Streaming audio

[Finfarin]

Is there any software that can download streaming audio?

[bluebridge]

There's a good chance (dependent upon the audio driver(s) installed in your system) that you don't need any extra software at all!
The following applies to WinXP.

1. Open TWO instances of your volume control (double-click the speaker icon in the system tray twice - drag the second copy of the Volume control window to one side to expose the first window beneath it). You're going to use one of these windows for playback and one for record.

2. In the second window, click Options-Properties, and then select the 'recording' radio-button option. If a 'Stereo Mixer' checkbox option is now present in the 'Show the following volume controls' window, you're probably in business. Check the stereo mixer box, and any other boxes you'd like to have present (I have 'Recording control', 'Stereo mixer', 'Mic', 'Line in' and 'CD player' checked). Click OK. Your second window is now titled 'Recoding control'.

3. Check the 'Stereo Mixer' control to make this the recoding control.

4. Go back to the 'Volume control' window, and if necessary open Options-Properties to select the volume controls you want here (the 'Playback' radio-button should be selected by default). Make sure the 'Wave' box (in the 'Show the following volume controls' window) is checked in addition to the master 'Volume control'. (I also have 'SW synth', 'Mic', and 'Line in' checked). Click OK. and set its slider to an average position.

5. The Wave volume control is used to set the volume of the streaming audio (make sure the Wave control is not muted but the Mic control is); the Stereo Mixer control is used to set the recording level to the sound recorder.

6. For simple stuff, you can use the Windows Sound recorder (%SystemRoot%\System32\sndrec32.exe). Select the File-Save As option and name a file. On clicking OK, the red record button will become active. Clicking starts the recording. Only problem is that you only get 60 seconds recording snippets - though clicking on the red button again when the 60 secs is up allows you to extend by a further 60 secs, and so on.
There IS a workaround for this (see below), but you're probably better off getting a better sound recorder program. If you don't fancy the big boys (e.g. Adobe Audition nee CoolEdit), a nice simple recorder I use is LP Recorder from
http://www.cfbsoftware.com
(who also do an LP ripper for automatically breaking down a big .wav file into separate individual-track files). Computer mags have offered old versions of this prog for free in the past, but the current version isn't expensive, and you can download a free trial version.

I've used this sucessfully with both 'live' and 'listen again' realaudio streams from the BBC, as well as for example music snippets from musicroom.com etc.

The method above allows you to listen to the stream on your speakers while recording it (which is why the mic input should be muted!). But if your audio card does not provide the steroe mixer control, you can achieve a similar effect by connecting an audio lead from your line out back to your line in ( or even your headphone out to your microphone in!) and using twoo instances of volume control as above together with a suitable sound recorder.

Have fun!
bluebridge

Workaround for Windows Sound Recorder (messy, but it works!)
The secret is to open an already existing .wav file and overwrite it with your new recording. The problem is that SoundRec needs to open the whole file into RAM (+ virtual RAM on your hard disk, as necessary). I have done this with a 500 Mbyte (~50 min) .wav file, but it takes an age to load. Here's what you do.
Copy an existing (long-enough) .wav file and rename it to, say, stream.wav. Open SoundRec, and do File-Open stream.wav. Wait while it loads. Eventually, the file will appear in SoundRec, and its length will be shown in secs. Now do a File-SaveAs and enter a filename. This can be a new filename or the same 'stream.wav'. Click OK. If you used stream.wav, you will get a dialog asking if you want to overwrite the existing file. Say Yes. Your chosen save-as file will now appear in recorder again, ready for you to record to. (If you chose a new filename, and you've got an explorer window open to the appropriate folder, you will see this new file appear with the length of the original stream.wav file.) The record operation overdubs the original sound in the file. So if your new recording is shorter than the original, you will have the tail-end of the original at the end of your new recording.

[AlecWest]

Is there any software that can download streaming audio?

Or, download Net Transport. It's shareware, but fully functional. The author asks for a $24.95 donation (www.xi-soft.com). If you buy the software, he allows you to update the shareware version to include more features and remove the nag-screen that comes up once about 5 to 10 minutes after you start using the shareware version. But, the nag screen doesn't disable any ongoing downloads ... and neither does closing the nag screen.

One note. If you're attempting to download the stream of a "static file," you're OK using Net Transport. But, if you're attempting to download the stream of a "live program," make sure you have a good broadband connection. Otherwise, you'll get "blank spots" in the end-result file.