Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with recording and windows

Time-traveling video recording software?

Doofus Magoo — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:30:53 -0800

Is there any software that will take the input of a USB webcam, and (at a given signal like a mouse-click) save the previous 30 seconds/45 seconds/one minutes/two minutes of video/audio to the hard drive? Windows is required, F/OSS is preferred. Basically I won't know until after (some event) occurs that it should have been recorded, so I need to be able to say after the fact "Yes, what just happened, save that!"

Why are my file sizes so different?

DiscourseMarker — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:58:46 -0800

I'm having a problem with screen recording software on Windows XP. I have two identical computers, both of which have been recently re-formatted and had fresh installs of Windows XP. I am using them to record screen video of both sides of IM conversations. I am using the open source program CamStudio to record the screen activity. Both computers have identical settings in CamStudio.

Here's the problem: Computer A will produce an .avi file of about 500MB for an approximately 30-minute video; the *same* 30 minute conversation on Computer B is producing .avi files of 1.5-1.6GB!

Why is the second computer producing such large file sizes? I'm concerned in part because CamStudio documentation can only handle file sizes up to 2GB, and I'm worried about corrupted files (this is part of a research project). I'm concerned that the massive discrepancy in file sizes is indicative of a larger problem that could cause the computer to fail in the middle of a session.

I am a Mac person, and I inherited these computers (they are probably more than 5 years old), so I'm not as adept at Windows troubleshooting.

Please hope me MetaFilter!!

Webcam recording softwrae

gocubbies — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:36:47 -0800

I need to record myself giving a presentation for school. My laptop has a built in webcam and microphone. What free Windows software would you recommend for this task?

Adobe Audacity vs Logic Express

treepour — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:04:40 -0800

Switched to Mac, looking for Adobe Audacity replacement. Should I go for Logic Express? I used Audacity primarily for two things (in order priority):

1) Splicing existing recordings together as seamlessly as possible. Here I used the "Echo Chamber" effects quite extensively. These helped create the sense that the musicians stopped playing and then started playing something else -- the ambient echo of the previous section carried on into the next.

2) Severely warping recorded sounds via a variety of filters/effects, combining them together via the multitrack interface, mixing the multiple tracks down to single tracks then continuing the process.

Can I do these kinds of things with Logic Express? Or would I be better off using Audacity via Windows vmware? Learning a new piece of software isn't a problem, I just want to make sure that the software will enable the kinds of things I want to do. Also, any other similarly-priced Mac recommendations for this sort of thing besides Logic Express would be appreciated.

A simple PC audio recording set up

ztdavis — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:24:05 -0800

Using a no-frills but decent PC, what (cheapish) sound card and what software should I buy for my father so he can record his guitar playing and singing as well as do basic mixing and editing? My dad has played guitar all of his life and has done a lot of recording to cassette tapes. I know he has decent microphones, etc, but I really think he would enjoy recording his music onto the PC so he can have greater-than-cassette quality and an easier way to put things to CD or e-mail mp3s.

I have no experience with recording sound, however, and don't even know where to begin discerning between good and bad sound cards.

Furthermore, my dad is in his 50s and he is pretty good with computers but certainly has never done any sound mixing or editing type stuff on a PC. What software is capable, but not overly complicated?

Looking to spend less than $100 on the card, and I don't even know what to plan for the software so I guess anything is game. ...(within reason).

Third party stereo mix recording

punishinglemur — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:02:25 -0800

Is there any way to do Stereo Mix recording in Windows Vista when the soundcard does not support this feature?

Recommend some good software for multi-track recording in Windows.

skallas — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:11:51 -0800

What are some popular (both expensive and cheap) software packages for windows based multi-track recording? Also, are there any relevant and good websites/webcommunities and newsgroups? Soundcard/hardware recommendations would be nice as being limited to one input might be a drag and I really don't know how to tell the difference between a good soundcard chipset and a bad one.