For several years now, the ability to record audio on new Windows PC’s has slowly eroded, until it’s become virtually impossible to record anything but your Microphone on new Windows Vista machines. Recording streaming audio, or sounds from any application, simply couldn’t be done. But today, that has changed.

Today is the official release day for Freecorder Toolbar Sound Recorder, our new free audio recording application that makes audio recording in Vista (and XP for that matter) better and more accessible for everyone. To understand why this is a big deal, it’s helpful to know a little about the technology behind sound recording. But if you’ve recently bought a new Windows PC and tried to record audio, you’ve learned what I’m about to tell you the hard way.

Recording audio is traditionally done two ways: either by using a “loopback” line exposed by the sound card in your PC, or by using a third party program that creates its own Sound Card Driver. The loopback method has been slowly phased out, even with XP machines. There used to always be a “What U Hear”, “Stereo Mix”, “Wave Out Mix” or similar recording line on every sound card installed in every new PC, which hundreds of applications could use to record sounds.

Then all of the sudden, many PC’s shipped without loopback lines, especially with the popular RealTek cards, and millions of customers were out of luck- unless you had a recording application like Replay A/V with the Enhanced Sound Card Driver, Total Recorder or Soundtap. These specialized applications used custom written Sound Card Drivers to record, and didn’t require a loopback line. However with Windows Vista, Microsoft has required that all drivers be certified and signed by Microsoft, which effectively kills this method of recording. If you own a new Vista PC with no loopback line, you are unable to record audio – until now.

Our new Freecorder Toolbar Sound Recorder uses a brand new audio recording method invented by us. It works great with Vista, XP and even Windows 2000, and doesn’t require any special recording line or driver – it just works. Plus, an added benefit is Freecorder Toolbar’s Sound Separation technology, which isolates sounds from the application it was generated in. This means that the beep from your Instant Messenger program won’t wind up in the recording from your favorite internet radio station.

Our other products are getting this new technology shortly, but Freecorder Toolbar has it now, and it’s totally free. Give it a try and enjoy!