How to Record a Sound on a Mac

Most Macs come with a sound recording application so simple it's called SimpleSound. You can record a sound on a Mac using a microphone or other device.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Computer Headphones
• Computer Speakers
• CDs
• Deck II (Mac)
• Mac OS 9.0
• SoundEdit 16

Selecting the Sound Source

1. Click the Apple menu and select Control Panels; select Monitors & Sound.

2. Click the Sound icon.

3. Under Sound Monitoring Source, select one of the seven input sources (where the sound will come from): Built-in Mic, External Mic, Sound In, Expansion Bay, CD, Zoomed Video, Internal Modem, RCA In, DAV Analog In, or PC Card. Some systems may not have all choices.

4. Choose Sound Output Quality: 11.025, 22.050 or 44.100 KHz. Some systems may not have all choices.

Recording the Sound

1. Click the Apple menu and select Simple Sound.

2. Click the File menu and select New. You're presented with a window set up like the controls on a tape recorder.

3. Click the Record button and start your sound (either speaking or singing into a microphone, or playing your CD, or whatever).

4. Click the Stop button when you're finished. You can click Play to check what you recorded.

5. Click Save. You're presented with a Save dialog box in which you can name the sound file and place it in whatever folder you like.

Tips & Warnings

• Expansion Bay is typically a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive on a PowerBook.

• If SimpleSound isn't in the Apple menu, search for it with Sherlock (press Command-F).

• To play the new sound file later, just double-click its icon to open SimpleSound.