Can I record system audio with OneNote?

Hi SWischner, thanks for your comment. I have a Skype Call Recorder desktop app. It records both sides of a Skype call, ie my mic and the person (or people, if a group call) on the other end of the call. I didn't have to do anything to make it work, other than install it. I use Screencast-O-Matic to record Screencasts. It has the option to record my computer's system audio as well as my microphone, so for example I can use that to record webinars I'm participating in. I haven't had to do anything special to make that work. So it seems to me that it is possible for a Windows desktop app to record system audio as well as a connected microphone, without me having to hot-wire, either physically with cables, or virtually with drivers, the computer. That's what leads me to believe this could be built into OneNote.

It makes no sense filing a suggestion on Uservoice for this. Why? Because the recording of audio sources (system or skype audio in this case) is not under control of the applications but by the sound driver.

You basically need a loopback, a routing of an audio input to the mixer (on the soundboard or LF portion of the audio electronics) to another input. Or a routing from the output to the recording input to record everything that comes out of the speaker. 

Some audio drivers do have a function for it. It's a sound input which is usually called "Stereo Mix" or "What U hear", others don't. This depends on the audio hardware and it's driver.

On some soundcards you can acivate hidden input selectors by going to the recording/input devices (where you choose Line In or Mic), click on an empty space and activate "show deactivated devices". If nothing like Stereo Mix is showing up you may try to update the audio driver but you also well might be out of luck.

The "brutal" method would be to connect a audio cable from the speaker/headphone output jack to the line in jack. But in that case you would not hear what is recorded. An Y-Cable adapter would also allow you to plug in your Headphone or speakers to that bridged connection but would affect the recording quality and even could damage the audio electronics (as with this the headphone would also be plugged to the line in acting as a microphone and altereing the overall impendance). So all these wiring solutions are somewhat "dirty". 

In no case OneNote could do anything about all this, as it only uses the audio inputs that the system (hardware and audio drivers) provide.

Good ideas. Thanks for your input. I agree. There's more that can be done with this software.

Hope this helps you out.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/onenotetips/archive/2008/05/29/audio-and-video-recording-in-onenote.aspx

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