johnnymegabyte
New member
from Maximum PC website - 20 Essential Tricks Every Skype User Should Know Created 12/01/2009 - 8:30am
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...ricks_and_skills_every_skype_user_should_know
check out the full article or this.
Here's where things get a little tricky.
Starting with Vista, the ability to record sounds from your PC's audio channels have been stripped away, or at least it would appear that way at first glance.
It's widely believed this was done to prevent end users from recording streaming audio, such as songs from an online radio station (isn't DRM grand?).
Unfortunately, this also prevents us from recording other Skype users.
To get around this, we need to re-enable the Stereo Mix option as a recording device.
Right-click the sound icon in the Systray and select Recording devices.
Next, right-click any of the devices and check the option to 'Show Disabled Devices.'
If your soundcard supports Stereo Mix, you should now the see the option lightly grayed out.
Right-click and select Enable.
If you don't see the Stereo Mix option, it's possible your sound solution doesn't support the option, either at the hardware level or by restricting access at the driver level.
Either way, there's no easy remedy short of investing in a discrete soundcard that supports Stereo Mix, such as Razer's Barracuda AC-1 or Creative's X-Fi series (Creative calls Stereo Mix 'What U Hear').
We're almost ready to start recording.
Fire up Audacity again if you previously closed it down, then navigate to Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O (depending on which version of Audacity you have, Audio I/O might also be labeled Devices).
In the Device pull-down menu under Recording, select Stereo Mix (or What U Hear).
Jump over to the Quality section in Audacity's Preferences tree on the left-hand side.
Change the Default Sample Rate to 16000Hz.
This will strike a good balance between sound quality and file size, but if you truly need a higher quality recording, play around with higher sample rates.
Now you're ready to start recording!
Once you and your guest(s) are ready, just hit the record button.
If everything is set up correctly, you'll see the audio track updated in real-time.
If not, you need to retrace your steps to see where you might have went wrong, or adjust your microphone's volume.
Spend some time playing around with Audacity to learn the program's intricacies.
When you're finished recording, you can delete awkward moments of silence or other undesirable parts of the recording you don't want included in the final product.
You can also add in background music and sound effects by recording additional streams.
We're not going to cover all the tricks you can do with Audacity (at least not in this guide), but as you play around, you'll soon discover it's a pretty powerful recording program that belies its free price tag.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...ricks_and_skills_every_skype_user_should_know
check out the full article or this.
Here's where things get a little tricky.
Starting with Vista, the ability to record sounds from your PC's audio channels have been stripped away, or at least it would appear that way at first glance.
It's widely believed this was done to prevent end users from recording streaming audio, such as songs from an online radio station (isn't DRM grand?).
Unfortunately, this also prevents us from recording other Skype users.
To get around this, we need to re-enable the Stereo Mix option as a recording device.
Right-click the sound icon in the Systray and select Recording devices.
Next, right-click any of the devices and check the option to 'Show Disabled Devices.'
If your soundcard supports Stereo Mix, you should now the see the option lightly grayed out.
Right-click and select Enable.
If you don't see the Stereo Mix option, it's possible your sound solution doesn't support the option, either at the hardware level or by restricting access at the driver level.
Either way, there's no easy remedy short of investing in a discrete soundcard that supports Stereo Mix, such as Razer's Barracuda AC-1 or Creative's X-Fi series (Creative calls Stereo Mix 'What U Hear').
We're almost ready to start recording.
Fire up Audacity again if you previously closed it down, then navigate to Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O (depending on which version of Audacity you have, Audio I/O might also be labeled Devices).
In the Device pull-down menu under Recording, select Stereo Mix (or What U Hear).
Jump over to the Quality section in Audacity's Preferences tree on the left-hand side.
Change the Default Sample Rate to 16000Hz.
This will strike a good balance between sound quality and file size, but if you truly need a higher quality recording, play around with higher sample rates.
Now you're ready to start recording!
Once you and your guest(s) are ready, just hit the record button.
If everything is set up correctly, you'll see the audio track updated in real-time.
If not, you need to retrace your steps to see where you might have went wrong, or adjust your microphone's volume.
Spend some time playing around with Audacity to learn the program's intricacies.
When you're finished recording, you can delete awkward moments of silence or other undesirable parts of the recording you don't want included in the final product.
You can also add in background music and sound effects by recording additional streams.
We're not going to cover all the tricks you can do with Audacity (at least not in this guide), but as you play around, you'll soon discover it's a pretty powerful recording program that belies its free price tag.