Record Audio Coming Out of Your PC Without Stereo Mix.
Let’s say you want to record sound coming from your computer, for example – a Skype call, music from an online streaming service or, say, , you want to extract dialogue from an old movie.
To do this, you will need to record the system sound, that is, the sound coming from your computer. But the process is not so obvious. (see video tutorial at the end)
For example, the most popular way to record system audio is to turn on the Stereo Mix option in your audio settings, and then use any audio recorder to record system audio.
Unfortunately, on most modern computers, audio drivers do not support “Stereo Mix”. Now you can search the Internet for additional sound drivers and get this opportunity. But this is too troublesome. Right?
So, here are 2 alternative methods you can use.
Record the audio coming out of your computer
# 1 using Audacity (WASAPI)
This is the best method if you just want to record high quality audio coming from your Windows computer only.
Download Audacity (24MB) from their official website and then install it on your computer as usual.
After that open Audacity and nder audio host select Windows WASAPI and in the audio source section select “appropriate loopback device” (although you can also try a different source and choose a better output here)
Then play the file you want to record and press the little red button on Audacity to start recording. You will see sound waves, which means that your sound is being picked up by courage.
The benefit of being bold is that you can pause the recording or even edit it later. After that, just stop the recorder and under File Export your recording. Wav file is used by default.
Watch the video tutorial at the end if you don’t know how to use courage.
In general, the recorded sound is reproduced exactly as the original, without any noise or distortion.
# 2 Using the male-to-male audio jack.
Let’s say the first method doesn’t work for you or you want to record sound from Android or an mp3 player, then this method will come in handy.
You will need to buy a 3.5mm male to male audio cable. I bought mine for 30 rupees (less than 50 cents) at a local store. Usually people use it to connect a phone to a speaker, so this is quite common.
Now insert one end of the audio jack into your headphones and the other end into the microphone jack on your computer. It now redirects the output audio as input. Basically, you are recording from your microphone as usual.
Note. Some newer laptops have one microphone and headphone slot, so obviously this method doesn’t work there.
Now turn on the sound you want to record (you won’t hear anything). Open any audio recording software like Audacity and click the record button. And that should work.
But if you don’t see waves, make sure the correct settings are turned on. How to navigate to audio recording settings (right-click the audio icon on the bottom taskbar and select a recording device).
A new window will open listing several recording devices. Just right click and disable one and enable the other. And it will work.
Now, since we’re just routing audio with a cable, you can also use this method to record audio from your Android, MAC, or anything with a 3.5mm audio jack.
Simply remove the audio jack from the headphone jacks and plug it into the headphone jack of another device. And that should work.
This time, you may have to tinker a bit with the sound source. As for me, it only works with the following settings. Audio host: MME & R recording device: Microsoft Sound Mapper
In general, both of these methods work fine and allow you to record system sound without any problems.
Video tutorial
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4tGhf6K8qQ?rel=0&showinfo=0]