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FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen • Comment about this article

My daughters made a video of themselves singing a song they’d created when they were little. I wanted to grab the audio from it for a family project. Free software to the rescue!

AutoAudioRecorder by AutoClose was exactly what I needed for my own purposes, but it has so many neat abilities that I decided to share it with you as well.

AutoAudioRecorder records, either manually or automatically, sound playing through your computer. No need to use a microphone next to a speaker, and no risk of outside noises interrupting your recording session. Everything is done internally.

Before we look at the program, let’s go over some things. We live in a country of laws. Some of those laws say things such as “Don’t copy someone else’s movie or music; we can put you in jail” or “We will fine you a zillion dollars.” So, know the law and follow it. Please don’t use my free software suggestions for your malfeasance, villainy, or shadiness.

Are we good? All righty … let’s move on.

Grab a copy of AutoAudioRecorder from OlderGeeks.com.  It supports Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, and Server.

Once you download the portable .zip file, right-click it and extract it to your desired folder location. There is also a full setup version, if you would rather just install the program.

Now open the new folder and run AutoAudioRecorder.exe to launch the program and get its main window (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. All settings are on a single page. Make any changes before recording.

From top to bottom, these are the things you can change:

Okay, let’s record something!

The first thing I’m going to do is check the two boxes in the screenshot below (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Check the two boxes above if you want recording to occur automatically.

This way, when I start playing the source audio or video, recording will start and stop automatically.

If you want to do everything manually, just use the program’s default hotkeys: Press Shift+R to start recording, and Shift+S to stop recording.

I have found thousands of public domain music audio and film recordings on YouTube. I’m going to grab a classic by Louis Armstrong.

I now have my YouTube video of Louis Armstrong ready for hitting Play (I already skipped past the ads). See Figure 3.

Now I start recording with Shift+R. AutoAudioRecorder says it’s recording, but it’s actually waiting for sound — the volume is still zero.

Figure 3. AutoAudioRecorder is now monitoring and waiting for audio to play.

All I need do is click Play on my YouTube video, and recording begins automatically.

Now AutoAudioRecorder shows that it is actually recording. The volume value is no longer zero, and the sound-wave animation is active (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. The animation indicates that the program is recording audio.

Once the video (or audio) stops, AutoAudioRecorder will stop recording (remember the boxes we checked). The program will display the path to the audio file (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. AutoAudioRecorder displays where the file is saved, after the recording has completed.

And that is it! So easy to use. Grab this one now, because I promise you will forget the name of the program about the same time you find a reason to use it.

Got cats?

Figure 6. “Chip” is a jerk.

And do you also have a keyboard? Get CatLock by Richie Howell.

A free, simple utility designed to prevent accidental keyboard input when your cat walks on your keyboard or a child uses your keyboard as a ragtime piano.

Figure 7. CatLock runs in your tray — for easy adjustment or to close it.

Grab a copy of CatLock from OlderGeeks.com.

Happy computing!

Our entire philosophy at OlderGeeks is built on being a safe download site offering software you can trust. We use every program we consider, checking it carefully for bundleware or other sneaky stuff. Every downloadable is checked with VirusTotal and Malwarebytes. If a program is updated, we do the same checks again. We reject more programs than we accept, always stressing quality and safety over padding our collection. Every program mentioned in this article meets our rigorous standards. We’re as trustworthy as Grandma’s apple pie!

Contribute your thoughts in this article’s forum!

Deanna and Randy McElveen are celebrating more than a decade of running OlderGeeks.com, over two decades in the computer business, and even more than that putting up with each other. Their computer store is in a small town in the Missouri Ozarks. Believing that happy customers are always the best advertisement, they hope to squeeze in a couple more decades doing the same.

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