hi, this is quite urgent. I will meet a few friends in 4 hours for a practice session that I want to record. Unfortunately I forgot to bring along my Edirol. So I just bought a cheap PC-microphone and now I need an easy (and free) program for basic recording. I will do this on my office PC (windows XP). Any suggestions?
Audacity</a](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a)> is the most popular one I know of that’s free.
how about something easier? something i can learn in 5 minutes or so … 
Goldwave is pretty easy - http://www.goldwave.com/ . You can do a lot on it, but you can also just open a new file (you’ll have to estimate how much recording time you’ll need) and then press record.
To save as an MP3 you need to download a converter, also on the goldwave site, but you can save in .wav without it.
Windows comes with a sound recorder. Should be under
Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment->Sound Recorder
Very basic and easy: plug in a mic, and hit record…
Lots of software is available at the Shareware Music Machine.
Arial Sound Recorder is great and very easy to use.
Audacity can do a lot, but if you ignore the extra features and buttons, you can just use it like Windows sound recorder. All the buttons work like you think they would.
Just because there are bells and whistles doesn’t mean that you have to learn to use them.
Later, if you need to be able to do something more advanced, the capability is there.
Just my $.02.
–James
It does, and it is. It also doesn’t record more than a minute’s worth. At least, I’ve never discovered how to get beyond this limit.
thanks for all your replies. finally i tried Goldwave but the sound quality was really poor. maybe the microphone is too bad, or maybe i had a few settings wrong. anyway, now that i have more time, i will try again and use a different mike.
We can tell by your Avatar that this was urgent.
Audacity is real easy to use for basic functions. In your case it was probably the microphone. Unfortunately unless you have a mixer or a special box that plugs into your USB and a decent mic the sound isn’t very good.
Reaper works well for me, better quality sound than Audacity but like Audacity, it will take a few moments to get used to.
Reaper is good, but as I recall it’s a trial rather than being free.
Overall, I agree with James about Audacity. Although it takes some time to learn to get the most out of it, the basic function is pretty simple.
I don’t think they enforce it, though. They say “after evaluating, you should
buy a license.”, not “you must”…
The noncommercial license is 50 bucks, which doesn’t sound too bad if you really like the program. Beats 225. Of course, you probably can go for a looong evaluation period. 