Topic: audio recording program

[mib12890]

Is there a free program that would record streaming audio??

[HAL 9000]

Is there a free program that would record streaming audio??

Without question you should use Audacity - is has a ton of features and is FREEWARE.

Website: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

To be honest, I use a tiny, no installation recorder which does nothing BUT record - available for the asking.

[mib12890]

ive used that before, but how would you record live streaming audio from a radio station?

[ringthane]

Check out Audacity. It's free/opensource. I consider it the 'photoshop' of audio:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

it's not the easiest app for a beginner to use, but it's powerful. There are other apps like WireTap (for the Mac) that are easy to use and specialized for capturing audio, but Audacity is well worth the minor learning curve.

[guildnavigator]

not that i've done this sort of thing in years, but couldn't you run a packet sniffer to find the url of the streamed file and then just grab it?

[mib12890]

I'm pretty tech savy, but I've never tried to record a live broadcast over the web. 

[HAL 9000]

As mentioned, I personally use this tiny program which ONLY records and plays - converts to mp3-on-the-fly with your choice of virtually any bitrate/frequency, and of course, choice of mono or stereo. When recording streaming, 32kbps is plenty and choose mono of course.

Here is a screenshot of the one I use in action... but Audacity gives you many other options, such as editing and doing other fancy things with any audio/song you might want to play with.

[HAL 9000]

I'm pretty tech savy, but I've never tried to record a live broadcast over the web.

Any of these "recorders" essentially just record the analog signal being generated by your soundcard - so that when setting up your recording program, you'll want to make sure you put a checkmark in the  "Stereo Mix" box from the "WAV in " dialog box (or similar depending on your PC OS). If you chose microphone, you'd obviously be recording with the mic. You should also adjust the slidebar up or down so that the signal is appropriate from your soundcard to your recorder - you can easily overdrive the signal, or make is barely audible. Most programs show you a live waveform so you have a pretty good idea of the signal strength from your soundcard.

[mib12890]

So I take it there is no way just to get the stream URL from the browser of the radio station, and record the digital stream coming over the internet?

[HAL 9000]

So I take it there is no way just to get the stream URL from the browser of the radio station, and record the digital stream coming over the internet?

You could use a "stream-ripper" application (usually can only rip Shout-compatible webcasts), but quite honestly, since we're only dealing with the frequiencies of the human voice, and the fact the audio streams are generally on in the 24kbps - 48kbps range, recording from your soundcard is more than acceptable. There are a few stream rippers below - I've never used then, and the sourceforge app is free.

Maybe I'll try Stream Ripper before I fall asleep.

http://www.radioget.com/
http://audials.com/en/radiotracker/index.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/streamripper/


And besides, your Internet stream may likely NOT be an mp3 stream, in which case you'd have to retranscode anyway. Just MHO.