Saving RealAudio as mp3?

March 13, 2004 12:27 PM

Does anybody know a fairly easy and preferably free way to convert (like the one's here) into mp3's that I could save to my hard drive?
posted by jonmc to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

I use Total Recorder for things like this, it's not free but it's cheap and you'll get a lot of use out of it. Goggle "capture"+"sound card" and you'll find others.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:36 PM on March 13, 2004

Audacity is an easy-to-use and free program. Just set your sound properties output to the sound card output, click record, save as WAV, and import using your favorite MP3 converter (iTunes is quick'n'dirty and suits my needs).
posted by gramcracker at 1:47 PM on March 13, 2004

You'll find a lot of useful utilities mentioned here.
posted by Danelope at 2:04 PM on March 13, 2004

Hmmm. Well, I guess I'll never hear it unless there's some way to deal with .ram files without Real-whatever. I had Realplayer pre-loaded on this fairly new PC but had never used it. Tried it for the first time to check out jon's link and encountered the nastiest, smarmiest, creepiest EULA I've ever seen before it would let me continue. Uninstall, uninstall.
posted by jfuller at 3:29 PM on March 13, 2004

jfuller
I read recently (probably on mefi, but I can't remember) about a free non-real networks realplayer, but my searches are just turning up the helix project, which doesn't seem to be what I'm thinking of. I'm too lazy to look harder, but omething is out there.
posted by Sinner at 4:04 PM on March 13, 2004

also, you could grab it while it's playing with audiohijack or whatever the pc version of that is.
posted by amberglow at 4:12 PM on March 13, 2004

Real Alternative
posted by TimeFactor at 4:23 PM on March 13, 2004

You can use Streamdown to, you know, stream it down, and then use another prog to change the format.
posted by shoos at 10:28 PM on March 13, 2004