How to Record "What You Hear" from Sound Card Output

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've installed Audacity in Slack earlier this evening, but I cannot get it to use the sound card output ("what you hear") as its recording source. Anyone know any Audacity/ALSA tricks... or maybe a better app for recording sound card "what you hear" output?Thanks!

[Guest LilBambi]

Well, of course you know the old hardware trick on that; loop a cable between the speaker out and line in.You can record /dev/dsp .. my Jim uses sox to do this. Here's a command line command that will do this:

sox -w -s -r 44100 -c 2 /dev/dsp -t raw - | lame -x -m s - yoursoundrecordingname.mp3

You can also use:

 your_program | sox -s -2 -c 1 -r 16000 -t raw - sounds.wav

or

your_program | sox -t raw -s -2 -r 44100 - sounds.wav

but that doesn't do it all in one step; might be good if you want to edit before using lame on it.But there is another called Sound Recorder in Ubuntu, and rawrec (commandline) according to some folks over at Ubuntu. Not sure if available in Slack.Forum Post at Linuxcompatible says this:

What you want is a recorder that reads from /dev/dsp. I've had success with rawrec, and sound-recorder. Just be warned, these only work in a terminal, and they're difficult to use.I suggest you do a google search for sound recorders that read from /dev/dsp.Also, in audacity, you if you select "Vol" as the input source, it will record anything that's played through your sound card (although the sound quality isn't nearly as good as rawrec).

Apparently, audacity can record from /dev/dsp

[onederer]

I had no intention of making a digital recording of the sound, but I did want to store what I was hearing. I simply plugged a taperecorder into the output of the monitor's headphone's port. I assume that you may get the same (or better) results if you use an external MP3 player/recorder.

[onederer]

I had no intention of making a digital recording of the sound, but I did want to store what I was hearing. I simply plugged a taperecorder into the output of the monitor's headphone's port. I assume that you may get the same (or better) results if you use an external MP3 player/recorder.

Sorry about the double post. This one can be deleted if you please. Edited July 16, 2009 by onederer

[Anil]

.. or maybe a better app for recording sound card "what you hear" output?Thanks!

Hi Eric

$ rec soundcardoutput.ogg

will do the trick !!

[BillD]

Well we went thru all this awhile back and I could never get really good quality with any command line stuff I tried. That is, I could hear overload distortion on the "saved" sound. This may be because I did not have a clue as to what I was doing with some of the switches in the command line codes that were suggested, but whatever, I could not get it to work satisfactorily.It was really crude, but 1.5 years ago at Chistmas, I wanted to record some organ music, and I connected the speaker output of one computer to the line input of a second computer and used Audacity. The results were superb after a little bit of experimenting with Audacity. This resolves the problem of tape hiss if you record to tape and then back to CD and I wanted to burn a CD with the music.The only real disadvantage of this scheme is that you need two computers Bill

Edited July 17, 2009 by BillD

[V.T. Eric Layton]

*sigh* I was hoping for a nice easy way, like Sound Recorder in Windows... just click and go. :(Bill, there's a much easier way to get super-quality recordings from YouTube vids. I thought I had told you about this before, but if not... Use an online FLV converter. I rip songs from YouTube all the time into mp3 format on my system. http://vixy.net/http://www.mediaconverter.org/There's even a mediaconverter extension for FF --> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8189Have fun. =====Now back to my problem. I guess I'll just have to experiment some more. I think Audacity should work, but their documentation is sorely lacking for this app. :(Off to check out Fran's suggestion about Sound Recorder. If there's no Slack package, no biggie. I can install from source, depending on the dependencies.

Edited July 17, 2009 by V.T. Eric Layton

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Couldn't fine Sound Recorder (except the Windows version), so phooey on that. However, when you can't do it with software, you can almost always do it hard-wired, as Fran suggested. I had already tried the line out/line in hardwired thing on my system, but it didn't work for some reason. Actually, I had to go Side Out to Line In, but there was no output from Side Out. Who knows? Anyway, I ended up going from Headphone Out to Line In. That works perfecto! I installed the lame libraries in Slack and can now save the Audacity outputs as mp3. Yay! Thanks for the suggestions and help, folks. Off to record some sound effects and stuff...

[BillD]

Thanks, I recall trying some before with no acceptable results.Bill

Edited July 17, 2009 by BillD

[V.T. Eric Layton]

There are other good sites, too, Bill...http://www.convertdirect.com/http://www.zamzar.com/http://www.flv2mp3.com/

[Urmas]

There is a "Sound Recorder" in Gnome:http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-sound...d-usage.html.en EDIT: Fran beat me to it... maybe I should read the whole thread before posting. Hmm... naah. EDIT 2: Krec, mayhaps? http://sharanr.blogspot.com/2006/05/sound-...g-gnulinux.html

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I have Krec... just couldn't figure out how to use it.

[Grogerf]

Hallo folks I can't get anything to record other than noise on my system I've tried [$ rec soundcardoutput.ogg] - just records noise at a low-ish level Gnome Soundrecorder just records noise at a low-ish level and needs me to enable pulse audio or it comes up with an error.[$ sox -w -s -r 44100 -c 2 /dev/dsp -t raw - | lame -x -m s - yoursoundrecordingname.mp3] comes up with two errors :-sox: invalid option -- 'w' and Warning: unsupported audio format. Before trying to use these I went into Kmix and enabled the two 'capture' channels, but noticed that the only input sources that were shown under the switches tab were mic, front mic, line and CD. Is this where the problem is?How do I confirm that my system can record what is going through the sound card (which is integrated on the motherboard)?Looking forward to being able to do this - I'm sure it could be done on my old motherboard before it died. I'm sure it shouldn't be so hard!Grogerf

[V.T. Eric Layton]

R-click in between any of the level adjustments on that Switches tab in Kmix, Roger and put a check mark by your Capture 0 and Capture 1 so they will appear along with the others.

[Grogerf]

R-click in between any of the level adjustments on that Switches tab in Kmix, Roger and put a check mark by your Capture 0 and Capture 1 so they will appear along with the others.

Hallo Eric Thanks for your reply I tried the right click on the switched tab but there is no capture 1 or capture 2 to put a check mark against It gives the options of channels and these are headphone, IEC 958, IEC 958 default pcm, and two input sources.The input sources each have a drop down list showing mic, front mic, line and CD.I guess these are the two 'capture' positions on the input tab. Maybe I'll have to make a loop cable - but there SHOULD be another way Maybe another mixer application?Roger.

[Bruno]

Maybe this is because of PulseAudio . . . you can switch back to good old Alsa in the MCC --> Hardware --> Sound Configuration, next reboot and try the sox and rec commands again. Bruno

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yeah... I'd go ALSA. By the way, if you read above... the loopback cable was how I finally accomplished this. Easy is always the best way.

[Grogerf]

Maybe this is because of PulseAudio . . . you can switch back to good old Alsa in the MCC --> Hardware --> Sound Configuration, next reboot and try the sox and rec commands again. Bruno

Hallo Bruno :"> I'd already switched back to ALSA a while back because PULSE mucked up something else - VOIP. I just checked in the MCC and it is set on ALSA :"> So no change there, and no change when I try the 'rec' and 'sox' command lines Maybe the 'audio card' on this motherboard is a bit lacking, but it's you can choose between 6 & 8 audio channels etc, - wasted on me stereo is fine Roger

[Grogerf]

Yeah... I'd go ALSA. By the way, if you read above... the loopback cable was how I finally accomplished this. Easy is always the best way.

Hallo Eric Yes a loopback cable is what I'll try next. Now where did I put all those old cables I made up Maybe I'll finally be able to convert that file from .ra to .mp3 the 'old' way. I hope I can adjust the levels properly - for some reason I have to set the sliders all the way up on the 'Master' and 'PCM' outputs to get reasonable output levels on this system. From way back analogue days I never liked having to set level controls all the way up (Whether it was a sound system or international telephone circuits or whatever - it always left me a bit nervous wonderring what would happen next - would the noise start creeping up or would the system start to sing :'( )Roger

[V.T. Eric Layton]

With Audacity and the loopback cable, I just have to adjust my Master Volume in Kmix to get the proper signal for recording.

[Grogerf]

With Audacity and the loopback cable, I just have to adjust my Master Volume in Kmix to get the proper signal for recording.

Hallo Eric Thanks I had to do a little bit more fiddling to get the highest level possible without clipping, but the recording is done and it's good Your advice to use the loopback cable was the best way to go, and with a double adapter I can listen to what's going on as it records Analogue wins I exported the project as an mp3 file using Audacity 1.3.5 beta (comes with Mandriva 2009) and the export worked fine, however it's exported at 128 kbps which is a tad excessive for spoken word and the resulting file is 18.2 M whereas the 'original' ra file is only 7.1 M. Do you know if there's a way to export at 64 kbps? I've looked at all the menus, but can't seem to find an entry or a drop down that will let me alter the mp3 parameters Thanks again for the loopback reminder Roger

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I believe the mp3 compression characteristics are determined by the Lame libraries (not adjustable). Have you tried to record it as a .wav or an ogg file?

[Grogerf]

I believe the mp3 compression characteristics are determined by the Lame libraries (not adjustable). Have you tried to record it as a .wav or an ogg file?

Hallo Eric Thanks for your speedy reply Just found the answer It's on this page [http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Sending_your_work_to_others] and almost hidden "In Audacity 1.3.3 and later, choose the required MP3 bit rate in the "Options" button after clicking File > Export and choosing MP3 as the export format."Do you think I could see that options button before I re-read that page for the umpteenth time The "button" is alsmost as wide as the screen it's so big It give a very wide range of options Roger

[V.T. Eric Layton]

HAHAHA! You're absolutely correct, Roger! I had to look three times before I saw it. Good thing it wasn't a...Huh? ;)Thanks for finding that. I'll need to remember that.

[Urmas]

The "button" is alsmost as wide as the screen it's so big

Yup. Hidden in plain sight... works every time. There are "dedicated" programs for audio conversion as well: SoundConverter and SoundKonverter, for example.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

[Urmas]

Simple, really... it's your "everyday" open/save dialogue; you recognize it without taking a closer look. Now, if that button/bar was RED...

[Guest LilBambi]

[Grogerf]

Hallo Eric,It's really easy - you just need a 'very special talent' Roger

[Anil]

......I've tried [$ rec soundcardoutput.ogg] - just records noise at a low-ish level Grogerf

I have been using rec all the time without any problems. Have you tried changing mixer settings ? Also ogg files can be easily converted to mp3 format using ffmpeg. Edited July 22, 2009 by Anil