Today I presented Wa-tor to lunch and learn and got some final feedback before making my video. I had a moment or two where I did not save to make the test fail, and moved on to writing the solution. I just need to make sure to put that in my muscle memory. But now it’s time to actually record the video and I figured I’d write my blog post today on a few tips I’ve learned about recording a coding video on macOS with programs right out of the box.

Screen Recording

You can screen record with quicktime player.

  • Open Quicktime player.
  • Go to File > New Screen Recording.

From here you can choose to record the whole screen, a selection of the screen, or a certain application.

Voice-Over

I have been using iMovies voice over feature for this until recently. It may be the easiest, but also comes with the least amount of control. For this I think it’s best to record in Garage Band and import into iMovie.

  • Open Garage Band
  • Create a new track
  • Open your screen recording in Imovie
  • Record your voice-over while watching your screen recording
  • Add music if you’d like
  • Adjust volume levels so the music doesn’t drown out your voice
  • Import audio file to iMovie
  • Sync the screen recording with the voice-over

Other things to note

  • Make sure the music you choose is either public domain, or that you have the rights to use it if you don’t want YouTube pulling your video.
  • The upload process for YouTube takes nearly an hour, so it’s best to give yourself enough time to upload your video before trying to send it to someone.
  • Make sure to sound happy to be there. No one wants to listen to yet another monotone coding video.

I hope these tips help you become the next YouTube coding influencer!