Recording off of the computer?

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 05:25 PM

Windows already has 'Sound Recorder' included for precisely this purpose. Very basic, but it works. Email me if you need help in setting it up (PM doesn't support attachments!!).

Sound files soon fill up your hard drive, so get a CD rewriter if you haven't already got one - they are so cheap these days.

Alternatively, you can change the quality of the recording - 8 bit mono at 11,025Hz sample rate gives relatively small files, just about acceptable quality for speech; 8 bit mono at 22,025Hz is the lowest acceptable for music.

Full CD quality is 16 bit stereo, at 44,100Hz, but files are typically around 50Mb for an average length song. My first hard drive was only half that!

You can always use an MP3 converter to squish your big .WAV files to a tenth of their original size, but it starts to get messy!

Cool Edit and Sound Forge are 'heavyweight' programs which do the job well, and allow you quite complex editing possibilities, including multi-tracking. They allow you to save directly into MP3 format, too.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: IvanB
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 05:13 PM

BTW, TotalRecorder is found here:

Click here

and I lied, the registration is $11.95 US.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: IvanB
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 05:06 PM

I use TotalRecorder and it works fine for what you want to do, Brett. It's about $12.95 to register and, unfortunately, it only will record about 30 seconds until you've registered. It also records in .wav format, so the files get BIG fast, but I run mine through an MP3 encoder pretty soon after recording to slim them down. I have my FM plugged into the line-in on my computer and record 4 hours of folk music every Sunday evening, as well as recording various streaming audio files from the internet.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:10 PM

Sure... I just bought 35.5 feet of coax cable (precious cable tv cable) for about 15 bucks I think... it may have been cheeper...

Chords are great... the more you buy the cheeper it is....

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:06 PM

"Suckage"? Is that some kind of technical sound term? Or is that a high tech computer term? *Grin*

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Jeri
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:53 PM

You could get a boom box to record the tapes. (The sound quality will probably suffer from some degree of suckage anyway.)

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:48 PM

My stereo has two speakers in the living room and two in the kitchen. That covers the whole downstairs. There are two bedrooms and an office upstairs and that has to depend on the radios and the computer. the loooonnnngggg cable will have to reach from the office, down the stairs, and across the hall and living room.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:55 PM

I have a llllllloooooooonnnnnnnggggg cable that I occasionally run from my computer to my home stereo in the living room... that way no matter where I go in the house I got my tunes blasting!

Makes house cleaning day a lot of fun actually... And it can be easily heard over the vacuum!

Hope my neighbours like folk music!

LOL!!

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:44 PM

My sound card is plugged straight into my HiFi system. You use the CD imput on your amp.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: MMario
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:37 PM

try totalrecorder - if it works, then you've got a full duplex sound card - and I have done it in the past, but don't have enough space on my hard drive

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:37 PM

Mmario is right. I wanted to record on to my hard drive though Clinton's idea would be an acceptable alternative. However, that would require moving either the computer or the stereo within reach of each other...

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Tiger
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:35 PM

I'd like to just capture whatever I'm listening to (I guess it would be RealAudio, then) to a (huge) area on one of my hard drives.

Then, if something great went by, I could go back to my recorder file, sample out the section I wanted and move it to another area for safekeeping/edit. I would purge the recorder file as needed.

Is anybody doing this?

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:18 PM

How you can do it depends on what sort of outputs you have on your sound card. Line out to line in on your recorder is a relatively clean way of doing it if you card has the sockets available.

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: MMario
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:18 PM

well - there is that way too - but I thought he meant record onto his computer hard drive with his computer while playing something on his computer speakers

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:06 PM

Naaahhh.. just get yourself a 1/4" jack splitter... plug it into the same place you plug your speakers into... you now have another output... plug your speakers into one side... plug a long chord into the other... The other end of this will depend on what sort of inputs your stereo has... mine has "stereo" plugs (a red and and white input)...

It may take a little fiddling to get the leves right, but ti can be done easy peasy....

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 12:34 PM

How do I figure out whether or not the sound card is a "full duplex sound card"?

Subject: RE: Recording off of the computer?
From: MMario
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 12:32 PM

If you have a full duplex sound card you should be able to do this. One program I have heard for doing this is called TotalRecorder.

Subject: Recording off of the computer?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 12:18 PM

Is it possible to use my computer to record internet radio programs, midi files, and other files that I can currently listen to? I was thinking about this lately while listening to an internet radio program. After all if I am listening to my stereo and decide to record a radio program I can just pop a cassette into the tape deck and adjust the controls and I am done. Can I do this with that big expensive machine sitting on my desk?