Recording audio from internet....

I'm trying to record some audio from a web site that streams legal live music.... Among others, I read this thread, and when I launch Audacity, I get nothing in the drop down menus for "Input Device" and "Input Channels" (screen shots attached). As suggested in the thread I just linked, I looked thru the "Preferences" and again, found nothing. That thread is 4-5 years old (or more) and I'm thinking the Audacity GUI has changed.... so - how do I use Audacity (or something else) to record what I hear in my speakers, or the audio I hear on a web site?

THX!

(yeah - I know this has been explained ad nauseum, but I can't seem to find the info I need :-o )

 

Most websites pre-load the media file onto your computer before playing it. Some of it pre-loads and at as soon as some is there the play starts. This is how most media capture programs work.

Some websites don't pre-load any of it. This makes it impossible to get the exact video&audio they are using. In those situations a screen recorder will have to be used, as a screen recorder will record everything on your screen(including the edges of your browser and your mouse movement if you choose).

I use CamStudio , to be perfectly honest I hate it, but it is better than the other 3-4 programs out there. Most people agree Camstudio it the best for free right now.

 

Im not sure if this is possible but you could try using a 3.5 male to male audio cable http://www.mycablemart.com/store/cart.php?m=product_list&c=13&gclid=CMLyz5qm2KoCFSE8gwod034X7A and connect one end to the headphone jack and the other to the mic jack. Then use Windows built-in SoundRecorder.exe to record and save the sounds.

also, my son recommends Virtual Audio Cable http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm#download

 

Windows 7 kind of crippled the sound recording options because of the Recording Industry especially if you are running an OEM machine like HP. If you do not have anything like Mono Mix or Stereo Mix in recording devices it will not show up in Audacity.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Mixer_Toolbar_Issues#Using_the_Control_Panel

 

Hmmmm.... I suppose I could use a screen capture program, then use something like Virtual Dub to remove the audio stream and then save it separately. As to running a cable from the AUD-OUT port on my sound card to the MIC-IN port: everytime I have tried this, the audio ends up sounding REALLY terrible. Distortion, hiss, etc. I have read that doing this can potentially harm the sound card (I don't know how, but that's what I read). I'll mess around with it a bit more and hopefully something will work.

@ techsent: I'll take a look at the "Virtual Audio Cable" software tonight. I just read the stuff on their web page and it looks like it might do the job.

(BTW - my PC is not an HP or other mass market system; it's a custom built PC that I put together myself)

 

It's paid software, and I haven't used it in years, but Total Recorder has worked in the past for me to record audio from the internet. It works based on recording whatever is going through your sound card.

 

I found a free app called Freecorder. It can record video, audio, and save the audio as MP3 which is handy.... so far, it seems to be working perfectly!

Thanks for the other suggestions, I may need 'em again sometime!

 

UPDATE - I just recorded about 30min of music, and unbeknownst to me, Freecorder (by default) makes two recordings of the audio: one uses their "Applian technology", the other uses "Vista driver technology" (I'm running Win7 so I think that's why it says "Vista"). Since I didn't know it was doing this, I don't know which version was recorded with which version of the "technology". However, I do know that one of the recordings has a bit more bass and generally has more fidelity and it just sounds it a bit better, less muffled or flat. The next time I use this app, I'll have to keep track of which technology does what....

 

okay, tested out and it works fine. I bought the 3.5 male to male cable from the link further above for $3. Here's the steps that I took to make it work on my laptop.

I have a Compaq Presario C700. There's two mic ports. One at the top of the inside of the display lid and the second one is at the front next to the headphones port. I'm running Win 7 Ultimate. My sound card is a high definition audio device (haven't spent the time to get the exact make/model/version etc..., but it should work on other types of setups).

1. go to control panel/sounds.
2. click the recording tab.
3. Right click in a blank area in the recording tab sheet and make sure that there are checkmarks for Show Disabled Devices and Show Disconnected devices.
4. you'll see the microphone entry as the default device (this is the one located on the display lid). Right click on that entry and select Disable from the menu. That entry will now become disabled.
5. Next, connect one end of the 3.5 male to male cable into the microphone port at the front of the laptop. The second entry in the recording tab will now be enabled and set as the default device.
6. click on that entry to highlight it and then click the properties button.
7. Click on the listen tab and make sure that there is no checkmark for the Listen to this Device setting.
8. Click the Levels tab and move the Microphone slider bar up to close to 100 and then click Ok twice.
9. Now take the other end of the cable and insert it into the headphones port.
10. go to start/run type in soundrecorder.exe and click ok.
11. Click Start Recording.
12. Next, start your sounds playing from the Internet.
13. after 10 seconds or so, stop the recording.
14. Save the recording file onto the desktop.
15. remove the 3.5 cable from the mic and headphones ports.
16. execute the recorded file on the desktop to listen to the captured sounds.

 

@ techsent: I'll have to try this when I get home tonight.... thanks!!! I'll report my findings. I don't have a laptop, I'm running a tower (custom built) with on-board VIA1708S 8-Channel High Definition Audio, but the concept should be the same (I think).

 

Not that it has anything to do with this thread, but my microphone started to feedback thru my speakers a while back, so it's been unplugged for some time. It's weird 'cuz it worked fine for MONTHS, then one day I started to notice a "squeel" in the background; after messing about for a couple minutes, I realized that the mic was set to "always active" somewhere (still can't find the setting) and thusly feeds back... maybe the mic took a :crap or something.... I rarely (if ever) use a mic, so I just leave it unplugged - maybe I'll get another one and see what happens.