Record YouTube with Audacity on Ubuntu 11.10

Sometimes I prefer to hear the live version of the music (which I thought better than the recording version) that available on YouTube. I have experienced recording from YouTube with Audacity, but using Ubuntu 7, very-very long time ago. When I tried to record again, I found some diffculties that no sound recorded to the Audacity.

The page from Audacity Team said that I need to turn my ‘Input Device’ to ‘Stereo Mix’, but there is no ‘Stereo Mix’ option in my Audacity, it’s on Windows. My list of ‘Input Device’ is:

• HDA Intel PCH: ALC892 Analog (hw0,0)
• default: Rear Mic:0
• default: Front Mic:0
• default: Line:0
• default: Rear Mic:1
• default: Front Mic:1
• default: Line:1

There is nothing on the list that can record from the stream, all option is silent.

I followed the suggestion from Linuxer to configure the ALSA Mixer using command

$ alsamixer

Then I need to activate the capture device, done. After I tried to record again but the results are:

• HDA Intel PCH: ALC892 Analog (hw0,0)
  • Nothing Happened
• default: Rear Mic:0
  • Nothing Happened
• default: Front Mic:0
  • Noise from my Mic but the stream recorded a bit in the background
• default: Line:0
  • Nothing Happened

I was getting a little mad. The thread from Ubuntu Forum suggested me to use Ardour. I went to Ubuntu Software Center and installed Ardour, but I want to give one more shot to Audacity. From the Stream Recorder Forum it was suggested to install PulseAudio Volume Control, I installed the volume control and got the ‘Input Device’ option in Audacity had more options:

• HDA Intel PCH: ALC892 Analog (hw0,0)
• pulse: Rear Mic:0
• pulse: Front Mic:0
• pulse: Line:0
• pulse: Rear Mic:1
• pulse: Front Mic:1
• pulse: Line:1
• default: Rear Mic:0
• default: Front Mic:0
• default: Line:0
• default: Rear Mic:1
• default: Front Mic:1
• default: Line:1

Then I followed the instructions to change the ‘Output Device’ and ‘Input Device’ option in Audacity to ‘Pulse’, let the PulseAudio Volume Control open when recording the stream with Audacity. Still, nothing changed. Then I found the page from Audacity Team stated that I need to configure the PulseAudio Volume Control. There are some configurations that I did:

1. Go to ‘Input Devices’ Tab, in the ‘Internal Audio Analog Stereo’ option, look for ‘Port’ tab
2. There are options for ‘Front Microphone’, ‘Rear Microphone’, and ‘Line In’. set all of those volume to silence, I can let it go, but just for precautions if the microphones’ noise disturb the recording



3. Scroll down and there is ‘Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo’, to make sure the stream can be recorded, play the stream, watch the bar below the volume adjustment, if moves then the recording process can be done



4. Go to ‘Recording’ Tab, there is notification that no plug-in doing the recording, don’t worry
5. Play the stream, push the record button on the Audacity, then back to the PulseAudio Volume Control, on the ‘Recording’ tab, it can be seen that now there’s an option for Audacity recording
6. At the ‘ALSA plug-in [audacity]: ALSA Capture from‘ option, change the ‘Internal Audio Analog Stereo’ to ‘Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo’



7. The Audacity could record the stream by now

Happy recording!

–
Anton Hermansyah

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Tags: Linux, Audacity, PulseAudio, Recording, YouTube, Ubuntu