# Recording recommendations please **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 15, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538 "2006-10-15T16:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/1 "2006-10-15T16:27:34Z")
A little while ago I said I was going to do some recording for my nephew. Murphy’s law hit and I’ve had severe PC problems - thank heavens for the Ubuntu LiveCD - and had to rebuild it about 10 times. But my PC is now fully functional and I’ve restarted recording. I’m hitting three issues: firstly, Windows’ Sound Recorder has a limit of 60 seconds; secondly, Sound Recorder will only save in .wav format whereas I’d like mp3; thirdly, YouTube won’t accept audio files, so I can’t upload the recordings - any suggestions as to where I can upload them would be nice. I’d appreciate suggestions for all three. The last is, of course, particularly sensitive. I’m reading from a book that’s out of copyright, and there are no copyright restrictions involved, so the recordings are copyright me. My search-fu for audio services is lacking and I just get a load of links about P2P, which I don’t want. So, recommendations, please! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/2 "2006-10-15T16:32:54Z")
You could try [yousendit.com](http://yousendit.com) if you don’t care about having the recording on the actual web, youtube-style. Yousendit lets you upload big files (incl. audio), and the other person will receive a link via email (I forget if they have to sign up too, but you will). It’s free, but does have lots of annoying advertising. There are other, similar sites out there too, but I don’t rmember their names. I do transcription work for my sister, and she uses yousendit to send 60Mb audio files to me. We’ve had very few problems with it. I make no claim about spyware or other nasties (the site looks a bit sleazy somehow), but I’ve not noticed any problems of that type. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/3 "2006-10-15T16:40:14Z")
[Audacity]([http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/About](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/About) Audacity) > [@](#): > > Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to: > > ``` > * Record live audio. > * Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. > * Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. > * Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. > * Change the speed or pitch of a recording. > * And more! > > ``` Looks like you can just download it from their site. Once again, I don’t own any stock in that company, and it might be a steaming pile of crap, but the blurb seems pretty convincing. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/4 "2006-10-15T16:41:38Z")
Definitely Audacity for the recording needs. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/5 "2006-10-15T17:57:31Z")
Just tried Audacity - looks good, far more than I need. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recording-recommendations-please/376538/6 "2006-10-16T00:03:30Z")
I do recordings for podcasts and I use Audacity. When I want someplace to host an audio file, I use [http://www.freewebtown.com](http://www.freewebtown.com). They allow you to make the audio streaming, as well, so I put files on my blog and use the javascript of Playtagger [http://del.icio.us/help/playtagger](http://del.icio.us/help/playtagger) to make the audio stream instead of download. I do in the neighborhood of half a dozen recordings a week, and this works for me.