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Is it possible to record what is sent to the speaker of a laptop while muting the speaker?

Super User Asked on November 24, 2021

Is it possible to record what is sent to the speaker of a laptop while muting the speaker?

I’ll explain what I mean

I’m aware that if wanting to record what is coming from a computer, an amateurish way is one can play sound that comes through the speakers, and one can record from the computer’s mic and record the sound that the computer hears outside of itself. So the sound comes out of the computer and then in for record. This method means that a)you have to listen to it and b)any other noise in the room is picked up. I won’t be using that way.

An alternative way, the regular way, for wanting to record sound that you play from the computer, and one that has an advantage of not picking up other room noise. In Windows XP this was done by going to volume control..and bring up properties related to recording and set input from stereo as opposed to mic. In Windows 7 there is an option under ctrl panel..sound..recording you can choose stereo as default as opposed to mic. And then it records whatever is sent out of the speakers.

The problem with that way, is that still, you have to listen to it. If I mute the volume control, then it mutes what is being recorded and nothing gets recorded.

If I used an external speaker then maybe it would work, maybe turning the volume control down on an external speaker would allow me to record what is sent out the speaker without having to listen to it. But I don’t have an external speaker to test that. And i’m wondering if it’s possible to do that without an external speaker?

3 Answers

There is a lot of solutions: from win 7 there is a new technology called Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI) which permit this.

loopback capture

here is small tool that does not need to install anything, it uses the same technology (WASAPI).

Sample – WASAPI loopback capture (record what you hear)

virtual audio device link

Download and setup this

This will add a new audio device; this device is what you have to use from now with your preferred capturing program, for example if you use ffmpeg then use it like that:

ffmpeg -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -acodec libmp3lame -ab 320k -f mp3 myaudio.mp3

If you will use other software to capture the audio then just go to its setting and search for an option to change the capturing device, then select "virtual-audio-capturer", now any program can capture the audio while the voice is muted.

this is the prefered way to do this.

Answered by Badr Elmers on November 24, 2021

Very cheap solution might be to plug headphones into the computer. This will shut off the speakers. Don't put the headphones on your head; then you will hear only a tiny murmer, which can be ignored, from the headphones.

Sometimes stupid, easy, improper solutions are the best.

-- Gab Far

Answered by user1001678 on November 24, 2021

This may belong as an answer in the software segment of StackExchange, as the best possible solution might be a program known as Total Recorder.

I started my program, then opened a YouTube video and started the playback. The next step was to mute the audio in the usual manner. Returning to Total Recorder, I selected Record and was rewarded with a pair of bar graphs indicating that the sound was being processed.

After a few moments of that, I stopped the recording and the playback, unmuted the speaker and played the segment with zero complications.

The professional version is under US$36, while the standard is about half that.

Answered by fred_dot_u on November 24, 2021

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