What is the best audio recording software for Mac users to record audio on Mac computer? How to determine which audio recording software is the best Mac audio recording software? It's up to personal preferrences. Some Mac users might prefer recording to editing, while others might require a piece of best audio recording software for Mac to edit as well as record. No matter what you need, this post would provide you several best audio recording software for Mac computer. You could freely select the best audio recording app for Mac that meets your needs.
- Best Macbook For Audio Engineering Schools
- Best Macbook For Audio Engineering System
- Best Macbook For Audio Engineering For Dummies
There was a time when Mac laptops were not compatible with many of the software necessary for engineering. That is not longer the case. Most programs are compatible with both Mac and Windows now. This means deciding whether or not to buy a Apple laptop for engineering school is no longer a concern. We compare the best alternatives to Apple's free music-making app GarageBand. Reaper is the linguistically gymnastic acronym of Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering.
Part 1: 6 Best Audio Recording Software for Mac
The best audio recording software for Mac computers could of course include the ability to recording audio files from multiple sources like computer audio, streaming audio, microphone voice, online radio, etc. The second condition to weigh a Mac audio recorder as the best audio recording app for Mac is the output recording quality.
No.1: Leawo Music Recorder for Mac
As the No.1 best audio recording software for Mac, Leawo Music Recorder for Mac could easily record audio of any source and get music for free on Mac. It supports multiple audio sources and audio output formats. This best audio recording app for Mac could record audio from computer including computer audio, streaming audio, online music, radio, etc. and audio input through microphone on Mac. You could use this best audio recording app for Mac to record and save audio on Mac into M4A, MP3 and WAV audios, with output audio Bit Rate and Sample Rate adjustable. What's more, this best Mac audio recording software could automatically download and add music tags like song artist, album, album artwork, song name, etc. to complete music info. The embedded music tag editor allows people to manually edit music tags. This feature is especially useful for music recording and downloading. If you like, you could directly apply recorded music files to iTunes within this best audio recording software for Mac.
No.2: Audio Recorder Pro
As the best audio recording program for Mac, Audio Recorder Pro acts far more than audio recording. As the best audio recording for Mac, it could record music from YouTube, Napster, Rhapsody, Skype, iChat, microphone audio, etc. and edit recordings afterwards. Like Leawo Music Recorder for Mac, it also provides Mac users with splitter function to split recordings upon time gap.
No.3: Audio Hijack Pro
Audio Hijack Pro is also the best audio recording program for Mac users that prides itself on being able to record audio from any input whatsoever. If you can hear audio, you can record audio Mac OS X. You can even record audio from multiple applications at once – good for recording interviews on Skype, for instance.
Multiple formats are supported, and recording is even crash-protected, so you won't lose audio if the app crashes whilst recording. A few effects are included, and the interface is impressive.
No.4: Audacity
The open-source program gives users a wide range of options for recording and editing audio, all tied together with a simple interface. And it is the best free audio recording software for Mac users. Everything Audacity offers is free of charge. Compared to other notable DAWs such as ProTools and Sound Forge, Audacity's layout is very minimalist. There are toolbars for navigating a track, editing it, and mixing. When tracks are loaded, they will appear as waveforms, and users can edit specific sections of a track by highlighting the appropriate section of the waveform. Navigating the interface is easy, although it may take time for new users to figure out what every specific tool does. As far as editing goes, Audacity offers a surprisingly robust set of tools for a free program. Users can adjust pitch, bass, and treble, or normalize noise and add effects like reverb and phasing.
No.5: Ardour
As another best audio recording app for Mac, Ardour lets you record, edit and mix tracks, using an interface that can be professional-enough as well as easy-to-get-used-to at the same time. Ardour can be useful for professionals such as audio engineers, musicians, sound track editors and composers. While Ardour lets audio engineers mix their MIDI projects with ease, the enhanced recording options would do well for musicians and composers. When we consider the features aspect, Ardour has a lot to talk about: support for editing hardware makes everything easier while multi track recording makes sense too. There are advanced options in the editing and mixing section too. For instance, you have Routing, Inline Plugin Control, etc in mixing section. It is to be noted that productivity of Ardour can be made to fit your requirement using certain plug-ins.
No.6: Garageband
Bundled with Apple's iLife suite of apps, Garageband is best free audio recording software for Mac users to record audio on Mac computer. Everything Audacity has to offer is free of charge. It is a stylish and comprehensive audio recording tool. Although it can't record from the same versatile array of sources, it has powerful editing features and is well on the way to being a professional tool.
Garageband is particularly good for creating podcasts and ringtones for your iPhone, with advanced support for both included.
Part 2: How to Record Audio on Mac with Leawo Music Recorder for Mac
To help you easily record audio on Mac, we would like to show you how to record audio files on Mac with the best audio recording software for Mac - Leawo Music Recorder for Mac. You could choose to record audio from Mac computer like audio files on local drive, music from video sharing sites or online radio stations, streaming audio, or input audio from your Mac's microphone.
Leawo Music Recorder
☉ Record any music file from computer stream audio and built-in input audio.
☉ Record music from 1000+ music sites like YouTube, Facebook, Veoh, VEVO, etc.
☉ Schedule music recording via the internal recording task scheduler.
☉ Automatically/manually add and complete music tags like artist, album, cover, genre, etc.
Download and install this Mac audio recording software on your Mac computer and then launch it. Follow the below steps to learn how to record audio on Mac with this best Mac audio recording software.
Step 1: Set Audio Source
Click the little microphone icon on the interface to enter the 'Audio Source' window, where you need to choose either 'Record Built-in Audio' option or 'Record Computer Audio' according to your needs. For audio from computer, choose the latter one. For audio recording from microphone, choose the former one. It could perform as the best voice recording software for Mac to record vocie and sound from microphone on Mac.
Step 2. Set output
Go to 'Leawo Music Recorder > Preferences > Format' to set the output format from MP3 Audio, WAV Audio and W4A Audio. If you need, you could change the audio parameters like bit rate and sample rate. After that, go to 'Preferences > General' to set output directory.
Step 3. Start to record audio on Mac
Best Macbook For Audio Engineering Schools
With all settings done, return to the main interface. Get source audio files ready. Then click the red 'Start' button to start recording audio before you play back audio file or input voice/sound through microphone. If you only need to record a clip of the source audio file, play the audio file first and then click the red button at the point you want to record. Stop at any point you want by clicking the red button again.
Step 4. Edit audio tags
As mentioned above, Leawo Music Recorder for Mac is able to automatically download and add music tags if you're recording music on Mac computer. But you could still adjust audio tags by entering 'Library > All Recordings' to choose the audio recording and right click it to select 'Edit Music Tags' option. You could change audio tags like recording title, artist, and genre.
For Windows computer, please turn to Leawo Music Recorder to record audio on Windows computer with ease.
Be sure to check out a full list of Sound Engineering & Music Production courses we offer both online and in a classic classroom environment at Sound Training Online & Sound Training College!
At the heart and soul of every recording studio is of course the computer. Some people may argue that we rely too much on computers these days but the way technology has developed and is constantly developing it is hard to shy away from the need to keep on top of computer changes and upgrades, it is in the best interest for you as a music producer. The brainchild of everything in the studio, your computer is one if not, the most important pieces of equipment you will purchase for recording. With that in mind we have decided to try and guide you in the right direction to help you get the best bang for your buck depending on what it is you are looking to achieve. This guide is is for everyone, whether it's for the hobbyist bedroom producer or for the seasoned musician who is aspiring to become a professional record producer. If you don't know what a 3.0 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB RAM, and a 1 TB Solid state drive means, then this guide is the guide for you!
First off you should have an idea of what you are going to be producing, are you going to be focusing on electronic music that is all software based? Do you want to record rock or pop bands and solo artists? Do you want to produce music that you can perform live yourself or as a solo artist or live act? This should give you a rough indication of what Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) you are going to choose. Of course there is no right or wrong way to go about this and everyone has their own personal preference, but we will guide you the best we can. The following list gives an overview of the main aspects you will be looking at when deciding on what is right for you and the options you have available to you.
Computer
Laptop or Desktop
Mac or PC
Processor
Intel i3
Intel i5
Intel i7
4 GB
8 GB
16 GB
32 GB
Hard Drive
HDD or SSD
Size – 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB etc.
Software
Pro Tools
Logic Pro (OS X only)
Cubase
Ableton Live
FL Studio
Cakewalk Sonar (Windows Only, Free Version available for OSX)
So first off, you must decide which computer fits your needs, if you are planning on performing your music live and producing music with the same computer, a laptop would probably be the best idea for convenience and portability. On the other hand if you are looking at recording bands and clients from a studio based set-up, then a desktop computer would potentially suit you better, again it's all relative.
Next, you're looking at the age old question of Mac Vs. PC, Windows or Os X, Apple Vs. Microsoft. Now, this is down to personal preference but sometimes it can help if you know what DAW you are going to use. For instance Logic Pro will not run on Windows so if that happens to be your DAW of choice then you'll have to use a Mac. But the majority of the other programs available today are cross – compatible. You can get an insight into which software could be for you with this guide. Most DAWs will require your computer to have minimum requirements so this is another thing to check up on before you take the plunge.
Once you have your DAW selected sorting out the processor and RAM are next. For those of you who don't know, the Processor component of the computer is essentially the computers control centre. It carries out the computations that the computer needs to function, pretty much like a brain, for use of a better word! Processors can come in Dual-Core and Quad-Core versions. Quad-Core offers us four separate cores of processing power where Dual-Core is that exactly that, two cores. Quad-Core will cost you more but can be very beneficial when recording music because we have more processing power. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, this means that whenever you run a program on your computer e.g. iTunes, Google Chrome, Microsoft Word, the RAM is used so it can run each of these programs. Obviously the more programs you have running at once the more Random Access Memory (RAM) is used.
When it comes down to it, if you are serious about making music you will need to have a system that you can rely on and if there's anything I could tell myself before I bought my last computer was to max out all the components instead of taking it for what it was off the shelf. But again, in saying that it did last me the guts of 7 years and it was only an Intel Core Duo 2 and 2 GB of RAM which I upgraded to 4 GB and then 8 GB, before the motherboard fried! Everything is relatable with processing power and RAM, for instance, if you're computer has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, having 2 or 4 GB of RAM will be sufficient. For an Intel i5 processor you would want at least 4 or 8 GB RAM and for an i7 processor you will want to be running at least 8 or 16 GB RAM for the best performance. My laptop was running an Intel Core 2 Duo with 8 GB RAM and to be honest, there was no difference at all in relation to speed. The processor simply wasn't on the same level as the RAM so it was pointless.
Best Macbook For Audio Engineering System
Fitting your computer out with an i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM will give you the ability to run a huge number of audio tracks say in Pro Tools or Logic Pro without any issues. Again this will cost you, upgrading a brand new Macbook Pro from an i5 processor to an i7 will set you back €360 just for the processor and then the RAM upgrade from 8 GB to 16 GB will set you back another €240. If you have the money and can afford to do this then go for it, but there is some cost effective ways or getting around this. Upgrading older machines can be very beneficial to you and your wallet! For instance if you can locate a second hand Mac Mini from 2012, these are the final model that are upgradeable, and with plenty of online tutorials of how to do it yourself it could be exactly what you're looking for. You could pick up one of them for around €300/€400 then you can upgrade the RAM and the hard drive from a third party company such as Crucial or OWC. Same if you are working with Windows there are plenty of options out there for desktops and laptops that are upgradable, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 for instance is customizable so you can upgrade it from i5 2.8 GHz to an i7 3.40 GHz processor, which is it maxed out, again doing this to a brand new machine will set you back a few pretty pennies.
Next thing to consider is your hard drive. Most high-end laptops these days come standard with SATA HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or Solid State Drives (SSD). Having an SSD in your computer speeds everything up, they have no moving parts and are lightning quick but again, more expensive than the standard SATA HDD which are made up of magnetic tape and have mechanical parts moving inside, they also are bigger in size and slower to read and write to than a SSD is. What many people do these days is use external hard drives for their productions and run everything that is music based off these externals. This is highly recommended as it helps free up space on the computers hard drive so you aren't pushing the computer to it's max. Both SSD and HDD can come in different sizes usually ranging from 500 GB up to 1 or 2 TB and obviously it is better to have more but again the cost of say a 1 TB SSD will be upwards of €200. Again if you are running an external hard drive for you music then you can pick up a 1 or 2 TB external for a lot less than the internal ones!
Moving on, you probably already know which software you are going to want to use, because there is so many DAWs out there these days that everyone has their preference but I will give you a quick overview of a few main ones (Check out our other blog post on digital audio workstations for a more in-depth review.
Best Macbook For Audio Engineering For Dummies
Many consider this the industry standard
Great for multi-track recording
Can be daunting to learn
Is fairly expensive
Only supports AAX & RTAS
Great audio and MIDI capabilities
Relatively cheap
Lots of included instruments
Mac OS X Only & No VST Support (Only Au)
Straightforward to use
Fantastic for live performance
Expensive
'Lite' versions leaves a lot to be desired
Good audio capabilities
Many users complain the Mixer window is too messy
Window management in general is inferior to other programs
Of course there are many other DAWs out there but we don't really have the time to go through all of them and for more information you can check out our other post about DAWs here.
So that's it! Hopefully you found this guide helpful and you can use it as a basis of purchasing a computer for music production, check back soon for more tips, tricks and articles!
Once you decide on what computer to buy, why not put it to good use at Sound Training College, with plenty of courses in Sound Engineering & Music Production, Live Sound, Lighting & Stage Production, Intro to DJ and loads more!
