Recording audio from the web

  • Thread starter Thread starter BudV
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BudV

Running a Toshiba Satellite (nice speakers) under Vista Home Premium SP2.

There is a series of audio interviews on the web that I want to record on my
HD.

Currently, I'm having acceptable results simply playing through the speakers
and picking it up through the microphone using Sound Recorder. It's not
exactly high fidelity, but I'm dealing with speech, not music. The only
problem is that it's vulnerable to any noise in the area, and four to six
grandkids can produce that effortlessly.

I asked Geek Squad if I could just jumper the earphones output to the mic
input, thereby blocking out external noise. She said it wouldn't work
because ... yadda yadda .. powered mic ... yadda yadda ... a lot of extra
noise. She confused me further with talk about software that will do this.
I tried a free trial of one, but it looked as though it was still depending
about the output from speakers and said nothing about gagging grandkids.

Is there a way to play audio from a website and record it on my HD without
depending on immediate airspace?
 
BudV said:
Running a Toshiba Satellite (nice speakers) under Vista Home Premium
SP2.
There is a series of audio interviews on the web that I want to
record on my HD.

Currently, I'm having acceptable results simply playing through the
speakers and picking it up through the microphone using Sound
Recorder. It's not exactly high fidelity, but I'm dealing with
speech, not music. The only problem is that it's vulnerable to any
noise in the area, and four to six grandkids can produce that
effortlessly.
I asked Geek Squad if I could just jumper the earphones output to the
mic input, thereby blocking out external noise. She said it wouldn't
work because ... yadda yadda .. powered mic ... yadda yadda ... a lot
of extra noise. She confused me further with talk about software
that will do this. I tried a free trial of one, but it looked as
though it was still depending about the output from speakers and said
nothing about gagging grandkids.
Is there a way to play audio from a website and record it on my HD
without depending on immediate airspace?
Click to expand...
=======================
Try using the freeware Audacity:

Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

PC Recording of AM and FM Radio
http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20051101_pc_recording_of_am_and_fm_radio.html

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
I tried Audacity, and it did record what I was playing, albeit too quietly.
I suspect that may have been my fault through improper parameters.

It also did something very strange. About every ten seconds during
playback, I heard, loud and clear, a woman's voice saying something like
"A.V.S. near, dear Jenna." I suspect that what was really being said was
some kind of diagnostic that would make much more sense to somebody familiar
with the ins and outs of audio recording. I'm dying of curiosity on that
one.

Unfortunately, it also was sensitive to my voice (and presumably also to the
screams of my grandkids) so it doesn't meet that requirement, unless I was
supposed to shut off the speakers with a plug or something.

I hope you have some answers to the above mysteries.
 
HAH! One mystery solved, more or less. Of course it sounded like A.V.S.
....something. The desktop logo reads "AVS4YOU Software" !!! I suspect that
little disturbance would go away if I registered (and paid for?) the
package. In any event, unless I can solve the other two problems, I'm back
to square one.
 
BudV said:
I apologize for not making my situation perfectly clear for you. I'm not
talking about downloading or saving a file -- that would be trivial. Take
the following link and you should get almost an hour of conversation.
THAT'S what I want to capture.

http://tappingworldsummit.com/event/day3-gxsgr/redroom.php


krazyl said:
Have you tried right clickin on it and clicking save as and see if it
lets you save the file to ur pc. Post a link to an example of what your
talkin about and I will see if I can get it on my pc.
Click to expand...

Hi BudV,

If you go to START > Control Panel > Sound and then click the "Recording"
tab, you MAY be able to select "What U Hear" as the recording source which
will solve your issue.


Hope this helps


Andy
Click to expand...
 
BudV said:
I apologize for not making my situation perfectly clear for you. I'm not
talking about downloading or saving a file -- that would be trivial. Take
the following link and you should get almost an hour of conversation.
THAT'S what I want to capture.

http://tappingworldsummit.com/event/day3-gxsgr/redroom.php
Click to expand...


I visited the link you gave and was able to save the audio with this program:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html

Although it's primarily for capturing web videos it also saves sound files.
(You can save the audio file to disk via the program.)
It's a useful program if you have got integrated on-board audio and no sound card.
 
BudV said:
HAH! One mystery solved, more or less. Of course it sounded like
A.V.S. ...something. The desktop logo reads "AVS4YOU Software" !!! I
suspect that little disturbance would go away if I registered (and
paid for?) the package. In any event, unless I can solve the other
two problems, I'm back to square one.
Click to expand...
======================================
Apparently you downloaded AVS Audio Editor...
(which is not Audacity and is not freeware).

I would still suggest that you give Audacity a try.

When you are directed to the SourceForge
page for downloading...do not click the
'Download Now' button (that's how you got the
AVS software). All you have to do is left click
the blue letters that say "Direct Link".

Sorry for the confusion...downloading software
can be tricky sometimes.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
BudV said:
Running a Toshiba Satellite (nice speakers) under Vista Home Premium SP2.

There is a series of audio interviews on the web that I want to record on
my
HD.

Currently, I'm having acceptable results simply playing through the
speakers
and picking it up through the microphone using Sound Recorder. It's not
exactly high fidelity, but I'm dealing with speech, not music. The only
problem is that it's vulnerable to any noise in the area, and four to six
grandkids can produce that effortlessly.

I asked Geek Squad if I could just jumper the earphones output to the mic
input, thereby blocking out external noise. She said it wouldn't work
because ... yadda yadda .. powered mic ... yadda yadda ... a lot of extra
noise. She confused me further with talk about software that will do
this. I tried a free trial of one, but it looked as though it was still
depending about the output from speakers and said nothing about gagging
grandkids.

Is there a way to play audio from a website and record it on my HD without
depending on immediate airspace?
Click to expand...

Hello,
I use "Total Recorder" the Pro version, a paid for software application.
It will pick up any sound from any source coming into the computer, before
the
sound reaches the sound card.
take care.
beamish.
 
John Inzer said:
======================================
Apparently you downloaded AVS Audio Editor...
(which is not Audacity and is not freeware).

I would still suggest that you give Audacity a try.

When you are directed to the SourceForge
page for downloading...do not click the
'Download Now' button (that's how you got the
AVS software). All you have to do is left click
the blue letters that say "Direct Link".

Sorry for the confusion...downloading software
can be tricky sometimes.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
Click to expand...
 
It took a little persistence but I finally found the "Direct Link" option.

The test worked, but it still picked up my voice in addition to the source
coming through the speakers. Am I asking for too much to expect the
software to intercept the source's sound *before* it gets to the speakers
and not "hear" anything through the mic? Also, I checked Help to see if it
had anything along these lines, and it mentioned the toolbar that contained
input volume, recording volume, and Input Selection, which I had hoped would
deal with my situation, but the screen had that selection dimmed and it
didn't look like the help example. I tried to find the manual online with
no luck.
 
For a moment there, it looked as though you had exactly what I wanted; but
if "any source" includes the built-in mic then it's going to hear the
screaming grandkids, isn't it?
 
BudV said:
It took a little persistence but I finally found the "Direct Link" option.

The test worked, but it still picked up my voice in addition to the
source coming through the speakers. Am I asking for too much to expect
the software to intercept the source's sound *before* it gets to the
speakers and not "hear" anything through the mic? Also, I checked Help
to see if it had anything along these lines, and it mentioned the
toolbar that contained input volume, recording volume, and Input
Selection, which I had hoped would deal with my situation, but the
screen had that selection dimmed and it didn't look like the help
example. I tried to find the manual online with no luck.
Click to expand...

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/audacity-manual-1.2.pdf

Dave T.
 
BudV said:
It took a little persistence but I finally found the "Direct Link"
option.
The test worked, but it still picked up my voice in addition to the
source coming through the speakers. Am I asking for too much to
expect the software to intercept the source's sound *before* it gets
to the speakers and not "hear" anything through the mic? Also, I
checked Help to see if it had anything along these lines, and it
mentioned the toolbar that contained input volume, recording volume,
and Input Selection, which I had hoped would deal with my situation,
but the screen had that selection dimmed and it didn't look like the
help example. I tried to find the manual online with no luck.
Click to expand...
===============================================
Just wondering...did you follow the instructions in the article
I posted for you?

PC Recording of AM and FM Radio
http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20051101_pc_recording_of_am_and_fm_radio.html

One more question...why not download the Audio Interviews
to your hard drive and then recording won't be an issue?

If all of this fails...there is a way to accomplish the recording
using Windows Movie Maker.

Open WIndows Movie Maker and go to...Tools / Narrate Timeline.

In the Audio Input Source drop window choose, "Stereo Mix".

Drag the Input level slider to the top.

Left click the 'Start Narration' button.

Start your Interview.

When the interview is over...left click the Stop Narration button
and save the file to a folder on your hard drive.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
First, and most important, what sound card or onboard audio adapter do you have
(check in Control Panel > Device Manager > Expand Sound, video and game
controllers)?

If you have a Creative card, or an onboard Realtek audio adapter, right click on
the speaker icon in the Notification Area of the Taskbar, and select Recording
Devices. For Creative right click on What-U-Hear, and select "Set as Default
Device". If you have a Realtek audio adapter, right click on Stereo Mix, and
select "Set as Default Device". You can then record audio playing on your PC
without picking up any room sounds.

If you do not see the above options -- or something similar --, right click on
an empty area of the Recording tab window, and select BOTH "Show Disabled
Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices:.
 
BudV said:
For a moment there, it looked as though you had exactly what I wanted; but
if "any source" includes the built-in mic then it's going to hear the
screaming grandkids, isn't it?
Click to expand...

Not if you're smart enough to turn the mic OFF.
 
SUCCESS with Audacity, along with a very subtle suggestion by John Galt that
I should turn the microphone OFF! :-D

Nevertheless, I would like to wrap up a couple of loose strings.

Just wondering...did you follow the instructions in the article
I posted for you?
Click to expand...

If you're referring to Jake Ludington's "PC Recording of AM and FM Radio",
yes, but his text about Control Panel didn't correspond to what I saw on my
screen, no matter how I twisted and turned. I chalked it up to Vista vs. XP
and didn't pursue it any further.
One more question...why not download the Audio Interviews
to your hard drive and then recording won't be an issue?
Click to expand...

I would have liked that, but didn't know how! The screen that "played" the
interview just takes off and speaks. It had to be referring to an audio
file somewhere on the net, so I looked at the HTML to see if I could find
anything, but with my very limited experience with HTML I got nowhere. If
you can enlighten me on this, I'd appreciate it.
To all the contributors.
Click to expand...
My thanks to all the offers of help. The Audacity option plus turning off
the mic was the simplest choice for my aging brain.
 
BudV said:
SUCCESS with Audacity, along with a very subtle suggestion by John
Galt that I should turn the microphone OFF! :-D
Click to expand...
====================================
Good...I'm glad you found your solution.
====================================
If you're referring to Jake Ludington's "PC Recording of AM and FM
Radio", yes, but his text about Control Panel didn't correspond to
what I saw on my screen, no matter how I twisted and turned. I
chalked it up to Vista vs. XP and didn't pursue it any further.
Click to expand...
====================================
Ok...XP vs Vista was probably the roadblock.
====================================
I would have liked that, but didn't know how! The screen that
"played" the interview just takes off and speaks. It had to be
referring to an audio file somewhere on the net, so I looked at the
HTML to see if I could find anything, but with my very limited
experience with HTML I got nowhere. If you can enlighten me on this,
I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...
====================================
I don't know the site you are referring to so
cannot be certain but in many cases the file
can be found in your Temporary Internet Files
folder after you play it on the net.

And...if you run the Mozilla FireFox Browser...
there is a free Add-On that makes it very easy
to download audio/video files from websites.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
BudV said:
For a moment there, it looked as though you had exactly what I wanted; but
if "any source" includes the built-in mic then it's going to hear the
screaming grandkids, isn't it?
Click to expand...

Hello,
Any source means you pick the source you want to use.
The application deals with sound you choose the source.

take care.
beamish.
 
First, and most important, what sound card or onboard audio adapter do you have
(check in Control Panel > Device Manager > Expand Sound, video and game
controllers)?

If you have a Creative card, or an onboard Realtek audio adapter, right click on
the speaker icon in the Notification Area of the Taskbar, and select Recording
Devices.  For Creative right click on What-U-Hear, and select "Set as Default
Device".  If you have a Realtek audio adapter, right click  on StereoMix, and
select "Set as Default Device".  You can then record audio playing on your PC
without picking up any room sounds.

If you do not see the above options -- or something similar --, right click on
an empty area of the Recording tab window, and select BOTH "Show Disabled
Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices:.
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this information. I have never been able to find
the instructions for setting up Sound Recorder to work with my Realtek
audio adapter.
And the only additional thing that I had to do was change the stereo
mix properties from 1 channel to 2 channel to get stereo recording.

This is what newsgroups are for!

John B
 
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