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Author Topic: Simple audio recording utility wanted  (Read 12094 times)

lou46

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Simple audio recording utility wanted
« on: April 17, 2014, 07:36 AM »
Looking for a simple utility to record any audio playing on my computer, eg. the audio from a youtube clip, the audio from a music clip on the web etc.
Not recording from attached microphone.
Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Lou

mouser

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2014, 03:06 PM »
There are programs that do this -- at least there were on windows XP -- windows 7 is a slightly different beast.
I hope someone else with some experience with this will post a better answer, but one thing to check out is that some sound drivers have a special "virtual" recording input that you can choose, which is essentially "record when you hear" -- that is, it is a recording input that records whatever sounds are playing through the speakers.

Go to your recording input sources in your sound control panel and see if you have something like that.  If so, you may have more options.

This video shows a tutorial of what i'm talking about: https://www.youtube..../watch?v=mjQ_qS-LaoU

kfitting

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2014, 03:36 PM »
I use Total Recorder in Win7: http://www.totalrecorder.com/MainFeatures.htm

mouser

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2014, 03:49 PM »
Total recorder, thanks for the reminder -- that's the well known trusted tool for this kind of thing.
Nice to know it works on Windows 7.

lou46

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2014, 06:16 PM »
Thanks for the replies guys.

I should have added that I'm using Windows 8.1 :(

mouser

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2014, 06:50 PM »
Total Recorder says it works on Windows 8.x; why not evaluate it and see if it works for you (there is a trial version).

lou46

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2014, 08:02 PM »
OK I just tried Total Recorder (basic free version) and after a bit of fiddling, I managed to get the audio off a video playing on youtube.
(using windows 8.1)
Will have to play around a bit more to see if it picks up system sounds (eg mail notification alert) while its recording the desired audio.
Does anybody know?

Many thanks for your assistance.

Lou

mouser

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2014, 08:41 PM »
It should pick up all sounds.

lou46

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2014, 09:30 PM »
That's what I fear.
May have to turn off all system notifications whilst recording desired audio.

lanux128

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2014, 11:37 PM »
have you tried Audacity? it's a freeware audio editor and recorder.

tomos

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #10 on: April 18, 2014, 04:20 AM »
For youtube, it seems to me an easier route would be to use some site like www.dirpy.com and save it as mp3.
Tom

lou46

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #11 on: April 18, 2014, 05:00 AM »
have you tried Audacity? it's a freeware audio editor and recorder.
Thanks, that's one I intended to have a look at.

lou46

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2014, 05:03 AM »
For youtube, it seems to me an easier route would be to use some site like www.dirpy.com and save it as mp3.
That's really good...and simple!
Thank you,
Lou

BillB

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2014, 04:03 AM »
If you want something small, to record WAV or MP3, which you maybe edit in a larger package later, Streamosaur does the job neatly.

http://www.wavosaur.com/streamosaur/

mikiem

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Re: Simple audio recording utility wanted
« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2014, 10:14 AM »
Recording audio is fairly simple -- the difference between the old Windows Sound Recorder & couple hundred dollar software isn't the part where audio's written to disk. SO just about any audio recording app will do -- I like wavosaur for it's plugin support etc., but there are loads of simpler, easier to use apps without any editing functions.

THE problem is that the drivers for audio hardware [motherboard audio chipset or card or USB device] frequently don't allow you to record speaker out -- what creative labs products label What You Hear. If/when that the case, Google. Sometimes there's another driver that will work, say from another manufacturer using the same components. Sometimes it just takes a simple registry edit.

If there's no cure apparent when you Google with your make/model system, some people hot wire the connections, running a jumper between speaker/headphone out to mic/line-in. You can also use a headphone splitter with volume control to try & tailor levels. There are also virtual sound card drivers -- most of the one's I've seen are bundled with audio apps, usually out of China, but those are just what I've seen, not necessarily a reflection of what's out there. There are also ASIO drivers, sometimes hardware specific, or if those are unavailable, ASIO4ALL -- however the software that will use ASIO is more limited.