I used to have a great audio recorder on my old computer that would record what is heard through the speakers and save it as either mp3 or WAV files, but I sadly no longer have the program. Does anyone know of any free or very cheap programs that can do this and are easy to use? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Audacity is easy and free and, from what I can tell, is what a lot of us on this board use.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I downloaded it, maybe I am dumb but I cant figure out how to use this thing to record what is playing over the speaker. HELP!

Go into your audio properties menu and click on the properties for your microphone. Then check the box that says stereo mix and this will then record whatever sounds play in ur speakers including clicking noises and other sounds such as IMs. If u cant find it lemme know.

I tried the drop down menu that lists: microphone, line in, cd audio, stereo mix and put it on stereo mix and then played over the speaker what I wanted to record and pushed "record" but nothing happened, the music wave bar thing didnt register anything playing, and when I tried to play it back I got nothing. Do I have to do something before I try to record? Not sure what I am doing wrong?

Can you define "Very Cheap"? I may have a viable option if Audacity doesn't work out for you.

"very cheap"=around $10 possibly a bit higher if its super easy and works well.

I was about to suggest Super MP3 Recorder, but its apparently gone up in price since I last checked (its about 30 bucks now D= ).

Not sure if it's what you are looking for, but goldwave is very good, and free too (well it was when I downloaded it a long while ago)

http://www.goldwave.com/

I tried the drop down menu that lists: microphone, line in, cd audio, stereo mix and put it on stereo mix and then played over the speaker what I wanted to record and pushed "record" but nothing happened, the music wave bar thing didnt register anything playing, and when I tried to play it back I got nothing. Do I have to do something before I try to record? Not sure what I am doing wrong?

I'm not sure what you're trying to do because playing something through your speakers could mean you're playing a file off a CD, off your computer, off Youtube, etc. I can't tell what you're doing wrong because I don't know where the source file is coming from. I have a lot of faith that Audacity can do whatever it is you're trying to do. Give us some more information.

Hi I am trying to record what I think is streaming audio (I am trying to record some of the music off the site: shukilevy.com, it has samples you can listen to in like a quicktime thing, but you can't keep it) so I am playing the music through my speakers off that site and trying to record. I used to have something on my old computer called (I think) creative X and it had a "record what you hear" option that was awesome I could record anything that was played on the speakers and save it as a WAV, which I would then use another program to convert to mp3. I loved that program, but my new computer didn't come with it and I no longer have the disc. I am totally new to Audacity so am not sure what its capable of, the help menu isn't a lot of help on it when it comes to what I want to do. Is that enough information, or do you need me to be more detailed?

Hi I am trying to record what I think is streaming audio (I am trying to record some of the music off the site: shukilevy.com, it has samples you can listen to in like a quicktime thing, but you can't keep it) so I am playing the music through my speakers off that site and trying to record. I used to have something on my old computer called (I think) creative X and it had a "record what you hear" option that was awesome I could record anything that was played on the speakers and save it as a WAV, which I would then use another program to convert to mp3. I loved that program, but my new computer didn't come with it and I no longer have the disc. I am totally new to Audacity so am not sure what its capable of, the help menu isn't a lot of help on it when it comes to what I want to do. Is that enough information, or do you need me to be more detailed?

Umm did u check in audacity to make sure it says stereo mix near record? Should be a drop down menu where u can select stereo mix. Also to correctly change to stereo mix right click on the microphone/sound thingy on ur start bar and go to adjust audio properties. Then click the Audio tab and under sound recording click on the volume btn. In this screen select stereo mix and adjust the volume so that when u record it would be too loud and sound staticy. If this doesn't work then I dunno whats wrong lol...

Hi I am trying to record what I think is streaming audio (I am trying to record some of the music off the site: shukilevy.com, it has samples you can listen to in like a quicktime thing, but you can't keep it) so I am playing the music through my speakers off that site and trying to record. I used to have something on my old computer called (I think) creative X and it had a "record what you hear" option that was awesome I could record anything that was played on the speakers and save it as a WAV, which I would then use another program to convert to mp3. I loved that program, but my new computer didn't come with it and I no longer have the disc. I am totally new to Audacity so am not sure what its capable of, the help menu isn't a lot of help on it when it comes to what I want to do. Is that enough information, or do you need me to be more detailed?

That's enough information. Audacity is very capable of recording music streamed off a website. Here's all you need to do:

1) open Audacity
2) switch the input to "stereo mix" in the drop-down menu near the top middle of the screen
3) click "project" at the top (next to "file," "edit," etc.)
4) select "new audio track"
5) click the red "record" button
6) begin playing the song you want to record

As a test I went to shukilevy.com and recorded a sample, doing nothing more than what's listed in the steps above. Try again in case you're forgetting something and let us know if it works.

Awesome thanks! I can save as WAV! The mp3 saving feature says I need something called LAME to use, but WAV is fine for now. It said if you save in mp3 that it would be mono though... is that true of all streaming audio?

Thanks for all your help, this stuff should have probably been obvious but I am new to all of this and appreciate the help.

LAME is downloadable from Audacity's site. It just basically converts the format saved into .mp3.

LAME Download (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows)
Follow the basic instructions and you should be done (:

That's enough information. Audacity is very capable of recording music streamed off a website. Here's all you need to do:

1) open Audacity
2) switch the input to "stereo mix" in the drop-down menu near the top middle of the screen
3) click "project" at the top (next to "file," "edit," etc.)
4) select "new audio track"
5) click the red "record" button
6) begin playing the song you want to record

As a test I went to shukilevy.com and recorded a sample, doing nothing more than what's listed in the steps above. Try again in case you're forgetting something and let us know if it works.

I just downloaded Audacity and am having problems getting it to record what I want. I would like to to record my computer sounds (whatever is coming out through my speakers) without having to place a microphone between two speakers. I have not been able to do this yet. Do you have any suggestions? I am not able to switch the input on the mixer toolbar (I think that's the name for that toolbar that has the drop down menu you refer to. I can't change it because the drop down arrow is ghosted and cannot be selected.

Any suggestions will be met by more contributions to the site! Thanks in advance.

Well i bought a Mp3 and got a CD with it aswell. A program Called Creative MuVo, in my opinion one of the best and easiest program to record anything you like. I think you can try search for it on google or even download it illegaly. :P

I just downloaded Audacity and am having problems getting it to record what I want. I would like to to record my computer sounds (whatever is coming out through my speakers) without having to place a microphone between two speakers. I have not been able to do this yet. Do you have any suggestions? I am not able to switch the input on the mixer toolbar (I think that's the name for that toolbar that has the drop down menu you refer to. I can't change it because the drop down arrow is ghosted and cannot be selected.

Any suggestions will be met by more contributions to the site! Thanks in advance.

Audacity can record any sound coming out of your speakers, including your "computer sounds." I've seen the drop-down menu ghosted before (a minor bug; it's only happened twice since I downloaded it). When this has happened to me, I just closed Audacity and opened it again and the problem was fixed. After that, just follow the steps I listed above. Let us know if that didn't work.

P.S. Tigertail, did you get the LAME mp3 plugin to work? That should make life easier, so you won't have to use a second program to convert the WAV files.

Audacity can record any sound coming out of your speakers, including your "computer sounds." I've seen the drop-down menu ghosted before (a minor bug; it's only happened twice since I downloaded it). When this has happened to me, I just closed Audacity and opened it again and the problem was fixed. After that, just follow the steps I listed above. Let us know if that didn't work.

P.S. Tigertail, did you get the LAME mp3 plugin to work? That should make life easier, so you won't have to use a second program to convert the WAV files.

The drop down menu is still ghosted and has never not been ghosted since I downloaded the program.

I don't know what to tell you. You've tried starting a new project once it's open, right? Weird. Did do download the most recent version?

SWEET! I got LAME to work and it converts to mp3 like a charm! Thanks soooo much!

No prob. I'm glad it worked!

(http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard01pe3.jpg)

Hopefully that works on these forums; that's what my Audacity looks like. It is version 1.2.6.

Apparently, this is a common problem:

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

The good news is that it looks like they have a step-by-step guide to fix it.

Another audio question since this seems to be the place for them; how do you extract the vocals from audio the way some folks are doing to make custom soundtracks? I tried the invert audio trick on audacity... but it just removed ALL audio (and yes it was a stereo track). Is there different ways to do it? like if its a dvd is there a way to get into some of the folders that make up everything on the dvd and extract the audio, or would you record it with the what you hear function and then try to separate that stereo track?

Have you seen this article?: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal

As far as the DVD question, that's beyond me. There may be audio folders in there that you can take out and split up into vocal parts, but I don't know how to do it. You can certainly play it on your computer speakers and have Audacity record it. But I'm not sure if there's a better way to preserve the quality of the recording.

You could use a spectral analyzer as well. I do not know of a free one though but it can isolate the sound frequency and a possible way of deleting certain parts of an audio track but if the frequencies of the voice and a certain instrument is very close then the more difficult it becomes. What is nice about the spectral is it shows the sound spectrum and not just mearly a sound wave.

the only one I can recomend is audacity I used it for a while and it was fun.

Apparently, this is a common problem:

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

The good news is that it looks like they have a step-by-step guide to fix it.

I have exhausted almost all of the options on that page. Audacity simply does not work as advertised. The only option left would be to buy a cable and go directly from Line Out to Line In and try recording that way. I wonder why I should waste my money and time on that solution when none of Audacity's solutions have worked. Numerous requests for help from the company have been answered with silence.

Good thing I didn't buy anything from them; I would have, but all they offer is bad customer service. The products are claimed to be so EASY to use; my direct experience begs to differ.

I would advise strongly anyone against buying any recording products from applian technologies or buying Audacity (it can be sold) for any reason.

Audacity is said to be an award winning product; I wish I could find that version. The one that I have is worthy of only one thing; deletion.

Ha. Yikes.

i tried few times..........fail.....
i think is my sound card ac97 (laptop)........never support....

From what I understand, a low quality sound card can cause glitches during recording and lag during playback. But did you even get that far? Or are you having problems with buttons being ghosted, too?

Audacity is easy and free and, from what I can tell, is what a lot of us on this board use.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


I Agree

Does anyone know how to record a sound effects free fan made film score on Mac?

Are you trying to remove the sound effects? Or are you just trying to record a film score, which just so happens to not have sound effects?

I’m trying to remove them.

So what you're trying to do is record a music score with sound effects, then remove the effects. The first of those things is easy. The second of those things is difficult. Unless the sound effects are very minimal, that's a lot of work that will likely net an unsatisfactory final product. If I were you, I would search all around the internet to see if the score hasn't been released somewhere. If it hasn't, I'd be inclined to contact the composer as the next step. Audio editing the file yourself would be a last resort. If that's really what you want to do, there's an art to it that you'll have to learn as you go. Google "remove sound effects from music" and you'll find guides to get started.

I looked for the composer, Peng Fei. I can't find a way to contact him. What else can I do?

Contact the production company who made the film. Or find a community of people who love the score as much as you do and make a public post encouraging the rights holder to release an official version. Or buy a professional audio editor like iZotope RX and use it isolate the sound effects' frequencies.

Well, this film is from China & 10-12 production companies were involved in making it, so it would be hard to figure out which one was mostly involved. Where could I find a community like the one you mentioned?

Google around and see if such a community exists. That's all I can tell you.