Recording longer than 60 seconds with Windows Sound Recorder

[steve]

Sound Recorder is a simple audio recording application that comes with Microsoft Windows operating systems.
In Windows XP, navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder.
In most versions of Windows you can also open Sound Recorder by clicking "Start->Run" then typing "sndrec32" in the text box and click "OK".

By default, Windows Sound Recorder (sndrec32.exe) will only record up to 60 seconds of audio.
If you want to record longer than 60 seconds, say 10 minutes, there is a way to do it:

Open Audacity, create a stereo track, and generate 10 minutes of silence (check that you have your desired sample rate and bit depth).
Export the "stereo silence" as a wav.
Open the silent audio file with Sound recorder and you will see that you can now record up to 10 minutes.
If you want to increase this to 20 minutes, click on "Edit->Insert File" and select your silent wav - this can be repeated to increase the recording in 10 minute increments.

To make Sound Recorder use the extended length of recording time automatically: 1. Right-click Start, and then click Open.
2. Double-click the Programs folder.
3. Double-click the Accessories folder.
4. Double-click the Multimedia folder or the Entertainment folder.
5. Right-click Sound Recorder, and then click Properties.
6. Click the Shortcut tab.
7. In the Target box, press the END key, press the SPACEBAR, and then type the location of the Blank.wav file.

For example, if the target is "C:Windowssndrec32.exe", and the location of the Blank.wav file is C:Blank.wav, the new line in the Target box is "C:Windowssndrec32.exe C:Blank.wav"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/82215

There is also a nice simple walkthrough for using the sound recorder that includes setting the record source and record level : http://webster.commnet.edu/DL/dl-help/h ... corder.htm

[allee.paul]

So, if you have audacity, why are you using sound recorder?

[steve]

When people have problems with Audacity, it is useful to try Microsoft Sound Recorder as a test. If Microsoft Sound Recorder works, then it proves that all the hardware and the drivers are working. Because of this, MSR frequently gets a mention on this forum, but usually with the caveat that MSR is limited to recording a max of 60 seconds. As described in the Microsoft web page, that isn't actually true.

To answer your question directly - I have very rarely used Sound Recorder, I use Audacity.