recording radio programs
A few weeks ago I commented on Griffin Technology's RadioShark, an AM/FM radio USB-connected to and controlled by your computer, which can record broadcasts to your hard disk. And I mentioned that I was also thinking about Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack, software to record any audio source processed by your Mac. Well, I shelled out the $32 for Audio Hijack Pro, and I think I'm having a good time with it.
Do you listen to Morning Edition weekdays? Those little humor bits on the half-hours? Whatever happens right before them tends to put me back to sleep, and I miss them over and over. I can record them now. And the other little bits that are interesting/informative, but you may not happen to always be listening to the program they're tucked into -- Stardate, Earth & Sky, the Sunday Puzzle.
I'm also recording some real programs --
Harmonia (medieval/Renaissance - WDAV, NC)
Millenium of Music (medieval/Renaissance - KSUI, Iowa) [dropped by WETA - locally produced!]
Sunday Baroque (WDAV, NC) [dropped by WETA]
Bravo Baroque (KAMU, Texas)
Pipedreams (pipe organs - WDAV, NC)
Thistle & Shamrock (Celtic - WAMU, DC)
Celtic Connections (KUNI, Iowa)
Music from the Hearts of Space (trance/relax - WXPR, Wisc) [dropped by WETA]
Kojo Nnamdi's Tech Tuesdays (WAMU, DC)
General Protection Fault (KUAC, Alaska -- eager to hear how this compares with WAMU's Computer Guys)
Some these programs I'd never heard of before. Some I used to listen to when I lived other places. Now you can get it all. (I heard some local news from Fairbanks earlier this evening.) Harmonia I'd heard of before because a friend started a local medieval/Renaissance-performance newsletter that happened to have the same title. I was posting issues to Usenet for her, and before long we heard back from the folks in Indiana (where they have an outstanding early-music academic program, and the Harmonia radio program). Some of these programs have archive sites. Some don't. (Hearts of Space has a free archive and a pay archive. I've never gotten through on the free one.)
As you can see, I'm "all over the map." It's mostly a matter of (1) avoiding time conflicts, (2) finding a source format I like, and (3) looking for the best sound quality (bit rate). Some radio stations webcast in Windows Media format only (which I won't touch), some are RealAudio, some streaming MP3; some have 2 or all 3, some offer format(s) in multiple bit rates. (Dial-up folks need the slower rates.) I think I should be able to record multiple programs at once, but that's probably going to push multitasking to the limit and cause dropouts -- I do want to be using the computer while many of these are broadcasting.
I should have paid more attention to the goings-on at WETA, one of our local NPR stations -- they switched to a new program schedule the day after I set up Audio Hijack to record some of their programs. They used to be my Classical station, but now the've dropped ALL of their music content except for The (previously Texaco) Metropolitan Opera, Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and Mary Cliff's Saturday-night folk-music program. But I can find the programs WETA dropped on other NPR radio stations that webcast. If I'd been going after them with the RadioShark, I'd be completely out of luck -- Millennium of Music and Music from the Hearts of Space, the two programs that kept me up too late Sunday nights, are no longer on my local airwaves.
Audio Hijack is nice in that it is recording a specific audio source, not all the sounds that happen to be going on on the computer. If my editor beeps in another window, or if I'm surfing and a new page starts playing a MIDI file (yes, I can do other things while it records), that isn't recorded. I seem to be able to "hijack" any application as a sound source -- iTunes, QuickTime, RealPlayer, the DVD player, etc. I can specify what kind of encoding and quality/bit rate I want for the output files. (Hijack's Pro version has more choices here.) Different stations webcast at all kinds of different rates, so the next challenge is matching my recordings to the quality of the feed. (Some stations actually change their quality as they change their programs, so I can't just "tune in" the stations beforehand to set this up.)
There's a lot out there. John Rabold's Allegro site is a tremendous resource for finding web feeds for specific NPR programs. (And it's all converted to your local time zone. Reading distant stations' schedule pages can get confusing.)
One downside (of either product) is that I have to leave my iBook on and open a lot more of the time. After I upgrade to the current OS, applications will be able to wake the machine from sleep on schedule. But Apple's current laptops won't wake from sleep if the lid is closed. (That surface area through the keyboard and where your wrists rest is important for heat dissipation.)
Another advantage of the all-software Audio Hijack is that there isn't another cable hanging out of the machine with another object to tote. That really matters with a laptop. I still wander the house with my iBook while it's recording. I do have to avoid the WiFi dead spots if I don't want the recording to drop, but our house and yard have station-specific FM dead spots too, so the RadioShark doesn't get a pass on that. Web radio is dependent on the web. The RadioShark scores on independence there, but the web gives me hundreds more stations to choose from (more content choices, and more time choices for the duplicate content) -- and my local stations dropped some of the programs I care about most.
Do you listen to Morning Edition weekdays? Those little humor bits on the half-hours? Whatever happens right before them tends to put me back to sleep, and I miss them over and over. I can record them now. And the other little bits that are interesting/informative, but you may not happen to always be listening to the program they're tucked into -- Stardate, Earth & Sky, the Sunday Puzzle.
I'm also recording some real programs --
Harmonia (medieval/Renaissance - WDAV, NC)
Millenium of Music (medieval/Renaissance - KSUI, Iowa) [dropped by WETA - locally produced!]
Sunday Baroque (WDAV, NC) [dropped by WETA]
Bravo Baroque (KAMU, Texas)
Pipedreams (pipe organs - WDAV, NC)
Thistle & Shamrock (Celtic - WAMU, DC)
Celtic Connections (KUNI, Iowa)
Music from the Hearts of Space (trance/relax - WXPR, Wisc) [dropped by WETA]
Kojo Nnamdi's Tech Tuesdays (WAMU, DC)
General Protection Fault (KUAC, Alaska -- eager to hear how this compares with WAMU's Computer Guys)
Some these programs I'd never heard of before. Some I used to listen to when I lived other places. Now you can get it all. (I heard some local news from Fairbanks earlier this evening.) Harmonia I'd heard of before because a friend started a local medieval/Renaissance-performance newsletter that happened to have the same title. I was posting issues to Usenet for her, and before long we heard back from the folks in Indiana (where they have an outstanding early-music academic program, and the Harmonia radio program). Some of these programs have archive sites. Some don't. (Hearts of Space has a free archive and a pay archive. I've never gotten through on the free one.)
As you can see, I'm "all over the map." It's mostly a matter of (1) avoiding time conflicts, (2) finding a source format I like, and (3) looking for the best sound quality (bit rate). Some radio stations webcast in Windows Media format only (which I won't touch), some are RealAudio, some streaming MP3; some have 2 or all 3, some offer format(s) in multiple bit rates. (Dial-up folks need the slower rates.) I think I should be able to record multiple programs at once, but that's probably going to push multitasking to the limit and cause dropouts -- I do want to be using the computer while many of these are broadcasting.
I should have paid more attention to the goings-on at WETA, one of our local NPR stations -- they switched to a new program schedule the day after I set up Audio Hijack to record some of their programs. They used to be my Classical station, but now the've dropped ALL of their music content except for The (previously Texaco) Metropolitan Opera, Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and Mary Cliff's Saturday-night folk-music program. But I can find the programs WETA dropped on other NPR radio stations that webcast. If I'd been going after them with the RadioShark, I'd be completely out of luck -- Millennium of Music and Music from the Hearts of Space, the two programs that kept me up too late Sunday nights, are no longer on my local airwaves.
Audio Hijack is nice in that it is recording a specific audio source, not all the sounds that happen to be going on on the computer. If my editor beeps in another window, or if I'm surfing and a new page starts playing a MIDI file (yes, I can do other things while it records), that isn't recorded. I seem to be able to "hijack" any application as a sound source -- iTunes, QuickTime, RealPlayer, the DVD player, etc. I can specify what kind of encoding and quality/bit rate I want for the output files. (Hijack's Pro version has more choices here.) Different stations webcast at all kinds of different rates, so the next challenge is matching my recordings to the quality of the feed. (Some stations actually change their quality as they change their programs, so I can't just "tune in" the stations beforehand to set this up.)
There's a lot out there. John Rabold's Allegro site is a tremendous resource for finding web feeds for specific NPR programs. (And it's all converted to your local time zone. Reading distant stations' schedule pages can get confusing.)
One downside (of either product) is that I have to leave my iBook on and open a lot more of the time. After I upgrade to the current OS, applications will be able to wake the machine from sleep on schedule. But Apple's current laptops won't wake from sleep if the lid is closed. (That surface area through the keyboard and where your wrists rest is important for heat dissipation.)
Another advantage of the all-software Audio Hijack is that there isn't another cable hanging out of the machine with another object to tote. That really matters with a laptop. I still wander the house with my iBook while it's recording. I do have to avoid the WiFi dead spots if I don't want the recording to drop, but our house and yard have station-specific FM dead spots too, so the RadioShark doesn't get a pass on that. Web radio is dependent on the web. The RadioShark scores on independence there, but the web gives me hundreds more stations to choose from (more content choices, and more time choices for the duplicate content) -- and my local stations dropped some of the programs I care about most.