Audio Hijack: Record Any Audio
Record any audio. Three simple words explain exactly what you can do with Audio Hijack. Record from applications or from microphones and other hardware. Whether you want to record a podcast or archive streaming radio from the web, Audio Hijack is here to help.
Getting Started
We recommend having a quick read-through of this manual, but you can also just dive in if you like. You can refer back to the full manual for assistance at any time by accessing it from the "Help" menu.
Updated in Audio Hijack 3.3.1
Major Enhancement: Instant On has been updated to version 8.3, with preliminary support for MacOS 10.12 (Sierra).
Minor Enhancement: The “Install Extras” window has been modernized.
Bug Fix: Timer conflict detection has been revised and no longer incorrectly identifies conflicts between unrelated Sessions.
Bug Fix: An issue where iTunes couldn’t successfully edit tags in newly recorded .mp4 files has been worked around.
Bug Fix: VoiceOver users can now properly access the expanded contents of recordings and timers.
Other: Several other small improvements are included.
Updated in Audio Hijack 3.3
Major Enhancement: It's now possible for advanced users to lower audio processing latency! The new latency slider in Audio Hijack's preferences can be adjusted to reduce or remove any slight echoing you may hear while monitoring audio flow through Audio Hijack.
Major Enhancement: Audio Hijack now offers safer recording for AAC and Apple Lossless (ALAC) files, to avoid any loss of audio in the event of an issue. There are now two different “Container” options. The new .mp4 is recommended, but the older .m4a option remains available.
Major Enhancement: Capturing audio from the Slack application is now fully supported when Instant On is installed.
Major Enhancement: The Instant On component has been updated to version 8.2.6, with a plethora of small fixes and improvements.
Enhancement: Files in the Recordings tab can now be right-clicked to access a contextual menu, offering controls for manipulating the recording.
Enhancement: The Schedule area of the Home window will now visually indicate when conflicts exist between timers.
Enhancement: The Time Shift block has been improved in several ways, fixing a display issue with large jumps, providing a better VoiceOver value, and improving the explanatory text.
Enhancement: Presets for several blocks have been improved to save additional settings, including saving album art as part of Recorder block presets, saving all settings in the Application source block, and saving the specified channels in an Output block.
Enhancement: When an audio device's name changes, Audio Hijack will immediately reflect the new name.
Enhancement: The Menu Bar Meters block now has proper Retina art in the menu bar. Our long, blurry nightmare is finally over. As well, the desired meter type is now correctly saved.
Enhancement: VoiceOver improvements! When VoiceOver is active, a “Pin Popover Open” option is added to contextual menus for blocks. The popover window's role has also been adjusted, so popovers appear in VoiceOver's Window Chooser. Finally, labels for the “Close” and “Pin” buttons in popovers have been improved.
Enhancement: AirPlay output device name changes are now better recognized, and a better title (“No AirPlay Receiver Selected”) is shown if AirPlay doesn't have a destination set.
Bug Fix: The display of app names for background processes (accessible by holding option while clicking the Source selector in an Application block) has been improved.
Other: Many other smaller problems, rare crashes, and other issues have been corrected.
What's New in Audio Hijack 3?
If you used an older Audio Hijack app before, check out the New in Audio Hijack 3 page to see what changed starting with Audio Hijack 3 and see below for information on purchasing a heavily-discounted upgrade.
System Requirements
A Macintosh computer
Mac OS X 10.9 or higher
Installation and Removal
To install Audio Hijack, just drag it from your download folder to the Applications folder.
If you ever wish to remove Audio Hijack, simply drag it to the Trash.
Purchasing Audio Hijack
We provide a free trial of Audio Hijack for you to test. During the trial, the quality of audio captured with Audio Hijack is intentionally degraded after ten minutes. The full version of Audio Hijack can be unlocked with a license key from our online store.
When you're ready, head over to our store to purchase Audio Hijack.
For more information, see the Purchasing page.
Upgrading to Audio Hijack 3
If you've ever purchased a license for a product with "Audio Hijack" in the name, you're eligible for a heavily-discounted upgrade to Audio Hijack 3.
The Audio Grid is the heart of each Session. To set up a Session, two or more blocks are added from the Block Library to the Audio Grid. Connections will be made automatically between nearby blocks, and you can always experiment to get the exact audio pipeline you're after. If you need to, just select Undo to revert undesired changes.
MP3 is the most popular format for audio compression, making it the most universal file type; MP3 files can be played almost anywhere. MP3 files are compressed lossily, meaning some audio quality may be lost when they're created. However, the files are also very compact, using only a small amount of disk space.
Though not as universal as MP3, AAC is another well-known format for audio compression, popularized by Apple. As such, AAC files play well on the Mac and iOS devices, but may not be as easy to play elsewhere. Like MP3, AAC files are compressed lossily, meaning some audio quality may be lost when they're created. AAC files are generally even more compact than MP3, using slightly less disk space for the same level of quality.
As you might expect, the Apple Lossless format was created by Apple. It's a lossless compression format, which means that even though the files are shrunk down in size, no audio quality is lost. Though they are compressed to around half the size of uncompressed AIFF/WAV files, these files will still be quite large. They'll play on all iOS devices and in iTunes, as well as in many applications on the Mac.
FLAC is an open competitor to Apple Lossless. Like Apple Lossless, it offers lossless compression, creating large files of around half the size of uncompressed AIFF/WAV files but losing no quality. FLAC is a popular format for web distribution of lossless audio. Unfortunately, FLAC files currently require special plugins or players on the Mac, and do not play on iOS devices.
AIFF and WAV are twin uncompressed audio formats, which generally work identically. While AIFF was once used largely on the Mac platform and WAV used largely on Windows, they're now each compatible on both platforms. These files have no compression, so they're enormously large, but as with Apple Lossless and FLAC, no quality is lost. AIFF and WAV files will play in almost any audio player.
Every aspect of Audio Hijack has been thoughtfully examined and considered, with enhancements made across the board. If you haven't used Audio Hijack before, you'll find it's a snap to get started.
Built-in templates will help you create Sessions for the most common tasks. Whether it's recording from a web browser or cranking up the volume on a quiet laptop, you'll be able to get started faster than ever.
Clear away clutter with Audio Hijack's new full-screen mode. It's great for giving you the maximum amount of space to adjust your Session and get it just right. And if you're looking to concentrate on a distraction-free view while recording audio, particularly from hardware devices, full-screen mode will help you there too.
With Audio Hijack 3's powerful new presets, you can save your settings for a particular Block, then use them again in other Sessions. Saving a custom Equalizer setting in one Session and using it in another is fairly obvious, but presets are available with almost every block. If you have a tricky Application Source that needs custom settings, or a detailed Recorder Block configuration, you can save them once, then access them in any Session with a few clicks. Dive in and you'll find presets are a tremendous time-saver!
The "Instant On" extra has long provided you with the absolute most powerful audio recording. With Instant On, you can capture all System Audio at once. When it's installed, you can also pull audio from already-running applications with no need to relaunch.
Audio Hijack now features three custom plugins for one of our users' most popular requests — cleaning up audio. The brand-new Denoise, Declick, and Dehum plugins are powered by code from iZotope, an industry leader in audio technology. Use them to improve the sound of records, tapes, and other lower-quality audio.
With the new default recording options, you can make a quick selection from a half dozen sensible options. But power users should fear not! All the powerful recording options Audio Hijack has always offered are still available in our "Advanced Recording Options", just a click away.
This one’s especially for the podcasters. With our new audio grid setup, you can easily record to multiple formats in sync. Now you can record to compressed and lossless formats together, with just a single click. The Record button will activate everything at the same time.
We've long offered "bullet-proof" recording, which meant that even if a crash occurs, audio is saved. Previously, however, this feature was confined to the MP3 and AIFF formats. In the event of a problem, audio recorded to the more fragile AAC and ALAC formats could be lost. No longer! Now, recordings made in all formats will be preserved if you have an unfortunate computer malfunction.
Speaking of audio formats, audiophiles will be thrilled to know that Audio Hijack can now record directly in the popular lossless FLAC format.
We’ve worked to make audio effects a lot simpler, and prettier too. There's no need to be scared! They're fun and easy to play around with, so you can get the exact sound you want.
Audio Hijack 3 is the successor to all of our previous "Audio Hijack" products, including Audio Hijack Pro 2, Audio Hijack Pro 1, Audio Hijack 2, and Audio Hijack 1. Consumers and professionals alike will be able to harness unparalleled audio capture power with Audio Hijack 3. Best of all, if you've owned any previous Audio Hijack product, you can