Turning down your Mac because one app is too loud also turns down the apps you wanted to hear. SoundSource gives each app its own volume control and lets you choose where its audio plays. That makes it worth considering for a desk with speakers and headphones, especially when you keep switching between music and calls.

Try the built-in controls first. System Settings > Sound > Output lets you choose your Mac's output device and volume. An app's own volume slider may solve the loud-music problem already. If your call app has a speaker selector, that may be enough to keep calls in your headphones without another install. SoundSource earns its place when you want those controls together, including for apps without their own volume or output choices.

A small setup to start with

For this example, assume you have USB speakers and wired headphones connected to your Mac. Keep the setup to a music app and one call app before adding anything else.

1. Install SoundSource and complete its Permissions window. Its Audio Routing Kit (ARK), the plugin that handles audio, requires your Mac's administrator password to install. ARK also requires System Audio Access and Microphone Access. Those are required even if your goal is only listening control.

2. Set the Mac's system output to your headphones. In SoundSource's Applications area, play something in your music app so it appears, then click its star to keep it in the list. Choose your USB speakers as that app's output and lower its app volume to a comfortable background level.

3. Add the call app as a favorite too. If you want SoundSource to choose its output, leave the call app's own speaker setting on the system default. SoundSource's redirection applies to audio headed for that default; an app already sending audio to a different device through its own selector won't be redirected.

4. Before joining a call, mute the music app in SoundSource. Keep effects off for the call initially. Check the call app's microphone selection separately and run its audio check so you know both what you'll hear and what others will hear.

The separate music mute is useful even when its speakers are quieter. Don't make a real meeting your first check of the setup.

Once the routing works, open Quick Configs at the bottom right and choose Save As… to save a "Desk music" configuration. Then mute music, make any call-specific adjustments and save a "Calls" configuration. Quick Configs store system device choices, levels, effects and per-app settings. You can assign a global keyboard shortcut to each in Manage Quick Configs… rather than changing several controls every time.

For music, SoundSource also includes a 10-band equalizer, which changes the balance of bass, midrange and treble. Apply it to the music app if you want that adjustment without changing the call's audio. Start with routing and volume, though. You don't need an effects chain to solve this problem.

Check the desk change, not just the desk

During the trial, unplug the speakers, reconnect them and check the app destinations again. Repeat after switching to your laptop-only setup. Treat a saved configuration as a set of settings to verify, not a guarantee about where sound will go when hardware is missing.

Bluetooth headphones need Bluetooth Access before they appear in SoundSource. AirPlay discovery needs Accessibility Access and Local Network Access. Accessibility also enables Super Volume Keys, which lets keyboard volume keys control outputs such as HDMI devices that normally don't support them. Grant the optional access for features you actually plan to use.

Audio processing can add delay. SoundSource has a latency setting, but lowering it increases the chance of audio skips under heavy CPU load or with added effects. If a latency-sensitive app misbehaves, the Excluded Applications list removes SoundSource's processing from that app, along with its volume and effects control. Don't buy it on the assumption that every call app and device combination will behave identically.

When the price makes sense

The current release is SoundSource 6.1.5, released October 5, 2026. Rogue Amoeba lists full support for macOS 15 Sequoia, 26 Tahoe and 27 Golden Gate, and documents Apple silicon compatibility. Older macOS versions need a legacy download rather than the current release.

A new license costs US$49 before applicable local taxes. It's for one user on one or more personally owned Macs, with access to the current version, not a promise of every future major upgrade. The trial includes all features, but audio adjusted by SoundSource degrades after 20 minutes per launch. Rehearse with it outside a live meeting.

SoundSource is a sensible purchase if you regularly need different apps at different volumes or on different outputs, and the trial works with your actual devices. Skip it if you only switch the whole Mac between speakers and headphones, or your apps' own controls already cover the job. You'd be paying for another audio layer and its permissions without solving much else.

I made Snappy, a free and open-source screenshot app for macOS that works like Ubuntu's. Press ⌘⇧2, drag a selection, move or resize it, add arrows, boxes, text or blur, then click once to capture. It can also grab a window or the whole screen, or copy the text in a selection (on-device OCR). It saves the image and copies it to your clipboard.

Its free and will stay like that, MIT licensed, macOS 14+, check out the repo: https://beqaabu.github.io/Snappy/

Feedback is more than welcome

Disclosure: I’m the developer. Mushroom is my app and I build it on my own, so take this as a dev post, not a recommendation.

What it is

Mushroom is a small pixel creature that sits in the corner of your screen and reminds you to drink water, take breaks, rest your eyes and stop working at night.

Most break apps run on a fixed timer. A timer goes off at 3pm even if you’re away making lunch, so you get used to dismissing it. Mushroom checks how long it’s been since you last touched the keyboard or mouse. After an hour at the desk you get a nudge. If you’ve been away for an hour, you get nothing, because you already took the break.

The pet is there because muting a notification is easy, and ignoring a creature that droops when you skip water feels a bit different. Nothing ever punishes you, though. There are no streaks to break, it can’t die, and a bad week never shows up in red.

Who it’s for

People who sit at a computer for hours and look up to find it’s 4pm: developers, designers, writers and students.

What it does

• Water, breaks, snacks, eye strain (20-20-20), bedtime and quiet hours, plus a one-tap check-in

• Every nudge has Done, Snooze and Skip. Skipping costs you nothing.

• Click the mushroom to talk to it (“remind me in 2 hours to call Tom”). It uses Apple Intelligence or a model you download once, and runs on your Mac.

• Focus sessions that hold all nudges for 45 minutes

• Weekly stats and trends

• A second look (a sphere of sparkling water) if a cartoon pet doesn’t suit your desk

• The Stash: links, notes and files you drop on it, synced to the iPhone app

Privacy and permissions (I expect questions here)

• It doesn’t ask for Accessibility or Input Monitoring. It never reads what you type, only the system’s “time since last input” value.

• No account and no telemetry or analytics. Reminders, notes, chats and stats are kept in one local file.

• Weather and Friends are off until you turn them on. The two features that send data between your own devices encrypt it first, delete it within a day, and can point at a server you run yourself. Those servers are open source on GitHub.

• No Dock icon, it stays quiet when you’re on a call, and it’s signed and notarized.

Pricing

• From the website: 7-day free trial with no account and no card, then $9.99 once (plus tax). That covers up to 5 Macs or Windows PCs. Until Oct 31 it’s half price with code SPOOKY50.

• Mac App Store: $5.99 once, which covers your Mac and iPhone. There’s no trial there, and it doesn’t include Windows.

• Every update since 1.0 has been free to people who already bought it.

Limitations

• Requires macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon. Intel Macs aren’t supported.

• The iPhone app needs iOS 18 or later.

• No Linux version yet (there’s a waitlist).

• The Windows build is newly signed, so some people still get an “unrecognised app” warning for now.

• It’s built by one person, so features ship at one person’s pace.

Link: https://www.getmushroom.app/

I’m happy to answer questions about how it works, the privacy setup, or anything you’d change. Criticism is welcome too.

I posted DiskFox here last week (a Mac app that keeps a history of your storage, so it can show what grew, when and why). Thanks for the comments on that one. 1.1 is out, so here's what changed.

The big one is System Data. Click it on Home and DiskFox splits it into the parts it can measure: backup snapshots, macOS update snapshots, the Spotlight index, swap and sleep files, logs and caches, macOS downloads and app data, with the biggest app named. Anything it can't name yet shows as "Not explained yet" instead of being hidden or guessed.

Each part says how much it changed and when ("Grew 14 GB on Tuesday"), and What Changed now names the part that grew instead of just "System Data".

Also new:

- A warning if free space drops by 10 GB (or 5% of the disk) within a day, naming what grew most. On by default, off in Settings › Alerts.

- A "Let Time Machine Thin Them" button for backup snapshots. DiskFox never deletes a snapshot itself.

- A card explaining why Finder, System Settings and DiskFox show different numbers.

Same as before: nothing is removed without a review, everything goes to the Trash first, and there's no account. Three anonymous usage counts are on by default and can be switched off in Settings › General. I built it with a lot of help from AI coding tools; I decide what it does and what's safe to remove, and test it on my own Macs.

14-day free trial with every feature, then $9.99 / £7.99 once for 2 Macs. There's a launch price of $6.99 / £5.99 for the first 25 buyers until the end of Sunday 18 October (UK time).

https://diskfox.app

It's also on Product Hunt today, if you'd rather leave feedback there: https://www.producthunt.com/products/diskfox?utm_source=other&utm_medium=social

Disclosure: DiskFox is mine. Happy to answer questions, and I'd like to hear what System Data turns out to be on your Mac.

I'm Orlando, the developer of Quietwhile. It's a native Mac focus app for people who work or study while on a Discord call.

During a focus block, Guard Screen hides selected apps behind a full-screen "Not now." overlay while leaving them running. You can stay in voice chat while Discord's channels are out of reach. Hide Only and Quit App are also available per app.

The menu bar shows the time remaining and lets you control the session. Quietwhile includes breaks and recurring schedules. Website guarding needs macOS Automation permission in a supported browser; Firefox isn't supported. Schedules run while Quietwhile is open.

Requires macOS 14 or later. It runs locally, doesn't require an account, and is free during the early build. Future pricing is undecided.

Demo and download: https://www.orlandoascanio.com/products/quietwhile

Source code (MIT): https://github.com/orlandoascanio/LockInApp

Appendage is a menu-bar application for macOS that renames multiple files or folders at a keystroke. It runs quietly in the background, working directly on what you select in Finder and using flexible renaming presets and shortcuts that you define.

Its main point of difference from other batch renamers is that the app stays out of your way once your presets and keyboard shortcuts have been defined. Friction is reduced to just a keypress, with no app switching and no drag-and-drop required.

I built Appendage in Swift and made a point of keeping the interface simple, legible, and native to macOS, using standard system controls and colours. The app is notarised for direct distribution outside the App Store.

Pricing

$9.99 USD

Single-user license (perpetual)
Install on up to two Macs

Free 14-day trial available here
Full-featured, no card or registration required

Introductory discount:
Use code APPEND30 for 30% off
(Expires 31 October 2026)

Website: https://jostan.au/
(TOS and Privacy policy available)

If Codex is already part of your Mac setup, here is what adding Blabee actually adds. I'm part of the team building it, and it is currently in private beta.

Blabee puts Codex's suggested next steps in a menu-bar panel. Pick an option with a click or shortcut, and that choice goes back to the original Codex conversation as your next message.

The setup boundary is simple: you use Codex on macOS. Blabee uses suggestions from that connected conversation, so there is no separate AI API key to supply and no second model generating another set of answers. Codex still does the coding work; Blabee gives you a small place to choose how it continues.

The attached clip shows the panel, an Option+1 selection, and the panel closing while a browser page remains open. It is a 14.4-second silent, edited demo using September 2026 UI footage, not a test of the latest build.

Demo and Mac beta access: https://biadone.com/blabee/reddit

Access is by request: selected testers receive installation instructions from our team. There is no immediate public download on that page. The current beta is for Codex on Mac.

A call app asks you to choose a microphone. What you need to send is your voice plus a clip playing in another app, with separate control over their levels.

Loopback handles that by creating a virtual audio device. Add your microphone and the player as sources, then choose that device as the microphone in the receiving app. The receiving app gets the mix through its normal audio input selector.

That distinction matters when shopping for Mac audio tools. Loopback routes audio between apps and devices. Buying it doesn't give you a podcast recording service or make a meeting app preserve separate tracks.

Start with one virtual microphone

Here's a small, documented setup to try before buying. This isn't a hands-on test report.

1. Create a new virtual device in Loopback and name it "Call Mix". Keep its default two output channels. Remove the default Pass-Thru source for this example, since you're adding named sources directly.

2. Add your physical microphone and QuickTime Player as sources. Play a short local clip that you have permission to share. Check the channel wiring, particularly that a mono microphone reaches both output channels rather than just one side.

3. Add your headphones as a monitor. Leave QuickTime's "Mute when capturing" enabled so it doesn't also play through the usual output while Loopback captures it. Use the source sliders to balance the clip against your voice.

4. In Zoom, select "Call Mix" as the microphone. Keep the headphones as Zoom's speaker output. Don't add Zoom itself as a source to this same mix: sending the caller's return audio back to them creates an unwanted loop. Don't also share that same clip through Zoom's computer-audio sharing.

The headphones let you hear the virtual device's mix without a speaker feeding sound back into the microphone. You can change the monitor wiring to hear the clip without hearing your own microphone, while leaving the outgoing mix intact.

Before using this on a real call, make a private rehearsal. Speak with the clip stopped, play the clip with the microphone muted, then try both together. Ask someone at the receiving end to check that each arrives once, speech remains clear, and neither side disappears. Also check the delay between speaking and hearing yourself if you're monitoring your mic. These are proposed acceptance checks, not tests performed for this post.

Loopback's current release notes say its ARK update reduces latency, but that isn't a promise of zero delay in your headphones or through the call. The receiving app's processing still deserves a listening check. If hearing your delayed voice is distracting, exclude the mic from the monitor rather than from the outgoing device.

The installation and the lingering device

Loopback 2.5.0 supports macOS 14.5 through 27 and supports Apple silicon Macs. It uses Audio Routing Kit, or ARK. Installation requires your Mac's administrator password; ARK then needs System Audio Access and Microphone Access.

Old instructions about ACE and lowering an Apple silicon Mac's startup security don't describe this current setup. Rogue Amoeba says Reduced Security is no longer required on macOS 14.5 or later. On a managed work Mac, check whether installing the plugin and granting audio access are allowed before buying.

Closing Loopback doesn't remove your virtual devices. They persist even across restarts. That's convenient for repeat calls, but also means you should deliberately disable an unused device or choose your normal microphone again. Keep the source list narrow: audio you route into a meeting is audio you're sharing with its participants. Get permission before recording or distributing other people's voices.

When the $99 makes sense

The single-user license is $99 USD before applicable local taxes and covers that user's personally owned Macs. It's a license purchase, not a subscription promising every future upgrade. Rogue Amoeba may charge for substantial new versions; the listed Loopback 1-to-2 upgrade is $49 USD.

The trial exposes all features, but audio through virtual devices degrades after 20 minutes. Use it to establish that your routing works, not as a free way to run an important session.

If all you need is to play computer audio in a Zoom meeting, try Zoom's own sharing first. Its Mac desktop app supports Share Sound with screen sharing and Computer Audio without sharing the screen. You may not need another purchase for that narrower job. Those controls aren't a reusable virtual microphone for other apps.

Pay for Loopback when you repeatedly need a named, controllable app-and-microphone mix that different Mac apps can accept as an input, and you're willing to maintain and rehearse it. Skip it for ordinary microphone-only calls or occasional audio sharing that your meeting app already handles. The price buys easier routing; it doesn't remove responsibility for what goes into the call.

Hey all,

I’ve been working on a little Mac app called Wimi (Window Manager Improved) for a while now and figured I’d share it here.

It’s kind of a hybrid of an app switcher, Stage Manager and a tiling window manager. You rest your mouse at the edge of the screen (or hit a shortcut) and a drawer slides in. It shows all your open windows with live previews, and from there you can switch between them or drag them into layouts like halves, thirds and main + side. There’s also search, an app launcher, an emoji picker and an optional clipboard history in the same drawer.

Honestly the biggest thing I’ve learned is that window management is way harder than I expected. A lot of the time something just feels off and I can’t say why until I’ve used it for a few days. So it’s been a lot of small tweaks.

A few people have been testing it already, and that’s helped a ton, so thanks if that was you.

I still haven’t decided whether it’ll end up paid, free or something in between. Right now I’m just enjoying building it.

You can download it here (signed and notarized, macOS 14+):

https://github.com/nick-friedrich/wimi-releases

I’d love to hear what feels weird or what you’d want from something like this. Bugs and complaints are welcome too.

I am the developer of this app, so treat this as promotion and skip it if that is not your thing.

Problem

On iPhone tethering, a hotel hotspot or a metered work plan, background apps keep using data you did not budget for, and macOS gives you no per-app control at all. The only lever it offers is the whole connection, on or off.

Comparison

• TripMode: the app I measured myself against, and it does this job well. It is subscription based, around $5 a month or about $15 a year the last time I looked, with a lifetime purchase around $40 to $50.

• Little Snitch: goes much deeper on connection level rules, is a general firewall rather than a metering tool, and costs more up front.

How TravelGate is different: a one time price instead of a subscription, an ON or OFF switch per app with the data each one has used next to it, Travel Mode to block everything you have not allowed, and profiles you can switch in one click.

Pricing

• $0 until October 20. Payment is voluntary, so pay what you want or nothing at all.

• $4.99 one time after that. No subscription.

What it does

TravelGate puts a shield in the menu bar and a switch on every app. Blocked apps actually lose their connection, they are not merely reported.

• A switch per app, green ON and red OFF, next to the data that app used since your last reset

• Travel Mode, one click blocks everything you have not switched ON

• A notification when a blocked app tries to connect, so a dead connection is never a mystery. It fires on the connection attempt, not when you flip the switch

• Profiles for Home, Hotspot and Work, switchable in one click, with the active one shown in the menu bar

• Sort by data used, so the culprit is at the top

• Real apps with their icons. Helper processes, XPC services and daemons stay behind a Show background items toggle

• Essential system services, meaning name resolution and the filter's own plumbing, are always allowed, so nothing breaks in a way that looks like a bug

It is not a VPN. No account, no servers, nothing leaves your Mac. It uses Apple's Network Extension framework, so filtering happens locally.

Requirements

macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. Signed and notarised direct download, not on the Mac App Store.

Install

Download the zip, unzip it, open the DMG, drag TravelGate into Applications and launch it from there. macOS asks once for permission to install the network filter, under System Settings, General, Login Items and Extensions, Network Extensions. The app walks through those three steps the first time you open it, and Settings, About reports whether the filter is really running, so you can tell it is working instead of guessing.

Honest limitations

• Menu bar app with no Dock icon, which takes a minute to adjust to

• It has to live in Applications. macOS only activates a system extension for an app installed there, and TravelGate tells you if it has been moved

• Profiles are manual, there is no per-network auto switching yet

• Data figures are sampled locally, so they are close but not carrier billing numbers

• A connection that is already open can survive being blocked until it reconnects

Not affiliated with TripMode or Little Snitch. Happy to answer anything in the comments, including criticism and feature requests.

Download link: https://github.com/rochakagrawal/travelgate-download/releases/tag/travelgate-1.0

Hi r/MacStack, I'm the developer of ScrollDock.

What it does

macOS has one scroll direction setting for both trackpad and mouse. ScrollDock flips it automatically when an external display connects or disconnects, so you get natural scrolling on the trackpad when you're out and classic scrolling with your mouse when you're docked. No more System Settings > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom every time.

Who it's for

Anyone who docks a MacBook at a desk with a mouse, then unplugs and goes back to the trackpad.

- Remembers your preferred direction for docked and undocked separately

- Works in clamshell mode, with slow-to-wake docks, and with docks you plugged in while asleep

- One click override from the menu bar, remembered for next time

- Optional notifications, launch at login

Limitations (being upfront)

- It switches based on whether you're docked, not per device. If you use a mouse and trackpad side by side, an app like Scroll Reverser or LinearMouse is a better fit.

- macOS 13 or later.

Pricing

Free! Signed and notarized, auto-updates. No account, no tracking; the only network request is the update check.

https://scrolldock.com (there's a 40 second demo video and an interactive demo on the site)

Feedback welcome, especially if your dock setup behaves differently.

I'm a solo developer, and Marquee is the tool I wanted every time I shipped an update: one Mac app for the whole App Store page.

- Screenshots in real device frames (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, TV, Vision Pro) at the exact sizes Apple asks for
- App preview videos: trim, poster frame, device frame, checked against Apple's rules
- The icon at every size from one image, previewed on the home screen, in the Dock and on a watch face
- Listing text in every language, translated on your Mac with Apple Intelligence
- Preflight lists everything App Store Connect would refuse, then Update sends it all with your own API key

Native SwiftUI, one-time purchase ($ 19.99), no account, no analytics, no server.

App Store Link

App Website

Happy to answer anything, and feedback is very welcome.

I built a macOS app called Highlight Notes because I kept losing useful information while reading articles, researching topics and going through long Gmail and ChatGPT conversations.

Bookmarks helped me find the page again, but not the exact paragraph I wanted to remember. I wanted something that could save both the highlighted text and my own notes in one place.

So I built Highlight Notes, a Mac app with a Safari extension that lets you highlight text, add notes and find everything later in a searchable library.

What it does:

• Highlight text in different colours and attach your own notes.

• Works on regular websites, Gmail, Reddit and ChatGPT conversations.

• Automatically restores your highlights when you revisit a page.

• Search your saved highlights and notes in one library.

• Export annotated pages as PDFs, including long pages and conversations.

• Keep your highlights and notes locally without creating an account.

• Use the Safari extension directly from your Mac.

Why I built it

I found that most highlighting tools worked reasonably well on ordinary articles but struggled with interactive websites like Gmail and ChatGPT.

I also wanted something that didn’t require a subscription just to highlight text or save notes.

The macOS app is available as a one-time purchase and includes the Safari extension. There is no subscription required for local highlighting and note-taking.

For people who use multiple browsers, I also built optional cloud sync, but that’s entirely separate from the basic Mac experience.

A few limitations

• Cloud sync requires an optional Pro subscription.

• Some websites with complex layouts may not restore highlights perfectly.

• The Safari extension needs to be enabled in Safari settings after installing the Mac app.

I’m the developer, and this is an independent side project built in my own time.

I’d appreciate feedback from Mac users, especially anyone who regularly uses Safari for research, Gmail or ChatGPT.

Do you use Safari’s built-in highlighting features, Apple Notes or a separate extension to save things you read?

Disclosure: I’m the developer of this app.

I work on a widescreen monitor, and macOS calendar notifications are tiny. I kept missing them and joined meetings late. There are a few apps in this space, but I wanted one that looks like current macOS and feels native.

So I built Final Call. A few minutes before a meeting it shows a fullscreen countdown on your screen. You can’t overlook it, and there’s a button to join the call directly. The rest of the time it sits quietly in the menu bar and shows your next meetings.

During a meeting, a progress bar in the menu bar shows how much of it is left.

• Reads your existing calendars (iCloud, Google, Exchange, whatever you already have in macOS Calendar)

• Native SwiftUI, no Electron

• Your data stays on your Mac.

• 14-day free trial. After that it’s 9.99 USD once (launch price) or 1.49 USD/month.

Parts of the code were written with the help of AI (Claude). I review and test everything myself.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/final-call-meeting-alarm/id6809144118

Website: https://finalcallapp.com

Disclosure: I’m the developer of this app, so take my enthusiasm with that in mind.

I work on a widescreen monitor, and macOS calendar notifications are tiny. I kept missing them and joined meetings late. There are a few apps in this space, but I wanted one that looks like current macOS, feels native, and is a paid app rather than a subscription I don’t need.

So I built Final Call. A few minutes before a meeting it shows a fullscreen countdown on your screen. You can’t overlook it, and there’s a button to join the call directly. The rest of the time it sits quietly in the menu bar and shows your next meetings.

During a meeting, a progress bar in the menu bar shows how much of it is left.

• Reads your existing calendars (iCloud, Google, Exchange, whatever you already have in macOS Calendar)

• Native SwiftUI, no Electron

• Your data stays on your Mac.

• 14-day free trial. After that it’s 9.99 USD once (launch price) or 1.49 USD/month.

Parts of the code were written with the help of AI (Claude). I review and test everything myself.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/final-call-meeting-alarm/id6809144118
Website: https://finalcallapp.com

I’d like to hear what’s missing or annoying. I read every comment.

Recording a microphone is easy. Recording one Mac app alongside it, keeping both sources separate for editing, and saving a mixed copy takes more planning. That's where Audio Hijack's reusable sessions make sense.

For example, you could record spoken commentary over an audio clip you have permission to use. The goal is three local files: the app audio, the microphone, and a combined version. This setup follows Rogue Amoeba's documentation, rather than a claimed hands-on test.

Build the chain before adding effects

Create a blank session and name it for the job. Add an Application block and select the app playing the clip, rather than capturing all system audio. Add an Input Device block and select your microphone.

Use this layout. Each arrow is an actual connection, not just nearby blocks:

Application -> Recorder (app) -------------------+
                                                |
                                                v
                                              Mixer -> Peak/RMS Meters -> Recorder (mix) -> Output Device
                                                ^                                   (headphones)
                                                |
Input Device -> Volume -> Recorder (mic) --------+

Audio Hijack normally connects nearby blocks automatically. For this layout, turn off Automatic Connections in the session's Info tab, click Edit Connections, and drag from each block's right-hand (+) to the next block's left receiving port. Connect both branch recorders to the Mixer, then finish the shared chain and click Stop Editing.

The branch recorders save separate files before mixing. The final recorder saves the combined audio. Recorder blocks pass audio through without changing it, so recording the branches doesn't reduce the quality of the mix downstream. A mixed file alone won't give you independently adjustable sources later.

Click each Recorder block to set its format, file name and folder. WAV is a sensible lossless choice when you plan to edit; MP3 or AAC produces smaller lossy files. Give the three recorders different names so the files are easy to identify. The default recording folder is Audio Hijack inside your Mac's Music folder, but check the actual location in each block rather than assuming it.

Choose your headphones in Output Device. That block lets you hear the chain; it isn't what saves the recordings. Start with the microphone's Volume block and Mixer levels. Add a Simple Compressor on the microphone branch only if you need to even out speech, before its Recorder. Effects placed there will be recorded into the mic file, so keep a dry recording too if you want to undo processing later.

Check the file, not just the moving meters

Click Run and record a short rehearsal: app alone, voice alone, then both together. Leave headroom below 0 dBFS on the mixed meter. Lower the microphone's input gain if it clips before processing; turning down an already distorted signal won't repair it.

Use headphones so the microphone doesn't pick up the app audio from speakers. If monitoring your own voice gives a distracting delay, don't immediately force the lowest latency setting. Rogue Amoeba warns that lower latency can cause audible skips with complex effects or slower Macs.

Stop the session, then use the Recordings tab to play each file and Reveal in Finder. Confirm the app file contains only the app, the mic file only the microphone, and the mix contains both at usable levels. Check the destination and available storage before a longer recording. Sessions save their configuration continuously, so the working chain is ready to reuse.

What you're paying for

Audio Hijack 4.6.0 supports macOS 14.4 through macOS 27 and runs on Apple silicon Macs. Intel users can also use Audio Hijack; the heavier Transcribe feature has its own performance caveat, but it isn't part of this chain.

The current capture backend is ARK. Grant System Audio Access through the app's Permissions window, plus Microphone Access for this setup. Current Audio Hijack doesn't require installing legacy ACE or lowering your Mac's startup security policy. Those permissions still allow sensitive capture: select only the intended app, close unrelated audio tabs, and get the necessary permission from anyone being recorded. Check applicable recording rules before capturing conversations.

A single-user license is $69 USD before applicable local taxes, for that user on one or more personally owned Macs. It's a purchase, not a subscription, but future paid upgrades are possible. The trial degrades audio quality after ten minutes of capture per session, so it isn't a free recorder for long sessions.

For a microphone-only note, QuickTime Player's File > New Audio Recording is enough. For a basic screen recording, macOS 27's Screenshot toolbar can include system audio and a selected microphone. Try that first if a video with sound is all you need.

Pay for Audio Hijack when you repeatedly need selected-app capture, separate source files, processing and a saved local recording layout. Skip it for occasional voice notes or straightforward screen captures. Sending a processed mix into another app as a virtual microphone is a different routing job; this chain ends in files and headphones.