Shout-out: Happy birthday today to my Mom!

There are a number of applications and processes that help make PreviewCast and phpBB Weekly happen. One of those apps is Audio Hijack Pro. Audio Hijack Pro is one of a small handful of apps that serve a unique purpose: to record audio coming out of your Mac into an audio file.

The core essence of Audio Hijack Pro is this. You can select any application on your computer that outputs audio, “hijack” the audio, and then record it. AHP comes with presets for a couple of applications such as DVD Player, iChat, iTunes, QuickTime Player, Safari, and Skype, however you can set it for any application on your computer. When you click Hijack, then any audio that the application outputs to the computer will instead be routed to Audio Hijack Pro, and AHP will become responsible for outputting the audio. (There’s a Mute button available that can Mute the audio from outputting through your speakers, if necessary.) To actually record the audio, hit Record.

Audio Hijack Pro also offers many many options for how you want your audio to come out, including support for AIFF, AAC, MP3, and Apple Lossless. You can also very cleanly refine the bitrate, quality, and many other settings as well, including a more advanced area where you can add filters and effects. (Not that I use them.) And of course, Audio Hijack Pro offers a “Default System Input” option if you just want to record something through your microphone.

The one place that Audio Hijack Pro falls short is that it is not one of those drop-dead simple apps that most people want to have at their disposal, however the application will hopefully get easier to use in the future. However, it is a very effective app for helping me make usable recordings of things from Skype chats to YouTube videos, and be able to do things with them, and it many users may find it a very useful tool in this fashion.

Final Rating:

Tags: audio, hijacking, Mac, podcasting, recording, review, Software, utility