I also took a look at Donar MP3 Recorder which some people have mentioned (use #112, dewmanna's link, the website links are incorrect). Obviously, don't install the toolbar. On Vista, it must be run as an administrator, and it opens to the system tray. It sees more devices than Audio ToolBox Audio Recorder for Free and has more features and output formats (although the volume control is backwards and the Input Pin is always blank), but Audio Recorder for Free has more MP3 encoding options.

@ 29 I needed something like this thanks for the info. MP3myMP3 Recorder will be really useful to me.

I've tried to load this programme. The interface is not user friendly. It's a trial & error process. No clear instructions to follow. I can't get it to work. I certainly wouldn't buy it. I am going buy a Roxio product. I had roxio on my last computer (WIN 98) but it won't load on this one (XP)

Few of you have bothered to configure the program and that is needed on most computers.

This program will record anything you can play on the computer no matter where it comes from. You only need a mike for external sound and never for internal. READ READ READ

Not quite up to expectations =(

1. No way to save a file once recorded.
2. Wouldn't remove files upon deletion, always came back.
3. Absolutley no help anywhere to be found.
4. Removing from system now.

Simple to install. Does what it says it does. Way overpriced at $30. Those who weren't able to record audibly may be suffering from the Dell syndrome. Their pact with the RIAA left their newer models unable to record from the outputs. Only microphone and line-in will work. It's not the program's fault, it's the hardware.

BTW, did anyone know that Audiograbber has a manual record function?

I tried to record from the radio via Media Center, it does give me the option to record using "stereo mix" and I see it recording sound but afterwards it plays the file but you don't hear anything at all. Thumbs down.

What would be great is a audio recorder that lets one record multiple
streams at the same time. Example, record three audio streams, and listen to a fourth at the same time.

i like this because you can play and view what you just recorded in the program and you do not have to save the file then play it just record and listen and if you do not like it then it can be deleted also you choose where the file is saved before you record in all i think this is a better program then the one that comes that windows vista

I have lots of options for recording, but don't know what some of them are. There is nothing about what is coming from the speakers as one poster said. I have an older Dell machine, 2001, work station. Anyone out there with some input?

WOW!!! Installed and registered with no problem on XP Home SP3. Launched from the final installation screen and recorded 2 items from the internet. Works perfectly. The UI is uncluttered and extremely easy to use, so easy, there isn't much additional to say.

Thanks GAOTD and MediaVigor Software.

To those who don't have the Stereo Mix option with their Vista OS computers. Right click on the speaker in your task bar, click on Recording Devices. In the Recording Devices window right click in a blank area of the window and check "Show Disabled Devices". That should make the Stereo Mix option appear. (If it doesn't appear then your sound card doesn't offer that option.) Highlight Stereo Mix, click on Properties and enable the device.

This does not have any sound effects. Then I will forget this. I wanna sound recording software with effects. Even windows sound recorder has that function. The echoing and stuffs.

Correct me if I'm incorrect - but this utility, poorly written as it is - will record stuff Audacity CAN'T capture... Skype conversation... Internet Radio Stream... etc. So it's definitely worth "Free".

Poor sound. Just awful. No Audio Recorder user manual, not even under Help.
Not Fast and simple to use. Only simple for microphone, line-in, CD player, and tv tuner. Not streaming audio from the Internet or music played by Windows Media Player, WinAmp, Games. Can not record all sound on your computer.

#36 - I agree. Freecorder and all other Applian programs are great! Getting all their products in a bundle price was one of the best software purchases I made last year.

#63 - Using Freecorder, you simply click on Play and it will open the folder where you have saved the recorded files. If you already have a decent file player (besides this "Audio Recorder"), just double click on the file you want to play. It is easy.

Quote: not something which one will seek……windows already give a sound recorder..so why is it required???

Hey, dingus....while this program may not deserve an A+, it does have more features and customization than the Windows recorder.

I tried this out in Win XP SP3, and it works great. I already have Audacity for recording my vinyl records, but this works great in conjunction with my Line6 Guitar Port. Free as opposed to 99.99 for Riffworks? No question which one I go for...

Error installing here, too (WinXP Pro SP3):

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
Can't initialize device
error code: 23

#143, the name isn't Deborah, it's OHPfan -- short for Open House Party fan ... obviously not my real name. I didn't know there was the 2 GB limit for .wav files, which explains why Microsoft Recorder shuts off by itself. Thanks for the info, and no hard feelings on the name error.

I did forget to mention I am using XP: Media Center Edition. I record to today's software straight from the sound card, via the radio station's website feed. That brings up another thing I disliked about Microsoft's Recorder -- it only records from the microphone, not the sound card.

I've installed plenty of freebies from here with no problems, didn't do anything different, and this one will not activate. Gives me a icon to click on to purchase it on my desktop. Only option in it when started is to record from the microphone, nothing else, which I'm sure is caused by it not activating. Audacity rocks, and if you need other formats, use Format Factory, I haven't found anything it won't convert to anything else yet, even things that aren't listed in it's options like OGG formats ect. Still gotta love GOTD, I've gotten some great programs here. Thanks GOTD!!

Previously, posted here on Giveawayoftheday was MP3 Recorder Studio. It's about the same size, but I believe it has more features

Installed easily and simple to use! Thanks!!!

I am also getting the Error code zero...I am on Vista Home Premium...

anyone know the reason...it seems hit or miss according to the comments..

Hi just fixed my machines lack of recorded sound by doing the following that I found on a google search.

Select your sound properties through the control panel or the sound icon in your system tray.

Click on the properties tab.

Check the recording box.
Make sure Wave Out Mix is selected (It's sometimes called STEREO MIX, or mono mix).

Now you should be able to set Wave Out as your default for recordings made by Audacity or other audio recording programs.

I had to restart the machine to get to set the Stereo Mix as the Default recording device but then it all worked fine.

Hey.

I really want this to work but I have it on Vista and can't get it to record any sound either. The recording device only has the option Master Volume and nothing else.

When I installed it on my XP Laptop it worked after I made sure all recording devices were not on mute and all recording devices come up.

Another Vista problem then. There must be a way to fix this surely. I have tried the suggestions so far but no luck yet.

For those wanting "all the sounds my computer makes" recording, just set your input device to "stereo out" (On vista you must right click and choose "show disabled devices" then choose to enable the stereo out.

This application = useless. all windows since what, 95? have had a built in sound recorder as good as this. Audacity is FAR better, and Goldwave is also really good for single track recording. The only thing the built in recorder misses is the ability to save into multiple formats.

Thumbs down :(

thanks guys ! i needed this

As with #131, Audio Recorder will not work on my Vista Home Premium PC using USB speakers. The only option shown for Recording Device is "Master Volume." This will not record any form of audio being played over my USB speakers, videos, streaming, Winamp, etc.

If you use USB speakers, and don't use a sound card, forget this application.

The thing that most of you guys don't get is that with this program you can record sounds on the computer WITHOUT a microphone. It'll record any sounds playing on the computer, so if you stream music online, it'll record it, or anything like that.

Mike @138,

Actually, the versions for COMCTL32.OCX and msvbvm60.dll in the Audio Recorder directory were newer than the ones I had in the C:\windows\system32 directory. There must be additional export tables in the latest version of msvbvm60.dll which Audio Recorder needs.

Before I uninstalled, I copied both files to the c:\windows\system32 directory.

There is no need to download the runtimes, as COMCTL32.OCX is a self-registering file. Other programs will not look in the Audio Recorder directory as they first see if it's in the installation folder, then immediately look in the Windows\system32 folder and that will change the registry entries to the correct path.

My current version of comctl32.ocx is 6.0.81.6 and msvbvm60.dll is 6.00.9782

No changes were reflected with the msvbvm60.dll in the registry at all.

By the way, this program did not record through my Creative X-Fi Extreme 7.1 channel soundcard through SPDIF. It seems to wok with microphones, but who wants to listen to a mono recording?

If you are interessed in music there is these 2 freeware:
1. clickster - search/listen/download

2. radiotracker standart -record category music to mp3 http://www.computerbild.de/download/Radiotracker-Standard-Kostenlose-Spezial-Version-3314821.htm
Both are legal

I mean in USA there is more opportunities to get free music

For those who have problem with recording, I will think that the computermagazines will write about if there was a restriction on the soundcards.

I think I will try this one
Thanks

#126 - With most such programs you'll need to PLAY the recordings through Skype at the same time you record them on AudioPlayer (as I said earlier, I much prefer TotalAudio Recorder ... and have to do the same thing when I'm recording something stored in an incompatible format. Often, I can record an MP3 song file that is not offered for download. It just records whatever comes through the sound card.

I've tried this before and the sound is VERY noisy and tinny. I use Total Recorder - it's only about $25 and the quality is excellent. It gives you a lot of control over the recording parameters and can save as WAV or MP3. I've used it for years and I am a professional musician and create videos and CDs for other musicians. Beats Audio Recorder hands down.

mp3mymp3 is a scam..... Installed and declined the offer and user agreement of "COMSCORE".
But note when I tested it, it still installed the Comscore rkverify hook that locked up my "system" (Virtual emulation env)

be warned even though I had "declined" the comscore licence, it was still installed and executed.

mp3mymp3 is NOT recommended...

There is no manual with it the manual is empty installed fine but do not understand how to use it.... Sent them a letter no response so far.

Maybe i'm stupid but there is something that says manual with it that is empty.

how can we get the user manual that is supposed to be with it?

This application works well and has great functionality and ease of use for a simple sound recording program which will be well utilized even though I have purchased some far more professional tools. 7/10.

The bad.
It uses LAME 3.97 for the mp3 support which is a superb mp3 encoder but I wish it had more options for the LAME compression.
It also runs on msvbvm60.dll but that is contained cleanly in the package.

7/10 Good software if a little basic at times.

If you want to rip streaming audio streams, I swear by "Totalrecorder" ($18) as Totalrecorder installs a system level driver between the "playback" application and the sound card in-situ and then simply dumps the raw data from that digitally into a wav file resulting in no sound quality loss.

#98: tuche... MP3 is a lossy format, meaning data is tossed out in order to get a smaller file size. If you record in Audacity or whatever to the lossless wav format, you have all the data your hardware is capable of recording. The process of encoding to MP3, *whenever* it happens, is where you get your data loss. If you intend to edit, a lossless format is obviously preferred... if you don't it's a matter of opinion. If you're converting sample rates at the same time however, say going from 48 to 44.2 or 22 or even lower, performing the MP3 encoding in higher quality software can make a pretty big difference.
- - -
#101: Deborah... You can record audio using whatever software until you either run out of disk space, or until you reach the audio format limits -- the Microsoft (uncompressed) wav format used often in Windows won't normally allow you to go beyond 2 gig in size, which is roughly a bit over 2 hours for stereo at 16/48 kHz, so if you were recording to a stereo wav file at 16/48, sometime after the 2 hour mark Windows would stop writing to the file.
- - -
#110: Alex... Creative Sound cards have available software which among other things do allow you to record audio... It's not a built-in function of the card however, & unless you're using some feature only available in that Creative software, there are far better alternatives.
- - -
#116: Pr3mium... In order to play whatever streaming audio, it's first downloaded to your system, just like this GOTD page is -- the difference is that by recording it you have (an inferior) copy.
- - -
#117: reghacker... AFAIK you need to tell Windows via the registry where those files are, or even though they're in the path, they'll still be looked for in the last place they were registered. You could try to re-register the files in your system32 folder, but personally I think it's simpler just to re-install the VB6 runtime from Mocrosoft.

#65 Chill out! This whole "stealing" music shit only came about since computers got popular. No one said anything when I was younger and recorded music from the radio! If musicians would "fill" their Albums with good songs and not just 1 or 2 and the rest be "fillers" then maybe people would not steal their 1 good song!
Anyway, Another vote for Freecorder Here.

So, I downloaded it and tested it...the sound quality doesn't even come close to Windows Sound Recorder. Again, I only hear a bunch of static and the thing I'm recording as just background noise...Sorry GAOTD, but I'm going to pass this one.

I tried to use it with Skype, but it does not recognize my USB headset. It will only recognize the laptop's built in microphone.

There is a total absence of help in either their program's HELP option or on their website.

I uninstalled it.

I have windows vista sp1 32bit and this records no sound..just static. Even my recorder in windows itsself will not record sounds. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

As commented earlier, Audio Recorder is a VB6 (Visual Basic) program, & IMHO it's a good idea to re-install the VB6 runtime from Microsoft's site after installing it, to both make sure you have the latest file versions & that the registry points to the right copies in your Windows System32 folder. You might also want to update the included version of the Lame encoder (I think the latest is v. 3.98.2 dated 9/24/08). Otherwise the choice of using it or not is up to you, & depends on how well you like the interface... Audio Recorder doesn't do anything remarkable, but for those wanting simplicity maybe that's a good thing.

FWIW... The quality of audio recording depends on your hardware & the source -- you can use today's GOTD Audio Recorder, or Windows built-in Recorder, or Audacity, Vegas, Sound Forge, or Pro Tools, & the quality will be the same. The number of possible inputs depends on your hardware, drivers, & the version of Windows -- the "What U Hear" input mentioned in another comment or two is *only* for Creative brand soundcards. Moving up the food chain to better recording software mainly just gives you more options, like recording multi-track, recording one track while playing another, and so on. The 2 main things to watch for are noise from your PC (including your audio hardware), & using the wrong sample rate for your recording [i.e. recording at 44.1 with a soundcard/chip that's natively 48 kHz, forcing an internal conversion].

When you record something like an incoming stream, you lose quality when your system plays it, & during recording, so capturing or saving the stream is *always* preferable. It's not always easy... you might have to find, research, & try several programs &/or methods before being successful depending on the stream & where it's coming from (how it's hosted). Orbit was mentioned & it's good, but not always successful. Another alternative is SDP Downloader.

Tried it on WindowsME. The program actually records something (I tried it with a youtube video) but obviously it's not fast enough or whatever, but it doesn't save or show the output file (nor can it be played back). Big disappointment, big thumbs down.

Will not install correctly on vista and cannot find "manual" on website. E-mail bounced back

It will not install on my Vista Home Premium or my XPSP2 computer I get an error message 0 cannot initialize device, that sucks.

Fubar @16,

Agree with you totally on this one. The very first thing I do when installing an app, it to go to the installation directory and find out what files were added.

Like you stated, the runtimes are in the Audio recorder directory. I started renaming files to see if it looked in the c:\windows\system32 directory. It did not and I don't know of any programs I've installed, that didn't look in the C:\window\system32 directory.

I've found out, you can safely delete these files from the Audio recorder directory and the program runs fine.

ASYCFILT.DLL
COMCAT.DLL
OLEAUT32.DLL
OLEPRO32.DLL
STDOLE2.TLB

You must leave the COMCTL32.OCX and msvbvm60.dll and it will work fine

My vote is also for Audacity.

What's not to love about this program? You can download sound files without it even being downloaded directly, which could save you from viruses. Just use Youtube and listen to music and download directly from there instead of using limewire or anything else.

There are many freeware audio editors with recording features, so I don't see a reason why would anyone need to offer audio recording software for money.
I personally use GoldWave for recording editing and converting audio files (not free, but trial available), so I don't need this software.
But thanks anyway GAOTD.

Installed fine on both my Vista64 and XP but would not playback on my Vista. Only have the option of "Master Volume" under Recording Device on my Vista where I have lots of options on my XP. Will definitley keep it on my XP but not my Vista.
Thanks GOTD.