The best way to record Internet Radio streams
I don't want to make a big fuss about it. I tried lots of software programs to record Internet Radio streams and found one that was the perfect fit for my situation. I prefer software that would offer all the traits of a music player and allow me to record Internet radio as it is easier to handle than two applications.
Most programs would allow me to either play music or record radio but not both.
Thus, all those Internet Radio downloading applications like Raima Radio, Stationripper or Phonostar have not made it into the final round. I also did not want to use huge media clients such as Windows Media Player that would simply suck up too many resources. What I wanted was a lightweight music player with the capability of recording Internet Radio streams.
I did find it. XMPlay is the client that is lightweight and is able to record Internet Radio streams. XMPlay uses just 6.8 Megabytes of Ram when playing high-quality Internet Radio which is as lightweight as it can get.
The function to record Internet Radio is already implemented and can be accessed by simply right-clicking the stream url in the music player and selecting 'Write to Disk' from the menu. This saves the stream from that point on until you stop the recording.
It is possible to record the stream as one huge mp3 file or save individual tracks which is probably the better and organized way to record Internet Radio.
The only reason why I would choose another application would be if I wanted to schedule a recording or record more than one station at a time. The program that offers that functionality is StreamWriter. I have reviewed StreamWriter here and don't want to rehash everything but the program is awesome.
You can schedule recordings, record as many Internet radio stations as you want at the same time, add songs to a wishlist to get them recorded automatically by the program as long as it is running and a lot more.
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Screamer Radio has a slightly larger memory foot print, but is very clean and easy to use. Have you tried this one out?
If you want to know how to rip Last.fm you have to visit my blog. :-)
Last.fm rocks: Clean cut single tracks, no crossfading, bitrate is 128 kbp/s which is okay for mp3.
Okay, since my Blog is in German: Search Google for TheLastRipper. Bloody brilliant to fill your hard disk with 128 kbps MP3s. Available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Doesn’t work for me I have to do it the way xmplay’s website says to do it…
http://support.xmplay.com/article.php?id=36
I forgot: The LastRipper is not a player, its just a ripper. It shows you information about artist, album, song and a picture of the cover – but you can’t hear the songs he’s ripping.
Like in the Last.fm player or on the Last.fm homepage you can skip songs and “love” or “hate” them. And I eventually found out how to play similar artists in TheLastRipper.
Advantage of TheLastRipper is WYNHIWYG (What You Not Hear Is What You Get) – there’s no need to reencode already encoded streams.
I use winamp with streamripper. Quite good. you can stop listening once you started ripping a radio station.
I personally like stationripper (based off of streamripper, I guess). stationripper is great at recording internet radio – does shoutcast AND last.fm (which is really really nice).
While it can’t act as your player, it hooks into whatever defauly player you use – and can auto-add songs it records to iTunes (What I personally do!)
for mac I like Macvide Audio Recorder :)
Thank you for sharing this information