App · v2.0.2 · macOS · Apple Silicon · Intel

Iriscord

One click in the menu bar captures whatever your Mac is playing. Straight to the Desktop, in the format you want.

Iriscord records the audio your Mac is already playing. A radio set streaming in a browser tab, a reference track on a page with no download button, a synth demo buried in a video — click the menu-bar icon to start, click it again to stop. The file is on your Desktop before you've switched windows.

No window, no project file, no export dialog. It lives in the menu bar as a small purple square, and the dot goes red while it's running. That is the entire interface. Option-R starts and stops it from anywhere.

Right-click the icon to choose a format: MP3 at 320 kbps, or 24-bit WAV and AIF if it's going into a session. Everything is captured at 48 kHz stereo straight off the system mix — no aggregate device, no loopback driver, no cables.

On macOS 14.2 and later it records through Core Audio and only asks for System Audio Recording permission. On macOS 13, system audio sits behind the Screen Recording permission, so it asks for that instead, and it still never captures your screen.

If the Mac crashes or loses power mid-take, the recording is repaired and handed back the next time Iriscord opens.

Built for my own sessions, mostly for pulling references fast. Free, and it uninstalls itself from the same right-click menu.

Iriscord includes libmp3lame 3.100, the LAME MP3 encoder, under the GNU LGPL v2. Its source code is at lame.sourceforge.io.

Requirements

macOS 13 Ventura or later. Universal binary: Apple Silicon and Intel. Signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click. Needs System Audio Recording permission on macOS 14.2 and later, or Screen Recording on macOS 13.