# Sound Recorder Settings

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-recorder-settings/95911>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2001, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-recorder-settings/95911 "2001-11-29T13:52:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![VanLandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/eb9ed0/32.png) [@VanLandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanLandry)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-recorder-settings/95911/1 "2001-11-29T13:52:50Z")

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I’m simply trying to record sound from streaming audio to a .wav file, but it’s not picking up any sound. Just dead air. I’ve gone into the settings and tried just about everything to no avail. Is there some simple setting that I’m missing? What should the settings be at?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-recorder-settings/95911/2 "2001-11-29T16:00:10Z")

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Streaming audio is designed so that it can’t be easily recorded. That’s the entire point – to prevent pirating of the music/video.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-recorder-settings/95911/3 "2001-11-29T16:27:22Z")

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It also depends on your audio card. Some audio cards (like mine)only have one converter and so you cannot record while decoding WAV which is what you are doing. I can record from any source: MIDI, CD or other analog but not from one WAV to another. You have to understand how your sound card works and what it can and cannot do. I get around this by decoding in my laptop and feeding the analog signal to the desktop.

So, it depends much more on your sound card than anything else. If you can play a WAV file and record it as you play it, then you should be able to record streaming audio which is essentially the same.