Record video: camera, screen or both

Rooster records straight into a project, so a take is ready to edit the moment you stop.

Open the recorder

Any of these opens it:

• Choose File > Record Video… (⌘R). It opens in the mode you last chose, or in Camera when Rooster has just opened.
• Choose File > Record and pick a mode.
• Press Record video on the welcome screen, or Record at the top of the sidebar or in the row under the video.

Choose what to record

Rooster has four modes:

Mode	What it records
Camera	Your camera and microphone
Screen	A display or one app's window, your Mac's sound and your microphone
Screen + Camera	Your screen, with your camera in a small floating window you can move
Audio only	Your microphone, with no picture - for a podcast or a voiceover

Camera and Audio only record inside the editor window, over the canvas. The two screen modes use a small floating recorder, so the editor is not in the shot.

Choose your camera and microphone

The recorder shows the camera and microphone it will use. Click either to choose another, or No camera or No microphone to leave one out. In the screen modes you also choose the display or window to record.

The gear button, Recorder settings, holds the rest:

• Format and Quality for the shape and size of the picture.
• Mirror camera, which mirrors only the preview - never the recording.
• Mac video effects… for macOS's own camera effects, such as Center Stage and Studio Light.
• Record Mac audio and Show pointer, in the screen modes.
• Countdown before a take starts: Off, or three, five or ten seconds. It is three seconds unless you change it.
• Where takes are saved, with Choose… to pick another folder. See Where Rooster saves recordings and exports.
• Transcribe when recording ends, on unless you turn it off.

Record a take

1. Press the record button, or Space (Space). The countdown runs, then recording starts.
2. Press the button or Space again to stop.

Pressing the button or Space during the countdown cancels it. To close the recorder without recording, press Close recorder or Escape (Esc).

Where the take goes

With a project open, the take is normally added to it at the playhead, and the recorder's destination menu reads Insert into the script. Choose New project from that menu to make the take a project of its own instead. If the open project cannot take the recording, the menu is not offered and the take becomes a new project.

With no project open, the take becomes a new project. Either way, the file is saved to your Mac and Rooster starts transcribing it.

If the recorder cannot see your camera, microphone or screen

macOS asks the first time Rooster uses your camera or microphone. If you said no, the recorder offers Open Camera settings or Open Microphone settings.

macOS never asks for Screen Recording. The recorder shows Screen Recording is off and Open Screen Recording settings: switch Rooster on there, then quit and reopen Rooster.