Screen Recording on Mac Mini (Sonoma) with OBS and EpocCam Pro

screenshot taken as I was writing this post

So, one of my clients want me to record tutorial videos. And, here is my guide for the same.

Please remember that making videos (like the tutorial videos you can see on my own YouTube channel, for example)

is not something that is ‘easy’ to make. There is a lot of effort that goes into making these videos. Especially when you are working alone. A 30 minute video can take up 4 hours, and if it’s a a coding video, up to 8 hours (working alone) to be ready to upload and available for others to see.

First up, you will need the following, which is my current setup.

1. Mac mini (or any new Mac that is currently sold by Apple)
2. iPhone (for high quality visibility of your face with its front camera)
3. Epoccam Pro (no, not the free version. free version is useless for this purpose)
4. Stand for your phone. (and getting this right is going to be a task)
5. OBS for Mac (I tried to use Twitch Studio, but, it looks like they are ending support)

Here are some essential links. (no, I am not getting any commision for putting these links here. This is a free blog publication with no ads as far as I know. I don’t think medium shows ads)

1. https://www.elgato.com/us/en/s/epoccam
2. https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/twitch-studio-mac-faq?language=en_US
3. https://obsproject.com
4. https://obsproject.com/kb/noise-suppression-filter
5. https://slurptech.com/reduce-background-noise-obs/
6. https://help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052826852-EpocCam-Release-Notes-macOS
7. https://help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/sections/4880787756941-Elgato-Camera-Hub-Release-Notes

You can install the neccessary things in any order you want. But, this is what I did.

First up, I started by buying the Tripod with a mobile holder. The iPhone I have, like most iPhones, is metal and heavy. So, you don’t want to cheap out on these. The mobile holder should preferably have rotational ability all round.

Next, I want to borrow the iPhone cameras to become available on the Mac. For this, the best solution is the EpocCam from Elgato. Now, I have some streaming experience.

And, I know form personal experience, these elgato guys know what they are doing. So, I almost immediately purchased the EpocCam Pro on the iPhone app store for whatever amount they charged. Once that is done, the pro version gets installed and you are good to go.

Next, you need to do install the companion software on the Mac. There are in fact two pieces of items you need to install.

There is the Elgato Camera Hub (link above)

There is also the Elgato drivers. You see, I made a mistake of only installing the Camera Hub. Now, the thing is, on the Mac, I am used to things just working out of the box. I am also a heavy windows gamer, so, over there, I am used to the whole windows driver rigmarole.

So, yeah, you need to install the Elgato drivers. (link above)

Once you do these two things, the camera of your iPhone (both front and back), will immediately show up on the Mac. It’s almost magical when it finally worked for the first time.

Now, moving on to OBS. Now, I must make a note about Twitch Studio, which is my preferred recording software on windows. But sadly, the studio is unavailable on the Mac. So, we use the original recording software, OBS.

Installing OBS is easy. Then, setting up a few scenes was easy enough. I had already used OBS in my days of streaming so, it’s all good. The main thing is, because we are on Mac, the screen and audio permissions need to be properly setup. On screen instructions are quiet friendly so there should be no challenge here.

Now, at this point, just like the Tripod with the mobile holder, I am assuming you have already purchased a nice condenser microphone. I used a Blue Snowball for years.

But now, for this project, I decided to purchase a brand new Blue Yeti, which is much more expensive and more capable than the old trusty Snowball.

So, yes, have your condenser ready. Like with everything else, the Mac just works the moment you plug it in. Before you start recording, remember to turn on ‘Audio Filters’ > ‘Noise Suppression’ > ‘RN Noise, Good Quality, more CPU usage’.

and for recording, I like to use the Apple format, as the encoding would be better supported on the Mac. You can see there is a warning about not using MOV but the conditions it mentions (like BSODs and Power Losses) don’t apply to me. So, I am good with the .mov format.

And, with that, you are ready to roll.

Hire me at UpWork or Fiverr or GitHub. my personal website. hobbies at Behance and Unsplash and ArtStation . Also, podcast about life. and my Coding YouTube Channel. and also, my Movie YouTube Channel. and my travel instagram.