Mac Note Taker
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Zoom on macOS Sonoma 14.2+

How to record Zoom on Mac without a bot.

macOS Sonoma 14.2 finalized ScreenCaptureKit's audio-only capture path. Mac Note Taker uses it to tap Zoom's system audio at the OS mixer, mix it with your mic locally, and hand you one diarized transcript. Nothing leaves your Mac.

Get lifetime - $149Jump to the 3 steps

The recipe

Three steps, about three minutes.

  1. 01

    Install Mac Note Taker

    Download Mac Note Taker from macnotetaker.com, drag it into Applications, and grant Microphone + Screen Recording permission on first launch. macOS Sonoma 14.2 or newer is required because that is the macOS version where Apple finalized the ScreenCaptureKit audio-only path.

  2. 02

    Start your Zoom meeting

    Open Zoom and join the call as normal. You do not need to add a bot participant, change Zoom settings, or ask the host for cloud-recording permission. Zoom only sees you - the human in the call.

  3. 03

    Click record in the menubar

    Click the Mac Note Taker menubar icon and press Record. The app captures your microphone and Zoom's system audio in parallel, diarizes them on the Neural Engine, and gives you a finished named-speaker transcript when the call ends.

Why not a bot?

Cloud notetakers are loud, visible, and slow.

The bot joins as a participant.

Your customer sees a third name in the Zoom roster. Sales calls feel like a deposition. Job interviews feel monitored. The bot is the most-noticed person in the call.

Your audio goes to their cloud.

Bot-based recorders upload the call to a third-party transcription pipeline. Your compliance team gets a new vendor to review. Your finance team gets a new monthly invoice.

Zoom's native recording needs host approval.

You can't hit Record on a Zoom call you didn't host, unless the host explicitly lets participants record. Mac Note Taker doesn't ask Zoom for anything.

ScreenCaptureKit is the modern path.

Apple shipped ScreenCaptureKit with macOS 13 and finalized audio-only capture in Sonoma 14.2. It taps the OS mixer directly. No BlackHole, no Loopback, no QuickTime hack.

Permissions Zoom + Mac Note Taker need

Three checkboxes, one time.

  • Microphone for Mac Note Taker. Captures your voice via AVAudioEngine at 16 kHz mono.
  • Screen Recording for Mac Note Taker. This is the entitlement ScreenCaptureKit ships under - even when only audio is being captured. macOS labels it this way for historical reasons.
  • Microphone + Camera for Zoom itself. Normal Zoom setup. Mac Note Taker doesn't touch Zoom's permissions or settings.

What you get

A finished transcript, not a raw audio file.

Speaker-labeled transcript

Mic stream is force-labeled You. Remote speakers get matched against the cross-meeting voice fingerprint database.

AI summary

Local Ollama by default. Bring your own OpenAI key for GPT-class quality. Never our cloud.

Action items

Auto-extracted decisions, owners, and due dates from the transcript.

Open exports

Markdown, JSON, SRT, and plain text. Open the file in whatever tool you already use.

$149 lifetime. Three Macs.

First 100 buyers pay $79 with code FOUNDER. No subscription. Free updates while you own a Mac.

FAQ

  • Does this work on Sonoma 14.0 or 14.1?

    Technically yes for screen capture, but the audio-only path was rough until 14.2. We require 14.2 to guarantee clean system-audio capture.

  • Will Zoom notice or block Mac Note Taker?

    No. ScreenCaptureKit reads at the OS mixer level. Zoom does not see a virtual device or a tap.

  • Can I record Zoom Phone calls too?

    Yes. Any Zoom client audio routed through the Mac is captured.

How to record Zoom on macOS Sonoma without a bot (both sides) · Mac Note Taker