Recording Streaming Audio

bryan29

Member
Help I am having trouble recording streaming audio off of a website. I want to use Audiocity, but when I go to record there is no sound. I am on Win XP and I am using SB Live! Wave Device. It tells me to set up Stereo Mix, but I do not have it on the volume control. How do I set this up or not? Thanks for the help.

Bryan
 
right click the loudspeaker icon by the date. That should bring up a section and in the properties dialogue, make sure stereo mix is checked or it won't display it in the volume control.

 
Fired up my old XP PC to check and yes, I was right.
Right click the loudspeaker to open volume control.
Select options and then properties.
You'll notice there are two options - playback and recording.
Select recording and make sure that stereo mix is checked so it will display.
In the display (now showing stereo mix) make sure you check the box in the lower left corner to select it as your recording source and adjust volume to your needs.
Done.
If you need to change source to line in, CD etc just repeat the procedure and check the box in which one you want to use.

Do let us know if you get it working or not.
 
Thanks for the help. I could not figure it out what to choose. This is what it says under the Recording tab.
SPDIF-IN - Box is not checked
CD Digital - Box is not checked
MIDI - Box is checked
CD Audio - Box is checked
Line-In - Box is checked
Microphone - Box is checked, but I do not have a microphone
Auxiliary - Box is not checked
TAD-IN - Box is not checked
WAVE Box is checked
Again it says I am using the Sound Blaster! Wave Device. I hope this helps out some.
 
Ah, I don't have a sound card - mine's the on-board AC'97 chip.

Couldn't get a forum answer better and more exact than that one! Well found pixelated.
 
My old computer did not have a "mic input" but my new one will - so I will be able to get rid of my old analog CD recorder, and record things direct to my PC now - Thank goodness. No more money on blank CD's.
 
Okay I downloaded the updated drivers and it looks it might work now. I went to the Recording tab and it says What U Hear is that what I check now to record stuff. If so thanks again for the help.
 
bryan29 said:
Help I am having trouble recording streaming audio off of a website. I want to use Audiocity, but when I go to record there is no sound.

Be advised that using the "what you hear", stereo mix, or cable loop back methods ( BTW - if using a cable to loop the sound card output back to the input you should use the LINE IN instead of the mic in as the mic in is only mono and has power on one of the conductors - use line out to line in ) will be doing a DtoA and AtoD conversion and could reduce the quality. If it is actually streaming audio, that probably won't make much difference as the audio source is typically 96kbps or lower mp3 source anyway.

A better option is to take the digital stream and save it directly as a file to your hard drive.
Sometimes I use a script called icecream(.pl) which is a perl script. If you use windows, you would need to have perl installed ( ActivePerl is free and works well on Windows ). Icecream uses a command line interface and will capture IceCast and Shoutcast streams and save it to the hard drive. There would be a steep learning curve if one has only used a GUI type interface so may be more trouble than it's worth but it works well for me.

From the man page:
DESCRIPTION
      icecream is a lightweight, non-interactive, stream down-
      load utility.  It connects to icecast and shoutcast
      servers or direct stream URLs, and redirects all fetched
      content to stdout and/or to media files on your disk.
...
      icecream is able to parse pls and m3u playlists, and to
      download mp3 and ogg direct stream URLs. If the stream is
      anonymous it will be saved as 'stream-time.mp3', where
      time is actual timestamp.

Couple of selected switch options ( again from the man page )
     -t, --tracks
             Split stream into tracks (if possible)

      --stop=N[units]
              Stop downloading the stream after N
              kb/mb/min/songs


There are most likely other tools out there ( google ) that may be easier to use and don't require all the installation and learning steps.

http://icecream.sourceforge.net/
http://www.activestate.com/activeperl
 
Chris, how are you going to be recording via a mic input?  I presume you rip CDs using a ripping program so I'm not sure why you were using a CD player and having to burn to disc first? Are you thinking of making your own voice recordings?
 
Depending on the site and how the content is streaming, and using Chrome, you can always Inspect Element or View Source and grab the url the media is streaming from. ;)
 
Eyore - I have never been able to figure out a way to record audio as it plays live from my computer output. I have tried programs, but they all seem to record the sound from the room I am in, and not the sound coming directly from the computer's audio output.

To obtain audio just from the computer, in which there is no other way to obtain rather than record it or rip it as it plays live, I have instead hooked up an analog stereo system component, that is a CD recorder. It burns CDs as it records live audio input. I have the headphone jack hooked up to this machine, insert a blank CD, and them play the music from the desktop as I record it live. Then I finalize the CD, and put it into my computer, where I then can upload it onto my hard-drive.

It would be much easier if I could record the output directly onto my hard drive, and not have to use the CD recorder machine. (calling it a machine for lack of a more descriptive word) My old system did not have a way to plug a microphone in, so was thinking this may resolve the issue. I can have the output from the computer going into the microphone jack, then it will record the computer sounds instead of the sounds that would normally be picked up by a microphone.

But now I am concerned by Some1 who commented that this would record it in Mono - So I need to figue out a way to do this, but have it be in stereo. I would love to be able to get rid of the machine on my desk. It takes up a lot of space, and I also go through a lot of CD's recording stuff, and it is extra steps - yada yada yada. Just hoping to make life easier.

If anyone has some helpful hints - let me know.
 
I really don't understand this. I must presume that you have a built in microphone somewhere if it records the sounds from the room!!!
You don't record using a mic input from your PC. Yes, it will be mono if you don't blow the circuits (mic inputs are generally more delicate regarding the voltage that goes through hem - in fact on my first stereo system I had to install resistors in the wires so as not to blow the circuits). I presume something was wired wrongly in your original PC.
As has been said, you select the recording source from the audio control pane so, somewhere, you have mic selected but where the heck it's picking up external sound without a mic I have no idea unless your speakers are wired in and are acting as microphones.
There is no way you can make stereo recordings via a mono mic input without replacing the socket and the internal wiring of the PC so forget about doing it that way. You should find your new PC will record directly from the stereo mix setting now .
 
there was some sort of built in external mic on my old system. I am not sure where it was, I never could locate it, but that was the issue.
 
ChrisLyndon said:
there was some sort of built in external mic on my old system. I am not sure where it was, I never could locate it, but that was the issue.

The "what you hear" or stereo mix options of the sound "Mixer" are dependent on the sound hardware on your PC. As mentioned above by Pix, what you hear applies to Creative Sound Blaster devices. The others that support it usually call it stereo mix. Just to make things more confusing, some manufacturers also provide their own mixer application.  If your system shows a speaker icon in your system tray ( by the clock/time ), that is usually the windows mixer application. This gives you access to the mixer as well as other sound properties. Windows 8 lists - Open volume mixer, Playback devices, Recording devices, Sounds, and Volume control options. Recording devices brings up the Sound dialog box with the Recording tab selected. This lists the input devices available on your system. Selecting a device will allow you to change/set properties for that device.

If you don't have a "what you hear" or "stereo mix" option on your mixer app. you may need to change a properties setting for your sound device. Another option ( possibly last resort if you hardware/mixer doesn't support stereo mix ) is to try something like "Virtual Audio Cable" ( fee )  or "VB-Audio CABLE" ( donation ). These are driver programs that allow you to pipe the audio from one program to another. ( note: could get confusing if you don't understand signal routing )
 
Chris, please tell us after doing what Some1 suggests (with the loudspeaker icon) what you see (or post a screen shot). I highly doubt that your system is incapable of making a direct recording, it's just finding where the box to tick is.  :D Seems that the default setting on your PC was "mic". Just need to find how and where to change it.
 
Some of these mixer drivers are really odd... Despite having a stereo mix option in the recording devices section, I have to set recording device to microphone.. (rear input)  to record streamed audio under Audacity... But there is no mic attached on this input... ?

I've similar issues with other recording software...

I don't think things have improved since 98, XP ruined midi and sound. 

I'd slowly make my way through all of the recording device options whilst playing and old Yutube video...

I know technically stereo mix should work , but it doesn't for me.




 
I do have an icon and know exactly where to find these options. I will look into this within a day or so. Right now I am loading all my old files onto my new computer - creating folders, and organizing everything. This is a major project and will take a few days. After that, I will check back on this. Not a priority just yet.
 
I do recall finding it difficult to get audacity to record from the sound card.
Try going to Edit. preferences (right at the bottom) and devices. You need to set  where it records from in there (I find it works with
See below (just checked ad it records fine from playing a track from Foobar
 

Attachments

  • audacity.jpg
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Another shameless plug for Wavosaur, which is also freeware.  I use Sound Forge instead of Wavosaur but if I could not for some reason (e.g., I'm on someone else's computer), I would use Wavosaur.  I can record the defaulted Stereo Mix device in Wavosaur just by clicking the RECORD icon.  Wavosaur does need to have the recording duration set though; it defaults to 60 secs.
http://www.wavosaur.com/
 
that's what put me off that setting the duration (difficult if it's streaming). I always used MusicMatch which they kindly made incompatible with Win7 :(
I now use Ariel sound recorder which although paid for I find fine. (it's around $25 to buy).

I think I'm right in saying that you can change the duration in Wavosaur and it keeps the setting until you change it (so you can set it for, say, 10,000 seconds and it will record for over 2 hours or until to stop it) and that figure will be set as default or does it revert back to the 60 seconds?
 
eyore said:
I think I'm right in saying that you can change the duration in Wavosaur and it keeps the setting until you change it (so you can set it for, say, 10,000 seconds and it will record for over 2 hours or until to stop it) and that figure will be set as default or does it revert back to the 60 seconds?
Yes, Wavosaur remembers your duration setting.  It's saved in the
Code:
wavosaur.ini
file that is created in the same directory/folder that the
Code:
Wavosaur.exe
is located.  It's under the Record header:
Code:
[Record]
Duration=100000000
A hundred million seconds should cover most recordings. ;D  That's 1157 days.
 
may switch over to that then. I take it that the clue is in the name or does it record in other formats other than wav? (I did look but couldn't find other options).
 
Well all this talk has made me look more closely at my recording setting... Despite it saying it was a microphone on rear input, it is actually a virtual device with Anvsoft driver.  It was /is part of Any Video converter software.

  Doing a search for it led me to this site.... http://win.cutephp.com/t/anvsoft_virtual_sound_device/ 

Which I notice has a free virtual audio cable , I used to use a lot of virtual cables when I had quite a large midi system. 

Also it has a free AV audio and sound recorder programme , that  creates and records off of virtual devices from

http://win.cutephp.com/av_audio_and_sound_recorder_2850969/


This might prove a good back up to use in odd one of cases.
 
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