Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Linux

Most modern Linux desktop systems use PulseAudio sound system, which provide virtual
"Monitor" inputs for each output device. The "Monitor" devices provide a means to record the
audio that is playing out of that device. An alternative sound system available to Linux is JACK,
which provides a high performance, low latency sound system for professional use. Jack Audio
System can be difficult to set up, so is not generally recommended for beginners - If you wish to
use it, refer your distribution's documentation for details of how to correctly install Jack.

Copyright or website restrictions may prevent you recording or distributing

PulseAudio

PulseAudio is a sound server providing professional audio features such as mixing and input/
output routing. It is the default audio device on many Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Linux
Mint and many Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions. PulseAudio operates as a proxy between
sound applications and the audio hardware (usually via ALSA). PulseAudio Volume Control
provides a "Monitor" device which listens for the audio output of other applications such as Firefox
or Rhythmbox. Setting PulseAudio Volume Control to capture from the Monitor device lets
Audacity record computer playback when its input device is set to pulse.

If not already installed, add PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) to your system. This is
usually available in the distribution's repository.

If not already visible, reveal the Audio Setup Toolbar with and ensure Audio Setup Toolbar is
checked "on".

Ensure that PulseAudio is running. In Audacity's Audio Setup Toolbar, set the Host to ALSA and
the recording device to pulse.
On systems where PulseAudio is the default sound system the recording device may be set to
default.

Audacity's playback device may be set to pulse or to any available audio interface in Audio Setup
Toolbar.

Ensure that "Enable audible input monitoring" is not enabled in the Transport Menu then left-click
on the Recording Meter to turn monitoring on.

Open PulseAudio Volume Control and choose the "Recording" tab.

In the "Capture from" dropdown, select the "Monitor" option of the playback device used by the
application you want to record from, as shown below:
Launch the application that you wish to record and begin playback.

In the "Recording" tab of PulseAudio Volume Control, drag the volume sliders so that the
recording level in Audacity's Recording Meter is to left of 0 dB (-6 dB is a good level to aim for).
The playback level of the application being recorded will also affect the level of the recording. Use
the "Playback" tab in PulseAudio Volume Control or the volume control in the application to adjust
the output level.

If you want to record without hearing the audio, you can turn down the Audacity playback slider or
turn down the sliders on the Output Devices tab of PulseAudio Volume Control. Do not use the
Mute button in PulseAudio Volume Control, because this will cause Audacity to record silence. You
can also set the port on the Output Devices tab of PulseAudio volume control to the audio output
such as "headphones" but not connect any headphones or speakers to the port.

When the recording level has been correctly adjusted, press the Record button in Audacity .

JACK

Jack Audio System is commonly used in Linux distributions that specialise in media creation such
as Ubuntu Studio and Studio 64.

To use Audacity with Jack it is useful or in some cases essential to have a few additional packages
installed. This documentation assumes that you have Jack Audio System working on your
machine. For help with setting up Jack, please consult the documentation for your Linux
distribution.

Recording sounds playing from other applications is rather easy with Jack. Jack may be started
using QjackCtl or from the command-line. If Audacity is launched after Jack is started then "Jack
Audio Connection Kit" will be an available host option in the Audio Setup Toolbar. If Jack is
started after Audacity has been launched then it will be necessary to for new audio devices before
jack is available to Audacity.
Any Jack-compatible applications that are running before Audacity is launched will have their
ports available in Audio Setup Toolbar. To make an application available to Audacity that is
launched after Audacity it is necessary to use Rescan Audio Devices in the Transport Menu. After
rescanning audio devices, input and output ports from other applications will be available in the
Recording and Playback boxes in Audio Setup Toolbar.

In this image the output of Hydrogen drum machine is being selected as the recording source. This
will enable Audacity to record directly from the audio output from Hydrogen. If "System" is
selected as the recording source then Audacity will record from the physical audio interface input.

Applications that do not directly support Jack may also be used with Jack on a system that uses
PulseAudio (such as Ubuntu and Debian based distributions) by installing "pulseaudio-module-
jack". This provides the modules "Jack Source" and "Jack Sink" that allow PulseAudio to use Jack.
For example, to record sounds playing through Firefox, PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol)
can be used to direct the output from Firefox to Jack Sink. The recording input for Audacity can
then be set to record from "PulseAudio Jack Sink" and the sound will be recorded.

Other Methods

Alternative programs for recording computer playback

An alternative to recording streaming audio from the Internet is to download the data directly to
disk, either by using command-line tools such as streamripper or mplayer, or with a browser
plugin (many available for Firefox), or writing the stream to disk from a media player such as VLC
or xmms, or using a graphical down-loader such as streamtuner.

Use a loopback cable

This is a simple and effective method of recording what is playing on the computer. It has the
disadvantage that the audio signal is converted from digital to analog, then from analog to digital,
instead of staying in the digital domain. This may result in some slight increase in noise and
distortion.

Plug your line-out or headphones-out to the line-in using a cable with a stereo mini-plug at each
end, then record from line-in. To hear the sound while recording, use a single to double stereo
connector to give you a jack for the speakers or headphones.

If you have only mic-in and no line-in is selectable through alsamixer, you can build an attenuator
to reduce the line level output to a level suitable for mic-in. But probably this will only provide
mono recording, because mic-in is mono in most cases. As well, the quality may be questionable.

Links

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