# Decent Audacity alternatives?



## kitetsu (Aug 18, 2008)

Yeah, because i'm still too stubborn to realize that Audacity can't do Mono Mix recording from pretty much anything that makes a sound inside Vista computers/laptops. So far i've tried a handful of other sound recorders, but not one of them was able to capture sound playing in BridgeM1, which is a media player strictly for arcade games.

The reason why i need an alternative to Audacity is pretty much for the sake of a faster working pace, now that i have a laptop with far greater capabilities. I COULD rely on BridgeM1 and Winamp's built-in WAV writer, but... Yeah.

Of course, since many of you here shun Vista for some reason, you're welcome to tell me to give up, spend a few hundred on downgrading to XP, and hang myself along the way. Don't expect me to take it well, though.


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## mctanuki (Aug 18, 2008)

I don't think anybody suggested you spend _money_ on XP...;3

But seriously, folks, I use WavePad. I don't know if it's compatible with Vista, and honestly, I couldn't quite suss out from your post what you're trying to do, but hey, give it a shot. It has real-time sound editing, and records to a single file instead of a billion tiny temp files, so it's already better than Audacity.


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## hiphopopotimus (Aug 18, 2008)

kitetsu said:


> Yeah, because i'm still too stubborn to realize that Audacity can't do Mono Mix recording from pretty much anything that makes a sound inside Vista computers/laptops.



This is incoherent, please rephrase.



			
				kitetsu said:
			
		

> So far i've tried a handful of other sound recorders, but not one of them was able to capture sound playing in BridgeM1, which is a media player strictly for arcade games.



I haven't the slightest clue what BridgeM1 is, but if no sound recorder can capture its audio try a male->male audio connector from the speaker jack to the mic jack.


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## Xenofur (Aug 19, 2008)

hiphopopotimus said:


> male->male audio connector from the speaker jack to the mic jack.


not mic, line in

anyhow:

This is possibly not the fault of audacity, nor vista. Recently laptops have shipped with soundcards that have, on hardware, no ability to do mono or stereo mix recording.

Ways around that are twofold, one as mentioned by hip, the other is Virtual Audio Cable. You can find a decent guide on how to use it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRQzoZA8FAo


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## Runefox (Aug 19, 2008)

It's also possible to enable Mono Mix recording by modifying your driver, but that's a little advanced.

Other than that, you can try something like Wavepad, which is a pretty simplified, but free and at a glance surprisingly powerful app.


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## Cid SilverWing (Aug 24, 2008)

You trying to record sound from your computer?

Sounds -> Options -> Recording/Input, check "Mic" and "Stereo Mix", click Ok. You should see two sliders, check Stereo Mix, adjust volume slider as needed.

Cool Edit Pro works perfectly for recording and saving mp3 files, at least for me. ^^


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## Cero (Aug 24, 2008)

mctanuki said:


> I don't think anybody suggested you spend _money_ on XP...;3


Wait, you can pirate it? I thought you had to get a professional to install it for you or something <.<


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## mctanuki (Aug 24, 2008)

Cero said:


> Wait, you can pirate it? I thought you had to get a professional to install it for you or something <.<



PirateXP* is both plentiful and easily-obtained.

*Note: this is not the name of a pirated version of XP.


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## Kushaba (Sep 2, 2008)

you can try Acid Xpress 5.0 google it and install xpress. you will have to register but its 100% free.


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## Aden (Sep 2, 2008)

kitetsu: You have a budget?


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## Bryantacious (Sep 7, 2008)

kitetsu said:


> Yeah, because i'm still too stubborn to realize that Audacity can't do Mono Mix recording from pretty much anything that makes a sound inside Vista computers/laptops. So far i've tried a handful of other sound recorders, but not one of them was able to capture sound playing in BridgeM1, which is a media player strictly for arcade games.
> 
> The reason why i need an alternative to Audacity is pretty much for the sake of a faster working pace, now that i have a laptop with far greater capabilities. I COULD rely on BridgeM1 and Winamp's built-in WAV writer, but... Yeah.
> 
> Of course, since many of you here shun Vista for some reason, you're welcome to tell me to give up, spend a few hundred on downgrading to XP, and hang myself along the way. Don't expect me to take it well, though.



why dont you dual-boot xp and vista? Ive heard there are security issues with this but I havent seen a problem on my friends desktop or my laptop :\



Cero said:


> Wait, you can pirate it? I thought you had to get a professional to install it for you or something <.<



lol i have like 3 copies


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## drewdle (Sep 7, 2008)

I use GarageBand. Excellent program. But, when I was still on Windows, I found Cool Edit Pro (now called Adobe Audition) did the trick nicely. You could also look at full-sized sequencer programs, like Cubase Lite. 

Last I checked, Audacity WAS the alternative.


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## balancedmind (Sep 8, 2008)

mctanuki said:


> I don't think anybody suggested you spend _money_ on XP...;3
> 
> But seriously, folks, I use WavePad. I don't know if it's compatible with Vista, and honestly, I couldn't quite suss out from your post what you're trying to do, but hey, give it a shot. It has real-time sound editing, and records to a single file instead of a billion tiny temp files, so it's already better than Audacity.




I can second this one. I use both Wavepad and Audacity. There's not much difference between the two, besides the licensing. And I'm pretty sure you can use Wavepad freely as a non-commercial home user.


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