Separ8 guide: setting up and recording

Watch the walkthrough

Installing

Double-click the downloaded file and follow the Installer instructions. It will ask for your password. This installs the app and a small audio component.
Your sound will cut out for a second during installation. That is expected.
Separ8 needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later). Intel Macs are not supported yet.

Signed and notarized with an Apple Developer ID. This means it installs clean with no security warnings. The password prompt is for the CoreAudio component that captures your Mac's output.

Quick start

Let macOS know it's allowed

The first time you open Separ8, macOS asks for permission to record your screen, and to use your microphone and camera.

With screen recording, macOS often needs Separ8 to quit and be reopened before it takes effect.
Choose what to record

Click Capture options in the Screen row.
The Control bar then appears at the bottom of your screen, above your dock.

Here in the Control bar is everything about how the screen is captured, where you can see the result while choosing it.
1. Full screen, Selected area or Window are the screen capture area modes.
2. Ratio appears in "Selected area" mode only. Pick 16:9 for horizontal video, 9:16 for vertical, or Freeform for custom area sizes. Click and drag anywhere on the screen to set your recording area. Separ8 also remembers your previous capture mode settings.
3. Frame rate gives you the option to change the frame rate of the screen recording. 60fps is smooth and recommended; 24fps or 30fps is easier on your Mac if you're recording alongside something demanding, Even at 60fps with everything armed, Separ8 uses well under one CPU core.
4. Show clicks draws a ripple wherever your mouse clicks on the screen. Click on Show clicks to activate this mouse clicking effect. Click on the color toggle to the right of it to change the color of the mouse click accents. This is not available in window mode, because the ripple isn't part of the window being captured. Sorry — it's a meta system issue.
While the Control bar is open, the rest of your Mac isn't accessible. Separ8 sits above any app you have open. This is so you can set your screen recording frame on top of whatever you plan to record. Click Done when you're ready to record, which will dismiss the Control bar to access any other open application underneath Separ8.
Pick your sources

In the main window, tick the checkbox for what you want recorded. Each ticked row becomes its own file. Nothing is mixed together.

That's the point of the app. Your screen, your webcam, each microphone and your computer's sound all record separately. This way every file can be edited independently.
Record

Click Start Recording.

Your framed capture area border will turn red.
Stop

When you're finished, there are two ways to stop the recording. You can tap the Separ8 recording icon in your menu bar, and click stop recording.

Alternatively, if you leave the main Separ8 window open during recording, you can also stop the recording there by clicking "Stop Recording." The window itself does not show up in the screen recording.

Beyond the quick start Where recordings go · Opening in your editor · Computer audio · Cameras · Microphones

The five steps above are all you need to make a recording. Everything below is a deeper dive.

Here is where we go over where files land, how computer audio really works, cameras, microphones and what to check when something looks wrong. Read it when a question comes up, not before.

Where your recordings go

By default, ~/Movies/Separ8. Change it with Choose… in the Output section.

Every source gets its own file, all sharing one name:

session_2026-08-28_143022_video.mov — your screen
session_2026-08-28_143022_webcam.mov — your camera
session_2026-08-28_143022_mic.wav — your microphone
session_2026-08-28_143022_computer-audio.wav — your Mac's sound

More cameras follow the same pattern, numbered like their rows: _webcam-2.mov, _webcam-3.mov.

They all start at the same moment, so they line up when you drop them into your video editor software.

Work in a 60 fps video timeline if you want smooth screen recording playback. If you set the screen recording to 60 fps, and choose a slower timeline in your video editor, you'll have to deal with discarded frames from the video. This means scrolling and cursor movement will look choppy. Sync between audio and video will hold either way, but decide at the project level on how smooth you want your screen recording to look.

Opening a timeline file in your editor

Separ8 can save a timeline file that opens in your video editor with every track already lined up. Choose your editor under Timeline for in the Output section: Final Cut, Resolve or Premiere. It starts on whichever one you have installed. Choose None to skip it.

The Output section, with Timeline for set to Final Cut, beside Resolve, Premiere and None.

The timeline is saved next to the recording's files, with the same name. To open it:

Final Cut Pro: File > Import > XML, then choose the recording's .fcpxml file.
DaVinci Resolve: File > Import > Timeline, then choose the .otio file.
Premiere Pro: File > Import, then choose the .xml file.

Your screen, every camera and every sound file arrive stacked on a 4K timeline at your recording's frame rate, all starting together. A screen recorded at another size is fitted to the frame, so scale it however your project needs.

Your screen and camera files carry a copy of your sound. It's a small compressed copy of your captured audio sources for checking sync against the full-quality WAV files. In Resolve and Premiere these copies come in below the WAV files, switched off and labeled sync reference, so you hear everything once. Switch one on if you want to compare. In Final Cut they stay part of each picture clip, just as when you drag the files in yourself.

Recording your computer's sound

Tick Computer audio. Separ8 routes your Mac's sound through its proprietary audio driver and passes it straight to your selected audio output.

The Computer audio row armed, showing where the sound is being heard and the sample rate.

Next to the checkbox, you'll find a gain compensation drop down menu, and an audio volume meter. The gain compensation lets you adjust the signal from your computer into Separ8. This is great for recordings where the computer audio is very quiet and you need to boost it. Before hitting record, you can play your computer audio and use the meter to get a visual as to how loud the signal is. A healthy peak volume is when most of your audio is in the green, with the occasional yellow. If it turns red, your audio is clipping into the recording and will distort.

The line underneath tells you where you're hearing it. By default, it will play the sound through your previous system output setting. In most cases, you don't need to change this setting. The "Same as before" drop down menu is where you can select a different output device if you like.
The bottom line of that section displays the device your Mac is currently playing through and its sample rate. Separ8 always records at 48 kHz. If your audio interface is set to 44.1kHz, that line says so and the recording is converted. That's normal, not a problem.

Most software needs no configuration

Separ8 acts as a bridge between all apps that normally produce sounds through your Mac's normal audio output. (Browsers, Apple Music, video calls, etc.) When you tick Computer audio, Separ8's internal audio driver routes and captures all of that for you so there is nothing to set up.

Music software is the exception

A DAW picks its own output device, separately from your Mac's system setting. To use Separ8 to capture your DAW audio, point your DAW's output to Separ8 Audio.

Logic Pro — Settings → Audio → Output Device
Ableton Live — Settings → Audio → Audio Output Device
Pro Tools — Setup → Playback Engine

Separ8 routes your DAW audio through its internal audio driver for capturing. Make sure to set your system output to your preferred device, NOT to the Separ8 Audio driver.

The same goes for any other application where you select your own output. (OBS, various conferencing apps, etc.)

Set your DAW back when you're finished. The Separ8 Audio driver only routes sound while Separ8 is running. If you quit Separ8 while your DAW is still pointed at it, you won't hear anything.

Playing an instrument while you record. Your DAW's sound reaches your ears through Separ8 on its way to your interface, and that adds a small delay. If it gets in the way of playing, turn on Low latency monitoring in Separ8, beside the computer audio destination. It roughly halves the delay. It costs a little processor and leaves less room for error, so if the sound breaks up, turn it off.

Sample rates

Separ8 always records at 48 kHz — it's a screen recorder, and video tools expect it. If your interface is running at 44.1 kHz, Separ8 automatically changes its own sample rate to match, and then converts to 48 kHz.

So you don't need to change anything. If you'd rather record natively and skip the conversion, set your interface to 48 kHz in Audio MIDI Setup (Applications → Utilities), and set your DAW project to 48 kHz as well. A DAW takes the interface over and forces it to the project's rate, quietly overriding whatever you chose in Audio MIDI Setup.

Don't change the rate partway through a recording. Opening a 44.1 kHz DAW project while you're already recording at 48 kHz will likely cause some timing and pitch problems in your recorded audio because your interface will automatically switch its sample rate. Separ8 shows you the rate before you start so you can settle it first.

Webcams and cameras

Pick a camera in the Webcam row and a small preview window appears.

Hover over the preview window for its controls.

S / M / L resize it. You can also drag its edges, and drag the middle to move the entire preview window.
The × hides the preview. Your webcam keeps recording — this only closes the preview window. Bring it back with the Show preview button in the Webcam row.
The preview window is never part of the recording, so feel free to set the size and placement however you prefer to see yourself.

More than one camera

With another camera connected, Add another webcam appears under the Webcam row. Each camera gets its own row, its own preview window and its own file, numbered like its row:

_webcam.mov the Webcam row
_webcam-2.mov Webcam 2
_webcam-3.mov Webcam 3

USB webcams, cameras in their webcam mode, an iPhone as a Continuity Camera and HDMI capture cards all work, in any mix. Separ8 has been tested with three at once.

The screen drops to 30 fps when you arm a second camera. At 60, the screen and several cameras together are more than most Macs can record smoothly, so Separ8 switches it for you and says so at the top of the window. It goes back to your frame rate when you're down to one camera. If you'd rather keep 60, pick it again on the Control bar.

4K cameras and capture cards

Separ8 records each camera at its largest widescreen picture, up to 4K, at up to 30 fps. That includes a camera's HDMI output through a capture card like the Elgato Cam Link 4K, which gets the camera's full 4K picture.

A camera that can send more than 1080p gets a 4K / 1080p switch under its row. 4K is the sharpest picture. 1080p is a quarter of the work for your Mac, and it's the first thing to change if a recording is losing frames.

How much your Mac can record at once

The screen and every camera are compressed as they record, by your Mac's video encoders, and those have a limit. Macs with a Max or Ultra chip have two or more encoders. Other Macs have one, so they reach the limit sooner.

For a sense of scale, here's an M1 Max recording a 4K screen at 30 fps:

Three 1080p cameras: every frame recorded.
Swap one of them for a 4K camera: a few percent of frames lost, from the screen and one camera. You can see it as an occasional stutter.
Switch that camera to 1080p, or capture a 1080p area of the screen instead of the whole of it: every frame recorded again.

You don't need to work this out in advance. If your Mac keeps losing frames during a recording, Separ8 says so straight away and suggests what to change, most useful first: switch a 4K camera to 1080p, capture a smaller part of the screen, use fewer cameras, or set a 60 fps screen to 30 fps.

Frame rates

Cameras record at up to 30 fps, which sits cleanly in a 30 fps or 60 fps timeline, where screen recordings belong anyway.

When to record in the camera instead

Separ8's camera recordings are good quality footage, quickly, already in the folder and in sync with everything else. That's right for tutorials, walkthroughs, talking heads and performance reference. For the camera recording you're planning to color grade, record independently in the camera.

Compression. Cameras as sources in Separ8 are recorded as H.264, 8-bit 4:2:0, at about 9 Mbps for 1080p and 37 Mbps for 4K (around 16 GB an hour). That's about what YouTube recommends uploading 4K at, and well below what cameras record to their own cards.
Log profiles don't hold up. Separ8's camera files are 8-bit, and S-Log3 and other log profiles are made for 10-bit. Stretched back out with a LUT, 8-bit log shows banding in smooth areas like walls, skies and skin, and lifts the noise. A higher data rate can't help, because the shades are gone before the picture reaches your Mac. For footage going straight into the edit, use a profile that looks finished out of the camera, like S-Cinetone on a Sony.
Syncing the camera's own recording is easy. Whenever a microphone is armed, every Separ8 camera file carries it as a reference track, so your editor can line up footage from the camera's card by sound.

Every camera has its own delay. A USB webcam or an external camera takes a moment to get its picture to your Mac, and how long depends on the camera and its settings. Its file lands a few frames behind everything else, and because it's its own file, you can simply nudge it into place in your timeline. Built-in webcams don't have this lag.

Microphones

Two microphone tracks named Host and Guest, each on its own channel with its own gain and meter. — The red highlighted window shows two microphones on two channels of the same interface. You can have two different names, two different gain settings, two audio meters, and two separate files.

Name the track by typing over "Microphone." The name you type gets printed into the filename, so "Host" and "Guest" are more easily distinguishable than "mic" and "mic-2".
The Channel drop-down menu picks which input on your interface to arm for that track. An interface with twelve inputs gives you twelve choices.
The Gain compensation drop-down menu lets you boost a signal. Before recording, check the audio meter beside it as you feed it a signal and aim for mostly falling in the green. If it reaches red at any point, it's too loud and can't be fixed later. Experiment before recording to find the right adjustment.
Click Add another microphone if you want to capture more than one input source. Each gets its own file.

Staying up to date

Separ8 checks for new versions on its own and offers them when ready. To check for updates manually, use Check for Updates… in the Separ8 menu.

Uninstalling Separ8

When you run the Installer, you're really installing two things: the app itself, and the Separ8 Audio driver.

Open the Separ8 menu and choose Remove Separ8…. It asks to confirm, then asks for your password to take the audio component out.

This removes the app and its audio component, and restarts your Mac's audio so the device disappears cleanly. Your sound will cut out for a second.

Your recordings are never touched, wherever you chose to keep them. Your settings are left too, in case you reinstall; the script tells you how to clear those as well.

TROUBLESHOOTING

If a track came out silent: Separ8 tells you after a recording if a track recorded nothing. Usually it's a source that wasn't playing, or a microphone on the wrong channel.
If your DAW recorded nothing. Its output is probably still pointed at your interface rather than Separ8 Audio — see above.
If the screen recording is blank. Screen permission almost certainly needs granting, and Separ8 quitting and reopening afterwards.
If computer audio says the driver isn't installed. Run the installer again — it installs a small audio component alongside the app, and the app can't record your Mac's sound without it.
If your Mac won't respond to clicks. The Control bar is probably still open. Click Done.
If the recording is smaller than your screen. On a display bigger than 4K (a 5K iMac or Studio Display, or a Mac set to a scaled resolution) Separ8 records at 4096×2304 rather than the full size. Mac's video encoder can't keep up while you record beyond 4k, and starts throwing frames away. On a 5K screen, it loses roughly half of them, which is a stuttering video. Recording at the 4096×2304 cap keeps every frame instead. The Screen row always shows the size you'll actually get, and QuickTime does the same thing for the same reason.
If frames were dropped. Your Mac couldn't compress everything fast enough. If it keeps happening, Separ8 says so during the recording, and it always says so afterwards, with what to change: switch a 4K camera to 1080p, capture a smaller part of the screen, use fewer cameras, or set a 60 fps screen to 30. See How much your Mac can record at once under Webcams and cameras. If you were recording to an external drive, the internal disk is worth trying too.
If a camera gets unplugged mid-recording, the other tracks keep recording, and Separ8 names the camera that stopped. Plug it back in and its preview comes back by itself.
If a camera gets switched off when running through a capture card, the capture card never stops sending. When the camera goes off, or its battery runs out, the card sends black or a "no signal" screen instead. Separ8 watches each camera's picture, and if it stops changing for two seconds, says so during the recording and again when it's saved, with the times.
If your editor shows a lower frame rate than you chose. Nothing is wrong. Separ8 writes a frame only when the screen actually changes, so a recording with still moments averages out below the rate you picked, which is what keeps the files small and your Mac running more efficiently. Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve both read the timing correctly and stay in sync. Resolve's inspector reports the true average, which is where that number comes from.

Found a bug? Use Report a bug at the bottom of the window. It copies the technical details for you and opens the form where you can paste the diagnostic. Those details matter very much. Most problems are unique to your specific audio setup, which is almost impossible to describe from memory. Please remember to paste in the diagnostic.