# Is there any audio recorder software that works of a timer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414 "2004-03-20T16:53:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/1 "2004-03-20T16:53:25Z")
All I want to do is be able to schedule and record audio at a certain time. Is there any software that offers this? WAV or MP3 should work. I have Sound Forge 6.0, but I don’t think I can have Windows schedule this task to record. ---
**Author:** ![owlofcreamcheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@owlofcreamcheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlofcreamcheese)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/2 "2004-03-20T18:04:17Z")
windows has a built in event scedualer… it should be possible to use that. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/3 "2004-03-20T18:19:41Z")
[Total Recorder](http://www.highcriteria.com/) can be set to do scheduled recordings. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/4 "2004-03-20T18:47:00Z")
Sound Forge 7 has built in scheduling, too. If you want a free solution, find a freeware editor/capture utility with a command line interface, make a batch file to start it and record for however long you like, and point Windows task scheduler at the batch file. One such program is [HarddiskOGG](http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php), which will record OGG format files. You can get it to record uncompressed WAV files, or (by downloading an extra .dll) .mp3 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/5 "2004-03-20T19:30:00Z")
Err… on the off chance you’re unfamiliar with batch files, I guess I should be a bit more specific. (Apologies if this is obvious to you.) To set up to record .mp3s: Download and install HDOgg. Download lame\_enc.dll and put it in the same folder you put HDOgg in. Run hardisk.exe, and configure the capture settings the way you want them. Now make the batch files. Right click in your HDOgg directory and select “New --\> Text document” Call it “start.txt” Make the body of the text file “harddisk -record -sequential” (without quotes.) Save it, and then rename the file “start.bat” (If you don’t see file extensions, pick Tools --\> Folder Options from the menu at the top of the folder, click the “View” tab, and uncheck “Hide file extensions for known file types.”) Make another text file that says “harddisk -quit” and call it “quit.bat” Now you can use the Task Scheduler to stop and start recordings by pointing it at the batch files. Of course, you can go other ways, too… For example, you can make a batch file that contains the line “harddisk -record -sequential -timelimit 3600” which will record for one hour and then stop. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/6 "2004-03-20T21:33:15Z")
Cool, thanks for all the info everyone. I may just go with buying another copy of Sound Forge, just because I like the product, and could really use the scheduled recording feature. And thanks for the batch file info Larry Mudd. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-audio-recorder-software-that-works-of-a-timer/235414/7 "2004-03-21T00:27:40Z")
No doubt about it-- Sound Forge is great software. > [@](#): > > thanks for the batch file info Happy to serve. Of course, I realized _after_ I posted that you don’t really _need_ to make the batch files – you could just schedule the .exe to start and add the command line switches in the advanced properties.