How to Record Lectures on a Laptop (In Class and Online)

To record a lecture on a laptop in the hall, use its microphone: Voice Memos on a Mac, Sound Recorder on Windows 11, or Audacity on either, with the laptop as close to the speaker as you can get. For an online lecture you also need the computer's own sound (system audio). Ask your lecturer first.

A laptop microphone is built for a voice about an arm's length away. A lecturer at the front of a hall is much further, so where you sit decides more than which app you use.

• Sit near the front, in line with where the lecturer speaks. If the hall has loudspeakers, a seat near one helps.
• Keep the laptop open and plugged in. Closing the lid usually puts it to sleep, which can stop the recording.
• Type softly or not at all: the microphone sits right next to the keyboard, and every keystroke is louder to it than the lecturer.
• Fan noise builds up in a long recording. Close heavy apps and browser tabs before the lecture so the laptop stays cool and quiet.
• Mute notifications, then record 30 seconds at the start and play it back before the lecturer gets going.

1. Open Voice Memos and click the Record button.
2. Apple lists the built-in microphone, a supported headset or an external mic as sources.
3. Click Pause during a break and Resume to continue; click Done to save.
4. Open the transcription to read along while recording or afterwards, where Apple offers it (Apple says it is not available in every country or region). Search finds words in titles and transcriptions.

1. Open Sound Recorder and allow microphone access when it asks (or in Settings, Privacy & security, Microphone).
2. Start recording. Microsoft says one file can run up to three hours, enough for a long lecture.
3. Pause with the Pause button or the Space key.
4. Microsoft says recordings are stored within the app and deleted if you uninstall it, so share or copy the ones you want to keep.

Audacity is free and open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Choose the microphone under Audio Setup, Recording Device, and press the red record button. Audacity suggests a level of about -18 to -12 dB when someone speaks normally; a far-away lecturer will sit lower, which you can raise afterwards with the Amplify effect. When the lecture ends, use File, Export Audio to save an MP3 or WAV; saving the project keeps an .aup3 file that only Audacity opens.

An online lecture on Zoom, Teams, Meet or your course platform plays through the laptop's speakers or headphones. That is system audio, not microphone audio. Voice Memos and Sound Recorder record the microphone, so with headphones on they hear nothing of the lecture. You need a tool that captures system audio.

• If the lecturer records the class in Zoom, Teams or Meet, ask for that recording first. Only the host, or people the host allows, can press the meeting app's Record button.
• Windows: in Audacity, open Audio Setup, set the Host to Windows WASAPI and pick the output you listen on, marked as loopback. Start the lecture audio first: Audacity notes that WASAPI cannot record when nothing plays. Everything on the laptop is recorded, notification pings included.
• Windows: Xbox Game Bar (Windows key + G) records the window as an MP4 with all computer sounds when its capture audio is set to All; Windows key + Alt + R starts and stops it.
• Mac: press Shift-Command-5, and in Options choose Include System Audio, available on macOS 27 or later; on earlier versions a microphone is the only sound you can choose. Audacity says macOS has no built-in desktop audio recording, so older Macs need extra software.

The free tools above give you an audio file to listen to again. If you want the lecture as text you can search, Reline (we make it) records on your laptop and writes a live transcript as the lecturer talks, in 60+ languages. It covers both cases: the microphone in the hall, and the laptop's system audio for an online class.

1. Install the Reline app for Mac or Windows and sign in. The Free plan needs no card.
2. Allow the microphone. For online lectures, allow system audio too: on a Mac, macOS 14.2 and later ask for an audio-only permission, macOS 13 to 14.1 for the screen recording permission, and on macOS 12 only the microphone is recorded.
3. In the hall, pick a USB microphone under Settings, Transcription, Microphone if you use one.
4. Press Record when the lecture starts. The transcript appears line by line while the lecturer speaks.
5. Stop at the end. You keep the audio and the transcript, with a play button on every line to hear that moment again.

In a hall, everything comes through one microphone, so the whole transcript is labelled Me. On Windows, Reline records everything your default output plays during an online lecture, so mute other apps. Cannot install anything? Reline also runs in Chrome: it hears the microphone at once, and for a lecture playing in a browser tab you share that tab with its audio.

• No mobile app: you record on a laptop (Mac, Windows or Linux beta) or in Chrome.
• On the Free plan, one note records up to 1 hour, so a 90-minute lecture does not fit in one note. The Free plan includes 10 hours of transcription, which a term of lectures uses up.
• It transcribes while it records. It cannot import a file you recorded earlier with Voice Memos, Sound Recorder or Audacity.
• It records no video and none of the lecture slides: audio and a transcript only.
• No flashcards or quizzes. You can ask your notes a question in chat, and the answer quotes the transcript with timestamps.

A recording only helps if you use it before the exam. Keep it for your own study, do not share it without permission, and delete it when the course ends. For a way to revise from recordings without re-listening to every hour, and for a comparison of AI note takers built for lectures, read on:

• Apple Support, Voice Memos User Guide for Mac, "Create a recording" and "View a transcription": support.apple.com
• Apple Support, "How to record the screen on Mac" (102618): support.apple.com
• Microsoft Support, "Sound Recorder app for Windows: FAQ": support.microsoft.com
• Microsoft Support, "Use a screen reader to record your screen with Xbox Game Bar": support.microsoft.com
• Audacity, home page: audacityteam.org
• Audacity Support, "Recording your voice and microphone", "Recording desktop audio" and "Saving and exporting projects": support.audacityteam.org