Recording streaming audio from Youtube, Spotify, etc....

[Rialta]

Whenever I record audio from Youtube or Spotify, The recording normally sounds thin and

without body. I look at the frequency spectrum in Har-Bal, and there is a pronounced dip in the frequency at around 460hz and nearby frequencies. I record using Audacity at 24/176.4, I have not tried to record at 16/44.1 yet, but I don't think it would make any difference, it happens no matter what website I go to. I have used Sound Forge as well, the same dip.

 

Of course, I can correct for that dip in Har-Bal, but I am not going to know what the original frequency spectrum is, so I have to do the best I can. I normally download classical or jazz music either at DSD or high-res PCM on Youtube. The songs themselves sound fantastic when I finish recording, very little noise, but again, they sound relatively hollow and thin.

 

Do other people experience the same thing? Is there any way to correct for that, stop it from happening? Maybe it is the built-in sound card?!

 

Thanks to all, I am new to downloading from websites, but not to being an audiophile.

[wgscott]

You could always try legally buying music like the rest of us idiot chumps.

[tranz]

Yes, why support the artists from which you like their music.

[17629]

Music played from a site like Youtube is probably no where near 16/44, so recording at that resolution won't make it sound any better.

 

Is it illegal to record this type of thing? As long as its for personal use, it may be legal. I'm pretty sure recording AM/FM radio is legal, so why wouldn't the same apply here?

[mac_and_dac]

Whenever I record audio from Youtube or Spotify, The recording normally sounds thin and

without body. I look at the frequency spectrum in Har-Bal, and there is a pronounced dip in the frequency at around 460hz and nearby frequencies. I record using Audacity at 24/176.4, I have not tried to record at 16/44.1 yet, but I don't think it would make any difference, it happens no matter what website I go to. I have used Sound Forge as well, the same dip.

 

Of course, I can correct for that dip in Har-Bal, but I am not going to know what the original frequency spectrum is, so I have to do the best I can. I normally download classical or jazz music either at DSD or high-res PCM on Youtube. The songs themselves sound fantastic when I finish recording, very little noise, but again, they sound relatively hollow and thin.

 

Do other people experience the same thing? Is there any way to correct for that, stop it from happening? Maybe it is the built-in sound card?!

 

Thanks to all, I am new to downloading from websites, but not to being an audiophile.

 

Hi

 

I used to get the same thing with Audacity.

 

And before anyone hammers me for 'ripping off' music, I pay my way (Tidal 16/44 subscription, still order CD's), it's just that occasionally there is music on Youtube or elsewhere that you cannot be purchased.

 

I wrote my own Windows software to do the job after the problems with Audacity.

 

However, there is other software out there that will do it. Audio Hijack Pro is an example. It's a bit fiddly to use but does the job well.

 

cheers

[Rialta]

Thanks, I have Spotify Premium (only 10 US dollars a month), which does have an 'offline mode'..so I don't see what the big deal is. I don't do it for personal profit, it's just like back in the day when you would use a VCR to record TV shows. No difference.

 

Unfortunately, AHP is only for Mac, but Total Recorder might work. I'll try it, but the dip in frequency response is probably something I'll just have to live with for the time being. I also use Sound Forge 11 with the Izotope suite of plugins, so I can get it pretty close to the original recording.

 

By the way, Youtube does have several recordings in DSD, even a few in DSD256, and they all sound fantastic. These are native recordings, not 'upsampled' to that frequency.

[Daren F]

Have you tried Tunebite?

http://audials.com/en/tunebite/audials_tunebite_platinum_windows_software.html

[esldude]

Thanks, I have Spotify Premium (only 10 US dollars a month), which does have an 'offline mode'..so I don't see what the big deal is. I don't do it for personal profit, it's just like back in the day when you would use a VCR to record TV shows. No difference.

 

Unfortunately, AHP is only for Mac, but Total Recorder might work. I'll try it, but the dip in frequency response is probably something I'll just have to live with for the time being. I also use Sound Forge 11 with the Izotope suite of plugins, so I can get it pretty close to the original recording.

 

By the way, Youtube does have several recordings in DSD, even a few in DSD256, and they all sound fantastic. These are native recordings, not 'upsampled' to that frequency.

As already mentioned streaming YouTube is some version of compressed audio like mp3. Does not matter what the original source was. So there's no benefit to recording at more than CD rates.

 

Has been awhile but there are several browser add ons that record YouTube.

[YashN]

By the way, Youtube does have several recordings in DSD, even a few in DSD256, and they all sound fantastic. These are native recordings, not 'upsampled' to that frequency.

 

Nope. These are very badly compressed files which now have nothing to do with native DSD anymore.

[YashN]

I normally download classical or jazz music either at DSD or high-res PCM on Youtube.

 

Neither of these formats is possible to download from Youtube...

[17629]

Look at this website.

 

Youtube to MP3 Converter | Fast, Free, and Easy by ListentoYouTube.com

[zackthedog]

Bigasoft makes a very nice program for converting YouTube videos to FLAC. At least you get the most of whatever format is posted. I use it to grab piano recitals and things that aren't available commercially. The online sites tend to have limits.

[sandyk]

Try Freemake Video Downloader. With Music Videos you have a choice of Video resolutions as high as 4K, but the sweet spot for Audio with these is when you select 1280 x 720 resolution. You then have the Video with 187Kilobits .aac Audio.

I think that you are also likely to be able to just DL the audio component , but I haven't tried that.

The Freemake site will give you further information.

Alex

[YashN]

Bigasoft makes a very nice program for converting YouTube videos to FLAC. At least you get the most of whatever format is posted. I use it to grab piano recitals and things that aren't available commercially. The online sites tend to have limits.

 

The most? You'll get a compressed lossy file that you are then converting to FLAC. The losses are already embedded...

[17629]

The most? You'll get a compressed lossy file that you are then converting to FLAC. The losses are already embedded...

 

Correct.

 

Also, the link I listed above isn't for an app you need to install and run. It does the conversion right from your web browser.

[zackthedog]

The most? You'll get a compressed lossy file that you are then converting to FLAC. The losses are already embedded...

 

My understanding is that some HQ videos have a slightly higher bitrate. It does seem like a waste but if I want to grab a piano recital, for example, I can try to capture the best sound possible. Perhaps I'm wrong, though.

[sandyk]

My understanding is that some HQ videos have a slightly higher bitrate. It does seem like a waste but if I want to grab a piano recital, for example, I can try to capture the best sound possible. Perhaps I'm wrong, though.

 

YouTube and VEVO music videos have their highest Audio bit rate at 1280 x 720. At higher resolutions the Audio bit rate decreases again.

It is possible, given a suitable video editor, to download the 1280 x 720 version as well as the 1920 x 1080 or 4K version, then De-multiplex the A and V of both, and re-multiplex the Audio from the 1280 x 720 version with the video of the higher video resolution version.

 

e.g. TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 or 6.

 

P.S.

I just tried this with

(NOT Piano)

The 1920 x 1080 and 4K versions have audio of only 125 Kilobits and the new composite version of this 4K video with 187 kilobits audio sounds better !

[Rialta]

Audials Tunebyte does work best, I found, it installs a separate driver (actually 28 of them), for 28 recording slots. Recording from Spotify into Audials allows Audials to separate tracks with the correct names. You can play an entire artist from beginning to end while having Audials record, separate, and tag tracks. And there is no dip in the frequency response at 450hz. It works for me anyway.

[new_media]

On the rare occasion that I find music on YouTube that is not available for purchase elsewhere, I prefer to capture the stream directly rather than recording the audio.

 

Replay Media Catcher consistently does a good job and even gives you a choice of bit rates to download. Choices are typically AAC or OGG and the highest bit rate is usually 128-192 kbps.

 

ETA: You can achieve the de-multiplexing and re-multiplexing Alex describes above with QuickTime Pro on a Mac. Pretty sure it would work on a PC as well.