How do I record my screen with audio?

Screen recording is the process of capturing video and audio of your computer screen. There are many reasons why someone may want to record their screen activity along with audio commentary:

• Creating tutorial videos to teach others how to use software or accomplish tasks on their computer
• Recording product demos and software walkthroughs for business presentations or marketing
• Documenting bugs or issues in software applications for bug reporting
• Capturing gaming footage along with voiceover commentary for streaming or videos
• Recording meetings, webinars, or conference calls while sharing your screen
• Producing videos for educational purposes like lectures or online courses

With the right screen recording software, it’s easy to capture everything happening on your desktop or laptop screen and narrate it with audio commentary from a microphone. This opens up countless possibilities for creating dynamic video content for business, education, gaming, and more.

Choosing Screen Recording Software

When choosing screen recording software, the top options for Windows and Mac include OBS Studio, Screenflow, Camtasia, and QuickTime Player.

OBS Studio (https://obsproject.com/) is a popular open source software for screen recording. It has advanced features like multi-source capturing, real-time audio mixing, and more. The interface can be complex for beginners, but OBS Studio is highly customizable. It’s a good choice for power users who want fine-grained control.

Screenflow (https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/) is screen recording software designed specifically for Mac. It captures audio and video at high quality levels. Screenflow makes it easy to edit recordings, add annotations, transitions, and more. The intuitive interface makes Screenflow a top choice for Mac users.

Camtasia (https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html) is available for both Windows and Mac. It focuses on easy-to-use video editing tools. Camtasia allows you to import various media, arrange clips on a timeline, add effects, record voiceovers, and more. It’s great for basic to intermediate video editing needs.

QuickTime Player is built into Mac OS and provides basic screen recording capabilities. It’s good for quick recordings without editing. But QuickTime Player lacks annotations, transitions, advanced audio options, and other features found in paid software like Camtasia and Screenflow.

For casual users who need to record their screen occasionally, free options like OBS Studio or QuickTime Player will suffice. But for advanced editing, effects, tech support, and polished results, paid tools like Camtasia and Screenflow are worth the investment.

Recording with OBS Studio

OBS Studio is one of the most popular and powerful options for recording your screen with audio. It’s free, open source software that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. OBS Studio is a top choice for screen recording because of its robust feature set, active development community, and simple interface.

To get started recording your screen with OBS Studio, first download and install the software from https://obsproject.com/. Once installed, open OBS and click the + button in the Sources section at the bottom. Select Display Capture to capture your entire screen, or Window Capture to record a specific open window. Under Audio, select your microphone as the input device.

In the Settings menu, you can configure your video and audio quality options. For best results, set the output resolution to 1920×1080 and framerate to 30fps under Video. Under Audio, set the sample rate to 48khz. To start recording, simply click Start Recording. You’ll see your screen capture displayed in the OBS preview window. To finish, click Stop Recording.

OBS Studio allows you to capture not just your display, but also webcam video, desktop audio, and more. With its customizable scenes and sources, OBS is a versatile option for professional screen recording and live streaming. The open source community behind OBS ensures it’s constantly updated with new features and improvements.

Learn more: https://www.movavi.com/support/how-to/how-to-record-screen-with-obs.html

Recording with QuickTime Player (Mac)

QuickTime Player is an easy, built-in option for capturing your screen on a Mac. It works well for short, basic screen recordings without a need for extensive editing features. To get started, open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder. Then choose “File > New Screen Recording” from the menu bar.

You’ll see a control bar pop up that lets you start recording your full screen, a selected portion, or camera/microphone input. Make sure to select the microphone icon if you want to capture audio. Once ready, click the Record button to begin capturing your on-screen activity.

When finished, click Stop or hit the Esc key. The video will be saved to your desktop or Documents folder by default. QuickTime provides minimal trimming options before exporting the video. But overall it serves as a handy, quick way to record your screen natively on a Mac. For more details, see Apple’s guide on recording your screen with QuickTime.

Recording with Other Software

Windows Game Bar and ScreenRecorder

are other options that can be used to record your screen and audio. The Windows Game Bar comes built into Windows 10 and 11 and can be enabled to start screen recording by pressing Windows key + G (Source). To get started, open the Game Bar interface and select the “Capture” button, then choose options like microphone audio and recording length. ScreenRecorder is a lightweight third party app that requires just a quick install before you can start recording with audio (Source).

The main advantage of using these over options like OBS is that they generally have simpler, more streamlined interfaces that require less setup. They can be good choices for quick, casual screen recordings where you don’t need a lot of customization or post-processing options.

Recording Mobile Screens

Most mobile devices like iPhones and Androids come with built-in screen recording capabilities that allow you to capture your device’s screen along with audio. Here’s how to record your screen using default software on iOS and Android:

On iPhone and iPad, open the Control Center by swiping down from the top-right corner and tap the Screen Recording button. This will start recording your screen. Tap the red timer at the top to stop recording. You can find your recordings in the Photos app (cite: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207935).

For Android 9 and up, open the Quick Settings panel and tap Screen Record to start capturing your screen. Tap the timer to stop and your recording will be saved in Photos. For older versions of Android, there are screen recording apps available on Google Play Store (cite: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/take-a-screen-recording-iph52f6e1987/ios).

Alternatively, you can use third-party apps like AZ Screen Recorder on Android or Shou on iOS to record your screen. These provide more recording options and settings versus built-in software.

Audio Considerations

Getting good audio quality is crucial for an effective screen recording. Here are some tips for optimizing your microphone setup:

Choose a high-quality microphone if possible. A dedicated USB microphone or headset mic will provide much better sound than your computer’s built-in mic. Position the mic close to your mouth and away from any background noise sources [1].

Before recording, adjust the microphone input volume in your computer’s sound settings or in your recording software. Speak at your normal volume and aim for volume levels around -12 to -6 dB on the meter. Leave some headroom to avoid peaking and distortion [2].

Monitor your audio levels as you record, and make adjustments if needed. Position the microphone close enough to pick up your voice clearly without background noise. Consider using noise suppression filters if available.

If you encounter issues like no audio being recorded, check your microphone device settings and recording software audio channels. Make sure the correct mic input is selected as the audio source before recording [3].

Video Editing Options

Before publishing your screen recordings, it’s often worth taking the time to edit them. Editing allows you to trim unnecessary content, rearrange clips, enhance audio, add transitions, include text overlays, and more. Here are some recommendations on video editing for screen recordings:

If your recording is very long, editing can help condense it down to the most important parts. Trim off any mistakes, dead space at the beginning/end, or irrelevant tangents. Rearranging clips in a logical order can also improve the flow and pacing.

Tools like Animoto and ScreenStory make editing screen recordings easy. Their intuitive interfaces allow you to drag and drop clips, split/trim clips, add transitions, text, filters and more. Both work on Mac and PC.

For beginners, focus on basic edits like trimming clips and arranging them in order. Add transitions between clips to smooth cuts. Include text overlays for key information. Enhance audio by adjusting levels or removing background noise. Don’t overdo special effects. The goal is to end up with a polished, professional result.

With the right editing software and some practice, you can turn raw screen captures into compelling video content worth sharing online.

Sharing and Publishing

Once you have recorded your screen, you will likely want to share it with others. There are several options for sharing screen recordings:

YouTube is a popular place to publish and share videos. You can upload your screen recording to your YouTube channel. YouTube allows you to share the video privately or publicly. One thing to note is that YouTube compresses videos which can impact quality, so it may not be the best option if you want to preserve original video quality.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to upload and share videos directly. These can be good options for quickly sharing recordings without needing to upload elsewhere first. However, social media sites also compress videos which can reduce quality.

If you want to retain maximum video quality, you can upload and share an uncompressed video file through sites like Google Drive or Dropbox, or by directly emailing the file. This allows viewers to watch the original high-quality video.

When sharing recordings, file size and format are important considerations. Uncompressed video files are large, so you need to balance quality with shareability. Formats like MP4 provide a good middle ground. You may need to use video compression software to reduce the size before sharing while maintaining quality.

Some additional tips: Add a title and description so viewers have context. Link to your video from your website, emails or social accounts to help viewers find it. Customize the thumbnail image to make it eye-catching. Use YouTube cards and annotations to add more details. Track views and comments to see who has watched and interacted with your video.

Conclusion

In this guide, we covered the key steps for recording your screen with audio using both OBS Studio and QuickTime Player. OBS Studio is a powerful open-source program available for Windows, Mac, and Linux that gives you lots of options and control over your recordings. QuickTime Player is the built-in screen recorder for Mac that provides a simpler recording experience.

We also looked at audio considerations like using a headset mic for better sound quality. And explored video editing options if you want to trim or enhance your recording after the fact. Tools like iMovie, Shotcut, and OpenShot can help edit and polish your screen capture videos.

There are many additional screen recording programs out there beyond what we covered, like Screencast-O-Matic, Camtasia, and more. I encourage you to test different options to find the best software for your specific needs.

Feel free to provide any feedback or suggestions on this guide and how it could be improved. Screen recording can be a very useful skill for tutorials, product demos, how-tos, and much more. I hope you found this information helpful for getting started recording your screen with confidence.