Radio streams are just the start: there are countless reasons why you might want to sample audio from an application that lacks recording capability, from Game Boy emulators to experimental soundware. Last month, CDM shared a few tools and asked you for tips for app-to-app recording. Here are the results (which I’ve tested further):
Mac OS X – Winner: Audio Hijack. The most flexible app for recording audio from any application(s), hands-down, is Rogue Amoeba‘s Audio Hijack. It’s easy to use, ultra-reliable, and constantly updated; the version 2.5 update has just arrived with Tiger support, AppleScripting, advanced mixing, and lots more. Well worth the US$16-32 price.
Windows – Winner: Audacity. Windows users have a number of options, including the fairly advanced Virtual Audio Cable for inter-app routing and US$11.95+ Total Recorder. Check the comments in the original story, though, and you’ll find results from some applications are mixed: definitely download demos before buying.
Why bother with those, though, when the most reliable solution is free? The fabulous, free, open-source audio editor Audacity can record the sound card mix: click the drop-down menu next to the microphone input level to select input source, and you’ll see “Stereo Mix.” Select it, hit record, and audio from your apps is automatically recorded. (You may need to experiment with gain — I found the input tended to be on the hot side — watch the waveform for distortion and turn down the input level.)
I’ve had excellent luck with Audacity on my system, though when I tried it on other PCs I occasionally ran into a hitch: again, try it first, though I’d certainly start with Audacity as it’s free. Incidentally, the reason I initially missed this technique is that it doesn’t work on Mac; the Mac Audacity appears to lack this feature.
So there you have it. Fire up your Game Boy emulator or the game music player Audio Overload for some instant chip tunes, or record text-to-speech software for some Radiohead-y goodness!
It's been documented elsewhere (and proven in my home) that Audacity – great app that it is – can be reponsible for muting the alert sounds in Tiger. Also responsible for muting all in-web-page quicktime movies and in-finder audio playback.
excellent – thanks for the tip.
I think the wording "Stereo Mix" depends on the soundcard. On my system it is "Wave Out Mix".
Theo den Brinker
Yes, on Windows I think that has to do with the driver.
On Mac, I hadn't seen the problem described — you mean while the app is active, or all the time? Bizarre. But yes, I have noticed occasionally strange behavior.
When thinking to chime in on the original post, I thought about suggesting recording from WaveOut, but discounted it because I assumed it would involve an additional A/D conversion round trip (i.e. I think it re-samples the analog output of the wave device). Regardless of whether or not that's true, maybe that doesn't matter so much.
Anyway, if you want to go the (possible) A/D re-conversion route on Windows, you can do this with any recording app by opening the Volume Control applet in windows (the speaker icon in the system tray), selecting 'Properties' from the Options menu, and then the 'Recording' radio button on the dialog that pops up. Check the box for "Wave out mix" or similarly named input, if it's not checked already, and hit OK. Voila– volume control becomes a rudimentary recording level control and input selector. Whichever audio input has the "Select" box checked will be the signal that is fed into the sound card's default recording device. Should work with any audio editor (just make sure the sound card with the desired waveout is selected as the default recording device in the 'Sounds and Audio Devices' control panel).
Wanted to raise your attention to a bug I've noticed since I started reading CDM many moons ago (even before the re-design).
When trying to click images for a larger pop-up view, IE 6.0.2800 on Windows refuses to to comply and defiantly puts "Error on page" in the status bar.
It works like a charm in Firefox on my machine, but I can't be convinced to convert :-).
Just thought I'd bring it to your attention in case other folks have been complaining– not a big deal for me.
Kudos on all the awesome content, btw– I'm a Windows user and even find the Tiger coverage interesting.
Though I'm happier on Mac than I was on PC, I did initially miss that feature of Audacity on Mac. However, I discovered that the way to get around it is to use Soundflower and, in Audacity's preferences, change the input device to Soundflower. I'm sure Audio Hijack is nice but I'm so used to Audacity for my workaday WAV editing that I'd rather use that.
Audacity records ANALOG sounds, so yes, there is an extra A/D conversion going on.
Does anyone know of a way to avoid that analog round trip and record direct the DIGITAL signal?
Audio Hijack makes me restart Firefox every time. Any work-arounds?
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