[Stream Recorder]

I've always suggested to use free direct sound recording software like

• freeware sound recorder Freecorder Toolbar,
• freeware sound editor Audacity,
• freeware MP3 cutting and trimming software MP3DirectCut,
• freeware audio recorder HardDiskOGG

instead of commercial software like

• Super Mp3 Recorder Pro,
• i-Sound WMA/MP3 Recorder Professional

The only exception has been Replay Music 'coz it is a very unique software that can split and tag songs automatically. It is a very good time saver.

Replay AV 8.30 has been released recently and it has a very nice feature:

• new Replay A/V Audio Driver recording capability allows recording with sound cards that don't have Stereo Mix, What U Hear, Wave Out Mix or other recording lines! Works with all Windows Vista machines now too!

So now you can record from sound card even on PCs that were unable to do that previously whether due to Windows Vista or lack of any recording line!


Video tutorial: How to Record Any Audio You Hear on Your PC with Replay AV





Video tutorial: How to record any music online with Replay Music

[Stream Recorder]

When using direct sound recording software you actually re-compress your streams making quality even worth (usually it is better to record MP3 radio to MP3, WMA to WMA). Of course you can record using lossless codecs, but it will be a huge loss of HDD space.

When saving the recorded sound to audio files computer software uses some audio codec. It can be lossless so that there will be no quality loss, but rather large files. Or it can be lossy so that you can receive smaller files, the quality and size of the saved files depend on a codec and its settings (like bit-rate, simply speaking, how much information is used to code some piece of audio signal).

That is why it is better to capture audio streams instead of recording them whenever it is possible. You may use media stream recorders or audio stream rippers. Such programs are usually limited to several formats so they can't record any audio stream like Direct sound recording software does. But they don't re-compress streams giving you the best quality.

[Stream Recorder]

Direct sound recording has many disadvantages:

• You get bigger files or lower quality.
• You can end up with system sounds or any other sounds in your recordings
• You can't do many things on your computer that involve sound card usage, when something is recorded.
• You can't record multiple streams at the same time (unless you have multiple sound cards)
• You can't split and tag recorded songs (unless you use Replay Music for Windows that can record anything from your sound card automaticaly splitting and tagging songs)

So obviously it is better to capture/rip/download streams in most cases. And you can use many applications for that, but most of them work on Windows only.

The main advantage of direct sound recording is that you can record any sound produced by your sound card.

p.s. Both types of programs can have or have no scheduling feature.
p.p.s. Some of these disadvantages are not true of for some Mac OS programs

[Stream Recorder]

Some of the features of Freecorder Toolbar:

• Eliminates silence - starts recording when it first detects audio, and stops when audio stops. Now you never have "dead air" at the start and end of your recording.
• Eliminates background noises - Other recording programs mix together all the audio played on your PC. If you're recording from one application, and another one plays a noise, that noise gets mixed into your final recording. Freecorder Toolbar is able to separate sounds from individual applications, giving you a perfect, uncluttered recording.
• Sound card independent method works with All New PC's - Including Vista - In the old days, all PC's had sound cards with an easily accessible recording line. Today, Windows Vista and XP machines rarely make this available, which makes it impossible to record using common sound recorders. In addition, USB sound cards or headsets can be hard to record from as well. Freecorder Toolbar uses a Sound Card Independent recording technology which works great with all Vista and XP systems.
• Works with ANY sound card, even those that don't support recording (like RealTek and SigmaTel)
• No sound card drivers - Many audio recording programs install a special sound card driver, which often causes undesirable side-effects, or requires you to jump through hoops when booting your PC - especially on Windows Vista. Freecorder Toolbar just works - our driverless recording technology won't inconvenience you or make your PC freak out.
• 100% FREE. No spyware, adware or viruses.

It is too cool to be FREE!



Video Tutorial: How to record any sound from your sound card using freeware sound recorder Freecorder Toolbar

[Donie-boi]

Hi
I've tried to use freecoder to record streaming sound on a dell desktop running Vista.
I can't get it to record and when I go to the record settings in the control panel I cannot see any recording devices suuch as "my sounds", even though I've enabled the "display disabled devices" setting. It only shows my mics (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC).

What should I do

[Stream Recorder]

Originally Posted by Donie-boi

I've tried to use freecoder to record streaming sound on a dell desktop running Vista.

I can't get it to record and when I go to the record settings in the control panel I cannot see any recording devices suuch as "my sounds", even though I've enabled the "display disabled devices" setting. It only shows my mics (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC).

Reply from Applian support:

Originally Posted by Applian

I'm not sure if this person is referring to the Freecorder toolbar, or the original Freecorder. If it's the Freecorder Toolbar, they don't need to bother with sound card settings and would use the Freecorder Audio Driver setting in the toolbar's settings.

If they are using the original Freecorder on Vista and don't have a recording line to enable, then they will not be able to record audio using the sound card. This is common with many systems. Using one of our newer audio recorders with the specialized driver resolves this problem. They are as follows: Freecorder Toolbar, Replay AV 8 and Replay Music
.

[peasmold]

Another direct recording/cutting tool - but with some special aims at recording for offline listening.

Anubis Recorder/Player - see www.anotherurl.com/anubis

This one is aimed at recording weeks or monts of source material (hey disk is cheap yeah?) then using a radio station schedule to select and playback or cut out mp3 segments as podcasts.

So it's really aimed at capturing whole shows - but kind of like mp3directcut writ large.

But as you can provide your own text based schedule if your radio station has an accurately timed playlist - or if you make one by scraping a webpage in real time - you could easily cut out music tracks in pristine encoded mp3...

[Stream Recorder]

Ask & Record Toolbar is a simple direct sound recording software. It is 100% free, but besides recording from sound card it can save HTTP and HTTPS video streams and convert audio/video files.