Why did my recording come back silent?

Two common causes. The first is choosing a single window rather than an entire screen, which captures only that window's audio and can miss the sound you wanted. The second is the platform: on systems where the browser only offers tab audio, there is no path to the machine output at all.

Which platforms support whole screen audio?

Chromium browsers on Windows are the reliable case, where the whole screen option carries the system output. On other platforms the same dialog typically offers tab audio only, so the tool reduces to tab capture and the hint about choosing an entire screen no longer applies.

Can I record just one application?

Not selectively. The choice offered is between a window and a whole screen, and a window is not the same thing as an application when the program has several windows. If you need to isolate a single source, the tab recorder is a cleaner fit whenever that source happens to be a web page.

Does it capture the microphone as well?

No. This is an output capture, so your own voice is not part of it unless a program that is playing includes it, which is what happens in a call where both sides are mixed to the output. Recording your microphone separately is a different take.

What happens to the video track?

It is stopped immediately after the share is confirmed. Video has to be requested for the audio option to be offered at all, so it is asked for and then discarded, which keeps the saved file audio only and avoids any video data being retained.

System Audio Recorder

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System Audio Recorder captures everything the computer is playing, rather than one tab or one application. It works through the browser's screen sharing dialog, where the whole screen option carries the machine's output audio.

What is System Audio Recorder?

Press the record control, complete the screen share dialog by choosing an entire screen, and the machine's audio starts being written to a WAV. The panel builds the file on stop and offers a preview and a download, exactly as the rest of this family does.

The controls and the platform reality:

One record control that opens the browser's screen sharing dialog.
A hint telling you to choose an entire screen rather than a window, because that is what carries system audio.
A live timer and indicator while recording, and a preview plus download afterwards.
A label reporting the duration, mono or stereo, the sample rate and the WAV conversion.
An error path that distinguishes a dismissed share from a browser context where the capture is unavailable.

Two details decide whether this works. The first is the choice in the dialog: a single window carries that window's audio, while an entire screen carries the machine's output, so the whole screen option is the one that fulfils the promise of recording system sound. The second is the platform. Chrome and Edge on Windows offer a whole screen option whose audio is genuinely the system output, and on other platforms the browser can typically only offer tab audio, which means the same tool produces a different result. The capture requests audio and video because the audio option only appears alongside video, and the video track is stopped immediately so nothing visual is retained. From there the route is the usual one: a live compressed capture, a decode, and a 16-bit WAV written locally with no upload at any stage.

Where it falls short:

On platforms whose browsers only offer tab audio, this cannot reach the machine's output at all.
Choosing a single window instead of the whole screen records only that window's sound, which surprises people who expected everything.
System notifications and alert sounds made by the operating system itself are not part of the browser's audio path and may be missing.
There is no per application control, so you cannot exclude one program while capturing the rest.
Levels are whatever the machine happens to be playing at the time; there is no metering and no gain control, so a quiet source stays quiet and a hot one stays hot.
Anything played through hardware that bypasses the browser's audio pipeline may not be captured.

Use it when the sound you need is coming from outside the browser, or from several applications at once: a desktop application, a game, a call in another program, or a mix of sources. Check the platform limitation first, because on some systems the tab recorder will be the only option that actually captures anything. Two checks are worth making before you start: silence anything you do not want in the file, since everything the machine outputs is captured, and keep the recording as short as the job allows, because a long system capture accumulates a great deal of material that has to be cut away afterwards.

How to use System Audio Recorder

Press the record control to open the browser's screen sharing dialog.
Choose an entire screen rather than a single window, since only the whole screen carries system audio in Chromium browsers.
Record the take; every sound the machine plays is written into the capture.
Press stop, then download the WAV from the preview panel.

When to use System Audio Recorder vs related tools

System Audio Recorder is for output that comes from outside the browser or from several programs at once. Browser Tab Recorder is the more reliable choice when the sound lives in one page, because tab audio is offered on every platform rather than just some. When the source is a stream being played in a tab, Streaming Audio Recorder frames that same job with its own guidance, and Audio Trimmer is the natural follow up for cutting the useful section out of a long capture.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.