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Saving Files


Sudo
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Does anyone know how to save the WMA, WAV or MP3 files that open on Amazon and other sites when you click on the sample tunes? As they play, the 'Save Media As' option is grayed out and you can't save it. Here's an example.. go to this Amazon site HERE! and scroll about 1/4 of the way down where you can listen to samples.

It's easy to get the RealAudio samples. You just right click on the RealAudio link and save the target (a RAM file) and then edit to find the location of the RA file. But what about the Windows Media Player files? You click on that link and download that target and you get an ASF file. You can edit that and see where they placed the WMA file but try to get that and you get a dang WAX (never heard of it) file. You can open it but it's not helpful. At least to me. Maybe someone knows how to do this??

In other words.. how do you save media files made for Windows Media Player?

sudo
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John,

Re:"..Sudo, I am not sure but I bet they have designed those tunes such that you can not save them."

Oh fer sure, no doubt. What I'm looking for is a workaround like there is for RealAudio RAM files. Maybe there's a hack program somewheres that does this??

sudo
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I went to your link Sudo, I right clicked a song link in the Windows media catagory, selected "save target as" and it saved for me as a .asx extension to my harddrive.

Closed all browsers, navigated to it, and it played in my Windows Media player.

What are you trying to do with the file once you have it?

Are you trying to change its format? (ie to a wav or mp3)

Not clear on what you are wanting to do.

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Apple,

Re:"What are you trying to do with the file once you have it?"

I might be wanting to send it to someone as an e-mail attachment. I might want to convert it to another format. OK.. you can play the song. That's no problem. The problem is saving it as a file that you can do something with. An MP3, a WAV, a WMA etc..

If you're new here at the Greasespot, you might not know about the nostalgia thread in the Greasespot Gallery and Reading Room forum. we post a lot of songs there. Come check us out if you're interested.

sudo
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When files get played in various media players, they first get downloaded to your machine.

Where they end up depends on what browser you use. If you use Microshaft's Internet Distorter, there is a directory (folder) called Temporary Internet Files, and a copy of the player file will be put there.

These are not permanent directories. Sometimes what happens is, as soon as you close Windoze Media Player, the file gets deleted.

Also the name of the file might not be intuitive. You might have to look at a date/time stamp to see which file it is that you want.

You can then copy that file to another place on your hard drive so that it doesn't get deleted.

This is sort of a circuitous route, but it may help you get what you want.

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Thank you for the invitation Sudo. I might swing on by for a look.

Now understanding what you want to do with the files here is a link to a program called Total Recorder.

Total Recorder

This program will capture any thing that your soundcard can play. This includes streaming media from RealPlayer or Windows Media player.

There is a trial verson of this program which will limit you to 40 sec's of recording.

I have not used this myself not having the need yet for conversions or captures. But since you can try it before you buy it you have nothing to lose. (look for the Standard version for the trial)

A nod to Steve, if I had looked more carefully at what the .asx extention was I would have relized it was nothing more than a xml link to stream the real file in the .asf format.

The clip I downloaded was so small I assumed it was the file itself. ME BAD!

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Update, if you dont want to install a new program and already have musicmatch as a media player. This snip is from TechTv

snip

You can also use MusicMatch to capture the analog signal being played. Go into the Options menu, select Recorder and change the source to System Mixer. You'll need to make sure your computer's volume level is turned up as it will effect the level of the recording (capture)

end snip

Even cheaper would be to capture the sound from the sound card on one of the speaker/lineouts rerouted to a line in. Any thoughts why that wouldnt work? Other than quality of sound?

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Apple,

Thank you. Wasway had suggested Total Recorder as well. Of course, there would be a little degradation that way. Digital to analog to digital. I bet a Microsoft engineer might know how to do it. I know a Microsoft employee who's in sales. He says there's nearly always a workaround.

sudo
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Hey sudo, good question. I've used Sound Forge to do what you're trying. Once installed, it will run off the same sound card that plays your streaming audio. All you have to do is prep the file you're about to play, and open a new file in Sound Forge, hit record and then hit play in your media file or whatever it is you want to play. It captures the sound as it plays, you just adjust the audio volume on the media player. You can get a 16 bit stereo wav file that way and edit it in Sound Forge. I use mp3-2-wav from www.mp3fe.com to do a simple conversion to mp3 if that's what I want. I subscribe to Rhapsody and have uh, tested this method on stereo audio playbacks. All I have to do is snip off the blank time at the beginning and end if there is any and I've got a perfect stereo wav file.

Another simple way to do it is to open your Sound Recorder that comes with Windows and select record and record a file to the default length of 60 seconds with no sound and save it as a TEST.wav file. Then select EDIT and INSERT FILE and select and insert that file, which will now give you a length of 120 seconds instead of just 60. You can do that as many times as you need to get longer recording time. You can select FILE and PROPERTIES to get a 16 bit stereo 44,1k format too.

So now you have a blank file that you've saved to record over. Just reopen it and prep the file you're trying to record on the fly, hit RECORD on the Sound Recorder program and hit PLAY on the media file or whatever the source is. Bingo, just stop it when you're done and save it as a wav with a new name. You can also do conversions to mp3 by selecting FILE and PROPERTIES to convert the format. It's free and does a pretty good job, you may have to fiddle with the player volume a bit to get the result you want. That might do it for you.

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Yup, my3cents, just use the INSERT FILE feature. I like to start and record a blank/no sound audio file for the default 60 seconds and save it. Then insert it back in and it adds it on to the existing 60 seconds, doubling it. Save that, do it again in a new file, get 180 seconds, etc. Then all you're doing is re recording over the file in the final step to record what you want. But it will work with any wav file to start with.

Edited by socks
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Best Buy is having a terrific offer on the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum cards this week--$199, but with a $70 mail-in rebate. $129 is a STEAL for this setup.

I just bought one.

It has all the software to do what you want right out of the box. It also has a front-mounted I/O panel that fits into an empty 5-14" drive bay (like a CD-ROM drive) It has RCA in, Headphone out, Line/Mic in with separate gain control--hook up your electric guitar (it has built-in pedal effects), Optical in/out, SPDIF in/out, MIDI in/out, and a front-mounted FireWire port! It also has a remote control so you can start recording from across the room.

Cool thing about Sound Blaster cards is that they have the capacity to record What-U-Hear™, that is, whatever input sources you have mixed together and coming out your speakers, with any added special effects like reverb/chorus/flanging, gets recorded to whatever format you want, on the fly. So you can plug in a microphone, a guitar, and a MIDI keyboard, fire up an MP3 song, start a MIDI file playing on the keyboard, strum along with your guitar while you're singing, and it all goes into the recording.

They even have a "StreamRecorder" app that does exactly what you're looking for.

If $129 is too steep, you can get the same card minus the drive-bay breakout box for about $89, it's called just the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS.

VERY cool. HIGHLY recommended.

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socks: I am loving this sound card! I used to think my SB Live was top-o-the-heap, but wow!

I also managed to find a deal on a set of Logitech 5.1 speakers for $48. They'll replace my two sets of 2.1 (does that make my setup 4.2? icon_smile.gif:)--> ) speakers, and the Audigy 2 ZS will automatically up- and down-mix all 2.0 - 7.1 soundstreams into 5.1. A complete sound overhaul for under $200. Sweet!

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