tek, thinks & la strada ☯ॐ☢ csmr@kapsi

Record sound output to file while playing (debian)

Something playin in a radio stream or a browser - and want to save it to a file, as you hear the mix on the monitors? Let us try to achiev that

Pulseaudio

This answer is for ubuntu, but the commands seem to work on debian 8: http://askubuntu.com/a/724964.

  • Find the wanted output (monitor): $ pacmd list-sinks | grep -A1 "index"
  • Set value in a variable (here hdmi): $ AU_DEFAULT_OUTPUT="alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.hdmi-stereo-extra1"
  • It is currently index number 1: $ AU_INDEX=1
  • Create a combined sink (streams?) $ pactl load-module module-combine-sink sink_name=record-n-play slaves=$AU_DEFAULT_OUTPUT sink_properties=device.description="Record-and-Play"
  • Open PulseAudio mixer and re-check "Playback" $ pavucontrol
  • Re-check the index-number for the wanted output monitor, re-set AU_INDEX if it has changed. (the first step)
  • $ pactl move-sink-input $AU_INDEX record-n-play
  • Finally record stream as best quality VariableBitrate mp3 (make sure lame is installed): $ parec --format=s16le -d record-n-play.monitor | lame -r --quiet -q 1 --lowpass 16 -V 0 - "stream-temp.mp3"
  • Re-check the mixer "Recording" -tab, make sure that theres sound level moving = sound going to the recorder (if not toggle the source pulldown)

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