[pulseaudio-discuss] Question about using parec

[Achim Frase]

> HI all,
> I haven't found a solution to this as of yet. I have specified the
monitor as the default input in pavuvolumecontrol. If I want to use
parec to record, can someone please give me instructions on how to do
this?
> I want to record in wave 16-Bit 44.1 kHz
> Any help would be apreciated, many thanks!
> Christian

Hello Christian,

I have found a solution on this list.

https://tango.0pointer.de/pipermail/pulseaudio-discuss/2008-February/001287.html

You need to know your monitor device.

To look it up, do the following in a terminal:

$ pactl list | grep monitor

You need to install gstreamer-tools

$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer-tools

example:
gst-launch pulsesrc
device=alsa_output.pci_8086_284b_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0.monitor !
queue ! audioconvert ! wavenc ! filesink location=out.wav

I have noticed that the ogg version saves the sound only in mono.

There are other ways to do it with "pacat" but I wasn't been able to
convert the raw audio file with sox, as it seems it is broken in ubuntu
at the moment.

If someone has a hint for another program to convert the raw audio I
would appreciate it.

Just for completeness I will give you an example how to use "pacat"

$ pacat -r -d
alsa_output.pci_8086_284b_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0.monitor test.pcm

To play the recording do this:

$ pacat test.pcm

I hope this solves your problem.

Regards
Achim