How to Record Your Screen With Audio in QuickTime

How to record your screen with audio in QuickTime Player on macOS, including microphone setup and what you need to capture internal system audio.

1. Start a screen recording from QuickTime. Open QuickTime Player from the Applications folder. Choose File > New Screen Recording. This does not open a QuickTime window. It hands you the system screenshot toolbar across the bottom of the screen, the same toolbar Command + Shift + 5 produces.
2. Choose your microphone under Options. Click Options in the toolbar. Under Microphone, choose an input: the built-in microphone, a USB interface, whatever is plugged in. None is selected by default, so a recording started without touching this menu has no sound in it at all.
3. Know what QuickTime will not record. QuickTime captures microphone input only. Sound played by your Mac, such as a video, a call, or a game, is not captured. macOS provides no built-in route from system output back into a recorder. That is a design decision, not a fault in your setup.
4. Install a virtual audio driver. To capture system sound you install a third-party audio driver that presents itself to macOS as an input device. BlackHole is free and open source. Loopback from Rogue Amoeba is paid. Both create a virtual device that any recorder treats as a microphone.
5. Build a Multi-Output Device. Open Audio MIDI Setup in Applications > Utilities. Click the plus button at the bottom left and choose Create Multi-Output Device. Tick both your normal speakers and the virtual driver. Then select that device as the output in System Settings > Sound.
6. Record with the driver as your input. Back in the screenshot toolbar, open Options and choose the virtual driver under Microphone. Select a recording area, click Record, and stop with the stop button in the menu bar or by pressing Command + Control + Esc.