Recipe: Making a livecoding screencast with QuickTime and RecordIt

Aug 2021

#livecoding
#quicktime
#screencast

This post shows how to make a livecoding screencast using free macOS technologies.

Capturing system audio and screen-recording your live coding performance can be done in multiple ways. Here's a method based on Apple's QuickTime and an audio plugin that is part of third-party software called Record It.

Note: Both of these software components are free. The Record It Audio Device is a free extension that enables you to capture system sounds on your Mac. It acts as a virtual audio input device and sends the sound from music, videos, and system alerts that you would normally hear through your speakers to the input channel.

Recording a screencast: Steps

Get the Record It audio plugin. (PS: This is a free audio extension, even though it is part of paid software: RecordItAudioDevice.pkg)
1. Install it by right-clicking on the app and selecting "Open..." to avoid the permissions issue
In Audio MIDI Setup, create an Aggregate Device to combine multiple audio interfaces
1. Increase the sample rate to 96 kHz if necessary
Open QuickTime and set it to record your screen, making sure you capture audio from the Record It audio plugin
Set your DAW (e.g., Ableton Live) to output audio to Record It
Set your computer to output sound to the Aggregate Device (so that you can also hear what's going on, e.g., if you are using headphones)

DONE!

Post-processing tips

Often, the audio I get from a QuickTime screencast recording is rather weak.

I found an easy way to fix this by using iMovie, which normally comes with any Mac. Here are the steps:

Open the livecoding screencast in iMovie
Detach the audio (right-click on the movie bar to see the options menu)
Adjust the volume in the audio track editor by dragging the mouse up or down (avoid red zones!)
1. Additionally, you can try using the top left menu: Music Settings > Equalizer > Music Enhance
Save the new movie: Share > File
- Resolution: 720p 60
- Quality: High
- Compress: Faster

Results: For a 10-minute video, this gives me a .mp4 file of approximately 250 MB.

Upload to YouTube and off you go!

Cite this blog post:

Michele Pasin. Recipe: Making a livecoding screencast with QuickTime and RecordIt. Blog post on www.michelepasin.org. Published on Aug. 30, 2021.

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