Recording music from the internet

In another of my lenses I present several alternatives to retrieve music from the internet. There are several ways to get songs quickly and in mp3 format, much quicker than in real-time. But sometimes you don't find what you like in the offer of the download services (such as Amazon, iTunes, etc.). The famous russian sites feature only a small selection of popular songs. This is where cool sites like IMEEM and deezer enter the game. On these sites you can find music and listen to it in real-time. But how to keep this music on your computer for later listening ?

Find here some tips how to.

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You may find several programs to buy that are solving this issue. If it comes to free programs, the choice is reduced.

Basically you need a sw that is converting the output of your soundcard into a music file. Most of the sound editing sw like audacity can do this job. But before you launch yourself into understanding how these complex programs work, there is a push button solution that comes as a toolbar for your web-browser. The software is called Freecorder.

Its really easy to use and once properly set up, you can record from any source just by pushing the record button. The software will remove even the blanks.

How to setup Freecorder:

After the installation of the Freecorder you find the toolbar in your browser window. Select the setup and configure "prompt for filename" to "after recording". Go to a streaming website like IMEEM or DEEZER and select a song. Before playing it, hit the record button in the toolbar. You'll see a small window with the recorded waveform. Once you hit stop, you'll be prompted for a location where the song will be stored in MP3 format. It is as easy as that!

If the result is not satisfactory, try to configure the tool to record from windows input source only. In this case you need to enable the output mixer in the sound control options and set it to an appropriate level in order to avoid clipping (can be checked with the "test input device settings" button in the settings window. This method has helped in my case.

Then: happy recording!

The Freecorder isn't available fro linux, so you may want to give audacity a try.

The easiest version in a kde environment (no additional programs to be installed), is the usage of KRecord for recording the stream (as easy as with freecorder), but this leads to a WAV file (huge). In a second step you need to distill the WAV file into a MP3 format (or OGG of course). This second step can be performed with KAudioCreator.

Step by step:

Step1: Install Linux ;-).I use OpenSuse 10.3 which is really perfect. You can easily see and feel that this is derived from a commercialized version of Linux. It works just great. Choose the KDE environment.

Step2: Install the latest Adobe FLASH player plug-in into Firefox

Step3: Make sure that KRecord is installed as well.

Step4: Go to a music site like IMEEM or Deezer and choose the song you want to record. Play it.

Step5: Run KRecord. In the options menu select "input level". A second window opens with a bar graph. If the graph idles around 88 dB, you have not properly setup the mixer (KMix). Open the mixer window and go to the "switches" tab. Make sure that the "Mix" switch is turned on (LED lit). Now you should see the bar graph moving heavily. Now adjust the volume (slider "PCM" in the output tab of KMix) so that the bar graphs do not hit the red zone. Now everyhing is properly set up for recording.

Step6: Stop playing the song and rewind it.

Step7: Hit the start record button in KRecord and immediately afterwards start playing the song. Now the song is being recorded.

Step8: Once the song has finished playing, hit the stop record button. Then select "save buffer as" and save he music as a wav file.

Step9: If you have left too much blanks at the beginning and at the end of the song, you might have to edit it in order to cut the blanks. Use Audacity for example (exists for Linux).

Step10: Use KAudioCreator to convert the song into an MP3. To do so select File>Encode File and follow the instructions. Make sure to fill in all the fields in the Encode File Dialog in order to avoid error messages.

Step11: Enjoy