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!
Hallelujah! I’ve been looking for a way to record audio on Vista for a while. None of the existing packages out there seem to work for me.
ditto that comment. This Freecorder works very well for me so far. But why is it free? I am suspicious of something this good being genuinely free? Is it a limited version which we pay to upgrade to full version (like Freecorder v2). If so, how is it limited; I see no reference on this website.
Hi NigelS: There’s no catch. The new Freecorder toolbar really is totally free. There are no limitations at all. Enjoy!
You all at Applian keep getting better and better. The only other thing that can be better is when you do the Club thing you were talking about. Cant wait. Just got a new computer with Vista on, Can wait to put my Applian products on it. It even has a TV tuner card in it. Now the only problem is finding free time to take and set it up. Thanks for caring enough to invent all these great products.
It works fine for me if the sound is streaming in the browser. But if I try to record something from another application it doesn’t detect it. I have tried to record from Yahoo Music Jukebox and WMP. In both cases the content was not protected; just playing MP3s from the library on my local disk.
Am I missing something? It says “records anything you can hear” so I assume it is not limited to recording from the browser.
In any case, what I really want is Replay Music for Vista. Will you be able to use the technology from Freecorder in Replay Music?
Thanks for some great products, Keith
Well I came here to update my last message saying the app had stopped working to report that I’d got it going again. BUT IT SEEMS NEGATIVE COMMENTS ARE CENSORED HERE BECAUSE MY MSG HAS BEEN DELETED.
[[ We prefer to do support requests through our help system – the Applian blog in general is not intended for support. In general, we do scan blog comments to ensure they are useful for our site visitors. — Bill Dettering CEO ]]
Anyway for what it is worth, I got Freecorder v3 working again by uninstalling and reinstalling it. Can’t think what messed up the original installation – the only change I made to the system between Freecorder working and then not working – was I upgraded / updated the NVidia Vista graphics driver.
NigelS
Your general sound capturing is fantastic. What I’d like to see as well is that capturing plus a WiFi relay to a little hardware device next to my regular Hifi stereo. Then I could use my laptop as a console for selecting music – whether from a local mp3 file or some kind of internet radio – and have it in my normal living-room speakers. With your general technology I would not have to worry about online streaming formats. The same could be done with video, of course, though I presume it involves more format conversions to show up on a PAL/NTSC device.
Or does that kind of device already exist?
Rikard
Stockholm, Sweden
This browser add on is totally and i mean totally awsome. as it says in the tin it just works and just works great. What you hear is what you record. Full marks to Applian on this one. No messy settings to work at , just set your preferences and forget it.
seriously if you can hear it i your speakers you will record it with the SAME FIDELITY.
Thumbsp from me.
I installed Freecorder as per instructions but it won’t record anything. It says it’s recording but there’s no movement and no file. I read somewhere about making sure the Applian Plug In was installed and showing in Media player 11. I can’t even find the plug in …???…and I have media player 10. I have XP not Vista, and have the required sound/video card.
Can somebody please tell me where to find the plug in as it’s not showing in the installed program, and what to do about it? Simple words please – I’m a bit blond when it comes to this! 🙂
Carol – Please submit a tech support ticket so that we can help you better. Here’s a link:
http://applian.com/freecorder/support/
Best Regards,
Debbie McCormick
Applian Technologies, Inc.
Hello there. I have just installed your Freecorder and I’m experiencing the same problem as Carol. I have Windows XP and windows media player 11. I cannot find the Applian Audio Recorder Plugin in the Tools menu.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks