What software do I use to record IceCast streams?

[gmclam]

I see there are archives here of scanner audio. I suspect these recordings are of streams coming in, and not connected (directly) to scanners. So my question: What software are you using to record these streams?

Recording one stream is fairly easy, although it ties up my systems' sound system. But I want to record 2 or more streams "directly" using their URL.

Thanks.

 

[GTR8000]

Welcome to Streamripper

 

[gmclam]

Thank you Chauffeur6, is that the ONLY program out there that does this? Hard to believe.

 

[GTR8000]

I'm not sure if it's the only one, but it's what RR uses, and I've been using it for 4+ years now myself to archive a feed 24/7. It works quite well, saving the stream directly in its native mp3 format without having to "play" the audio through the computer's sound system. I use the command line version and have it setup so that it rips the stream in hourly blocks synced with the top of the hour. At various points, I've recorded up to 8 separate streams simultaneously, all running invisibly in the background and taking up hardly any system resources in the process.

 

[PeterGV]

(I feel like I said this same thing in another thread) Chauffeur6/Chris is entirely right...

Here's why, from the view of a software engineer:

The data for a scanner stream comes from Icecast/Scannercast as blocks of pure MP3 encoded audio. All the "recorder" really needs to do is grab those blocks and write them to disk. No playback, no transcoding, no muss, no fuss. It's fast, it's highly efficient, and it avoids having to move the audio from digital MP3 format, to PCM (wave) format, to analog, back to PCM format, and then back to MP3 format... which does nothing but degrade the audio quality.

That's all there is to it,

Peter
K1PGV

 

[gmclam]

The data for a scanner stream comes from Icecast/Scannercast as blocks of pure MP3 encoded audio. All the "recorder" really needs to do is grab those blocks and write them to disk. No playback, no transcoding, no muss, no fuss. It's fast, it's highly efficient, and it avoids having to move the audio from digital MP3 format, to PCM (wave) format, to analog, back to PCM format, and then back to MP3 format... which does nothing but degrade the audio quality.

While I like this approach in one situation, I'd rather have a "VOX" function that only records when audio is present. Otherwise those files saved on disc are largely dead air (unless a very busy stream).

 

[SlipNutz15]

I use ScanRec on my computer but it records audio directly into my computer, not a feed like you're looking for. I'm looking for a VOX program, usable locally, that can have multiple instances running and record from different audio sources, anyone have something like that?

 

[gmclam]

Recording streams

I use ScanRec on my computer but it records audio directly into my computer, not a feed like you're looking for. I'm looking for a VOX program, usable locally, that can have multiple instances running and record from different audio sources, anyone have something like that?

I am using RecAllPro, from SageBrush. It has a lot of features, but has been tricky to get working with ini files.

What I would like ideally is a program that records from the stream, but also implements a vox function. There's no sense in writing dead air to the hard drive.