Streaming Audio

[merc141]

Lately I have been listening to streaming radio from radio stations. Is there some way to find out the bit rate or any information about the audio? I was wondering what the best way is to record it. I used to use goldwave, I suppose that might be able to record it. Is there any good software that may be able to capture it and put it to mp3? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Rinthe]

I think most radio stations have 96k or 128k, not very good quality.. better to get V0 or flacs

 

[ashmedai]

There are a few HBR streams, but "high" for streaming is still usually pretty low.

 

[sdgserv]

You can use Octoshape for some free 192..Radio Paradise or Jazz, Trance and others

 

[Joe Average]

Use Audacity to capture the sound card's "What U Hear" or the main mix as it passes through the soundcard. The bitrate of the original stream isn't relevant if you capture to WAV format (standard 44.1 kHz 16 bit) as that'll keep the quality as high as it needs to be (meaning you won't lose quality as long as you keep it that way - it'll sound exactly the same as the stream did when you listened to it).

After you have the file recorded, then you can edit it (get rid of interruptions if there are any, etc) and then save as whatever format you like. If you want to save as mp3, you'll need to get the LAME plugin as well for Audacity, it's got a link on the download page for Audacity.

Depending on the media player you're using, it should offer an option to show you the real-time properties of the stream so you know precisely what bitrate was used. As noted already, most use 96 or even 128 Kbps, but some will dip into the 64 Kbps range as well.

Just capture to WAV and save as whatever, you'll be fine.

 

[wildkatz84]

I dont think its possible

 

[Joe Average]

What's so tough about finding out the bitrate? WinAMP can show you the same info, VLC, Media Player Classic, most any media player that can actually read streaming content and play it.