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How To
Capture Streaming Audio
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by:
Ross MacIver
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Streaming
audio is all over the web these days. There are live radio broadcasts,
video and audio streams, and many music vendors use streaming audio as
samples of their products. You can listen to the song, but unless you
buy it, it can’t be stored on your computer. Or can it? The simple
answer is “Yes”! We’ll take a look at a few methods for recording
streaming audio.
First of all, we should examine what streaming technology is and what
it is used for. The traditional method of listening to music or
watching videos on your computer was to download the entire file and
play it from your hard drive. Streaming works in real time – you can
view the video or listen to the music as it is being downloaded. The
data arrives in a “stream” of bits from the server to your computer.
The obvious advantage of streaming is saving time – you can listen to
the stream a few seconds after the download is started. Streamed audio
and video can also be protected from copying by Digital Rights
Management (DRM) technology. This is often done by commercial vendors
of video and audio to control distribution of their content.
Even with DRM, however, all audio and video streams can be recorded.
The simplest way to record streaming audio is to attach a recorder to
the output jack of your soundcard. Any recording device – portable MP3
player, cassette deck, MiniDisc etc. can be used. The problem with this
method is that you have to convert the digital stream into analog, and
there will be some loss in sound quality.
If you wish to keep the audio stream in the digital domain, you need
special software to capture it. Most audio capture software works by
emulating a sound card. You feed the output of the emulated sound card
to a file, and as the audio is streamed to your computer it is captured
to file. Any kind of audio stream can be captured this way no matter
whether it is played with Windows Media Player, Real Player, Quicktime,
or any other audio streamer.
About the Author
Ross is an enthusiast audio professional take
advantage of his knowledge about MP3,
AAC,OGG, FLAC SHN and other compression
and capturing techniques
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