How to find out if your sound card is able to record audio

Here is how to find out if your sound card is able to record audio with Sound Recorder (in Windows XP):

1. Locate “Volume” icon on your taskbar and double click to open Volume Control dialog box.
   
   
   If you cannot find the Volume icon, go to Control Panel -> Double click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. Click the Advanced button in Device Volume section under Volume tab.
2. From the Volume Control dialog box, click Options menu -> Properties.
3. Select Recording in “Adjust Volume for” section, and select all the volume controls appearing in the bottom half of the screen. Click OK to continue.
   
   
   
   Note. You may see a different devices listed depending on your sound card.
4. You will see the Volume control dialog box is now changed to “Recording Control”, leave this window open, and run Sound Recorder: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Sound Recorder.
   
5. Now you should have both Sound Recorder and the Recording Control on your screen, let’s play music. You can play any music using any music player like Windows Media Player, Winamp, AIMP or iTunes, for example.
6. Click Record button on the Sound Recorder while you’re playing music to see if you can see wave in the black rectangle box inside the Sound Recorder.
   
   
7. If the green line does not move, select different recording device from the Recording Control window.

If you haven't found the right device to record audio from your computer, you can try to use software with universal audio driver like

• Freecorder (freeware sound recording program),
• Jaksta Free Media Recorder (freeware audio recording program),
• Replay Music (shareware sound recording program that can split and tag songs automatically),
• Replay AV (shareware stream recorder that is good for scheduling online audio recordings),
• Replay Video Capture (shareware screen recorder that allows to record both audio and video),
• Replay Media Catcher (shareware stream recorder that can record audio from your sound card as well),
• WM Capture (shareware screen recorder that allows to record both audio and video),
• Ask & Record Toolbar (freeware browser toolbar that can record sound)