WireTap Studio

WireTap Studio is a powerful application, capable of recording audio from any input – whether from your system, or an external device. Once recorded, you can organize your audio tracks within the application and use the professional editing tools.

LivePreview lets you preview your quality settings in real-time, before you even start recording. Everything is lossless, and WireTap Studio also has full Audio Unit effects support, for adding professional quality effects to your audio.

Price: $69
Developer: Ambrosia
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later

Audio Hijack Pro

Audio Hijack Pro prides itself on being able to record audio from any input whatsoever. If you can hear it, you can record it. You can even record audio from multiple applications at once – good for recording interviews on Skype, for instance.

Multiple formats are supported, and recording is even crash-protected, so you won’t lose audio if the app crashes whilst recording. A few effects are included, and the interface is impressive.

Price: $32
Developer: Rogue Amoeba
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later

Garageband

Bundled with Apple’s iLife suite of apps, Garageband is a stylish and comprehensive audio recording tool. Although it can’t record from the same versatile array of sources, it has powerful editing features and is well on the way to being a professional tool.

Garageband is particularly good for creating podcasts and ringtones for your iPhone, with advanced support for both included.

Price: Free (Bundled with OS X)
Developer: Apple
Requires: OS X & iLife

TwistedWave

Another all-in-one package, TwistedWave allows for recording, editing and exporting – all through a fairly simple interface. It can automatically detect and strip silences, batch process tracks, export to the iPhone ringtone format, and has all manner of other useful features.

Price: $79.90
Developer: Thomas Thiriez
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4

Audacity

A freeware, open source app, Audacity works across multiple platforms. You won’t find the same polished interface here, but it won’t cost you a penny to use. It’s capable of recording from various sources, detailed editing, and exporting to an array of formats.

Not the easiest app to use, but worth investigating if you’re looking for a low cost solution.

Price: Free
Developer: Open Source
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1 or later

Radioshift

We decided to also include a few “radio recording” apps in this lineup, the first of which is Radioshift. From the good folks at Rogue Amoeba, it has a comprehensive radio station guide, listings, the ability to record multiple stations at once, and a direct export to iTunes.

Price: $32
Developer: Rogue Amoeba
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later

Snowtape

Finally, Snowtape is another excellent radio recording app. We reviewed Snowtape recently, and found it to be a great way to browse stations and easily record tracks to your local library.

The interface is remarkably well polished, and it’s a fun piece of software to experiment with!

Price: $29
Developer: Vemedio
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5.2