Filing this for future reference. Very frustrating limitation on my machine. Of course, simply looping the “speaker out” jack to the “mic in” jack would probably do the trick, but what a stupid, frustrating kludge.
Some PCs have the ability to record “what you hear”, but it depends on the PCs soundcard. But on my MacBook Pro, there’s no native way to record the audio you hear. Unless you download two (and maybe three) free programs.
The Software
The main piece of software to download is called Sound Flower, and you can get it here: http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/. To download it, look down the column on the left under “Downloads” and download and run the .dmg file.
The next bit of software you need is something to record with. Audacity is probably the best free audio program around, and will work just fine. Go to the Audacity site to download it here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_mac.
There’s one last little piece of software now to get, and it’s called Line In. Get it here:
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/. (Note: I’m told this does not work with anything earlier than Mac OS 10.6. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.)
Another way to record from your computer is to play the audio, then use either camtasia studio to record it or a free program called Cam Studio http://camstudio.org/.
Yes, that should work, but Macs don’t offer the ability to intercept the sound that would be sent to the speakers, and redirect it to the internal recording device. It has to go through a microphone, which degrades the quality of the sound.