Getting started

Install

Download StreamTap from ltclabs.dev and run the installer. There's nothing to configure and no audio driver to install — StreamTap uses the loopback capture built into Windows.

Your first recording

1. Start playing whatever you want to record.
2. Open StreamTap.
3. Pick a format — MP3 (smaller) or WAV (uncompressed). MP3 at 192 kbps is the default and is fine for speech and most music.
4. Check Record from. Default follows whatever Windows is playing through; if you have more than one output — headset, speakers, a monitor — pick the one the sound is actually coming out of.
5. Press RECORD. The timer starts and the green System meter moves in time with the audio.
6. Press PAUSE if you need a break. The paused stretch is left out of the file entirely, and the timer shows how much you have actually recorded.
7. Press STOP when you're done. StreamTap writes the file and the status bar shows its name.

If the System meter doesn't move while audio is playing, see No audio was captured.

Where recordings go

By default: Music\StreamTap in your user folder. Change it with the ... button next to Save to — StreamTap remembers it, along with your format, bitrate and chosen devices, next time you open it.

Once a recording is saved, Open folder takes you straight to it.

StreamTap never writes over a file that is already there. If something in the folder already has the name a recording would take, it saves alongside it as _2 instead.

Files are named StreamTap_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.wav (or .mp3) — the date and time the recording stopped. If you asked for the microphone on its own track, a second file sits beside it with _mic on the end. A recording long enough to be split arrives as _part1, _part2 and so on — see Long recordings.

While recording

• The format, bitrate, save location, device pickers and microphone toggle all lock while a recording is running. Stop the recording to change them.
• StreamTap stays on the device it opened when you pressed RECORD. If you switch output devices mid-recording, restart the recording.
• Closing the window while recording asks whether to save first. Choose Yes and StreamTap finishes writing the file before it closes.

Related

• Recording
• Output formats and quality
• Recording your microphone