Next Monday I’m interviewing some subject matter experts (2.5 hours) and I want to tape it (I’m a lousy note-taker). I’d like to just record it to my laptop – it’d be a lot easier than using the little tape recorder I have.
I’m on XP, which has a little recording program – that only goes for 60 seconds at a time. :smack:
Any recommendations for a simple but usable audio recording software? I don’t want to jump through the hoops to get my company to pay for it, so I’m hoping for freeware.
Thanks
Audacity is a big one.
You’re going to get a lot of Audacity responses, and with good reason. I’ll be the first --er, second – to say it. 
Thirded.
I don’t know why nobody has mentioned Audacity yet. It’s pretty good. Well don’t listen to those other people. Audacity is what you want.
Hey - I just heard about Audacity. I think I’ll check it out. 
Thanks all.
I’d like to be the sixth one to mention Audacity first.
I don’t have the audacity to say it…
There’s a piece of open source software which should do the job nicely, but the name seems to have slipped my mind. Anybody?
Yeah. Audacity.
There are three good free software products that will do what you are looking for.
Audacity - It is the most popular, and already mentioned.
Kristal Audio Engine - is a powerful multi-track recorder, audio sequencer and mixer - ideal for anyone wanting to get started with recording, mixing and mastering digital audio.
Wavosaur - A free sound editor, audio editor, wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files.
All three support VST plug-ins (a standard architecture for adding effects) if you are looking for that.
My recommendation would be to look at each of these and see which is easiest for you to use. They all work about the same and will do everything you need.
I don’t know how this one has slipped under my radar - I didn’t know about it at all - I just downloaded it and it looks pretty good - having the ability to drop multiple wave objects in a single track (something Audacity doesn’t do).
It’s not free for commercial use though.
Why don’t people have the Audacity to answer this question without being funny about it?
There are ways to increase the time limit in Sound Recorder, but I wouldn’t recommend it for 2 hours of realtime audio recording as it would consume a computer chokingly huge amount of memory. This is part of the reason for the 60sec limit.
Audacity will probably do the same thing. It may have a direct-to-disk preference or plug-in available. It is an excellent audio program, though!
Pro MP3 Recorder is a simple freeware realtime direct-to-disk audio recorder.
Ah. That’s good to know. My meeting’s at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning. I’ll download Audacity early and play with it to see what its limits are and if it looks like 2.5 hours of audio will turn my 'puter into a dead weight, then I’ll stick with my little tape recorder.
Can you record Rio by Duran Duran on Audacity?
Seriously, if you’re only recording voice, turn the sample rate way down - you’ll get a lot more recording time.
Under Edit > Preferences you can change the default sample rate from 44100 to 8000 - you’ll save oodles of disk space that way.