Would you like to record anything that you can hear on your computer? If you have a Mac I’m sure you just ask it nicely. Here’s what you have to do for Windows:
Click "Start"> "Control Panel"> "Sounds and Audio Devices"> "Audio" tab > "Volume" button in "Sound Playback" (NOT "Sound Recording") > "Options" > "Properties" > "Adjust Volume for" check "Recording" check “Stereo Mix” and Click OK, Raise the Stereo Mix Volume slider to about 7. Close "Recording Control" & "Volume Control" windows & Click "OK" to close out the "Sound and Audio Devices Properties" window. Phew. To undo follow the same steps, but select "Microphone" instead of "Stereo Mix".
Now we need some free software. Click here to get Audacity. Download & install this program. Launch Audacity and select “stereo mix” from the dropdown menu. In edit > preferences > audio I/O tab choose stereo and pick your recording quality settings in the quality tab. Now play your favorite playlist or podcast and hit the record button. Adjust your levels with the microphone slider. The edit menu will help you clean up your finished track such as removing any gaps at the beginning or end.
If you want to save your recording as an mp3 go here to download Lame 3.97 (free mp3 converter). Unzip this file & remember where you saved it. When you first export a file to mp3, Audacity will prompt you to find Lame on your computer (one time only).
That should do it. Have fun.
8 comments:
When I'm sober (tomorrow maybe) I'l try this. These look like foolproof instructions. Thank you.
Surely now's the best time to do it!
Have mercy, ejay, it's two in the morning, I've been drinking champagne since lunchtime and I've had an impromptu dinner with friends of oysters and lobster and those lobsters were living critters...
I assumed this was an ad from a Mac owner, they publish comparisons like this in the Mac magazines.
If you are a Mac owner you don't even have to ask nice, you just click 'record' on that free Wiretap recorder that sits on your desktop and it gives you an instant MP3 or any format of your choice, and good luck with the help manual in Audacity.
If you're really curious go back and look at my comparisons between iMacs and PC's some weeks back, and don't believe all those stories about how expensive Macs are.
I feel your pain mnemonic ;)
Shoegazer, that is absolutely brilliant, thankyou. I needed you around about three days ago...
Just to add to what you have said, I've tried it on my computer and it all works but, rather bizarrely, instead of saying 'stereo mix' my PC has a channel called 'what u hear' which was the one I wanted.
Audacity is what I used to record the Frodcast, but I used an altogether more tortuous method of importing songs, leaving gaps between them and then recording the mic track over the top of it all, replete with frustrating delay and pressure of fitting in words between songs...
Thanks again.
Snadrod - glad it worked for you. I guess different soundcards give you some different options.
Advance thanks from me too, Shoegazer. I'll be trying it when I've had a couple of IT-bravery fortifiers (70proof) tonight!
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