How to Add Click and Typing Sounds to Screen Recordings

To add click and keyboard sounds to a screen recording on a Mac, record in Screen Bolt, open the Sounds panel in the editor, and turn on Click Sounds and Keyboard Sounds. Click sounds work on any recording made in Screen Bolt. Keyboard sounds need the macOS Input Monitoring permission granted before you record, because the app has to log when each key was pressed.

The Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player can't add sound effects. You either rely on your microphone picking up the real sounds, place samples by hand in an editor, or use an app that records click and key timing.

Why demos use sound effects

A voiceover tells the viewer what you're doing. A click sound tells them when it happened. That cue helps most when the cursor moves fast, the click target is small, or the video is sped up.

Typing sounds do the same for text entry. A form that fills in silently can look like a paste. Soft key sounds make it read as real typing. Zoom whooshes mark the moment the frame changes, so a zoom-in doesn't feel like a glitch.

Many videos play muted, especially autoplaying ones on landing pages and social feeds. Treat sound effects as polish for people who turn sound on. The video still has to make sense without them.

What macOS can do on its own

The built-in tools give you a visual click indicator, but no sound effects:

• Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5, Command-Shift-5): click Options and choose Show Mouse Clicks. Each click shows a circle in the recording. It's visual only.
• Your microphone: a mic picks up your real keyboard and mouse. The result is usually uneven, depends on how close the mic is to the keyboard, and competes with your voice.
• Placing sounds by hand: any video editor with audio tracks lets you drop a click sample at each click. That's fine for a 10-second clip. For a five-minute tutorial with dozens of clicks and hundreds of keystrokes, it isn't practical.

If viewers only need to see clicks, the built-in option is enough. Our guide to showing mouse clicks in a Mac screen recording covers that.

Add sound effects in Screen Bolt

Screen Bolt records your mouse clicks and key-press timing alongside the video, and builds zoom regions from the clicks. That lets it place each sound at the moment the action happened, with no manual syncing.

1. If you want keyboard sounds, grant Input Monitoring first (see Grant Input Monitoring below).
2. In the recording bar, pick Display, Window or Area, then click the red record button.
3. Click and type through your demo as usual, then click Stop.
4. The editor opens. (This is the default After recording choice, Open editor.)
5. In the sidebar's icon strip, click Sounds.
6. Turn on Click Sounds, Zoom Sounds or Keyboard Sounds. All three are off by default.
7. Pick a preset (or a Kit for keyboard sounds). For clicks and keys, click Preview to hear it on its own.
8. Set the Volume for each effect.
9. Press Space to play the timeline and hear the effects with your voice.
10. Click Export in the toolbar. The sound effects are mixed into the exported MP4 or MOV. Click and keyboard sounds need data that only exists in recordings made in Screen Bolt. A video opened from elsewhere (QuickTime, a Slack clip, an older file) has no recorded clicks or keystrokes to sync to.

Click sounds

Click Sounds plays a sound on every cursor click. There are 10 presets: Soft Tap, Mechanical, Bubble Pop, Keyboard, Tactile, Snappy, Thump, Chirp, Plop and Snick. The default volume is 60%.

Screen Bolt tracks clicks without asking for any extra permission, so every recording you make already has the timing it needs.

• "Keyboard" is a click preset. It plays on mouse clicks, not key presses. Typing sounds are a separate section.
• Pair the sound with a visual cue. In the Cursor panel, Cursor Press Effect is on by default and Highlight on Click (off by default) adds a colored highlight. The sound marks the timing, and the visual shows where the click landed, which also helps people watching muted.
• Keep one preset across a series. The same click sound in every tutorial or release video makes them feel like a set.

Zoom whooshes

Zoom Sounds adds a whoosh at every zoom-in and zoom-out boundary. Presets: Whoosh, Swoosh, Air, Gust, Gentle, Swirl and Reverse. The default volume is 50%.

The whooshes follow your zoom regions. With Create zooms automatically on (the default), Screen Bolt turns mouse clicks into zoom regions after recording:

• Clicks within 1 second and 200 px of each other merge into one zoom.
• Each zoom holds for at least 1.8 seconds.
• Drags and keystrokes don't create zooms.

Each zoom region has an in and an out boundary, so a click-heavy recording with many short zooms can sound busy. Edit the zoom track rather than just lowering the volume:

• Delete zooms you don't need: right-click a region, then Delete This Region.
• Drag a region's edges to lengthen it, so one zoom covers several steps.
• Add a zoom where you want one with ⌘K (Command-K), or Add Zoom at Playhead in the toolbar.

Don't switch off Auto Zoom on Click in the Zoom panel to quiet things down: that disables every zoom region in preview and export, including ones you added by hand. Our explainer on auto zoom in screen recording covers how zooms behave.

Add keyboard sounds to a screen recording

Keyboard Sounds plays a key sound for each key you pressed while recording. Choose a Kit: Cherry Brown, Holy Panda or Typewriter.

Each kit has four sounds: normal keys, space, Enter and Backspace. So the space bar and Enter sound different from letters, which is closer to real typing than one repeated click. The default volume is 50%, and Preview plays a short typing sample.

Why Input Monitoring is needed

To know when you pressed a key, Screen Bolt has to observe keyboard events while you record. macOS only allows that for apps you've approved under Input Monitoring. Without it, recording works normally but no keystroke timing is saved, and the Sounds panel shows "No keystrokes captured" with an Open System Settings button.

The permission has to be on before you record. Granting it later doesn't add keystrokes to an existing recording; record again.

What Screen Bolt stores about your typing

Screen Bolt stores only the timing of each key press and its type: normal key, space, Enter, Backspace or modifier. It never stores which key you pressed. If you type a password or an API key during a take, the project file holds a series of "normal key" events with timestamps, not the characters.

That data sits in project.json inside the recording's .screenbolt project package on your Mac. Recordings are processed locally and never uploaded.

This covers the project file only. Anything visible on screen is still in the video. To hide on-screen secrets, add blur regions or use Auto-Detect Sensitive Text under Blur / Privacy in the Effects panel (see the effects documentation).

Grant Input Monitoring

On first launch, if Input Monitoring isn't granted, Screen Bolt shows a one-time alert, "Enable keyboard sound effects", with an Open Settings button. If you clicked Not Now, grant it yourself:

1. Open System Settings, click Privacy & Security, then Input Monitoring. (Or in Screen Bolt choose Help > Screen Bolt Help and click Open Settings next to Input Monitoring.)
2. Turn on the switch next to Screen Bolt.
3. If Screen Bolt isn't listed, click + and select Screen Bolt in your Applications folder.
4. If macOS asks you to quit and reopen the app, do it.
5. Make a new recording that includes some typing. The Screen Bolt Help window (⌘?) shows the live status of the permission ("Granted", "Denied" or "Not Determined"), so you can check it before an important take.

If your mic already hears your keyboard

When the mic picks up your real typing, a keyboard kit on top doubles the sound. Move the mic away from the keyboard or leave Keyboard Sounds off for that recording. For the mic side, see removing background noise from a screen recording.

Set the volume so effects sit under your voice

The defaults (clicks 60%, zooms and keys 50%) are a starting point. Your voice should be the loudest thing in the mix.

• Set your voice first. Adjust the Microphone and System Audio volumes in the Audio panel, then raise each effect until you can just hear it under your voice.
• Audio Enhance doesn't touch the effects. Noise Reduction, Voice Clarity and Volume Normalization apply to the microphone track only. If normalization makes your voice louder, re-check the effect levels.
• Keyboard sounds cover the whole recording. Each effect has one switch and one volume, so a kit plays on every recorded key press. In a coding tutorial with minutes of typing, a quiet kit at low volume is easier to sit through.
• Fewer whooshes beat quieter whooshes. Trim the zoom track first.
• Check on two outputs. Listen once on laptop speakers and once on headphones. Clicks that sound fine on headphones can be harsh on small speakers.
• Leave room for music. If you add a music bed, drop the effects further. See adding music to a screen recording.

For a short, punchy video such as a Product Hunt launch video, click sounds plus a few zoom whooshes are usually enough. For a calm tutorial, clicks alone often do the job.

Once the levels sound right, click Presets in the editor toolbar, then Save Current as Preset.... Presets store sound effect settings along with the visual look, so the next recording sounds the same. More in keeping recordings on-brand with presets.

Compare the methods

The Sounds panel is included in Screen Bolt's free version. Free exports carry a watermark and are limited to 3 minutes at 720p. The pricing table shows what a license removes.

If it doesn't work

"No keystrokes captured" in the Sounds panel. Input Monitoring wasn't granted when you recorded. Grant it (steps above) and record again. An existing recording can't get keyboard sounds afterwards.

Screen Bolt is missing from the Input Monitoring list. Click + in that pane and add Screen Bolt from Applications. Then open Help > Screen Bolt Help and confirm the status reads "Granted".

Permission is granted, but still no keystrokes. Quit Screen Bolt completely, reopen it, and make a short test recording with some typing. Keystroke timing is only captured during a recording.

No click or keyboard sounds on an imported video. Videos opened with Create project from video..., Open project... (with a movie file) or dropped onto the app have no click or key data. For a one-off sound, import a file with Add Audio Track in the Audio panel and position it by hand.

You can't hear the effects in the editor. Check that the effect is switched on (all are off by default), that its Volume isn't at zero, and that the preview volume in the playback controls isn't muted. The preview volume affects playback only, not the export.

The exported GIF has no sound. GIF export is always silent. Export MP4 or MOV to keep the effects.

A quick export has no effects. Export to file (skip editor) renders right after recording with default styling. Open the project in the editor, turn on the sounds, and export with the Export button.

FAQ

Does Screen Bolt record which keys I type? No. It stores only the timing and type of each press (normal key, space, Enter, Backspace or modifier), never the actual key. That data stays in the project file on your Mac.

Do click sounds need Accessibility permission? No. Screen Bolt tracks clicks without any extra permission. Only keyboard sounds need Input Monitoring.

Do the sounds stay in sync if I pause the recording? Yes. Pause and resume keep the screen, cursor and key tracking aligned, and the pause gaps are removed.

Can I use my own click sound? The Sounds panel only offers its built-in presets and kits. For a custom sound, import it with Add Audio Track and place it on the timeline yourself.