--- Robin Ballantine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anyone know how to record the streaming ram from realplay? I've been > listening to a few programmes on the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk) using > realplay, which works pretty good; the only problem is that what I listen to > does not get cached and so if I want to listen to it again I have to go > online again for the full length of the programme. > > I'm using MDK9, kde3.0.4, kernel-2.4.20, with onboard sound ac97 via82c686b. > > I reckon I should be able to record using artsrec but have had no success yet. > Any help appreciated. > > Robin >
Try using Sox from a terminal window to record the output from realplay to an ogg file (which is compressed for space conservation). The command line I use is: sox -V -c2 -r 44100 -t ossdsp -w -s /dev/dsp9 /mnt/disk/tmp/rush12-17-02.ogg -V tells you what Sox is doing as it does it. -c2 sets up the recording for two channels in stereo. -r 44100 samples the sound data from /dev/dsp at CD quality rate. -t ossdsp -w -s /dev/dsp is a system of qualifiers that tells sox what kind of device file it should be listening to and what to expect from the data type that's coming from it; i.e., your soundcard's digital data stream. Sox looks at the suffix of the filename and that tells it what kind of file you want to record. There's no extra setting for telling sox about the type of output file it should be writing. For example, if you want wav, you put /mnt/disk/tmp/rush12-17-02.wav. Then sox records that filetype. I have a library of files, so I tend to put who it is (i.e., Rush Limbaugh), then the date, and then of course what kind of file I'm creating(which in this case is ogg. No need to ever have any other file format. ;) ). When you get to the end of the recording, hit cntrl-c in the terminal window that you started sox in, and you'll get a command line. Now enter xmms /mnt/disk/tmp/rush12-17-02.ogg Then it should play. There is a caveat here. Some soundcards have open source drivers that will NOT allow recording from the /dev/dsp device. I can state categorically that the aureal drivers WILL, but I cannot say that for any other drivers. EXCEPT for the drivers I'm using now, which are the 4front Technologies' Open Sound System drivers. The cool thing about these drivers is that they provide a consistent interface across a WIDE range of sound cards. In other words, if you have card A and I have card B, you and I can get identical recording results. In the beginning I thought that the sound drivers for all the different sound cards in the kernel would allow /dev/dsp recording access while playing. DUH!! Naive, naive. Dfox enlightened me on the falsity of this premise when he emailed saying that sox wasn't getting squat from /dev/dsp on his system. Since then I've been refining the recording procedure and I've been in touch with the developers of the Open Sound System drivers(who are quite cooperative and friendly, btw). As a result of our mutual cooperation, some problems were worked out of the Open Sound System drivers, and they now include by default the ability to open up "virtual mixers", which give you devices like /dev/dsp9, /dev/dsp10, etc. Technically this is called "loopback" audio recording. From those devices you can record, while the physical /dev/dsp (the one PHYSICAL device) remains untouched so that it can be virtualized; both to play devices (in my case, /dev/dsp0 -/dev/dsp8). I have been attempting to get things arranged here to the point where I can make a formal presentation of the 4front OSS drivers, but you've pressed the issue. ;) It does cost some money (not alot) to get an OSS license. There are so many benefits to using this software package that I consider it well worth the money. It is an indespensible suite of software for your soundcard; a must have IMO. Anyway, if you are one of the unlucky ones (like Dfox) who is unable to get Sox to record from your /dev/dsp (while listening to the BBC), then 4front Technologes OSS is for you. For more information, go here: http://www.opensound.com/ For info on what it costs, go here: http://www.opensound.com/order.html#pricing One more thing. If you try some of the conventional sound recording utils, you will find them very restrictive in *what* file format they will record to. You try recording all your stuff in .wav format for an hour or more, and you will quickly see the value of Sox as a recording utility. Sox was not originally a sound recorder; it was a file format conversion utility. (actually it still is) It was originally designed to convert between sound file formats without any loss of quality. The present day author has done a fantastic job on this and is also very responsive to the user population. We are very lucky to have Chris Bagwell and the software package he maintains. The power of sox is nothing less than mind blowing. Check it out at http://www.cnpbagwell.com/sox.html --LX __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
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