Recording streaming audio with Piezo

There are tools to download audio and video. There are tools for converting between formats. And there are tools for splitting and joining files. So, what’s the correct tool for capturing audio when you can’t download it?

While there are several tools to handle the job such as QuickTime and Audacity, if you want the quick click option, Piezo by Rogue Amoeba is the best choice.

Piezo is capable of capturing system audio generated from a specific device or application. For example, you can capture audio from Safari and Firefox independently. This avoid system dings and notifications.

Or you can capture from another application such as Teams, Discord, or Slack.

That last one needs permission from the participants, let’s not overlook that.

But, there are plenty of Live streams on YouTube where the music plays in a loop, and the stream has been running for several days. With Piezo, it’s possible to capture that audio so you can listen to it offline.

Within Piezo, select the Source, which is either an application or device. For this use case it would be whichever browser is streaming the music. Then, select the audio quality, format (MP3 or AAC), and enter a filename. That’s all the configuration you need, so click Record in Piezo, click Play in the browser and the audio is captured. As they say in those wacky commercials, it’s just that easy.

You can tell Piezo is working by the festive analog meters on the panel.

To finish the audio, simply click to turn off the Record button. The saved file is ready for playback.

If you want more power and flexibility, there is Audio Hijack, which is an amazing piece of software. It goes far beyond capturing audio, by allowing you to capture, route, and enhance audio both from software and devices, and does it in real time. It’s more for broadcasting, but has some fantastic audio capture features. However, that’s a discussion for another day.

If you’re in the situation where you want to capture some audio, but tools like Downie, 4K Video Download, Vidjuice, or Cisdem, aren’t working for you, the easy to use but powerful Piezo will get you sorted out.