E'er need to record something on your figurer exactly as it comes out of your speakers?  Enabling "Stereo Mix" will let yous do exactly that, and here'due south how to do it.

Nowadays, most sound cards accept the ability to record any is being output.  The only hang-up is accessing that recording channel, which can be washed rather easily.

Enable Stereo Mix

Go downward to the audio icon in your system tray, correct-click it, and become to "Recording Devices" to open upwards the proper settings pane.

In the pane, right-click on a bare area, and make certain both "View Disabled Devices" and "View Disconnected Devices" options are checked.  You should meet a "Stereo Mix" option appear.

Right-click on "Stereo Mix" and click "Enable" to be able to apply it.

I Nevertheless Don't See It…

In some cases, your audio chipset drivers aren't helping your cause.  Virtually likely, this is because they're outdated.  In other instances, however, it'southward because the newest Windows drivers for your chipset don't back up this feature.  This was the case on my Asus Eee PC (a 1000HE), but I got around the effect by downloading and installing the older Windows XP/Vista drivers for my audio chipset.  As e'er, before changing your drivers, make sure create a organisation restore point in instance things don't go as planned.

How Do I Utilize This?

With "Stereo Mix" enabled, you tin open your favorite recording program and select that instead of your microphone earlier yous record.  If y'all don't see the option, or your program doesn't give you the ability to modify the recording device, you can disable or unplug your microphone and make "Stereo Mix" the default recording device.

This works well for when you lot want to capture audio for a screen-sharing session, or record audio from streaming sources–such as live web-casts–that don't necessarily allow you to download content immediately.  In order to do that, you'd open upwardly your audio recording application of choice (similar Audacity), and find the option for microphone input. Select Stereo Mix equally your input (if it isn't already), be sure other recording devices are muted or disabled, and click record.

Be sure to check out our article, The How-To Geek Guide on Audio Editing: The Basics, to learn how to use Audacity.