Info Tech for Non-Profits

Record the system audio on your Mac with Blackhole and the Audio MIDI Setup app

Ever want to record the audio that is playing through your Mac speakers/headphones? Then Blackhole is the tool for you. Once installed, you will need to open the Audio MIDI Setup app (which comes preinstalled on your Mac), created a new multi-output device by clicking the ➕ in the lower-left corner of the window, then checking Blackhole and whichever other output you wand to use to listen to the audio. I actually created a bunch of these, one for each output I might want to use: speakers, headphones, bluetooth…

Now simply choose Blackhole 2ch as the input in your Mac's Sound Preferences Panel, and the multi-output device you created above as the output. You can use QuickTime Player to record, GarageBand, or any other audio recording app.

Get Blackhole—virtual audio device for Mac

A pragmatic framework for making A/B decisions

Here's a framework I use for A or B decisions. There are 3 scenarios:

1. One is clearly better than the other.
2. They are both about the same
3. I'm not sure; more data is needed.

1 & 2 are easy. In the first case, choose the better one. In the second, choose the one that in your gut you like better (or use the "flip a coin" trick, and notice if you have any resistance to the "winner". That's a great reason to go with the "loser").

It's the third case that's hard. It requires more research or more analysis. But here's the thing: there are costs to doing this work. You have to decide if the opportunity cost to delve in is worth the investment to increase the odds of making  the better choice.

My experience shows that—especially for people who lean heavily on logic and rationality like myself 😁—we tend to overweight "getting it right" at the expense of making a decision and moving on. Switching costs are often lower than you think, and failing fast is actually a great outcome. Unless you are sending a rover to Mars where there is literally no opportunity to "fix it in post-", I suggest you do a a nominal amount of research and analysis, then make a decision and move onto other things in your life. Revisit as needed.