Arch Linux

joelk

Member

Registered: 2017-04-16

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] Audacity: can't record from browser?

audacity 1:3.2.4-1  ffmpeg 2:5.1.2-1  alsa-lib 1.2.8-1  pulseaudio 16.1-3  linux 6.1.9.arch1-2

Is Audacity working for anyone for recording audio streaming from a browser?  I think I have accurately followed this tutorial https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tut … linux.html except that pulse is not listed as a recording device.  Neither is "default".  I have default: Line:0 / default: Line:1 / sysdefault: Line:0 / sysdefault: Line:1 but none of those seem usable for recording anything.

I haven't changed anything in Audacity preferences as the tutorial https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/aud … ation.html doesn't suggest anything needs to be done to recognize pulse.  Am I missing somethiing?

Last edited by joelk (2023-02-10 04:44:18)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,919

Re: [SOLVED] Audacity: can't record from browser?

The pulse ALSA module is part of alsa-plugins but people normally shift the entire ALSA stack to pulse by installing pulseaudio-alsa that has this dependency as well.

joelk

Member

Registered: 2017-04-16

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Audacity: can't record from browser?

Thank you ... and that is the solution.  I installed pulseaudio-alsa, restarted pulseaudio and now both pulse and default show up in audacity as recording devices and it "just works".

I notice that the Arch Wiki on pulseaudio https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio mentions that pulseaudio-alsa "must be installed separately if needed".  Unfortunately it doesn't make clear when it is needed.

Last edited by joelk (2023-02-10 04:49:18)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,919

Re: [SOLVED] Audacity: can't record from browser?

It's needed when a application only supports the ALSA and not the pulseaudio API directly, as is the case here. There aren't that many tools that still fall into that category, but audacity is a common one.