How to record sound coming through speaker using ALSA?

[G-Known]

Hi,

I'm using RecordMyDesktop to capture video (OGG) and audio (Vorbis) on my screen. By default, it set my microphone to record external sounds but I wanted to change that so it'll record the speakers without any outside noises.

I've read some forums regarding this topic and most of them did not help because I cannot get the asoundrc to work with RMD and using a loopback device is complicated. Since the program has JACK support, unfortunately it doesn't work well because JACK doesn't list the program under its input ports and looking at JACK's list of supported applications, RMD isn't there despite that RMD homepage stated it's enabled with JACK support (and it is).

Some other solutions people came up with was using PulseAudio or just use a mix device. Alsamixer did not reveal any mix device on my system and I don't want to install another sound server without the prior knowledge that my current method doesn't work.

Here's some info about my soundcard:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

If anybody is familiar with setting up ALSA/JACK for RMD, then please share.

Thanks.

Machine: HP Pavilion dv6 (Debian 6.06 3.2bpo)

[Rubberman]

Why record what's coming out of the speakers when you can capture the sound stream directly?

[G-Known]

Why record what's coming out of the speakers when you can capture the sound stream directly?

I think it's a bit confusing on the specifics of what I want to do, it's like you said, recording sound internally but not externally. The problem is that how would I be able to configure RMD to record the streaming audio?

[Rubberman]

You need to use an audio capture tool, of which there are many. Some are also players, such as vlc or rhythmbox, others are tools like ffmpeg, and others are mixer/editing tools like audacity. I would recommend trying VLC first (simple to use), and then Audacity (every option in the box).

[G-Known]

You need to use an audio capture tool, of which there are many. Some are also players, such as vlc or rhythmbox, others are tools like ffmpeg, and others are mixer/editing tools like audacity. I would recommend trying VLC first (simple to use), and then Audacity (every option in the box).

Thank you for the suggestions, I'm familiar with most of the tools you've recommended but would it be possible just configure RMD with the proper setups to record the pcm audio? I know not all of us used RMD before or even heard of it, so alternatively I can capture a video and sync with a third party tool like audacity, that way, there's no need to step through ALSA domain of configuration. However, it'll cause bit of an inconvenience and if nobody really has no clue on setting up RMD then I'll try ffmpeg which is a swiss knife on multimedia purposes but has a higher learning curve.