How to record sounds without extra software

A good skill that I learned a while ago is how to record sounds that your computer makes. Essentially, this means that anything that passes through the computer's sound card can be saved as an audio file. This means that you can record music/audio from your favorite youtube videos, internet radio, you name it. And it can all be done using a program that comes with all (?) Windows computers. It is a program called "sound recorder", and when used properly, high quality audio can be recorded directly from your sound card.

1. Locating the program: Sound recorder should be in your accessories folder in programs.

2. Getting started: go to edit: audio properties and make sure that you are recording from your sound card and that the recording volumes are at a good level. This may take some experimenting, and it differs between computers.

3. Making it the length you want: The default recording length is 1 minute, and there is no apparent way to make it longer. However, there is a sneaky way of getting around this. Record for a few seconds, then go to effects: decrease speed. Press this over and over until you get around the desired length. You will trim the file later, so make it longer than you need.

4. Get the audio that you want to record. Simply press "record" and record the audio!

5. Save the audio. First, go to preferences and determine what quality you want to save the file as. Then, save your captured audio.

I use sound recorder to easily convert songs from apple's protected format, to record audio from movies, to record anime OPs, and lots of other things. It has become an indispensable tool to me, and I hope that it helps you too.

Tip: I do not advise surfing the internet or doing other things on the computer while recording. Many times, a "click" or an "alert sound" will ruin my recording, and I will have to start over.

(The song is Caramelldansen by Caramell. It is Swedish and its awesome.)