does exist a program that allows to record radio programs (listened
through real audio) and make a cd? I would love being able to record
Ceili House.
ciao
m
Well, yes! 
Run a cable from your sound card output back to the input (or from the soundcard output into a MD recorder). If you’re lucky, you might even have digital ins and outs, but analog should work too.
g
thks a million!
m
Michel,
If you have a higher grade soundcard like a soundblaster live or similar with a separate multiple input source unit where you can select the source, you can record direct onto the hard disc without needing any in between medium like a mindisc etc. Cheaper than buying a minidisc but not as portable.
Ken
You do need a program for recording to your hard disk, though.
I’m not familiar with the Windows products that do this, (Audacity might work for that), but for the Mac I use Amadeus II.
Recording to minidisc through a patch cord from the headphone output of your computer works well if you don’t have software.
Cool, i just tried it and it worked. Select the recording controls, set the input to “Stereo Mix” or something similar. So i guess the loopback cable is the lowest common denominator, and you might not need a cable.
It did introduce some noise, though. You may have to fiddle with the playback and recording volumes until you get something acceptable.
Just FYI, If you’re going to be burning a CD from this, don’t encode the files a mp3 anywhere, store them as uncompressed, 16 bit, 44kHz wave files throughout the process.
Encoding real audio → wave → mp3 → wave can introduct a lot of compression artifacts. The audio quality will be so-so anyway if the source is realaudio, but not much you can do about that.
Eddie
Brad,
Yes you are right but I think soundblaster always bundle some extras with the card. Mine came with Cubasis which works fine for recording and editing the stream down into .wav or .mp3 files. I usually save the tracks as wave files.
Ken
Hmm. Maybe using 16KHz wav, mono, and then compressing it with a lossless codec (flac or monkey) would be small enough?
You’re right, not a good way, but probably the best you’ll get. I wonder if RealBadAudio → minidisc → wav in the computer → mp3 would be any better.
Or maybe RealBadAudio → wav 16KHz mono → back to RealBadAudio, if you have a program that can encode that.
Maybe a good topic to discuss in the “Hydrogen Audio” forums.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/
There is a program called Total Recorder for $11.95 that is designed to record from any source, including the web, quite easily… recommended - Tod
Ditto this. My recommendation as well.
Kevin Krell
I just tried Glauber’s technique of going directly from the headphone out to the line in on my computer, and recorded this week’s Late Session on RTE (with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill). Worked fine, although there’s no way to monitor the sound while recording. When going to minidisc you can listen through the headphones.
I saved it as an MP3 file and the sound quality was no worse than the RealAudio stream (which I listened to afterwards to compare).
-Brad
Yeah, sometimes lowtech is the way to go. To record and monitor at the same time, buy a splitter adaptor at Radio Shack (should be a couple of dollars) or make one.
It would be great if someone could list some good listening sources for ITM. I would love to find some sources for listening but I can’t seem to even find some poor sources, much less good, entertaining sites. I am wearing my CD’s out, listening to the same tunes over and over.
The Late Session is one of the best, if not the best. It’s a weekly radio program(me). It’s updated every Fryday night.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/evening/latesession/
The format is Real(Bad)Audio. It’s always good and sometimes amazingly good.
www.radio1.ie/audio_weekend.html
here’s my favourite, ceili house.
m
Clare FM has 2 hours of music every night monday to friday 7pm to 9 (local time) with a different presenter each night, some live music and new recordings, well worth tuning in. They only do a live stream so you have to tune in at the right time.
Kevin Rohan does a programme on Galway Bay FM on mondays 8 til 10. Kevin tends to go song, tune, song, tune, etc but he plays some pretty obscure stuff you won’t find in your average record shop as well as some live stuff.
Be prepared for a lot of adverts.
Mo Cheol Thu is an institution and is available for download from RTE. There’s some stuff on RnaG as well but I can’t get these to download myself.
Ken