audio capture from speakers

Hello everyone
I would like to know if it is possible to capture and record audio directly from the speakers of my notebook or desktop with Audacity and Windows 10 or do I need a sound card for that.
I do appreciate any help on this subject
Dorival

See here: Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows - Audacity Manual
The"WASAPI loopback" method is usually the best.

directly from the speakers of my notebook

You probably want the sound going to the speaker system and not the actual speaker feed. If you recorded the actual speaker feed, it goes up and down with your volume control. People find immediately that the only way they can get a good recording is to have their speakers turned all the way up and blasting. I’m guessing that wouldn’t work for you.

What most people want is the sound going to the volume control and speaker system. That way you can set up and start a good recording, turn down the speaker volume and go make coffee.

Koz

Hi kozikowski.
Thanks for your reply. Maybe I was not clear with the problem I wanted to solve. Actually I want to record the sound itself that gets out of the loudspeakers of my notebook or desktop without the use of a sound card. So the input device would be the loudspers piped to the recorded file and I wonder if I can so without a soud card. So far I am not concerned with the qualitity of the recording.
dorival

You use your laptop’s built-in microphone as your [u]Recording Device[/u] to record the sound in the room.

Turn off [u]Software Playthrough[/u] to prevent feedback & echo.

I wonder if I can so without a soud card

Your computer already has a sound chip which functions like a sound card.

…Most computers now have the sound chip built onto the motherboard instead of a separate sound card. There are some situations where a USB audio interface works better than a sound card/soundchip.

Piece of cake. Set up your phone to record the room. Here’s mine set for a voice recording.

SmartphoneVoiceRecording.JPG
For this kind of recording, my phone records from a microphone on the bottom. So I aim its bottom to me.


Koz

I didn’t just leave the phone there. I’m running it in Pressure Zone Configuration. Put the microphone close to a broad, flat board or desktop and aim it the right way. The bass tones increase and the volume doubles but not the noise. This means you can’t make a lot of desk noises and your room can’t rumble from apartment sounds.

That’s basically how I shot my Studio B (garage) sound test. No pictures yet.


Koz

No pictures yet.

I just got the film back from the drugstore.

That’s Studio B (my garage)


That’s a left-over piece of 1/2" plywood sitting on cardboard boxes to get it high enough to announce into.

You don’t have to be Glen Glenn Sound to do good simple recordings. You can do it with scrap lumber, a messy garage, two cardboard boxes, and a phone.

Koz

Koz, you really like your Ziplocs :smiley:

You’ll probably find that a messy garage (or other room), probably helps reduce reverb,
by a combination of absorption and reflections at different angles.
Good excuse not to clean up. :wink:

Is that a carpet on your garage floor?
That helps too.

Koz, you really like your Ziplocs.

That’s misleading. It’s a couple of gallon and a couple of quart, but I can’t buy pint size In Real Life and I use those a lot, so I have to order them on-line. That’s what the six-pack looks like.

Is that a carpet on your garage floor?

It’s carpet fragments. Most of the floor is painted cement. The echo reduction comes from the tilted, segmented roof.

reflections at different angles.

The one exception being the thin, metal garage door. That’s where the furniture moving pads race to the rescue.


I have a separate human door, so I can do whatever I want with the car door, but even so, It’s possible to hang blankets so the car door will still open.

combination of absorption and reflections at different angles.

Exactly right. The overstuffed, heavily carpeted Victorian parlor is perfect.

Screen Shot 2021-06-13 at 6.38.28 PM.png
The modern, up to date, polished wooden floors and plain white walls are deadly.

This is the best you can do.

Colby has great visuals, but he always sounds like he’s recording in one of those kitchens.

Contrast that with TLDR News who has good clear sound.

Besides, I like getting my international news from someone who looks like a nine-year old kid.

Koz

That garage door will definitely need covering like you are doing.

It just struck me, wonder if that garage door can double up as a plate reverb?
Although not free hanging, it will have some form of rubber wheels running
on a rail, so it will provide some decoupling from the support mechanism.
Screen Shot 2021-06-14 at 12.40.29 PM.png
It would be better if it was one solid piece of metal, but it may still work.

As for the victorian parlor, acoustically nice but aesthetically horrid.
For me, less is definitely more.

Thanks for the tip. I will try and check how if the result of the recorded sound sound is ok. I might still return this subject to the forum if I think the quality of the sound can be improved.
Regards.
Dorival