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Originally Posted by dcmadam
So if I follow, it would help to
a) get a better sound card (something I was considering)
b) uninstall (???) Alive -> replace with Audacity
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Both won't help. See below for more.
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
However I now need to search the web to grasp the meaning of
i. "lossless codecs" and put it in context.
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Unlike lossy codecs, lossless codecs compress your audio files in the way you do not lose any quality. So you convert your compressed files to the exact originals.
Lossy codecs try to eliminate sounds that people won't hear. Lossy codecs allow you to get smaller files, but their quality suffers more or less.
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
ii. the technical nuance between "capture" and "record"
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Actually everything got entangeled here. People use capture, record, rip, download, save to HD as synonyms.
When talking about audio streams I prefer to use record when recording from sound card and capture/rip/download when saving stream in the format it is broadcasted in.
When you record from sound card you lose some quality, unless you use a lossless codec that allows you not to lose any quality at the expense of bigger files.
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
iii. "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."
'fraid I'm not very clear on meaning of this.
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Direct sound recording software can record any sound produced by your sound card. 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).
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
Also, is the suggestion that it isn't possible to record/capture quality classical music from radio streaming?
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Live MP3 streams usually have a bit-rate of 96-128 kbps. It might be enough for POP music, but it is definitely too low for classical music. Even if you use a state-of-the-art sound card and save audio to a lossless format, it won't help!!!
I strongly suggest you to buy Audio CDs with classical music.
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
Wonder if 'listen again' radio streaming is the same technically as live?
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On-demand streams are much better. You can listen to them later on. This is a strong plus, 'coz one can experience problems playing online streams due to say network congestion. And if you can't replay radio stream, you can't re-record it.
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
iv. "However 'coz audio streams are usually broadcast at a low bit-rate there is no sense to capture classical music."
Again do I take it you saying that effectively there is no way at present to record/capture live or replay audio/radio web streaming?
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The problem is not in capturing. You can capture or record audio streams with classical music without any problem. But 'coz stream broadcasts are of low quality, your recordings will be of the same quality (or even worse if you re-compress using some lossy codec).
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Originally Posted by dcmadam
v. Is it technically feasible for a total tech newbie to uninstall Alive and replace it with Audacity?
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I think
Audacity is not a difficult software to install. IMHO you should learn how to install and uninstall Windows software anyway. Most probably you will need this skill later on.
However if you purchased Alive WMA MP3 recorder there is probably no sense to uninstall it and use any other software. Audacity is very powerful, but it is rather complicated for newbies.