Reading Radar

Here’s a secret: the reason I’m spending so much time lately on this whole recording SL voice thing is that I still get a lot people clicking on links to a post I used to have on the topic that somehow got lost when I migrated my blog from wordpress.com to my own host. I’m not really sure I’ve reproduced the information I had in that post.

Because of that, and because I’ve posted some stuff that doesn’t really neatly wrap up the options, this will be my last and most summarizing post on the topic. Without further ado, if you’re a Mac owner and you want to record voice conversations from within second life, here are some of the options that I’ve used in the past or present, and possibly the future.

1. Ubercaster.

This application is really intended as a podcasting app, and it’s brilliant at it. Sure, guys like Sigler will poo-poo it’s sound quality, but I don’t think he’s used it lately (it’s greatly improved since 1.0 days) and he’s also probably making the mistake of using the built-in mp3 converter. I don’t know WHY, but apps that use the LAME converter are always readily apparent to my ears. I export as AAC and convert to mp3 in iTunes. Why that sounds better, I don’t know. It does.

With Ubercaster, it’s really simple. Add a Mic panel for your mic. Add an audiochat panel. Now open the Second Life Voice Chat prefs, open the device settings, and set the input device to Ubercaster Out, set the output device to Ubercaster In, and you’re done. Click record in Ubercaster and head off to Ahern to record hours of yammering idiots with no purpose in life and way too many recreational pharmaceuticals in their medicine cabinets.

2. Wiretap Studio.

In the case of Wiretap Studio, you’re just going to let it grab your mic input and all system audio output, and record that. Unfortunately you’ll find that it’s mixed it all into one nice lovely track, which makes editing a bitch if you need to cut out yourself talking over your guest or whatever, or if you simply need to adjust levels easily.

But it’s easy, and it works. Just configure it as shown below, with Mac Audio and whatever your mic is called as inputs to the recording. Then record. Really. Go ahead, I’m not stopping you.

3. Audio Hijack Pro.

I include AHP because it is a good program, and mainly because I used to use it. But there’s one thing I don’t like about how it captures system audio. It requires installation of another program called Soundflower. In theory, soundflower is a cool, free app that lets you route sounds all over the place from one source into whatever target you want. In practice I’ve found it somewhat flaky, and in fact some programs like iShowU that use it have been known to not reset the system audio routing back to the way it was before the app was run, or they don’t capture the system audio in the recording, or whatever. Personally, I advise other options instead of anything that relies on soundflower.

Anyway, you’ll have to do the same as with Wiretap Studio, just set the device to capture to system audio.

As for capturing your mic along with that, I know it’s easy to do if you’re hijacking an app, but I can’t remember how easy it is if you’re capturing all system audio because I didn’t want to install the soundflower kernel extension just to take a picture of how the setup looks. Sorry. Again, if you already have this product, then experiment, and I’ll be happy to update this post with your findings, and if you don’t have it, get Wiretap Studio instead. Or keep reading for my final option.

4. Wiretap Anywhere plus your favorite recording application.

This option is really cool because if you like to edit stuff in Garageband, let’s say, but you’re frustrated with its inability to capture skype conversations or SL voice chats, anger no more. Now you can. Or you can use this with Ubercaster to capture all SL sounds and voice by routing all Mac Audio into ubercaster, OR you can use the voice chat panel in ubercaster to get the voice chat, as described in option 1, and then use this to route SL sounds (everything besides voice) onto a separate track in Ubercaster. Nice, huh?

To use this with Garageband, you’d set up a device in WTA for all system audio.

Then you’d open up Garageband, and in preferences, on the Audio/Midi tab, set up the Audio Input to use the WTA device you created for system audio.

Finally, add a new track, choose “Real Instrument,” and then in the track info pane, set the input source to your WTA device that’s set up to capture system audio. Then record. Yay.

To use with Ubercaster, add another mic panel, and set its audio source as the WTA device that’s set to capture system audio.

If instead you’d like to capture the SL voice as in option 1, with the voicechat panel, and then also capture the other SL sounds to a separate track, then just set up ubercaster as per option 1, then create a device in WTA that captures SL audio, and then back in ubercaster add another mic panel that uses that WTA device as the audio source.

Isn’t all this amazing?! Aren’t you glad you came back for MORE TALKING ABOUT RECORDING VOICE IN SL!?! DON’T YOU WONDER HOW MUCH A FLAMETHROWER COSTS, HUH?!!!!?

Ok, well, that’s it on this topic. This goose is cooked, this train is derailed and down the mountainside, and this bomb’s been dropped in the Nevada desert. Now it’s time for you to enjoy how easy my little pretty pictures will make your life when it’s time for YOU to record voice in SL.

Doitashimashite, avatar-san.

Other posts on this topic by me:

More SL Voice Recording Fun on the Mac

SL Voice the Ubercaster Way

Recording Voice in SL - Repub