Surely you have ever considered the possibility of being able record sound on your PC, whether to record a podcast, the audio of an educational talk, Skype or Google Hangouts conversations, record a song from online radio, etc. Here we explain you with which programs you can record the sound of your PC and for free.
It is true that the quick solution would be to record the audio from your PC with your mobile glued to the speaker, but the quality will never be what you expect. There are many programs to record the sound internally in a totally digital way and with very good acoustic quality..
How to record the sound of your PC
Configure the audio devices (microphone) of your PC
Before going into the subject and analyzing the main sound and audio recording programs on your PC, the first thing you have to take into account is the sound settings on your computer. The steps are as follows (Windows):
- We access the Control panel and we search and access the word Sound.
- Let's go to the tab Record and we right click so that the option of Show disabled devices M yshow disconnected devices and we activate both with the tic.
- We will see the option of Stereo Mix o Stereo mix and by right clicking we activate it.
- We click OK and the window will close.
The best programs to record PC sound
Audacity
It is the program par excellence for the community, since offers a recording system from any source on the PC and very good and easy-to-use audio editing. In order to use it, we must download it and later install it on our PC for free and for any platform (Windows, Mac and Linux).
Once we have Audacity installed, we must configure the program's sound recording. To do this, we will follow the following steps:
- This is the most important step: in the microphone icon, we must click to display the menu of Recording device and select the option of Stereo mix.
- We click on the recording icon (red dot) to start recording the audio from our computer. To stop the recording we will click on the icon again.
- Once we have recorded our audio sequence and we want to export and save it, we will go to File, Export, Export Audio and select the format (MP3, WAV, etc).
Depending on the format we choose, the sound quality will be better or worse (also its weight).
Adobe Audition CC
Within the Adobe Pack, we find this useful tool that It allows us, among other things, to record sound from our PC. It is a program intended for professional use for a wide range of possibilities in editing issues, but it can be used on a personal level without any problem.
The main drawback of Adobe programs is that they are paid. However, we can use this program and the rest of the Adobe pack for free for a certain period (usually about 15 or 30 days).
gold wave
It is a very powerful audio capture tool. It has an edition of the content that allows you to apply effects, remaster or analyze audio tracks.
Like the previous one, it is a paid software that we can download and try for free during the first days (usually 30 days).
Apowersoft
It is a company that offers multimedia products such as audio and video converters, screen recorders or streaming. Thus, within this range of programs, Apowersoft offers us a very useful software when it comes to recording audio from your PC.
It is a very easy-to-use program and offers a large number of audio output formats (MP3, AAC, FLAC, WMA, etc.) to be saved and played on any music player and with high quality.
This tool is more complete than Audacity and more modern. It stands out for one of its functions that allows that, once we record a song, the software can recognize title, album, year, genre or artist, Shazam style. This feature is very useful for those who want to record a song that they listen to on the online radio or audio streaming platform and want to know what song they are listening to.
Microsoft SoundRecorder
If what we want is only to record the microphone, We have this option integrated into the most modern Windows systems, although in Windows 10 it will have to be downloaded.
This program does not allow editing themes, so it is a good option designed to record something on time and very quickly.
QuickTime
QuickTime is the Mac sound recorder. This tool is very simple and, like the previous one, allows you to record sounds without further editing. It simply allows you to record the sound of your PC and save it for possible later editing through other programs.
Ardor
This program is suitable for Linux and Mac users only. This program allows us to record, edit and mix sound tracks, as well as add a multitude of effects. There is a more complete paid version for a more professional use.
Garage Band
It is a Exclusive Apple application for creating audio tracks with countless musical instruments and effects. We can record sounds and edit them at our choice, as well as record our own instruments.
This tool can be used on both a PC and a mobile device.
Jaksta Streaming Media Recorder
It is a tool used mainly to record music from services and applications like Spotify, Deezer or YouTube. The program will record the song and, if it detects it, will add its data such as name, genre, artist, year, lyrics, etc.
Once you record the audio or the song, we will export the file in the format we want (Mp3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, WMA, WAV…).
Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder
It is one of the best streaming audio recorders for Windows and MacOS and easier to use. Once we click on the record icon, the program will record the audio from any source: Webs or installed programs or services (Spotify, Deezer, etc).
Like Jaksta, if we record a song, its information will be added automatically. The track that we save will be made in high quality mp3 format.
Free Sound Recorder
It is a simple program to use and capable of optimize the quality of your recordings and edit them very easily. This software allows us to work with different formats, detecting those that the sound card of each computer supports.
Main audio formats
It is important to take into account which are the main audio formats and which are the most used at the user and professional level. Taking into account the use we want to give our recording, we will use one of the following:
- MP3: it is the most used audio format in the world
- WMA: It is a format developed by Microsoft and, therefore, it will always be the default format for the Windows operating system.
- AAC: Default format in consoles like Playstation or Smarthpones.
- FLAC: Audio format without loss of quality in understanding. It is the format used on the platform Tidal the best high-quality audio streaming service.
- M4A and ALAC: Audio formats used in iTunes, iPod and QuickTime and Apple Music streams.
- OGG: It is the format used by the platform Spotify.
- Opus: Ideal for online audio transmissions due to its low latency.
- WAV, M4R, AC3, AIF and others: IPhone ringtone audio formats, lossless and many more.