-
Recording streaming audio
Hi gang…
I usually haunt/host over at the more video-oriented forums, but I have an audio question.
I’m looking for an easy way to record streaming audio off of websites.
I’m not trying to do anything illegal…just convenient. We mostly produce broadcast commercials, and we usually get music tracks from a half-dozen or so of the usual providers, combing through their websites until we find a track that we like. As most of the sites have demos you can listen to (or sometimes even full tracks), in the past we have simply recorded the audio of the live streams… then we would have numerous choices we could use as scratch tracks while editing. Then, when we’ve settled on a cut we like, we buy the “real” track to use in the final mix.
The problem is, we can’t seem to do that anymore… each time we replace the computer or editing system in a suite, it seems we can’t figure out a way to do that in with the new system. It used to be as simple as turning up the correct pot on the mixer and hitting “record” in whatever audio program we were using (Soundbooth, Audition, or whatever), and it would record beautifully. No more, though. With our newer systems we’ve not been able to figure out how to do it (and neither can our audio engineer, and he’s great)… and the last editing system that could do it has now been retired.
I’ve been searching for a software solution that would do that, and have found lots of choices (Audacity and several others), but none of them seem to work… or at least work well.
These were mostly freeware, shareware, or cheap-ware software.
Does anyone know of a more professional solution or product to get us back easily recording streams again?
Much thanks,
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
12 Replies
-
Dear T2,
If your audio person is great, but can’t figure out how to route audio out of a computer to a mixer and presumably on to a recorder, ya gotta wonder about him/her.
I don’t want to come off as harsh, but that’s a pretty simple gozinta/gozouta thing. I have known of production companies who have lost their audio person and found themselves up the creek without him/her.
To what do you intend to record and from what?
Regards,
Ty Ford
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field GuideWatch Ty play guitar -
[Ty Ford] “If your audio person is great, but can’t figure out how to route audio out of a computer to a mixer and presumably on to a recorder, ya gotta wonder about him/her.”
Totally agreed. But, that’s not at all what we are trying to do… that is, we are not trying to route audio out of a computer through a mixer and record it onto another device. And I have every confidence in our audio engineer… he’s the best guy I’ve ever worked with and spends most of his time designing audio systems all over the country that are so complex compared to our little systems that it’s like comparing a toaster oven to a nuclear reactor. So… when he can’t figure something out, I know I’m in trouble.
[Ty Ford] “I don’t want to come off as harsh, but that’s a pretty simple gozinta/gozouta thing.”
I don’t want to come off as harsh, but did you read my post? 🙂 Sorry, just being a smartass. I probably didn’t make it clear, so here goes again…
In the past, we have taken audio that is streaming into a computer via a web browser, and recording it live as it streams with the same computer. Basically, the computer’s audio output was routing though the mixer and back into the input of the same computer at the same time and being recorded via audio software (Audition, Southbooth, Soundforge, whatever… depending on what suite we are in). The computers in these suites generally have multiple cards in them in addition to the usual garden-variety soundcards. They also have video cards in them with their own audio capabilities (past systems have included Canopus DVrexPro, Canopus Storm2, and Matrox AXIO LE systems).
Our audio guy cannot figure out how to get any of our new machines to simultaneously record the machine’s output, even though it worked flawlessly in our old machines. Apparently there are limitations of the sound hardware and/or software that exist now which were not present in the previous incarnations.
Ergo, I’m not really asking how to do this our “old way.”
Rather, I’m asking about any software solutions that can record (or rip) audio from a live stream. As I said, there are quite a number of cheapo programs that say they can do this, and we have done trials with several… but with results that range from “don’t work at all” to terrible (totally nonfunctional, or feedback loops, or horrible distortion, etc.).
Looking for any other more “professional” software solutions, if anyone had had any luck with such…
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
For Mac or PC?
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and Canon 7D.
-
PC… all of our suites run Windows machines.
Tx,
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
I use Audio Hijack Pro but that’s Mac only, AFAIK there is a similar thing called Total Recorder from https://www.highcriteria.com/ but I haven’t tried it myself…
-
I have used Total Recorder and I think it is great. Solid performance at a remarkably low price ($18). You can’t beat that combination. As they say: “Most other recording packages cost more and deliver less.”
https://www.totalrecorder.com/productfr_tr.htm
-
T2,
Yes I read your post. When I got to, “. It used to be as simple as turning up the correct pot on the mixer and hitting “record” in whatever audio program we were using (Soundbooth, Audition, or whatever), and it would record beautifully.”, that conveyed to me that you were taking the audio out of the computer. Thanks for the further elaboration.
Words! Go Figure! 🙂
While were at it, I think “rip” is normally the taking of audio or video from a disc, like ripping a CD. When I try rip, , system, audio, mac, in Google, I get apps that rip discs. When I use record instead of rip, bingo.
Words! Go Figure!
I think Richard has your answer, but what are you using now that isn’t working anymore?
Please let us know what you find.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field GuideWatch Ty play guitar -
We’ll give Total Recorder a try, and report back. That’s one that we haven’t tried.
Much thanks!
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
Thanks T2
Ty
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field GuideWatch Ty play guitar -
Well… Total Recorder seems to work pretty pretty darn well.
Much thanks for the suggestion!
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up