Devices and browsers

The short version: record with Chrome or Edge on a computer, and with headphones on. This page explains why, what the microphone's "System default" entry does, and what else you can set to make your recording sound as good as it can.

Chrome and Edge on a computer¶

podsink supports Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge on macOS, Windows and Linux. Those two are also what we test with. Other Chromium-based browsers like Brave or Vivaldi are let in as well and usually work, but they aren't tested.

If you open the session in any other browser, podsink shows you a support screen instead of the waiting room. It tells you which browsers work and lets you copy the session link to open it in one of them.

We'd love to support every browser. But podsink reads the raw audio samples from your microphone and turns video into MP4 files right in the browser, and the interfaces that can do that at full quality only exist in Chromium so far. The day another browser ships them, it's welcome here. What's in the files is covered in Formats and quality.

What Safari is missing¶

We really did try. Safari only records camera video in a plain variant of H.264 that can't change resolution mid-stream. That's still fine for a camera. But it breaks a screen recording the moment someone resizes a window or switches displays.

On top of that, Safari adds delays to audio and video recordings that we couldn't predict or correct. In our measurements, tracks drifted apart by up to a second. We want to hand you files that line up without any fixing, and on Safari we couldn't promise that.

What Firefox is missing¶

Firefox only records video as WebM with Opus audio. Most editing tools won't open that combination until you convert it first. On macOS we also ran into a problem where the microphone signal comes in so quietly that recording is practically impossible.

Phones and tablets¶

We can't record on an iPhone or iPad yet. Every browser on iOS has to use Apple's WebKit engine, and that has the same limits as Safari. So podsink shows the same support screen there and asks you to move to a computer for the recording.

Android with Chrome can work. It isn't tested or supported, though. If you try it anyway, wired headphones with a microphone matter, because otherwise the phone's built-in microphone picks up the speaker, and you can't get that echo out in the edit. A cable is also just more reliable than Bluetooth here.

For a relaxed recording, a computer is the right choice. We're looking into native mobile apps, but they don't exist yet.

The microphone follows the system default¶

In the waiting room and in the session, the microphone menu has a "System default" entry, and it stays selected unless you pick a specific device. The name means exactly what it says. podsink uses whatever microphone your operating system currently has set as its default, and keeps following it. Plug in an interface and make it the default, and podsink switches to it. Unplug it, and podsink switches back. If a switch ever doesn't work, podsink tells you in the waiting room which microphone you're on and offers to try again. In the session, it asks you to pick the microphone again from the menu instead.

If you'd rather have podsink stay on one microphone no matter what the system does, just pick it by name in the menu.

Headphones and echo cancellation¶

The waiting room asks whether you're wearing headphones, and your answer sets exactly one thing, echo cancellation. With headphones it stays off, and your mic goes into the recording untouched. Without headphones podsink turns it on, so the others' voices coming out of your speakers don't end up in your track.

Noise suppression is always off. Automatic gain is off on a computer too. You can change both gain and echo cancellation in the microphone settings during the session, and podsink remembers your choice for next time.

Whenever you have headphones, they're the better choice. Echo cancellation keeps a speaker setup usable, but it works by processing your voice. And in a recording, your voice is exactly the thing you want left untouched.