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You've outfitted your computer with the best sound card, hooked it up to great speakers, and now it sounds great. But how do you capture the sounds you find on the internet or concoct yourself? Here are few ways you can do it.
Method 1 of 5:
For this tutorial, we're using an open source sound recorder called Audacity. Other sound recorders offer the same principles and features, generally.
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Select your input source. You can find this in the Device Toolbar, or in Device Preferences. If nothing is showing, you might need to enable it using the sound card's control panel as outlined below.
Show hidden devices. Right-click inside the Recording tab and select Show disabled devices. Right-click again and check Show Disconnected Devices.
Plug in any necessary cables. If your sound card has a physical input such as mic or line in, connect the required cable as directed in the manual.
Adjust sample rates. Right-click your input device, select Properties , then click the Advanced tab and verify that the Default format matches both the project rate (bottom left of the Audacity screen), and with the number of recording channels in the Devices tab of Audacity Preferences. Click OK .
Set your default device. In the Sound control panel, click the Playback tab, right-click over the speakers or headphones device for your sound card and set it as Default Device or Default Communication Device.
Match formats. Right-click and click Properties then the Advanced tab, and set Default Format to match with the settings in Step 7 above.
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Connect a cable. Connect a cable with a mini-plug from the line out of your sound card (the green port) to the line in (blue port).
Install Soundflower. Soundflower is a free, open source Mac OS X (10.2 and later) system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications.
Launch Soundflowerbed. It's located inside the Soundflower folder, and when launched will appear on the right of your menu bar as a flower icon.
Redirect your system sounds. Click on the Sound Effects tab, and from the Play alerts and sound effects through: drop-down menu, choose Line Out or Internal Speakers, as appropriate for your setup, then close the window.
Setup Soundflower and Audio preferences. Click on the Soundflower icon in your menu bar, and select Built In Line Output in the Soundflower (2ch) section. Make sure that the Soundflower (16ch) is set to None(Off).
Open Audio MIDI Setup. From the Soundflower menu, select Audio Setup. and from the resulting Audio MIDI Setup menu bar select Window > Show Audio Window.
Use the computer's output. If recording to the internal sound card is not possible for whatever reason, there is still a way to capture your computer's audio by using an external device plugged into your computer's output.
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If your software permits, turn off any play through function. If you do not, you will create an out-of-control echo that could damage your speakers, ears, and your relationship with your neighbors.
Thanks to the RIAA, Microsoft Sound Recorder will only record up to 60 seconds of sound.To monitor the sound you're recording with the hardware methods above, use a single-to-double stereo adapter on the output port, then plug a single-to-single stereo cable from one side of the adapter to the input port, and a pair of headphones into the second side of the adapter, so you can monitor what you're recording.
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Do not use this method to violate copyright laws by stealing music from the internet or ripping music from a DVD to create a soundtrack to distribute to people.
Copyright or web site restrictions may prevent you recording or distributing material. Check first. Advertisement
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