How to Record Audio from Video on Mac

Why Can't Mac Record Audio from a Playing Video by Default?

When a video plays in Safari, Chrome, QuickTime Player, or any other app, its sound goes straight to the active output device. Recording apps only see inputs such as microphones, so none of them can pick up that sound on their own.

QuickTime Player's New Audio Recording option lists only physical microphones and connected audio interfaces as input sources. The same limitation applies to the macOS Screenshot toolbar (Cmd+Shift+5), which allows microphone selection but cannot capture audio playing from a video in a browser tab or media player. Every other app that plays sound on a Mac has the same limitation.

Audio output goes to speakers and headphones, and audio input comes from microphones. Bridging the two requires a virtual audio driver: a virtual device that receives what your Mac plays and offers it to recording apps as an input.

How Do You Record Audio from Any Video on Mac with LitLink?

• Download and install LitLink free from litpads.app/litlink, requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• Open LitLink and toggle System Audio Passthrough on creates the LitLink Audio Bridge virtual input device automatically
• Open your recording app (QuickTime, Audacity, OBS) select LitLink Audio Bridge as the audio input source
• Select LitLink Audio Bridge as the input device the recorder now reads all system audio including video playback
• Play the video you want to capture audio from YouTube, Netflix, local file, or any browser-based player
• Press record in the recording app video audio flows through LitLink Audio Bridge into the recorder at full quality
• Stop recording when the segment you need finishes the file format depends on your recording app

LitLink works with every video source that plays through your Mac's normal output. It receives the mixed sound of all apps, so any video player, browser tab or streaming service reaches LitLink Audio Bridge, whichever app it comes from. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, QuickTime Player, VLC and IINA all work the same way.

The recording is a digital copy of the sound that reaches your speakers, not a microphone pointed at them. LitLink runs at 48 kHz by default, and you can switch it to 44.1 or 96 kHz in the app. How the file is saved (WAV, M4A, MP3) is up to your recording app.

Which Video Sources Can You Capture Audio From?

LitLink Free does not filter by application. System Audio Passthrough captures the mixed system output, which includes audio from every running application simultaneously. If two videos play at the same time in different browser tabs, both audio streams are captured together. To isolate a single video source, pause or mute other apps before recording, or use per-app routing in LitLink Pro to record only one app.

LitLink does not decrypt or remove copy protection (DRM). It only receives the sound after the app has played it. Copyright law and each service's terms still apply to anything you record, so check them before you record a show or film.

How Do You Record Audio from Video While Hearing It Through Headphones?

Monitoring audio while recording is essential for capturing the right segment of a video. Without a multi-output device, selecting the virtual audio driver as the system output would silence your headphones because all audio would route exclusively to the recording application. LitLink solves this automatically. The moment you enable System Audio Passthrough, LitLink creates the "LitLink + Speakers" multi-output device and sets it as the system output, so the sound goes to both places at once.

You hear the video while it records, so you can start and stop recording at the right moments during playback. This makes LitLink particularly useful for capturing specific clips from long videos or recording internal audio on Mac from live streams where timing matters.

Users who prefer a specific output device (USB audio interface, external DAC, Bluetooth headphones) can select that device in System Settings before enabling LitLink. The multi-output device pairs LitLink Audio Bridge with whatever output device is currently selected. Turn on Follow system output in LitLink and the multi-output device follows when you switch headphones or speakers later.

Which Recording Apps Work Best for Capturing Video Audio on Mac?

QuickTime Player is the right choice when speed matters. The application is preinstalled on every Mac, requires no configuration beyond selecting LitLink Audio Bridge from the input dropdown, and starts recording immediately. The output format is M4A (AAC), which is compatible with every major audio and video editor. QuickTime recordings are limited to stereo and do not offer waveform editing, so users who need to trim or process the captured audio should use Audacity instead.

Audacity is a good free tool if you want to edit the captured video audio after recording. The waveform editor allows precise trimming to remove silence at the beginning and end, normalization to match volume levels across multiple clips, and noise reduction to clean up background hiss. Audacity exports to every common audio format. The per-pad EQ and audio processing features in LitPads complement Audacity for users who also work with soundboard audio alongside video capture.

How Do You Record Audio from a Local Video File Without Playback?

FFmpeg is a free command-line tool that processes audio and video files without requiring playback. The basic command for extracting audio from a video file is: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec copy output.aac. The -vn flag tells FFmpeg to skip the video stream, and -acodec copy extracts the existing audio track without re-encoding. The process completes in seconds regardless of video length because FFmpeg reads the file at disk speed rather than playback speed.

Installing FFmpeg on macOS requires Homebrew (brew install ffmpeg) or a manual binary download. Users comfortable with Terminal will find FFmpeg the fastest option for batch-extracting audio from multiple local video files. The tool supports every container format (MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM, FLV) and every audio codec (AAC, MP3, FLAC, Opus, Vorbis, PCM).

FFmpeg works on video files stored on your Mac, not on videos that play from a streaming service in a browser or app. LitLink is the right tool for capturing audio from streaming video, browser-based players, and any video that is not a local file. LitLink captures audio in real time as the video plays, which means the recording takes exactly as long as the video segment. FFmpeg handles local files instantly. The two tools complement each other for different video audio capture scenarios.

Can You Record Video Audio and Microphone Commentary Together?

• Enable System Audio Passthrough in LitLink captures all video and system audio
• Toggle Mic Passthrough on adds your physical microphone to the LitLink Audio Bridge mix
• Select your microphone from the LitLink dropdown built-in mic, USB microphone, or audio interface input
• Choose LitLink Audio Bridge as the input in your recording app receives both video audio and voice commentary

Recording voice commentary over video audio is a common workflow for reaction videos, tutorial narration, and podcast episodes that reference video content. LitLink's mic passthrough eliminates the need to record two separate tracks and synchronize them in post-production. LitLink mixes your microphone and the video audio before they reach the recording app, so your commentary stays in step with the video.

Professional users who need separate tracks for voice and video audio can use two input sources in OBS or Logic Pro. One source reads from LitLink Audio Bridge with mic passthrough disabled (system audio only), and the second source reads from the physical microphone directly. This approach allows independent volume control, EQ, and noise processing on each track during editing. The combined single-track method through mic passthrough is simpler and sufficient for most reaction-style and commentary recordings. Users who also screen record with audio on Mac will find the same mic passthrough feature essential for capturing both desktop video and narration simultaneously.