R2OK!

Angela W · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 7202 Location: North Yorkshire

Hi Colin, I'm so glad you're back on here as I need help please!

I would like to transfer some audio (radio) recordings from my Freeview HDD to CD's so that I can keep them for posterity, play them through my music system and more importantly free up some disk space. This is desperate as my HDD is totally full! A few months ago you did say on here that you could probably help me and I very much hope that you, or someone else will.

Many thanks in advance!
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Pirate Johnnie Walker played my request on 11 April 2009

ColinB · Guest

Angela, it is perhaps not without irony that I'm driving up to North Yorkshire today and will be staying in Whitby over the weekend. We have friends who run the Village Store + Tea Rooms in Lealholm and we're planning on spending time with them.

We have WiFi access whilst there so I'll put my thinking cap on and come up with a possible solution.

Dare I ask where you live in N. Yorks??? Smile

Angela W · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 7202 Location: North Yorkshire

Ian Robinson · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:50 am Post subject:

My suggestion would be to hook up the L/R audio outputs of the Freeview box into the mic input on a computer, then record all the shows as you would as if you were taping off the radio. (Perhaps do this overnight, if there's a lot). Then just edit them down into individual shows and save as MP3s which could be put on CD.

Sorry, but I don't know of a Windows programme to do this on the computer. On my Mac, I use Audio Hijack and SoundStudio.

ColinB · Guest

The best Windows app for this is Audacity, which is free (and available for Mac, too). My alternative would be to pick up a cheap MiniDisc or CD recorder on eBay (I was watching a Kenwood one in Scarborough last night which sold for £11.20) and make a direct archive to MD, albeit temporary. You'd need a SCART-to-phono converter and a a red/white phono cable pair.

The above might be easier than learning audacity in the short term and at least provides a quick method of dumping audio files off.

Ok, must go. Am in motorway services right now andmust crack on!

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

Angela

I use Total Recorder which is similar to Audacity but IMHO far easier to use. I had a look when I read other people talking about it but it didn't seem as easy as TR. You pay for it I think it's about US$ 19.95, but you get upgrade keys free for newer versions as they come out.

Someone on R2 board and who is still (I think) a member on here recommended it. I installed it and started the i player hit the record box and it worked! At the end you stop it, file and save where you want to put it. You have to check a couple of other things during saving but I'll talk you through it if you have problems. There are good tutorials on their site and I think you can have a go with a free trial one as well.

To record from an external device, which you will be doing, you just alter one of the settings, again I got a crib sheet from one of the tutorials.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Angela W · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 7202 Location: North Yorkshire

Thanks Ian, Colin and Helen. I will work my way throught all of your suggestions to see which I can actually do. I'll report back if I am successful, but it will take me a few days between going to work etc.

I hope you had a nice weekend up here Colin, the weather wasn't that great I'm afraid!
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Pirate Johnnie Walker played my request on 11 April 2009

ColinB · Guest

Angela W · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 7202 Location: North Yorkshire

ColinB · Guest

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

This might be a good place for me to ask a question.....

I currently use audacity to record the likes of Pick of The Pops to allow me to listen to them on my ipod. I do this using audacity and the microphone is built into my webcam which sits between the 2 speakers. The quality isn't the greatest but it does me.. The only thing is that when recording it picks up all sounds in the room. Is there some way that I can set it up so that only the sound from the speakers is picked up on the recording. I know there are other programmes available which would do this but the 2 or 3 I've tried haven't worked very well and I don't want to start installing and uninstalling software to find something that does....

ColinB · Guest

Have a look through your computer's sound settings (in Control Panel) and fiddle with the settings to enable you to choose "Stereo Mix" as the default. This means that any audio capture program will record whatever is being handled by the sound card. Audacity (or any other similar program) will use this as the default and you won't have to suffer room-sounds in your recordings.

I'm assuming you're using Windows, of course. I can't be more specific because the ease with which you do this is dependent upon (a) the operating system - eg: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 - and (b) the actual sound card in use.

It's one of those things that should be dead easy to do but unfortunately isn't with Windows (and dead easy on Apple Mac systems).

If you can be specific about the above I can probably hand-hold you through the process.

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

It's Windows Vista, not sure what sound card it would be

ColinB · Guest

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

The way I sort out the recording source on the PC is to find Windows Sound Recorder, sometimes (XP) you'll find it in

Start > All programs > Accessories > Entertainment

Open Sound Recorder, then

Edit > Audio properties and under Sound Recording click the Volume button

and a window opens where you select the sound source you want to record.

Wave will record the sound from your PC, e.g. sound from webpages or if you play an mp3 on your PC.

That set up usually translates over to Audacity too.
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John W

ColinB · Guest

Trouble is that Microsoft completely changed the audio management setup on Vista and, subsequently, Windows 7, John.

I use Camtasia Studio a great deal to create "screencast" software demos and tutorials which require a spoken commentary to be recorded along with system sounds. After a fiddle, it worked fine under XP but after installing Windows 7 64-bit earlier this year I then had to spend about 2 days trying to get the settings right. It's a royal pain - but Microsoft has made these changes intentionally (by agreement with the large music and movie studios) to discourage piracy. Typical Microsoft - useless.

As I mentioned above, there is a workaround to it but it's a PITA to get right. When I have some time I'll retrace my steps and advise accordingly. Unfortunately, the Windows 7 PC in question is permanently employed compression large High Definition video sequences for a stack of training videos at the moment so I can't get in.

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

Shaky

I know you have to buy this but have just checked that Total Recorder, which I use on XP, will work on Vista and Win 7. It's US$ 17.95 (about £11 at today's exchange rate) and you get free upgrades to newer versions.

I only use the standard edition and have done for about 5 years. You can use it on more than one machine as well.

http://www.totalrecorder.com/index.htm and

http://www.totalrecorder.com/tr71.htm

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

ColinB · Guest

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

I don't think so according to what I read Colin. I've used it on 3 machines and apart from having to download a codec (on the net book to save using a higher bit rate) that is all I've done. It says it will record anything from the internet.

Their tutorials are excellent and you can email them with a problem and get an informative response back.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

ColinB · Guest

I guess the developer of Total Recorder has built in some code that over-rides all the PC's default sound hardware settings, which is sensible.

However, for those who prefer to use Audacity, it's necessary to do a manual update and reset. Here's a useful screencast (from a kid, of course!!) on how to do this with one particular soundcard. I used the same procedure with a RealTek HD card and it worked too.

http://youtu.be/--wU40opYDo

Here's another:

http://youtu.be/YhMkh3lOpt4

Colin

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Ah yes justs noticed on my Vista laptop that Sound Recorder isn't quite the same....

Thanks for those youtube links, will come in useful when I get a new PC.
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John W

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

Well having given up at the time I was prompted to give another go after receiving a PM this evening from gazmando. And finally I've cracked it! It was so simple to do as well.....

As well as having "Stereo Mix" enabled I also had the microphone enabled. By simply disabling the microphone the whole problem was solved straight away.

And what timing - with less than 2 hours before "Greetings Pop Pickers" is removed from the IPlayer! Very Happy

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19333 Location: Cheshire

Glad you've got it sorted Shaky, happy recording!

Just read your original message which prompts me to try and find out how to switch of the webcam on our netbook which is permanently switched on. It must use power from the battery.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

I'm drumming along on the desk to "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" by Slade as I type this..... Laughing

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

...and what a perfect time to get it sorted! A couple of weeks ago I got a phonecall from BT to say that their Infinity package is now available in our area. The deal means that for an extra £4 per month I get broadband which is 5 or 6 times as fast as I had been getting (having tested it, it does indeed come out at slightly over 6 times the previous average) and no download cap (previously it was 10GB per month).

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Been setting up new Windows 7 PC last week.

Bit of a headache for me as I get a bit stressed transferring/downloading etc but at least this time I got a new PC before the old one crashed Smile

So, transferred all the backed up stuff onto the new PC, figured out how to use Windows 7, Office 2010, new Windows Explorer etc. Ha, office 2010, well everything will still be saved as 2003 as that's what friends and customers have Confused

For my audio restoration progams I've got free updated downloads for Windows 7. For Audacity I downloaded a 1.3 Beta version for Windows 7 and it seems OK, it detects/records audio from the web e.g. youtube sound, and it detects/records sound from my line-in connection ('stereo mix') from my hi-fi without needing to find a window to select.

So I'm set up as before for my audio transfer from vinyl/78s.

Only slight problem I have is the sound from the line-in isn't coming out of the old PC speakers (yet they do playback stuff that is ON the PC or the web). It's not really a problem as I can hear the hi-fi's output if I have the hi-fi speakers on. Maybe I should get new PC speakers with a USB connection.
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John W

gazmando · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 560 Location: Huntingdon

Hello John,
RE no line in sound from your speakers, give this a try:-
1) R click speaker icon @ bottom right of screen
2) L click "playback devices"
3) L click "speakers"
4) L click "properties"
5) L click levels
6) Under "Line In" L click the mute button and it should enable the sound for the line in connection.
I remember reading before that the line in connection to your sound card is muted by default, so hopefully the above will rectify it.
Good luck,
Gaz

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

When I got to 6) my options were Rear input or Front input. So I un-muted rear (where my jack is) but still same. Un-muted front still same.

Anyway no probs as I can listen with hi-fi speakers when recording to Audacity.

With the other software that I use mostly for recording and de-noise (Algorithmix) the input sound DOES come out of the PC speakers so I'm really OK for my needs, cheers.
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John W

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Oh, and in the same window for 'levels' the other choice just says speakers and that was already un-muted and at 80.
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John W

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Ah sorted now gaz.

Of course. Sound through Line In, it's not a 'playback device' we need to set up, it's a 'recording device' Rolling Eyes

So,

RE no line in sound from your speakers,

1) R click speaker icon @ bottom right of screen
2) L click "recording devices"
3) Double-L click "Rear line in"
4) L click "Listen"
5) Tick via L click 'Listen to this device'
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John W

gazmando · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 560 Location: Huntingdon

Nice one John, Glad you got it sorted.
I really should have noticed I put playback instead of recording DOH!!!