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ISSUE 21.29.F • 2024-07-15 • Text Alerts!Gift Certificates
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In this issue

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT: AutoAudioRecorder — Record any audio playing on your PC

Additional articles in the PLUS issue

LEGAL BRIEF: In Loper, the Supreme Court has made it harder to empower users

PERSONAL MEDIA: Capture basics for video tape

PATCH WATCH: No break from vulnerabilities


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FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

AutoAudioRecorder — Record any audio playing on your PC

Deanna McElveen

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).

Main window
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:

  • Output Format — This is where you choose between MP3 or WAV as the output format of the new audio file to which you will be recording. MP3 uses high compression to make the file as small as possible. WAV is a raw format and has the highest quality but the largest file sizes.
  • Save to — Choose the output location of your new audio files that the program creates for you. Use the browse button to browse for and select a new location.
  • Saving audio data when sound starts — Check this box if you want AutoAudioRecorder to start recording and saving as soon as it detects audio. Note: You still need to start the recording manually with Shift+R, but the program is only monitoring. It will start saving audio when it detects it.
  • Auto-stop recording after X seconds of silence — Check this box if you want AutoAudioRecorder to stop recording after a specified number of seconds during which it detects only silence.
  • Seconds (1-3600) — This is where you enter the number of seconds from above.
  • Loop Recording (Auto-start recording after auto-stop) — Checking this box will cause AutoAudioRecorder to start recording again when it detects sound.
  • Customize Silence Volume (0 by Default) — Is there a barely noticeable cricket in the audio or video stream, but AutoAudioRecorder keeps recording it by accident? Here, you can stipulate how loud a background sound needs to be in order to get recorded.
  • MP3 Options Bitrate — Adjust the bitrate (amount of information per second) here. The setting is CD-quality by default.
  • MP3 Options Rate (aka sample rate) — Here is where you adjust the sample rate (the number of samples of a waveform taken per second, to create a discrete digital signal). The setting is CD-quality by default.

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).

Check two boxes
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.

Prepare to record
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).

Recording
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).

Recording saved
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.

Bonus Software!

Got cats?

Chip
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.

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

Grab a copy of CatLock from OlderGeeks.com.

Happy computing!

Grandma & Apple Pie 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!
Talk Bubbles Post comment button 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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Completing the Puzzle


Here are the other stories in this week’s Plus Newsletter

LEGAL BRIEF

Max Stul Oppenheimver

In Loper, the Supreme Court has made it harder to empower users

By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

Mainstream media attention has been focused on the more dramatic Supreme Court decisions of the past few weeks, but another recent decision is potentially of greater importance to the user community.

From the legal-nerd perspective, that case involved the viability of the Chevron doctrine, a rule that had given federal administrative agencies great deference in deciding how much authority they had.

PERSONAL MEDIA

Will Fastie

Capture basics for video tape

By Will Fastie

Video tape was introduced to the US consumer market nearly 50 years ago, in 1976. It created a consumer boom, but the machines that recorded and played video tapes are dying off.

Worse, support is waning for the technology to get the video off all that old tape and into a digital form more suitable for use today.

The process is not complicated, once you know a few tricks and have the appropriate hardware and software at hand.

PATCH WATCH

Susan Bradley

No break from vulnerabilities

By Susan Bradley

Microsoft is releasing updates for a large number of vulnerabilities this month.

Meanwhile, Apple is busy working on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, tvOS 18, HomePod software 18, and watchOS 11. Currently, the updates are released for developers and will soon be coming to the public for beta testing. The Mac OS preview for Sequoia will bring artificial intelligence to Mac models with Apple silicon.


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