How do I record 'what I hear' from my speakers?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Camstudio,Camtasia Studio or Total Recorder can record from speakers.
www.highcriteria.com
www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp

[The Dying Informant]

Thanks. I am gonna get Camstudio anyway to record videos too. I still want to access these files... maybe I should see if UltimateZip will do it.

Isn't there something out there 'Datmagic' or something? That would be great.

[Mike6453]

I took a look at audacity's web site and it reports an incompatibility.

Audacity has been reported to not work with Norton Protected Recycle Bin.

I don't know if your using any Norton Products, but it's something to check.

[FOO]

You're not going to get at those sound files with Audacity / GoldWave / SoundForge / Total Recorder / Sound Recorder whatever.

With the exception of audio directly from a CD player
to a sound card, anything coming from the speakers is generated
by the computer and transferred to the sound card through
a software driver , which means that the data could be intercepted
by purely software means .

[The Dying Informant]

HMMMM... I'm not sure what Norton Protected Recycle Bin is, but yeah I'm using Norton Antivirus.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say FOO.

[theDruid]

FOO, the reason I said

You're not going to get at those sound files with Audacity / GoldWave / SoundForge / Total Recorder / Sound Recorder whatever.

was in response to:

... recording the sound aurally from the game is not what I want to do. I want to directly get the actual SOUND FILES from the game, since certain dialog is very tricky to get in the game, or impossible to hear separate of other sounds or music.

I then went on to say:

You'll only be able to record what's coming through your soundcard.

...it all makes a lot more sense in context.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[Mike6453]

Norton Protected Recycle Bin usually comes with Norton Utilities or bundled with Norton System Works. I don't believe it comes with just Norton Antivirus. It will change your recycle bin so that it has a shield on the front with the letter N on it. So this doesn't seem to be your problem.

[The Dying Informant]

I got Audacity working! I have to admit, I had no idea what I set wrong, and I gave up after a while. Well first let me tell you what went wrong and where I'm at now:

Firstly, I used the 'stable' version of Audacity and recording just didn't work. Then I tried the newest beta version (which is no longer the newest one now) and everytime I tried to record it would crash and give me an error report request. Now I got the newest beta version, and so when it wasn't working, it actually TOLD me this time to check my settings or my recording selection. So now that it wasn't crash tastic, I went and I could see the option I made the mistake of.

You have channel 1 for MONO, 2 for STEREO and up to 16 otherwise. So I had it on 16 assuming they meant 'voices' or whatever- that I would get a better recording at 16. But I don't know what the deal with this is, but when I chose STEREO it works now, and it sounds exactly like in the game. ALSO, it seems like WAVE/MP3 and 'WHAT U HEAR' sound exactly alike. I can't tell the difference. So I chose what u hear for the heck of it, unless there is a real plus I could gain otherwise.

Now, I also had a song recorded from the game that my friend sent me. I found that my recordings are coming out too quiet. Idon't know why. I set recording volume to the notch just off of full. So how can I make the tracks be as loud as most of my other tracks? Without just turning up my speakers I mean. Cause then if I make a playlist off all these songs, the louder ones will blast my ears when they play them.

And as you can see, this isn't illegal since I own the game. And I'm playing them for myself. I'm also recording dialog.

But I want it to be saved at a louder volume (will playback volume will affect this and not just how long its playing at the time?), and also, if I save it as .mp3, what setting do I choose? I think 128 is the normal setting, and it seems pretty high quality to me. But the higher settings, do you really notice the difference? It will take up more space right?

Finally, before and after the recording, there is a tiny scratch sound or something. How can I get rid of that?

I like Audacity better than Goldwave so far. I'm only doing basic editing right now, and Audacity is very simple I find, and its totally free. Ofcourse I used to think it was a piece of crap, cause it would crash when I tried to record before.

So atleast this is all working now. But if you could help me adjust some settings so it sounds the best, that would be great. Thanks.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Use MP3Gain to adjust volume and MP3 Splitter to trim.

[The Dying Informant]

Well the music I am recording in Mp3, but the dialog I am keeping in wav for now. I want the volume to be louder for both of them. And I hope I don't need a program for every single thing I want to do. :P Thanks anyway.

[lordsmurf]

Just my 2 cents... "because it is free" is a weak answer. In this case, "free" doesn't appear to work, hence the "not free" answers.

I'd recommend SoundForge myself as an advanced audio recorder, editor, etc. When something's good, I'll find ways to pay for it.

[You_Are_Alive]

Just open up your volume control, switch to record options, increase volume all the way up, watch the wave slider too. Your volume is your master, while the wave will only be as loud as you let your volume to be. So just raise the volume, and you will have a louder recorded sound. In my own case, I always need to lower my volume alot to get the right mixed sound.

[feenix]

You can use Audacity to increase the volume!

Open your recorded and saved files. Got to Edit>Select>All, then go to the Effects menu and select Amplify. This will give you the max amplification without clipping. It takes a while so don't be impatient and think it's not working. Then resave your file.

[theDruid]

What you want to do is normalise the levels - to make all your recordings as loud as they can be without clipping/distorting.

mp3Gain will do this if you make all your files into mp3 first.

If not, you can do it in pretty much any audio editor.

In Audacity: Edit->Select All... then ...Effect->Amplify

In GoldWave: Effects->Volume->Maximise

etc..

As for mp3 bitrate, do some tests - 128 sounds okay for speech, comedy etc.. usually - but is a bit low for music.

Try out some little sections and see what quality you're happy with.

If all you're doing is making playlists, all the files don't necessarily have to have the same bitrates.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[winifreid]

Man, what a long story. Audacity will allow you to increase the volume (gain) on any recorded track. You can also edit out noise or sectons of the file. Do you have newest version, now? It seems much better to me.

[The Dying Informant]

Thank you everyone.

Yes I am using the newest beta. It is more stable than the 'newest stable version'. It's very good.

Thanks. I guess 128 is the standard for mp3s, but not that great? I will listen and give a try. In any case turning it up to 300 something (whatever that number was) will provide higher quality but not make the size too much bigger? I guess I will have to play with it.

So I amplify? Thanks so much.

[winifreid]

I think you would have to have a pretty good system to hear the difference above 128. I can't with the car or the computer. If you double the bit rate you double the file size.

[andkiich]

I did not see anyone else suggest this but I've had good success with CAMSTUDIO.

[The Dying Informant]

I am not having good success with Camstudio for audio. In the noob board I made a thread about it. I want to use Camstudio for recording gameplay, which is video and audio that I want recorded in real time. The audio recording seems to pick and choose what parts it wants to record, and its very slow sounding. This is of a game when played in windowed mode, however if you record audio and video, the audio is slow and doesn't match the video.

Besides, you can't record audio only with camstudio, can you?

And fraps isn't helping much, cause their demo is far too limited to tell what the full version is like. If the full version is anything like the demo, it isn't worth $50 US.

[crashnburn]

I have tried Total Recorder, AdvancedMP3WMARecorder, and AceHighMP3 Recorder and find AceHigh to be the best. The program is small less than 1 MB and perform similar or better result then the rest. It is very simple to use

[The Dying Informant]

Thanks.

Hey I got another question.

In Audacity, how do I remove sounds from a track? Like in this case I want only the dialog and not the music or sounds that are in the track. Is there a way to seperate them?

[MOVIEGEEK]

You could try the invert filter,most songs have voice in the "middle" and the instruments "outside" spatially.

[The Dying Informant]

Thanks, I shall try that.

Now there's a weird thing I wonder about. There's this little 'clicking' sound before and after the files I record. The wavs I already had that I edit are fine. Its the new ones I record from my speakers that have a little click before and after the audio. How do I get rid of this and prevent this?

[Thunder In Paradise]

Hey Smearbrick, I also use Sound Forge 6.0, and it totally kicks! However, I've tried doing what Informant is doing, with limited success. I mostly use SF for improving the EQ on songs and whatnot. How can we use this great program to do what you guys are talking about? If it makes it any easier, I'm using a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum. Thanks!

P.S. I've tried the "Line In" thing before on my other computer, but the volume that is recorded, when played back is always way super low.

[The Dying Informant]

Hi.

Got another question or two bout Audacity or audio editors in general (free ones). What effect is it where I can add a little bit of a radio effect to some dialog? I dunno how else to explain it. I have two different clips I want to add together. One is from one game and the other is from the sequel (Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2). Well in the first, in the codec, the characters sound like they have a bit of a radioish effect on their voices (and it works), but in the second, it is more clear. So if I combine lines, even though it is the same character speaking, the difference is noticable. I have to be able to recreate that effect if I can.

If it would help I could upload the two wavs for you to download that I want to connect, and you can hear the difference for yourself. Then you can better help me know what effect to apply. I have tried to toy around, but I haven't found anything suitable (some of the effects are kinda complicated to set up though).

There is another problem. I think I solved it but I don't know if its the best way to do it. I had dialog recorded from the 2nd game, and dialog saved directly from the 1st. In the first game the audio is mono for some reason (in the codec anyway). In the second it is stereo, but the problem is the voice sounds more to the left than to the right. I want to center it. Well I tried by turning the right speaker volume up in Audacity, but it didn't sound right. So instead I split the audio into left and right, and I made left MONO and I deleted the right. Seems to sound okay, and it is centered. But I may have lost quality. So is there a better way to center the sound if its more on the left?

Again, I can upload both wav files and you can hear the difference in EFFECT and also how one is too much to the left.