Full Guide to Record Audio with VLC Media Player

Part 1. How to Record Audio Using VLC Media Player

If you are a newbie to record audio with VLC Media Player, it may be a little complicated to get started. Don't worry, we are going to learn how to use it step by step on Windows and Mac respectively.

• On Windows

  1. Install and launch the VLC Media Player, click the "View" tab in the top menu bar of the main interface.
  2. Tap on "Advanced Controls" in the drop-down menu, which will set a new row of controls, prominently featuring a record button positioned above the play button.

  

  3. Click the "Media" tab in the top menu bar, then "Open Capture Device" in the drop-down menu.

  

  4. In the pop-up window, choose the Capture mode you like. To capture audio from your computer's system, choose "Desktop". Alternatively, if you wish to record audio from a microphone, select "DirectShow" as the source. Then click "None" in Video device name and choose an audio source in Audio device name.
  5. Click the pointing down triangle icon next to the "Play" button and select the "Convert" bar to make further settings.

  

  6. Select an audio format as you like by clicking the "Profile" bar.
  7. Tap on "Browser" beside the "File destination" to choose a folder to save your recordings.
  8. Once all the settings are done, click "Start" at the lower-right corner to begin recording.

  

  9. When you want to finish the recording, press the red button at the lower-left corner to stop it, and click the square button at the bottom control bar to save the audio file in your computer.

  

• On Mac

  1. Download and open VLC Media Player, click "File", then "Open Capture Device".

  

  2. Click "Capture" in the pop-up window, and select "Input Devices". Toggle the Audio and select an audio source, then click on "Open".

  

  3. After returning to the main interface, click on "Playback" in the top menu bar, then click the "Record" to start recording.

  

  4. Tap on the square stop button at the lower-left corner to finish recording.
  5. Navigate to the "Finder", locate the music folder on the left side column and you can find your recordings.

  

Part 2. Recommended Alternatives to Record Audio Using VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is exactly a convenient tool for whose wants to record audio anywhere at any time. However, when it comes to the edition to the recorded audio if you want to delete unnecessary parts of the recordings, VLC Media Player always fails. Here we have two alternatives: ViWizard Audio Capture and Audacity. In this part, the recording steps of these two tools will be introduced in detail.

ViWizard Audio Capture

As a powerful ally for music aficionados, ViWizard Audio Capture offers a robust set of tools that empower users to deeply customize their music library. It allows it uses to capture sounds from various sources without loss of sound quality. With a strong technical support, it makes smoother and quicker multi-track audio recording possible.

Key Features of ViWizard Audio Capture

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• Record any sound like streaming music and live radio easily
• Support multitrack recording and save them to MP3 and more
• Quickly recognize ID3 tags and allow to edit ID3 tags manually
• Split, merge, and edit audio recordings flexibly in the way you like

Step 1Launch ViWizard Audio Capture and Choose the Target Program

Install and start ViWizard Audio Capture, then select a browser or program in which you are going to play and record audio.

Step 2Personalize Output Settings

Click the "Format" bar at the lower-left corner to set the output audio format to your preference, such as WAV and MP3. Here you can also customize the sample rate and bit rate.

Step 3Play and Record the Target Audio

Press the "Start" button, and ViWizard will open the program you have choose in the first step. Then search for and play the audio you want to record, ViWizard will automatically detect and capture the sound.

Step 4Make Edition to the Captured Audio

Once you finish the recording, pause the playing and click the "Stop" within ViWizard. The you are free to make any edition to the captured sound, like trimming and merging.

Step 5Save the Edited Audio

Finally, you can download your audio to your computer by click the "Save" button. All the captured audio can be found by tapping on the "History" bar at the left column.

Audacity

Audacity, a freely accessible open-source digital audio editor and recorder, boasts versatility in capturing audio from diverse sources, including the computer's internal speaker. It supports various recording formats, like MP3, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, and more. Below is a full guide outlining the steps to record audio with Audacity.

Step 1Start Audacity and Configure Audio Host

1. Launch Audacity and navigate to the toolbar, where you should click on "Edit."
2. In the drop-down list, select "Preferences."



3. Within the Preferences window, locate and click on "Audio Settings" in the left-hand navigation pane.
4. Select an option from the "Host" dropdown menu, such as "Windows WASAPI."

Step 2Select Recording and Playback Devices

1. Still in the interface of "Audio Settings", Under "Playback" section, choose the device used to listen to the audio, such as Speaker and Headphone.
2. Under "Recording" section, select the loopback input option to capture the audio output from the playback device.
3. Tap on "OK" to save the settings.

Step 3Begin Recording Audio

1. Click on the red "Record" button in the toolbar to start recording.
2. Ensure that the application in which you are going to record audio is open.
3. Once the recording is done, stop the audio playback in the application. Don't forget to click the "Stop" button in Audacity as well.

Step 4Export and Save the Recording

1. After finishing the recording, you are free to make edition to it, such as trimming.



2. Click on "File" in the top toolbar and then "Export" > "Export Audio…" to open the Export Audio window.



3. Select the audio format as you like and choose the location you are going to save the audio file.
4. Click "Save" to export the recording.

Once you conduct the recording within the Audacity, you will find Audacity is much more professional and full-featured in editing the recordings. However, for a beginner, it can be challenging and complicated to perform recording with a big control panel and abundant plugins. Also, sluggish response or lag may occasionally happen when working on multi-track audio projects.

Part 3. A Comparison Among the Three Ways

Up to now, we have learned three ways to record audio. To help you make a better and quicker decision, let's make a concise comparison among these three approaches.

Part 4. FAQs about Recording Audio with VLC

Conclusion

This post introduces the usage of the VLC Media Player to record audio. With this convenient application, you are able to download BBC news or record audio from various platform, like Instagram. Since its main users are audio engineers, music producers, podcasters and voice actors, home users or students may find it difficult to fully work out the features of VLC. In that case, ViWizard comes to your rescue to make audio recording faster and more available with outstanding features.