I have a lot of “live concert” DVDs in my collection. What I have been doing for some time now is recording the audio from these DVDs on my Mac, importing them to iTunes, syncing with my iPod and having some great concerts to listen to on the road. CDs can be “ripped” into iTunes fast and easy. But DVDs cannot be ripped the same way in iTunes.

It is easy to record any audio playing on your Mac using either WireTap Pro $19 or Audio HiJack $16 ($32 for Pro version). This is great for recording your own podcasts also.

It is simple but extremely useful for recording all the sounds that can be played on your Mac. You might want to record audio from streaming media, Internet radio, DVDs, and microphones to listen to later on your Mac or iPod. This is a great way to record a podcast. Also see Simple Steps to Creating a Podcast on this blog.

What will you need?
Any Mac running OS X
WireTap Pro $19 or Audio Hijack $16 ($32 for Pro version).
Any Audio source you want to record – DVD, or Microphone (built-in mic, PC headset or an iSight will work just fine)

If you want to Edit the audio after recording it
Audacity free or QuickTime Pro $29.99 or any other audio editor you may have.

WireTap Pro or AudioHiJack are both nice shareware applications for recording whatever your Mac can play. Both of these applications will work fine for this. Both have some different features. I suggest you check them both out and choose the one that best fits your use.

WireTap Pro
Download and install WireTap Pro. Install and open the application.

OR

Audio Hijack
Download and install Audio Hijack. Install and open the application.

Recording the DVD or other source using WireTap Pro
Put in your DVD. DVD player should start automatically, if not, launch DVD player. Cue up and pause the DVD where you want to start. Launch WireTap Pro.

Click the middle button on the WireTap Pro interface (under the picture of the mic and speaker) to open WireTap Pro’s preferences. The speaker and microphone icons are actually buttons. Click on these to easily switch your source.

Sessions – Preferences – EQ buttons

Choose the source you want to record (Mac Audio to record DVD). Click the drop down menu labeled “Record” to decide what you would like to include. Here you can also decide if you want to trim the leading and trailing silence on the recording. this could help if you are not planning on editing the audio.

Click on “Saving” pane. Decide where you want to save files and what application you may want to open the recording in. I use iTunes.

Click on the “Format” pane and decide which format you want to save your recording. If you plan on sync with your iPod AAC is a good choice at about 128 to 192 bit rate. If you want to use it in a podcast and allow it to be played on all portable players MP3 is a good choice. You can just record AIFF, if you plan on editing the audio and then convert it toward the end of your project.

Pick Your Format

Click record button on WireTap Pro, then quickly press play ion DVD Player.

Record – Stop – Pause

If you’re recording streaming audio, the microphone, Internet radio, etc the process is the same. just choice the source, and record.

Finishing the Recording
Once you’re finished recording, click stop. The audio file will be saved where you specified. If you choose iTunes it will be there. When recording the live concert DVDs this way you will end up with one long track that will play without gaps. The only way to skip around is to use click wheel on iPods.

Recording using Audio HiJack
The same methods are used if you use Audio HiJack. Using Audio HiJack Pro gives you some nice plug-ins to enhance your recordings.

More on Audio HiJack Pro

ID3 Tags
Next, add the ID3 tags so you will have Title, Album, etc. Using iTunes to do this is easy. Highlight the audio file in the iTunes Library, and Control + mouse click (right click for you multi-button mouse users) and choose Get Info. Fill out the information.

You could also import this file in to a music editing application like Audacity and edit it, add other files, etc. Audacity can also convert files.

More WireTap Info

Editing the Audio
Audacity is a free, cross-platform, open-source program. It is a complete recorder and audio editor. You can record and edit using Audacity.

Converting from Aiff to MP3 in iTunes
Import the AIFF file into iTunes, click it once to highlight it, and go to iTunes menu -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Convert Selection to MP3.

Here are some suggestions on bit rates:
48 – 56k Mono – lectures, audio books, interviews, or talk radio
64k+ Stereo – music or music and talk
128k Stereo – good quality music
192k Stereo – good quality music

I use AAC at 192k Stereo for recording my DVD concert videos to iTunes to play on my iPod.

    | Tags: iPod, Podcasting, record