Help needed: free and easy recording software for Windows?

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:45 am

hi, this is quite urgent. I will meet a few friends in 4 hours for a practice session that I want to record. Unfortunately I forgot to bring along my Edirol. So I just bought a cheap PC-microphone and now I need an easy (and free) program for basic recording. I will do this on my office PC (windows XP). Any suggestions?

beowulf573 · Post by **beowulf573** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:39 am

<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a> is the most popular one I know of that's free.

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:47 am

how about something easier? something i can learn in 5 minutes or so .....

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:48 am

Goldwave is pretty easy - http://www.goldwave.com/ . You can do a lot on it, but you can also just open a new file (you'll have to estimate how much recording time you'll need) and then press record.

To save as an MP3 you need to download a converter, also on the goldwave site, but you can save in .wav without it.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:48 am

Windows comes with a sound recorder. Should be under
Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment->Sound Recorder
Very basic and easy: plug in a mic, and hit record...

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:21 am

Lots of software is available at the Shareware Music Machine.

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Tue May 20, 2008 12:04 pm

Arial Sound Recorder is great and very easy to use.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Tue May 20, 2008 2:16 pm

Audacity can do a lot, but if you ignore the extra features and buttons, you can just use it like Windows sound recorder. All the buttons work like you think they would.

Just because there are bells and whistles doesn't mean that you have to learn to use them.

Later, if you need to be able to do something more advanced, the capability is there.

Just my $.02.

--James

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Wed May 21, 2008 1:20 am

fearfaoin wrote:Windows comes with a sound recorder. Should be under
Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment->Sound Recorder
Very basic and easy: plug in a mic, and hit record...

It does, and it is. It also doesn't record more than a minute's worth. At least, I've never discovered how to get beyond this limit.

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Wed May 21, 2008 5:59 am

thanks for all your replies. finally i tried Goldwave but the sound quality was really poor. maybe the microphone is too bad, or maybe i had a few settings wrong. anyway, now that i have more time, i will try again and use a different mike.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:35 pm

claudine wrote:thanks for all your replies. finally i tried Goldwave but the sound quality was really poor. maybe the microphone is too bad, or maybe i had a few settings wrong. anyway, now that i have more time, i will try again and use a different mike.

We can tell by your Avatar that this was urgent.
Audacity is real easy to use for basic functions. In your case it was probably the microphone. Unfortunately unless you have a mixer or a special box that plugs into your USB and a decent mic the sound isn't very good.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu May 22, 2008 2:51 am

Reaper works well for me, better quality sound than Audacity but like Audacity, it will take a few moments to get used to.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu May 22, 2008 8:34 am

Reaper is good, but as I recall it's a trial rather than being free.

Overall, I agree with James about Audacity. Although it takes some time to learn to get the most out of it, the basic function is pretty simple.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Thu May 22, 2008 8:39 am

buddhu wrote:Reaper is good, but as I recall it's a trial rather than being free.

I don't think they enforce it, though. They say "after evaluating, you should
buy a license.", not "you must"...

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Thu May 22, 2008 6:02 pm

fearfaoin wrote:
buddhu wrote:Reaper is good, but as I recall it's a trial rather than being free.
I don't think they enforce it, though. They say "after evaluating, you should
buy a license.", not "you must"...

The noncommercial license is 50 bucks, which doesn't sound too bad if you really like the program. Beats 225. Of course, you probably can go for a looong evaluation period.