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Loopback vs BlackHole vs no driver for recording Mac audio

Updated 2026-09-03.

For recording what a Mac plays, no driver is the simplest route: since macOS 13, ScreenCaptureKit recorders capture system audio after one permission, with speakers and volume keys untouched. AirCheck ($39) is that route: one button, no length limit, stall recovery into the same file, WAV or MP3 out. BlackHole (free, GPL-3.0) routes audio between apps at the cost of a Multi-Output Device. Loopback ($99, macOS 14.5 to 27) mixes a mic and several apps into one stream.

Which is better for recording Mac audio: Loopback, BlackHole, or no driver?

It depends on one question: does the audio have to go somewhere else while it plays, or do you only want a file?

People go wrong by picking on price: BlackHole is free, so it gets installed for a recording job it was never needed for, followed by an evening on the not-showing-up and silent-speaker problems.

What does each option cost and require?

Vendor figures, 3 Sept 2026:

Note the floors: the Rogue Amoeba apps and AirCheck need macOS 14 or later; BlackHole runs back to Yosemite, so on an older Mac BlackHole plus Audacity is the realistic option.

How long does setup take and where do people get stuck?

Counting the documented steps rather than guessing minutes:

  1. BlackHole + Audacity or a DAW: download, right-click Open, install, restart (4 steps from the wiki), then create a Multi-Output Device (7 steps on Apple's and the wiki's instructions combined), then pick BlackHole as the input in the recorder and grant it Microphone permission. Where it fails: the device is missing until Core Audio reloads, speakers go silent if BlackHole is selected alone, volume keys stop working, and drift glitches if Drift Correction is off.
  2. Loopback: install the app and follow its prompts, build a virtual device by adding sources (apps, mic) and a monitor (your speakers), then pick that device in the recorder. The monitor replaces the Multi-Output Device, which is the main thing $99 buys you.
  3. No driver (ScreenCaptureKit): open the recorder, choose System Audio, click Record, approve the Screen & System Audio Recording prompt once. Nothing else changes on the Mac.

The trap common to both drivers in one sentence: a loopback driver is an output with no loudspeaker, so making it the output silences the room, and the composite device that fixes this disables the volume keys. A driverless recorder taps the stream on its way to your normal output, so neither problem exists; see what a virtual audio driver is.

Which one can mix the microphone and system audio in one file?

This is the one column where the driverless option says no, so it needs saying plainly.

A podcast with call guests and your own voice in one file needs a mixer in the chain (Loopback or Audio Hijack) or two takes aligned afterwards; recording computer audio and microphone at the same time walks through the choices. For a DJ set, a lecture stream or a game, where there is one source, mixing is irrelevant and the driverless path wins on effort.

Which should you choose?

In order:

  1. You want a file of what the Mac plays and nothing else: driverless recorder. AirCheck ($39) for an audio file, OBS (free) if a video file is acceptable.
  2. You want voice and playback mixed in one file: Audio Hijack ($69) if one app should do it all, Loopback ($99) plus any recorder if you also need the mix as a live input for calls.
  3. You want to send audio from one app into another and are not recording at all: BlackHole (free).
  4. Your Mac runs macOS 13 or older: BlackHole plus Audacity, because the other options require macOS 14 or newer.

Whatever you choose, keep one sample rate through the chain (48 kHz on current Macs). DRM-protected playback such as Apple TV+ may capture as silence under ScreenCaptureKit; YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Twitch and meeting apps capture normally.

Recording Mac audio: driver-based versus driverless options (prices from vendor pages, 3 Sept 2026)

OptionPriceInstalls a virtual deviceSpeakers stay on with no extra setupVolume keys keep workingMixes mic + system in one fileRecords a file by itselfMinimum macOS
BlackHole + Audacity or a DAWfreeyesno (needs Multi-Output Device)no (with Multi-Output Device)no (aggregate stacks channels)no10.10
Loopback 2 + any recorder$99yesyes (monitor)per device in Loopbackyesno14.5
Audio Hijack 4$69noyesyesyesyes14.4
OBS Studio (macOS audio capture)freenoyesyesyesvideo file only13
AirCheck$39noyesyesnoyes14

BlackHole facts from its README; Loopback and Audio Hijack from rogueamoeba.com; AirCheck from its own spec. OBS minimum for desktop audio capture is macOS 13 per the AirCheck fact sheet.

Where AirCheck fits

AirCheck ($39, macOS 14 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel) is the no-driver column made into a product: system audio through ScreenCaptureKit, any Core Audio input through the normal Microphone permission with a channel-pair picker, one button and nothing to configure, no length limit, a watchdog that restarts a stalled capture into the same file, 24-bit files at the device rate exported as WAV or MP3 into ~/Music/AirCheck, 14-day refund. The author records DJ sets with it through a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6, a single-source job where a driver adds only failure points; a 2 h 5 min take at 24-bit 48 kHz came out at 2.07 GB.

When you do not need it: AirCheck records one source per take and does not route audio between apps; a mixed file of your mic and the Mac, or a live virtual device for calls, is a different category of tool.

AirCheck records what your Mac plays, or any input, to one file. $39 once.

Buy AirCheck for $39

macOS 14 or newer. One-off payment. Fourteen-day refund, no questions asked.

Questions people ask

Is Loopback better than BlackHole?

For mixing and monitoring, yes: Loopback sums sources with per-source volume and monitors through your speakers without a Multi-Output Device. For plain app-to-app routing, BlackHole does the same job for free. Neither records on its own.

Do I need BlackHole or Loopback to record internal audio on a Mac?

No, on macOS 13 or later. ScreenCaptureKit recorders capture system audio directly after a Screen Recording permission. Drivers are for moving audio between apps or mixing sources, not for making a file of what you hear.

How much does Loopback cost?

$99 USD for a licence key, $49 for the upgrade from Loopback 1, plus local taxes, according to the Rogue Amoeba purchase page on 3 Sept 2026. Version 2.5.0 supports macOS 14.5 to 27.

Sources

Hannes Hennerbichler builds AirCheck and records his own DJ sets with it through a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6. Every step on this page was run on the macOS version stated above. Drafted with AI assistance, checked and edited by the author. About