire screen or to record a selected section of it:
Now that you've got the screen recording part down, move on to step 2; recording the audio. Note that this is different from recording your commentary.
Step 2: Recording the Audio
You don't want to just have silent gameplay, you have to include the game's audio! The way to do this without it sounding bad is to use a program called Soundflower. It's a free program, and basically it allows you to access your computer's sound card. Unfortunately I can't post link yet, but you should be able to find in easily through Google.
< The Soundflower Icon
Once you've downloaded and installed Soundflower (it may also show up in your applications as "Soundflowerbed"), launch the application. It will show up over here on the upper right of your screen:
You can fiddle around with the options by going here (although the defaults had always worked for me). You also want to make sure it says "Default" for the "Soundflower 2ch" option:
Next, to actually make use of the program, go to the Sound options in your system preferences, and select "Soundflower 2ch" under "Output" not input. Leave the input alone for now. When you do this, you won't be able to hear your computer's audio. Don't worry; it's still there. You can revert this by going back into the options and selecting "Speakers" or "Headphones", whatever you may be using for listening to your audio at the time.
Now, go back to Quicktime. When you record your screen it will also record the game's audio. For it to do so, though, you have to first select for it to record from "Soundflower 2ch" like so:
You are now ready to record! It seems like a ton of steps, but once you start to do it more regularly, it will only take you a few seconds to set it up. Not all YouTubers record commentary with their videos, but if you'd like to, move on to step 3.
Step 3: Recording Commentary
Recording your commentary is much more simple than your gameplay. You'll be using QuickTime for this, too. And yes, you can record your gameplay and audio at the same time. First, you want to select "New Audio Recording" with QuickTime:
Then you will get a thingamajig like this, almost identical to the Screen Recording one:
To record your commentary, just select what you want to record it from. You could use the built-in mic, a headset, or a separate mic. You will get better quality audio if you use a headset or separate mic, but they can get fairly costly. I personally use a Logitech headset, which I would recommend because it does the job, is Mac compatible, and isn't super-expensive. I got mine for around $40. If you want to use a mic, I highly recommend the Snowball Mic, which my friend flareblitz007 uses, and he gets really clear commentary. It is a bit more expensive, though, running around $100. Anyway, you select what input you want to use here:
The last thing you have to do is make sure that the input you select above is the same one you have selected in your sound options. For example, if I want to use the built-in mic, I would want to go into the Sound options under my System Preferences and select "Internal Microphone", and also select the same one in QuickTime (see how it's the same input for both):
Then you can go ahead and click record! If you click record for both the audio and the screen recorder at the same time, they should be pretty well synched.
You will get two separate files once you're done; the file with the gameplay and an audio file with your commentary. All you have to do is layer the audio file over the video file with your gameplay, which you can do with any video editing software. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me by leaving a response or somethin'! I hope this was helpful
Of course there are other screen recording programs that you can use to record that work differently, but this guide is restricted to how to do it with free programs and ones that come with your Mac.
Hello everyone, I was sitting around browsing the forums and decided to make a sort-of guide for some of the gaming channels that use Macs out there that are starting out and may not know how to record their gameplay, especially if you don't want to spend a ton of money on an expensive screen recorder. Well fear not! This is the guide for you
Step 1: Recording Your Screen
First off, you need to record the gameplay itself. There are a fair number of games you can play that are available for Mac on the App Store and on Steam, plus you can emulate most older games. Many screen recorders out there (particularly the free ones) will not record your computer's audio. I will cover how to do that in step 2, though.
Macs come with a program called QuickTime Player. If you want to record your gameplay, select "New Screen Recording":
(Like my wallpaper? >:3)
Once you do this, you'll get a thingamabob that looks like this:
When you click the record button, you can choose to either record your entire screen or to record a selected section of it:
Now that you've got the screen recording part down, move on to step 2; recording the audio. Note that this is different from recording your commentary.
Step 2: Recording the Audio
You don't want to just have silent gameplay, you have to include the game's audio! The way to do this without it sounding bad is to use a program called Soundflower. It's a free program, and basically it allows you to access your computer's sound card. Unfortunately I can't post link yet, but you should be able to find in easily through Google.
Once you've downloaded and installed Soundflower (it may also show up in your applications as "Soundflowerbed"), launch the application. It will show up over here on the upper right of your screen:
You can fiddle around with the options by going here (although the defaults had always worked for me). You also want to make sure it says "Default" for the "Soundflower 2ch" option:
Next, to actually make use of the program, go to the Sound options in your system preferences, and select "Soundflower 2ch" under "Output" not input. Leave the input alone for now. When you do this, you won't be able to hear your computer's audio. Don't worry; it's still there. You can revert this by going back into the options and selecting "Speakers" or "Headphones", whatever you may be using for listening to your audio at the time.
Now, go back to Quicktime. When you record your screen it will also record the game's audio. For it to do so, though, you have to first select for it to record from "Soundflower 2ch" like so:
You are now ready to record! It seems like a ton of steps, but once you start to do it more regularly, it will only take you a few seconds to set it up. Not all YouTubers record commentary with their videos, but if you'd like to, move on to step 3.
Step 3: Recording Commentary
Recording your commentary is much more simple than your gameplay. You'll be using QuickTime for this, too. And yes, you can record your gameplay and audio at the same time. First, you want to select "New Audio Recording" with QuickTime:
Then you will get a thingamajig like this, almost identical to the Screen Recording one:
To record your commentary, just select what you want to record it from. You could use the built-in mic, a headset, or a separate mic. You will get better quality audio if you use a headset or separate mic, but they can get fairly costly. I personally use a Logitech headset, which I would recommend because it does the job, is Mac compatible, and isn't super-expensive. I got mine for around $40. If you want to use a mic, I highly recommend the Snowball Mic, which my friend flareblitz007 uses, and he gets really clear commentary. It is a bit more expensive, though, running around $100. Anyway, you select what input you want to use here:
The last thing you have to do is make sure that the input you select above is the same one you have selected in your sound options. For example, if I want to use the built-in mic, I would want to go into the Sound options under my System Preferences and select "Internal Microphone", and also select the same one in QuickTime (see how it's the same input for both):
Then you can go ahead and click record! If you click record for both the audio and the screen recorder at the same time, they should be pretty well synched.
You will get two separate files once you're done; the file with the gameplay and an audio file with your commentary. All you have to do is layer the audio file over the video file with your gameplay, which you can do with any video editing software. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me by leaving a response or somethin'! I hope this was helpful
Of course there are other screen recording programs that you can use to record that work differently, but this guide is restricted to how to do it with free programs and ones that come with your Mac.
Enjoy it 