Recording sound output in Windows

January 16th, 2007

I can’t believe I didn’t find out about this trick until today. It would have prevented the need for all these hacks and placing the microphone next to the speakers to record sounds.

Download Squad:

If you’ve ever tried to record streaming audio in Windows, like a Skype call or a webcast, you may be aware of a simple setting that allows you to record any sound playing through your computer’s sound card. All you have to do is:

Select your sound properties through the control panel or the sound icon in your system tray.

Click on the properties tab.

Check the recording box.

Make sure Wave Out Mix is selected (It’s sometimes called stereo mix, or mono mix).

Now you should be able to set Wave Out as your default for recordings made by Audacity or other audio recording programs.

This is a fantastic and dead easy way to make short sound clips from Youtube or DVD videos, or maybe you want to broadcast music to a friend over MSN Messenger or Skype. Or Google for some soundboards and randomly insert clips of Tom Cruise or Darth Vader breathing in the middle of one of your phone calls.

The possibilities are endless.

I can’t imagine what would happen if both of you were using this trick though… I take no responsibility if your speakers end up on the other end of the room.

Cool Stuff , Windows
Comments(15)

15 Responses to “Recording sound output in Windows”

# Jphantomon 16 Jan 2007 at 10:33 pm

Wow, never knew about this either. Very handy. Thanks!
# Neondragonon 21 Jan 2007 at 12:31 pm

You should have asked me!
# Mrbrown012on 26 Sep 2007 at 6:14 am

hey! would i be able to do this if i do not have a sound card?!
# iPCon 04 Apr 2008 at 11:31 pm

Is there any way to make it so that I can record clips for more than 60 seconds?
# Free Music! « My iPCon 05 Apr 2008 at 12:25 am

[...] Just follow the following instructions and you’ll never have to buy music again. First visit This website and follow the instructions. Second, go to This website and follow the instructions. [...]
# iPCon 17 Apr 2008 at 10:55 am

Thanks for your help.
# Keithon 04 May 2008 at 7:23 am

How does this work for Vista? I’ve tried to follow the instructions as written but I don’t find a recording box or option for wave out.
# Marcoon 07 May 2008 at 3:27 pm

Vista really sucks. It has some advanced stuff I don’t care about, and it misses sruff like this, stuff I do wanna do. Can you help me plz?
# Lalatenduon 13 Jul 2008 at 7:31 am

Thanks a lot…
This trick relly works…
Regards,
# kpokoon 15 Jul 2008 at 4:39 am

wow, i never knew this either !! so useful tahbks!
# jovailon 06 Sep 2008 at 3:19 am

sir i have a problem of record sound from computer i plug the out line in th e pc in and sound is coming from pc speaker so tell me how i record a sound
# nadiaon 15 Sep 2008 at 7:20 pm

so I’m guessing this doesn’t work in vista?
# TnTon 19 Oct 2008 at 4:17 pm

I use Windows XP and it doesn’t work for me as described. I can’t find the “recording box”. I can just set volumes.

What am I doing wrong? Does this depend on the audio driver I am using? Could you provide some screenshots with the dialogs and settings you are using?
# Ruion 20 Dec 2008 at 11:04 pm

it does work but it kinda sucks… i can’t turn of my mic to do this, so if i want to listen to what i’m recording in my speakers it will record the sound in the mic too…
# Spoonon 21 Jun 2009 at 5:15 am

for Vista, I did this: (and it works)

- Control panel
- Sound
- Recording Tab
- Rclick in the box, tick “show disabled devices”
- Mine was called “stereo mix”, but it could also be “wave OUt Mix” or “mono Mix” (as said above)
-Rclick that, enable it and there should be a little tick in a green circle by it. If not, highlight it and click “Set default”.
- That’s it, you’re done! Open sound recorder and away you go!