Audacity is the best audio recording application for non-professionals, and equally good for professionals as well. It uses your sound mixer's power to record audio--microphone input, Line In as well as Stereo Mix, or the output of your computer's speakers. In the previous post, I detailed how it can be used to record streaming audio by setting it to record Stereo Mix.

But if the sound card of the system or the installed sound driver does not support any feature it gets severely crippled. In one of my previous blogs, I had written a post about how to use Audacity to record streaming audio. Many visitors had a common problem: "Audacity does not show Stereo Mix or Wave Out option on my computer."

When I had written first about Audacity, my laptop's sound card and drivers supported all functions. But with my present laptop, I faced the same problem. No Stereo Mix, and the reason is a faulty substitute audio driver.

How to solve the problem? One solution that I knew is to connect the sound output to Line In and record it. Perfect for desktops. But laptops don't have a Line In slot. Why not use microphone input slot?

Get two-way male 3-pin connector: To connect the audio output to Line In or to the microphone socket, we need a connectors with two 3.5mm male 3-pin or jacks. The 3.5mm male 3-pins are the plugs that connects into the audio output sockets. You can purchase the connector from some electronics store that deals in spares and accessories.

Build the hack device: In case you don't get the appropriate connector, you can easily build one. For this you need to have two stereo male 3-pin jacks, which you can easily get at some store that repairs TVs or other consumer electronics goods. Else rip them off from some old damaged headphones.

Now, the two male 3-pins need to be connected parallel. This means you need to connect similar leads--the outer one with the outer one of the other, the inner lead with its counterpart and the middle with the middle one. This ensures that the right channel is recorded as right track and the left one as left. Keep the length of connector enough and also secure the joints by soldering them to avoid any disturbance caused due to loose joints. If you don't know how to solder, get it done at some repair shop. Ask them to connect the two male 3-pins in parallel.

Using the hack device: Connect the audio output to the Line In or microphone input. select the Microphone or Line In option from the drop down in Audacity. Now start the audio to be recorded. Make adjustments in the volume of Microphone or Line In input using the mixer device in Audacity. Also adjust the volume of the audio being played on the computer. Make sure that the recorded audio has adequate volume and is good quality. Higher volume will distort the audio while low volume will make it inaudible. If required, increase the volume of the recorded audio to make it audible, before saving.

Why can't I listen to the output? That's because the audio is being routed to the Line In socket and doesn't go to any audio device. If you want to listen to the audio while recording it, we need to split the audio output into two--one for speakers and the other for Line In.


For this, we need to modify our hack device and add a female 3-pin socket that will connect to the speakers' jack. The two male 3-pins and the female 3-pin should be connected parallel to each other. Their outer pins should be connected together, their inner pin together and the middle ones together.


It is intuitive to find the outer, middle and inner pins in a male 3-pin but in a female 3-pin the inner and the middle pins are concealed. To make it possible to locate the middle and inner pins, manufacturers give a different metal coat to the inner lead. The outer pin will remain the outer lead in female pin as well. The distinct one will be the inner pin and the one left will be the middle one.

Now, connect the male 3-pin jacks to the audio output and microphone/Line In sockets and connect a speaker to the female 3-pin. This way, you get to listen to the music played on your computer as well as record it by routing it to the microphone.

PS: This is the second in a three-part series on using Audacity to record audio. The next post will explain a cheap and easy way of converting analog music on tape cassettes into mp3 digital music. We will be using the same connector for that as well.