How to Rip/Copy Music (from Music Videos, MP3s WMAs, OGGs etc) for Free

Contributor Icon Contributed by risherz Date Icon December 4, 2005  
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows

Using basic software you can copy any kind of music! By default you will have a application called Sound Recorder on your computer. Many people don’t know the capabilities of this application.

Using this application you can RECORD ANYTHING that you can hear from your speakers. ANYTHING! Sounds, music you name it.

So here’s a tip: If you don’t want to download songs or you can only listen to songs/music videos on your computer you can record it.


This is how you do it.

1. Find the Volume icon on your system tray (chances are its hidden)
2. Double click on it
3. Go to options
4. Click on Properties
5. Under “Adjust Volume for” Select Recording
7. Check “Wave Out Mix”
8. Click on OK
9. Select the check box beside “Select”
10. Make sure the volume is set to the lowest setting by moving the slider down, or else what you record might be

Now the Sound Recorder is configured to get its input from the source that feeds the speakers.

Then open Sound Recorder

1. Click on Start
2. All Programs
3. Accessories
4. Entertainment
5. All programs
6. Sound Recorder

Note: you might want to record a empty file before continuing any further, because sound recorder will stop recording after 60 seconds. So what you do is press record and keep pressing record until the “Length” of the blank file is something more than the length of your songs that you are going to record (you can delete the rest afterwards). Then save it and open the same file when you want to record something…

The sound recorder box will pop-up

1. Open up the empty file
2. Open the song that you want to record
3. Click on Play (for playing the song that you want to record)
4. Quickly hit Alt+tab to switch to sound recorder.
5. Hit the round brown button to record.

Now you can listen to the music while Sound Recorder records it for you! Just press stop (square button) to stop recording. Then just go to File > Save as and save your freshly recorded song.

Your song will record in .wav format so you might want to get a mp3 encoder and convert that into mp3 if you are putting it into your mp3 player (just to save some space so you can get more songs in there)

Now you can enjoy the songs that YOU created!

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  • Anonymous
    To make Sound Recorder always record for longer than 60 secs...

    Create a long wave file as above

    Save it somewhere on your computer -
    e.g. Call it 10min.wav and make it C:10min.wav

    Right-click the Sound Recorder icon and select 'Properties'

    Add a space after the 'Target' location followed by the file's location
    e.g. Change:
    %SystemRoot%System32sndrec32.exe to
    %SystemRoot%System32sndrec32.exe C:10min.wav
  • risherz
    <ul id="quote">To make Sound Recorder always record for longer than 60 secs...

    Create a long wave file as above

    Save it somewhere on your computer -
    e.g. Call it 10min.wav and make it C:10min.wav

    Right-click the Sound Recorder icon and select 'Properties'

    Add a space after the 'Target' location followed by the file's location
    e.g. Change:
    %SystemRoot%System32sndrec32.exe to
    %SystemRoot%System32sndrec32.exe C:10min.wav</ul>

    Oh, I never thought of that... that's an excellent tip! Thank you for sharing it! :D

    Risherz
  • Anonymous
    hey how do i make a wave file never really knew how
  • risherz
    Okay to make a wave file refer to http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips1117.html...

    To make it easier for you here's how to do it:

    1. Click on Start
    2. All Programs
    3. Accessories
    4. Entertainment
    5. All programs
    6. Sound Recorder
    7. Now click on the button with the brown circle
    8. Sound recorder will record stuff till 60 seconds then stop recording, then press the record button again
    9. Keep pressing the record button untill the file is as long as you want it to be
    10. File > Save As...



    Now you have a .wav file (an empty one)... for all your recording needs :wink:

    Hope this helps
    Я
  • risherz
    If you are like me and time is not a luxury you can afford then why waste your time creating a long wave file, right?

    That's why I just uploaded a 10 minute wav file. You can get it here (sorry had to use rapidshare so that I won't kill the tech-recipes server by using up too much bandwidth). It's zipped because the original file is just too big...

    Hope this helps the people out who don't want to waste their time creating a long wave file ;)

    Я

    [note: I don't know what rapidshare does with uploaded files so, please make sure that you check the file for viruses etc before you start using it...]
  • Anonymous
    wow this is awesome--seems too simple. i'd like to try it, but i have one problem--my audio controls don't have a wave out mix. can't even select it in properties. i have xp sp2--is it under a diff. name? would it be wave or sw synth? stereo mixer? i didn't think so, but i have no clue.

    any help?
  • Anonymous
    never mind! figured it out--it's stereo mixer, for any other noob who comes across this problem. :oops:
  • risherz
    <ul id="quote"><h6>eruanneth wrote:</h6>never mind! figured it out--it's stereo mixer, for any other noob who comes across this problem. :oops:</ul>
    Yeah it really depends on the computer that you are using, but a lot of average computer seem to have Wave Out mix (which is like the basic stuff) so I decided to write that in the recipe. Thanks for letting me know, I was going to edit it however, I keep forgetting :(.

    Have fun getting all the songs you want :D
    Я
  • Anonymous
    hi...
    sorry im really really ignorant when it comes to tech stuff...but I think I recorded the song I wanted from a webpage using your steps...when I got to play it back on windows media, theres no sound?? I've converted .wav to mp so now what??
    help??
  • steven johnson
    I need some music on my mp3 player
  • klog
    I am sorry....where do i find the "volume"? Can you pls. tell me how? In detail, if possible, since I am new to PCs. Thanx much!!
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