System audio
Screen recording with system audio and mic
Both recorded, on separate tracks with separate gains, with no virtual audio driver to install first.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · one email when the first build is ready
This is the oldest complaint about screen recording on a Mac. macOS exposes no route to system audio through QuickTime, so the standard advice is to install a virtual audio driver like BlackHole, route your output through it, record, and then remember to route it back.
It works. It is also a kernel-adjacent audio driver installed to solve a recording problem, and it silently breaks your speakers the first time you forget the last step.
Both, directly, as separate tracks
Prequel captures system audio and your microphone alongside the screen, with no virtual device involved and nothing to switch back afterwards.
They are separate tracks with separate gains. That distinction is worth more than it sounds. A notification landing at full volume over a sentence is a slider afterwards instead of a reason to record the whole thing again, and a demo where the app's own sound matters can have that sound sitting under your narration at whatever balance you want rather than whatever balance the room happened to produce.
The webcam is a fourth track, captured at the same time and never burned into the screen recording.
Why your screen recording is black
If you have arrived here from a recording that came out black: that is almost always the Screen Recording permission. macOS hands back empty frames rather than an error when it has not been granted, which reads as a broken app rather than a missing checkbox. Grant it under Privacy and Security in System Settings, then start the recording again.
What you get out
One MP4, H.264 or HEVC, at up to 4K and up to 120 frames per second, at a constant frame rate — which is what keeps audio in sync after an upload.
Recording, editing and export all happen locally, on your Mac's own media engine. Nothing is uploaded to produce the file.
Automatic
It arrives already directed
A raw screen recording is flat — one distance from the viewer for the whole take, with the thing that matters too small to see. Prequel watches where you click and type while it records, and opens the editor with that pass already made.
- Zooms placedOn every click and every burst of typing
- Camera framedShaped, sized and set in a corner
- Background appliedPadding, radius, border and shadow
- Audio balancedMicrophone and system on separate gains
- Cursor cleaned upSmoothed, resized, hidden when it idles
The editor
Everything you would have done in post
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Zooms that follow the work
Push in on the cursor, a region or whatever you are typing into. Level, speed, tilt and yaw, with progressive blur falling away from the focus.
A camera you frame afterwards
Circle, squircle, rounded or wide, in any corner and any size. The webcam is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Backgrounds worth shipping
Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids. Padding, radius, border and shadow on top.
Cuts on a real timeline
Trim the dead air, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip and a playhead that scrubs. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
A cursor that behaves
Four pointer styles, resized to survive a zoom, and gone from the frame after a few seconds of stillness rather than parked over your work.
What you see is what exports
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file is the frame you approved — not a close approximation of it.
Quality
Exports that hold up
A video that looks produced is worth nothing if the file is soft. Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine — hardware H.264 or HEVC, composited in Metal — so 1080p60 records without dropping frames and 4K is a setting rather than a compromise.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
One MP4, shaped for wherever it is going
Switch a recording from landscape to vertical and the look holds — the framing is stored in proportions, not pixels, so nothing slides off the frame on the way.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Be there for the first build
Prequel is in development. Leave an address and we will send it the day it is worth installing.
Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Do I need to install BlackHole or a virtual audio driver?
No. macOS gives no route to system audio through QuickTime, which is why the usual advice is to install a virtual driver and route your output through it. Prequel captures system audio directly, so there is nothing to install and nothing to switch back afterwards.
Are the microphone and system audio recorded separately?
Yes — two tracks, two files, two gains, kept apart all the way to the export. That is what makes the balance an adjustment rather than a re-record: nothing is mixed down until you ask for the MP4.
Can I record system audio without my microphone?
Yes — each is switched on independently before you record. A recording with system audio and no microphone is the usual shape for capturing a video call playing on your screen or a piece of software making a sound worth hearing.
Why is there no sound in my screen recording?
Either the source was not switched on before recording, or the Microphone permission was never granted. System audio rides the Screen Recording grant, so it works as soon as the screen does; the microphone is a separate permission macOS asks for the first time you use it.
Can I fix the balance after recording?
Yes, and that is why they are kept apart. Each track has its own gain and its own mute, set per clip, so the music under a demo can drop for the sentence that matters and come back afterwards.
Why is my screen recording black?
Almost always the Screen Recording permission. macOS returns empty frames rather than an error when it has not been granted, which reads as a broken app. Grant it in System Settings under Privacy & Security, then start the recording again.
What do I need to record system audio on a Mac?
An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later and the Screen Recording permission — that one grant carries system audio as well as the picture. Recording your microphone alongside it needs macOS 15 or later, where it rides the same capture stream, plus the Microphone permission.