I always wonder why do people use software like Alive WMA MP3 recorder, Super Mp3 Recorder Pro, i-Sound WMA/MP3 Recorder Professional. It must be ubiquitous ads that force us to buy such a software.

You can use freeware sound editor Audacity to record from sound card and edit your recordings.


MP3 music streams are usually broadcasted at a bit-rate of 96-128 kbps. It is a very low bit-rate especially for classical music. Your 5-star state-of-the-art sound card won't help here. When using a proper audio codec speech streams require much lower bit-rate to be of a decent quality.

Also 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.

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. However 'coz audio streams are usually broadcasted at a low bit-rate there is no sense to capture classical music. You might be satisfied with the quality of recording of POP music online radio stations, but I don't