Simple direct sound recording software

How to record any sound produced by your sound card including live input or microphone.

Simple direct sound recording software can record any signal produced by your sound card (Internet stream, music, audio from videogames, …).

If you want to record music from internet radio stations or digital music services making individual files from each song and tagging each MP3 file with the name of the song and artist, see Replay Music.

HarddiskOgg (Freeware/Windows)
Records analog audio from line-in or microphone directly to Ogg Vorbis/Wave/Monkey’s Audio/Wave/MP3 in real time with auto-normalization. Featuring smart file numbering, tray icon operation for quick access and preview while recording (aka time shift). Supports stereo or mono recordings at 32, 44.1 or 48kHz in 32-320kbps Ogg Vorbis format or through any installed ACM codec. Drop-in support for the high quality LAME MP3 encoder DLL (download separately).

FreeCorder (Shareware/Windows)
Freecorder does exactly as it sounds — it is an easy-to-use software program that’s especially handy for Recording Skype calls or other VoIP calls that use a PC-based client calls.

Freecorder is free to try, and works well as a basic audio recorder too. When you upgrade to paid mode, there’s no limit to the amount of audio you can record. (In unpaid mode, you are limited to 30 minutes of audio and 2 minutes of Skype recording.

Replay A/V Editor’s choice (Shareware – $49.90/Windows) – can record any sound produced by your sound card to MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC.
Replay A/V can also:

  • Capture iTunes mp3 radio stations (Shoutcast compatible mp3 radio) splitting and tagging songs automatically,
  • Record XM and Sirius radio;
  • Download Podcasts;
  • Download Flash videos;
  • Capture Windows Media, Real Audio/Video streams.
  • Capture .nsv (Nullsoft Streaming Video).

Replay A/V can start and stop recording at any time you set.

  • Super MP3 Recorder Pro (Shareware – $29.95/Windows)
    Super MP3 Recorder Pro lets you save any audio stream coming into your sound card. It automatically chooses the best recording options, and then saves the stream as .mp3, .wav, .wma, .vqf and .ogg files. Records streaming audio in many formats, including Windows Media Player, QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Flash. Can start and stop recording at any time you set. It can edit audio files as you desire by cutting, copying, pasting, trimming and various DSP effects.
    Standart version is less powerfull, but costs $10 less.
    Download Super MP3 Recorder Pro
    Buy Super MP3 Recorder Pro at RegNow for $29.95
  • i-Sound WMA / MP3 Sound Recorder 6.55 Professional (Shareware – $29.95/Windows) – turns your computer into complete audio recording studio. You can record sound from internal or external source into MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV, APE format sound file directly without costing any other disk space. i-Sound WMA/MP3 Recorder allows you to record sound without running out of memory as long as there’s enough disk space. By using WMA MP3 Recorder you can record sounds from MIDI, Internet broadcasts, streaming media (e.g. QuickTime Player, Realplayer, Games, DVD Players…) and your microphone. Your recordings can be scheduled.
    VOX is a smart recording system, which means WMA MP3 Recorder has a smart silence detector to detect and skip silent snippet, and stop recording automatically. Each track of a music CD can be automatically recorded and saved individually. You can easily convert analog format of your LP records/cassette tapes into digital format. VOX can automatically record and save each track as an independent file.
  • Real MP3 Recorder (Shareware – $29.95/Windows)
    Real MP3 Recorder is a sound recording program. It records sound generated, or requested, by other computer programs, such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Quick Time, WinAmp, and many others. Saves the streams as MP3 or WAV files only.
  • Blaze Audio Power Record ($19.95/Windows)- Power Record is good not only for instant recording, but also for scheduled events. You can set up an unlimited number of events for one-time, daily, weekly or monthly recording. The program can playback your recordings and convert them to MP3 with either Fraunhofer or Lame encoders.