Using Computer Audio as Microphone on Macintosh

Have you ever wanted to record a file of an online audio stream or something? Perhaps you don't like using youtube-mp3.org but still want to rip music off YouTube. Whatever your motive is, I do frequently record my computer audio. The process was unfortunately quite obscure and involved a lot of internet searches. And now I'm going to tell you how.

Step one: Download and install SoundFlower.

Once done, you should see it as a device in your sound menu.

But you can't stop here; there's one more crucial step for it to work properly. So...

Step Two: Open Audio Midi Setup

Step Three: Press the plus button in the bottom left to create a multi-output device.

In the list in the bottom, select only Soundflower (2ch),
(although I believe 16ch works as well), and Built-in Output.

Step Four: To record computer audio, you will need to do two things. First, go to audio settings, and under Output, select Multi-Output Device.

Then, go to Input and select either Soundflower (2ch) or (16ch), whichever one you chose for your Multi-Output device. If you're using stereo headphones, I don't think it makes a difference.

Note the registering audio input. I was listening to Nixon in China.

This worked very well for me. There doesn't seem to be any loss in audio quality. As a matter of fact, I used this system to obtain the album Naqoyqatsi (which isn't available for purchase online) from some chap who uploaded it to YouTube.

The good thing about this system is that if you use an application such as Audacity, then you can output it in whatever format you wish - for this particular case, I wasn't limited to not very good quality mp3 files - you can do whatever you want this way. FLACs, OGGs, AIFFs... Anything is possible!

OpenOffice, LibreOffice, NeoOffice, etc. Won't Restore Windows

I think many people have had this problem, and I've found a solution (thanks to forum-type people).

A few months ago, OpenOffice, upon opening, would prompt me to restore or not restore windows. However, clicking either of the buttons would just reset the window to its default state without doing anything. And the only way to quit was with force quit.

So I got LibreOffice, a piece of software almost identical to OpenOffice, but, well, Libre.

It worked pretty well for a few months, but at some point it prompted me with the same error message.

At this point, I had a few options: I could get another word processor, I could try to fix it myself, or just not have access to any of my files. I have Pages, it's a great word processor, but it can't open .odt format, so I still wouldn't be able to open any of my files.

The first option was to get NeoOffice (yet another word processor). On its site, the latest version, supposedly "free", has to be paid for. Well, they say that you have to become a "NeoOffice Donor". Basically, they want you to give them money.

The next option was to fix it myself. I fished around for a few options, and I found one. It told me to go to:

Users/Library/Saved Application State

And delete the file:

org.openoffice.script.savedState

Unfortunately, the folder "Library" didn't seem to exist inside "Users", so I kind of gave up on that.

So that took me back to option one. But Pages still doesn't support .odt format. So I searched for a solution again, and found one that works. I've compiled the solution into some easy to follow images, in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, and all you're trying to do is make a word document-

Also, I didn't have anything better to do. Anyway, here it is:

In Finder, open the "Go" menu.

Hold down option, and while doing so, click on Library, which just appeared.

Now, go to Library-Saved Application State-org.openoffice.script.savedState (if you're using libreoffice or neooffice, it will say that instead)

Move that entire folder to the trash, then empty it. Do you like my desktop picture?

Yes, it's supposed to say Blue Square - "K". Go away.

No Sound On Mac OSX

Recently, I was using my computer, when I realized that there was no sound, input or output. I restarted it, and everything was fine.

If you're having this problem, I hope this helps. In case you were too dumb to try restarting it first.


Oh, and