# Software for simple voice recording

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-for-simple-voice-recording/245464>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 16, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-for-simple-voice-recording/245464 "2004-05-16T19:38:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-for-simple-voice-recording/245464/1 "2004-05-16T19:38:49Z")

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My wife needs to record herself reading from a textbook. I figured that the built in Sound Recorder that comes with Windows would work fine, but it only allows recordings of 60 seconds or less ☹ . How do you get Sound Recorder to record long stretches, and if it can’t do that, can you recommend some freeware that will?

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**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-for-simple-voice-recording/245464/2 "2004-05-16T22:13:58Z")

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> [@bnorton](#):
>
> How do you get Sound Recorder to record long stretches, and if it can’t do that, can you recommend some freeware that will?

I’ve had success with [Messer](http://www.mpex.net/software/details/messer.html) and [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) when faced with similar recording tasks in the past. Most recently, I’ve captured old Capitol Steps cassettes (mid 1980s recordings unavailable in digital format) through my sound card’s line-in jack using [SoX](http://sox.sourceforge.net/).