I thought I had found great instructions for Audacity in Windows 7 in this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv2kbwoLjqs.
I began to follow the instructions – to prepare Windows 7 correctly, go to Control Panel > Sound > Recording tab, then right click to “Show Disabled Devices.” (But nothing shows. No “stereo mix” option. So I can’t make that the default.)
I’ve downloaded Audacity. And I’ve downloaded LAME. Could I be having a problem because I have a Sony Vaio laptop? All that will show up in the Recording tab is “Speaker/HP - Realtek High Definition Audio - Default Device.” And I can’t get anything else.
I just want to convert some “sleep whisperer” YouTube videos to audio, like this one – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxeJVoLZN3A – so I can put them on a CD and get some sleep. Surely there’s a way.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html
YouTube videos can be dangerous because nobody ever updates them for advanced versions of Audacity.
Koz
Rather than record the audio as it plays, you can download the audio of the videos direct to a file and burn that file to a CD.
Or download the video file itself, install FFmpeg ( Audacity Manual ) then drag the video file into Audacity and it will extract the audio without quality loss.
Use Google or your favourite search engine to find out how to download video or audio from YouTube, if you have permission from the copyright holders to do that.
Gale
Thank you both!
I read the tutorial but never could get Stereo Mix to come up as an option. I think it has something to do with the configuration of Realtek on my old Sony Vaio laptop. So I moved on to Gale’s suggestion:
Installed FFmpeg. Did research. Found out that if you go to the YouTube video you want and insert “ss” right before “YouTube” in the address, it will take you to a site called Savefrom.net. Then I looked at the choices in the drop down menu, chose “MP4 720p” and downloaded the video onto my desktop, then dragged it into the Audacity icon, and the transition to sound file began. (Wow - like magic.) Then I “exported” the audio file. The default seemed to be a .wav file so I stuck with that. Then put the audio file in “My Music” folder which made it accessible to Windows Media Player. Then followed the guidance inside Windows Media Player to burn an audio CD. And I thought I was home free!
Problem: The sound had a roar behind the intended audio (in this case, the whispering) which is like the roar you get when you record something with the mike volume all the way up. This phenomena was audible in the original video, if you listened for it, but not noticeable until I made an audio file. Either the gal who made the video had her mike volume up too high or we’re back to my Realteck problem. (I have to turn the volume up really high in order to hear anything on my computer. In the old days, I would have found an internal sound mix window to adjust – inside “Sound” in the Control Panel. But can’t find one on this computer.)
Meanwhile, I have been saved by the generosity of Ilse, the Sleep Whisperer – http://www.thewaterwhispers.com. She responded to an email I sent her about wanting to buy audio CD’s and said that if I chose my favorite videos, she’ll put them on an audio CD for me. Thank goodness. Salvation is close at hand.
Glad this quest caused me to discover Audacity. Looks like a great program. And thank you again for taking the time to help me!
There should be a speaker icon by the system clock. Click that, then “Mixer”, then you can either turn up the main “Device” volume, or turn up the volume for open applications that can play sound.
Gale
Thank you. I see the speaker icon you mentioned and I seem to have more control over the volume if I adjust it within that “mixer” – for “devise” or for the open program’s volume, which shows up in that window when I have Audacity open. But I still have to turn it up pretty high.
I wish there were a mixer somewhere within the Control Panel – (there isn’t one within “Sound” unfortunately)-- that would give me an internal way to adjust the volume, so I wouldn’t have such a limited range on the one that’s near the system clock. (On a scale of 1 to 10, you can only hear well from 7 to 10.) I remember their being something like that in the olden days. But those days are gone. And so are the days when I could spend hours trying to solve computer problems!
btw, I listened to the “whispering” audio file/CD that I made with Audacity. And further into the hour-long CD, the background roar receded a bit. So it still worked. I got to sleep! So I may make a few more audio files from the YouTube videos after all, as well as buy some CD’s from Ilse.
Thank you again for all your help! It made a big difference.