While ‘serious’ musicians scoff at GarageBand for its simplified interface, it’s hard to deny the skull-smashing power of this ‘entry-level’ application. (Though I’m sure we’ll put it there, too.) GarageBand is so easy to use, it is often our go-to tool for quick voiceovers and other audio projects, such as podcasts.Īnd if you want to do more than record a simple audio recording, GarageBand can do that, too. At that price, we actually feel more awkward about putting it on the list of paid apps than we do putting it here. Technically, GarageBand doesn’t belong on a list of free recording applications, because…well, it’s not free. Get Studio One 3 Prime here back to menu ↑ GarageBand While the application is free, you do need to have a PreSonus user account to download Studio One Prime. Studio One Prime is a pared down version of Studio One that comes in additional Artist and Professional flavors which have more features and flexibility. While Studio One Prime tops our upcoming list of free audio editing applications for the Mac (spoiler alert), it sits a bit lower on this list because it’s more than the average person needs to do a simple audio recording.

(We had quite the debate.) Do yourself a favor and check out this mainstay of audio recording, which is also available in Windows and Linux flavors.ĭownload Audacity back to menu ↑ Studio One Prime In fact, Audacity could easily have been our number one choice. Quicktime took our top spot because it comes stock and is simple to use, but Audacity rules the day when it comes to features in a free audio recording application. We currently published the first part of our own full-fledged tutorial on how to best use all of Quicktime Player’s features, or you can check out Apple’s guide, “How to Use Quicktime Player”. Oh, and we mentioned this was already on your Mac, right?

Quicktime Player offers several options for exporting your files, but if you don’t see what you need, just save it to disk and go from there. We’re not saying you’re going to record a multi-track song with Quicktime Player, but this app can record video and/or audio, as well as create screen captures from either your computer or attached iOS device. Not only does it play a wide range of audio and video formats, it’s an essential recording resource to have in your toolbox. This application, which is part of the stock Mac operating system, is quite the little powerhouse. In fact, Quicktime Player may be the most poorly named Apple product out there. Not what you were expecting, was it? After all, Quicktime Player is just that: a player, right? Wrong.

Free recording for mac