Audio that only exists while it plays
A web radio set, a live mix, a talk you cannot download anywhere. Cinch records what leaves your Mac's speakers, so the source does not need to offer a save button.
Result: one file, or one per detected trackCinch Audio Recorder for Mac · v1.1.7
Record the audio playing on your Mac
Music apps, browser tabs, online radio, recorded lessons. Press record, let it play, and Cinch hands you back named files with cover art in a folder you choose — not one anonymous 40-minute take.
- macOS 13.5 or later
- Apple silicon and Intel
- Local library, works offline
Free to try: 9 songs, no email and no account. The button opens the current installer on our sister domain, cinchsolution.com, which is where we host the Mac package. Not on a Mac? The Windows trial is here.
Does it fit your job
Four things people buy this for
If your situation is on this list, the Mac version covers it. If it is not, say so at support and we will tell you straight rather than sell you a download.
A playlist you want offline
Record the session once, then let recognition label the songs and write title, artist and album into the files, with cover art and lyrics where it finds them.
Result: tagged MP3, M4A or FLAC you can move anywhereLessons, briefings and long recordings
Two-hour lecture, four-hour radio show, back-to-back interviews. Silence detection cuts at the gaps and throws away clips too short to be a real item.
Result: separate files instead of one long scrubA folder that got out of hand
Import audio you already have, fix the tags in batch, refresh artwork, merge parts, or make ringtones. Everything stays searchable in the local library.
Result: named files in artist and album foldersFirst run
The permission prompt is the part that trips people up
On a Mac, an app can only hear your own system audio through the screen-capture path. So the very first recording triggers a Screen Recording request. It looks alarming and it is normal.
-
Install and open Cinch
Drag the app from the downloaded package into your Applications folder, then open it once so macOS can register it.
-
Allow the capture permission
When prompted, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen Recording and switch Cinch on. If you dismissed the alert, the same list has the switch.
-
Restart Cinch, then set the output folder
macOS only applies the permission after a relaunch. Quit and reopen, choose where files go in Settings, and start the playback you want to capture.
-
Record something short you already know
Play 30 seconds of a familiar track. Watch the level meter move while it plays, stop, then listen back to the saved file before you commit to a whole album.
If the first file is silent
Check that nothing is muted and that playback and capture use the same output; Bluetooth headphones that reconnect after you started the test are the usual culprit. Streams that are copy-protected can also stay silent no matter which recorder you use, so test more than one source before you judge the app.
Privacy & Security Screen Recording
Cinch Audio Recorder Wants to record audio played by this app
Some other recorder Switch off, so its captures have no audio
Still stuck after that? The Mac changelog lists what changed in each release, and support handles installation trouble directly.
After you press stop
One big unnamed file, or a shelf of named ones
Most simple recorders export a single file per session and stop there. Everything below is what happens in Cinch once the same recording finishes.
A recording you have to clean up by hand
Recording_2026-10-12_21-14.wav
No titles, no artist, no artwork
Then you open an editor, hunt for the gaps, export nine clips and rename them yourself.
Finished files, already filed
Output folder / Midnight Drive / Selected Works
01 - Midnight Drive.mp3
02 - Browser Radio Set.mp3
Archive - full session.wav
The library keeps all of it searchable, so you can find the file again next month without remembering what you called it.
Formats
Which one to pick, if you have not decided
The Mac version writes MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, OGG and ALAC, with 128, 192 or 320 kbps for the lossy ones. Two rows cover most people.
| Format | Choose it when | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| MP3 default pick | You want the file to play everywhere — a car stereo, a phone, an editor from ten years ago. 320 kbps for music, 128 is fine for speech. | Some quality you will probably not hear over laptop speakers. |
| M4A / AAC | You live in Apple apps and want smaller files than MP3 at a similar listening quality. | Less universal support on older non-Apple hardware. |
| FLAC / ALAC | You are archiving. Lossless, so the file keeps everything the capture had, plus tags and artwork. | Bigger files. Some players still will not read FLAC. |
| WAV / AIFF | You will edit, normalise or master the audio afterwards and want no decoding in the way. | Very large, and tagging is weak, so keep names sensible. |
| OGG | Your target app or game engine already uses it. | It is not the format most people's library is built around. |
One setting worth turning on: keep the lossless WAV archive alongside your compressed tracks. It costs disk space, and it saves you re-recording a show that has left the air.
What is inside the Mac version
Grouped by the job it does for you
Capturing
- Records your Mac's own playbackMusic apps, browsers, web players and radio — nothing to paste, no account to connect.
- Live level meter and timerYou can see the audio arriving before you trust a long session to it.
- Keeps the Mac awake mid-recordingA two-hour set does not stop because the display slept.
- Cuts at silence, drops tiny clipsTrack breaks come from gaps in the audio, not from you watching a clock.
Naming the audio
- Song recognition through ShazamKitApple’s own matching, with ACRCloud used as a fallback when there is no result.
- Tags, cover art and lyrics filled inWhere a match is found, the metadata is written into the file, not kept in a side list.
- Edit anything by handRecognition is wrong sometimes. Change title, artist, album or cover in the app.
- Import files you already ownBring existing recordings into the same tidy-up pass.
Finding it again
- Local library with searchEverything you recorded, indexed on your own Mac rather than in someone else’s cloud.
- Preview and open the filePlay it back or reveal it in Finder without leaving the window.
- Artist and album foldersExports are filed as they finish, into the output folder you set.
- Batch edit, refresh, merge, ringtonesFix a whole session at once instead of one file at a time.
Living with it
- Automatic update checks since v1.1.7The app tells you when a new build is out, instead of you guessing.
- Output location is yours to choosePoint it at an external drive if the internal storage on your Mac is tight.
- Free to try before you buyNo email address and no account required to get the installer.
- Changelog you can readEvery Mac release, in plain language, on its own page.
Before you download
Will it run on this Mac
Two checks: your macOS version and your chip. Click the Apple menu and choose About This Mac to see both.
| Current Mac version | v1.1.7, released 4 June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Operating system | macOS 13.5 or later — Ventura, and anything newer |
| Processor | Apple silicon (M1 and later) or Intel |
| Memory and disk | 512 MB RAM and 100 MB free space at minimum, plus room for your recordings |
| Where to get it | The download button on this page, hosted on cinchsolution.com |
| Cost to try | 9 songs free, with no email and no account |
| Needs while recording | Screen Recording permission, and a playback device that stays put |
| 1.1.7 | Added automatic update checks with a clearer in-app update experience. |
|---|---|
| 1.1.6 | Improved song recognition accuracy and metadata matching. |
| 1.1.5 | Added more export format options and improved in-app playback. |
| 1.1.4 | Improved audio recognition reliability across more sources. |
Licensing, refunds and anything version-specific for your machine go to the support centre. We would rather answer before you buy than after.
Questions people ask first
Straight answers before you install
Do I really have to give it permission to record my screen?
Yes, and only because of how macOS is built: an app can only pick up the audio your own machine is playing through the screen-capture path. The alert is system-generated, not something Cinch invented. Allow it in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen Recording, relaunch the app, and record. If you said no the first time, recordings stay silent until you switch it on.
Will it record Spotify, a web player, or a browser tab?
It records whatever comes out of your Mac's output, so yes in principle for browsers, web radio and desktop music apps. The honest caveat: content that is copy-protected can produce silence or unreliable capture, and no recorder can promise otherwise. Test one short clip from the source you care about before recording something you cannot replay, and keep it to audio you are entitled to record for your own use.
Where do the recorded files actually go?
Into the output folder you choose in Settings. Finished tracks are sorted into artist and album subfolders with their tags and cover art written in, and the library keeps a searchable index so you can preview a file or open its folder later.
Can it turn one long recording into separate songs?
That is the splitter's job. It looks for gaps in the audio, cuts there, ignores clips too short to be a real item, and finalises each piece as its own file. Recognition then names what it can. A radio show with talk breaks between tracks is the easiest case; a continuous DJ mix has no gaps to find, so expect fewer pieces.
Does the Mac version need the internet?
Capturing and playing back your library work locally. Song recognition is the part that needs a match: Apple's ShazamKit first, then ACRCloud when Shazam does not recognise the audio. If you record somewhere with no connection, name the files afterwards by hand — the tag editor is in the app.
What does the free trial let me record?
Up to 9 songs. That is enough to check the things you cannot judge from a description: whether your sources capture cleanly, whether the silence splitter cuts where you expect, and whether the tags and cover art are worth trusting. Files you recorded stay on your Mac. If the workflow fits, the lifetime licence is on the buy page.
Do I need an account, or to give an email address?
No. The installer is free to download and try, and the download does not ask for contact details. If you decide the workflow is worth keeping, licensing and payment are handled from the buy page, and Mac-specific questions go to support.
My Mac is older than macOS 13.5. Anything I can do?
Update macOS first if your hardware allows it — Ventura is free and that is the floor for the Mac version. If the machine cannot go that far, tell support the model and the current system and we will say plainly whether the Mac app is usable there.
What is new in v1.1.7?
Automatic update checks with a clearer in-app update flow, plus bug fixes and general stability work. The Mac changelog has the full history back to v1.1.3.
Try it on one track
Give the installer thirty minutes, not a weekend
Download it, allow the permission, record one song you know well, then check the file, its tags and where it landed. That is enough to know whether the Mac version fits how you work.
Download for Mac — v1.1.7 Compare with the Windows version
9 songs free · macOS 13.5 or later · Apple silicon or Intel