Record game melodies in MP3 format

April 01, 2010 • Updated: Mar 08, 2025 - 04:02 AM

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A few weeks ago we received a question about how to record MP3 music from games played with the Atari800Win PLus emulator.

Well, as we mentioned at that time, there is no direct way to obtain the music in question.

However, one of the options is tocapture herdirectly from thesound cardand it is the one we detail below.

Download and install the Audacity program

Audacity is a program ofaudio editing open source(free in good Christian) and that will serve our purpose well. You canlowerthe latest versionfrom this address

Once the program is downloaded, we give itdouble clickto the file. Next, we are shown thewizardthat will guide us in theinstallation process

We suggest installing it on the pathC:\Program Files\Audacity

A few more screens and we are confirmed that the process ofinstallation completedsuccessfully.

Additionally, we will be consulted about thelanguagewhat we want to work on.

Finally, themain program screen. Let's leave it there for the moment.

Adjusting the volume controls

In order for Audacity to record the melody of the game that we run in the emulator, we first have toadjustthevolume controlsin Windows. To do this, we go to the lower right corner of ourWindows Desktop. Next to the clock, we can see theiconof atalking

We double click on that icon. By default, we are shown the volume controls ofReproduction. In our case, we need to adjust those that correspond toRecording

Open the menuOptions, selectPropertiesand on the next screen, chooseRecording. In the bottom menu, we mustcheck the boxesStereo mix, Mono mix, Aux, CD player and Line in. Press the buttonAccept

In the controls that are shown to us, check the box forStereo mixand as regardsInput line, raise the volume slightly below the middle of the bar. We close the window.

With this, we will allow thatAudacityrecord the sounds that are played on our computer. By the way, at this point, we recommend that youclose any programthat can cause sounds to leak through and taint your recording. This includes email and instant messaging programs.

Recording audio in Audacity

Let's go back to the Audacity window. In the upper parttop left, below the menu bar, we see aseries of buttonssimilar to those of any player. Of these, we are interested in knowing that theredIt is forENGRAVEand theyellowforARRESTthe recording.

Without further ado, press the red button. In parallel,load and runin your emulatorAtari800Win PLusthe game you want to record themelody. Once you do this, you will see in the Audacity window how the music is being recorded.

When we have recorded everything we want, simplywe stop recordingby pressing the yellow button.

The wavy lines correspond to the sampling that Audacity has performed of the recorded melody. As you can imagine, the ruler shown just above corresponds to the seconds of duration of our recording.

Download and install the LAME library

As a preliminary step to recording our favorite melody as a file inMP3 format, Audacity will need asmall programadditional. This is theLAME bookstore, which you candownload - freealso-from this address

Since it is a zip, you mustcreate a folder and unzip itthere. We suggest you create a route like "Lame for Audacity" so that it won't be difficult for you to locate it later.

We return to Audacity. We activate the menuEditand we are going toPreferences

We will see a tab that says "File formats". The fourth option reads "MP3 Export Options". We press the button "Search for a bookstore

A window is displayed asking us to locate the file.lame_enc.dll. We simply go to the path where we unzipped the previous package andWe selected it

This brings us back to the Preferences screen. We leave the Bit Rate at 128 and give itAccept

Export recorded audio to MP3

Now we go to the end of the audio we have recorded and give aleft click. Then, without releasing the button,we drag the cursoruntil the beginning of the melody.

Then, we go to the File menu and select the option "Export selection as MP3

Then we assign it afile nameand a location where it will be recorded.

Optionally, we canlabelour file, adding itadditional informationabout it.

According to the length (duration) of the recorded audio, Audacity will show you how the export to mp3 is progressing.

Finally, I suggest youcontribute to the disseminationof our modestAtari culture, uploading these files to sites likeGoEar.comor similar, but always mentioning thecreditsrespective.