Music fans know when it was easy record your favorite songsespecially for those who lived in the 80s and 90s: just tune into any FM radio, insert a cassette and press the button Recwithout the need for in-depth technical knowledge.The world has moved on and gone digital, but fans can record their favorite music using simple PC programs, tracing the feats of the “crazy recorders” of the past and saving their favorite music in MP3 format, so they can listen everywhere.
In this guide we will show you the best free programs to record music while it is playing from the PC, so that you don’t have to search for music on P2P channels and use conversion software. What we listen to is recorded from online radio or from a website, totally free.
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1) Install a virtual microphone on PC
The biggest problem for anyone who wants to record music on Windows PCs is the lack of a virtual microphonethat is, an acquisition device capable of convert the sounds emitted from PC into an audio inputso as to be able to record the audio inputs using one of the programs analyzed in the following chapters.
To get started, we strongly recommend that you install the driver VB-CABLE.
To use this virtual microphone, all we have to do is download the driver, confirm where necessary and restart the PC when prompted.
When the PC restarts, press the right button on the volume icon, open the menu Apri mixer volume (o Open audio settings on Windows 10) and select VB-CABLE as an output device. Now all we have to do is open the preferred recording program and select VB-CABLE as an input device.
Further details are explained in the guide for record audio from internet and PC with Windows recorder.
2) Audacity
The best program to record music is without a doubt Audacity.
This program was born as an editor for audio files but allows you to record the audio emitted by the PC sound card.
Recording with Audacity is really very simple: we select VB-CABLE as the input device (at the top, next to the microphone icon), we select the two-channel track (stereo), we choose to reproduce the sound recorded through the speakers of the PC ( so as to have a feedback of the recorded audio) then press the red button Rec to start registering the online web radio or website playing music.
At the end of the registration we press the button Stopclick on the menu at the top Filewe press on Exportwe select Export as MP3 and choose the quality and the destination folder where to save the file.
To learn more we can read our guide on how to record with Audacity from PC, microphone or external.
3) Cinch Audio Recorder
If you want to register and at the same time have the tags compiled immediately, the best program to use is Cinch Audio Recorder.
This shareware program will allow you to record music from your PC while listening to it via your sound card.
While you listen to your favorite songs, the program will automatically divide the songs recorded in the various MP3 files, complete with pre-compiled audio tags (the songs will have the name of the singer or band and the name of the song already compiled). To use the program, all we have to do is start playback from the site, program or music streaming service, open Cinch Audio Recorder and press the yellow button at the top left to start recording the output audio.
At the end of listening we will have all the songs we have listened to locally saved in MP3 format within the folder set by the program (you can change the folder from the settings).
3) SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder
A good alternative to record PC audio is SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder.
This program is even easier to use to record music: to proceed, all we have to do is start the web radio or streaming site and start recording by clicking on Start Recorder. All audio output from the PC will be recorded in an MP3 file.
5) RadioMaximus
For those who love to listen to music from the FM radio and want to record songs in MP3 files, they can rely on the program RadioMaximusavailable free for Windows.
With this program we can access all FM broadcasters that stream via the Internet (including foreign broadcasters), listen to them and record them at the same time.
Once you have chosen the country and started playing the streaming of the FM station, press the Rec button (present at the bottom, the red button next to the controls) to start recording the song. In this case, everything that goes on the radio will be recorded, including commercials, presenters talking and arguing between songs, so it takes a little more patience to make a good recording.
Conclusions
Recording your favorite music is very simple even on modern PCs: all we have to do is get the right driver, set the right acquisition device and use one of the programs seen above, so that we can instantly record your favorite music streamed online. Some programs allow you to record web radio stations directly, without having to open the site on your browser.
To record music we can also read our guides on programs to record audio and sounds on PC and how record audio and video on Chrome of sites and desktops, even with webcam and microphone.