How to record sounds directly from my soundcard?

Question

I want to record a sound that comes from a program in my computer, directly from my soundcard, not using crappy microphone to record it!

I was able to do this easily on WinXP by choosing "what u hear" (yes, it really had "u" in it!) device from the recording options.

But on Win7 there is no such option anywhere, and generally i dont understand the Win7 sound options at all.

NOTE: This must be Windows 7 sound settings specific, i want to fool the computer to think that my computer audio is the microphone audio, so if i "speak" on skype, they would hear any song i play on my computer. Do not suggest skype specific programs either, i want this thing to work in EVERY program on my computer, just like it did on WinXP.

EDIT finally found the working driver: SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0065A.exe

Answer 1

In my Windows 7, there is a "Stereo Mix" in recording devices. Just choose that as default recording device and/or "default communicating device"(I don't know the exact name; it's in the context menu). Then any program which uses this device will catch what you can hear through the speakers.

In Windows XP it should be the same name. However, it depends on your sound driver, as I haven't see any devices named "what u hear"... Just try to play a music and watch the levels of input of all available recording devices.

Sorry the text above is not well organized... but hope it can help you.

EDIT:

I just saw your last comment... Does Creative have a new driver for your SB Live! 24bit? It seems that your current driver don't have this function.

Answer 2

Try this: go into your audio properties, choose the recording tab, then right-click in the white space within the box which show recording devices. From the context menu which appears, select show disabled devices hopefully, stereo mix will appear.

Answer 3

it is said that while you are playing sound on your computer, you could try to use a streaming audio recorder to record what you hear on Windows systems. Why not try this way? You might get expected results.

Answer 4

The devices available for recording depend entirely on the soundcard and its drivers. The list of devices and their names varies enormously. On an older XP PC I could record from "wave-out mix" but on a later PC there was no device available.

On one PC, I had to upgrade from Roxio EMC 10 to Roxio 2011 to gain the ability to record music playing on a media player. This added "Speaker" and "line-out" devices to the list of available inputs for recording.

An easy hack is to connect your line-out to line-in and make sure to mute line-in on the speaker control to avoid a feedback loop. I have done this via an external (old-school) audio-mixer but in principle, you can just do it with a stereo cable with 3.5mm plugs. Record from line-in.

Answer 5

1. Go to Control Panel → Hardware and Sounds → "Manage audio devices"
2. Go to the Recording tab and choose "Stereo mix"