How can I record sound from YouTube videos?

Updated: 06/02/2020 by Computer Hope

YouTube logo

If you want to download or capture the audio of a YouTube video, you have a few options. You can use a tertiary-party online service to download the sound and convert it to mp3, or capture the audio with software on your Windows or Mac computer.

Use an online service

Below are steps on how to record audio in a YouTube video using an online YouTube to MP3 conversion service.

Tip

We have found the steps beneath to work best using the Chrome or Firefox browser. If you are using Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer and have trouble downloading the MP3 file, attempt Chrome or Firefox instead.

  1. Get to the YouTube video folio and copy the URL of the video yous want to relieve as an MP3 sound file.
  2. Once the URL is copied, admission the YouTubetoMP3 Converter site.

Notation

The YouTubetoMP3 Converter service is free to use. The site may display ads to pay for their service, but y'all are not required to pay whatever money to utilize information technology.

  1. Paste the copied YouTube video URL into the text box near the top of the page.
  2. Click the cherry Go button adjacent to the text box.
  3. A preview of the YouTube video is displayed. To the right of the preview, click the drop-down carte and select the MP3 quality you want to set for the conversion.

YouTubetoMP3 Converter - MP3 quality selection

  1. Click the red Convert push to brainstorm the YouTube video to MP3 audio conversion.
  2. When the conversion is complete, click the Download button below the MP3 quality drop-downwardly menu.

YouTubetoMP3 Converter - download MP3 file

Capture sound with Brazenness

Audacity logo

If you want to manually record the audio, or just need a segment of the video'due south sound, you tin can apply the costless software Audacity to capture the audio. To proceed, follow the steps below.

Notation

If your computer has an integrated audio card, you'll not be able to download streaming sound. Therefore, the steps in this department volition not work for you. It's best to use an online service, as discussed above, to download audio from a YouTube video.

  1. Download Brazenness from the Brazenness official website.
  2. Once the download is complete, run the setup program and follow the steps to install Audacity on your calculator.
  3. Open Audacity using the shortcut on your desktop, or run information technology from your Start bill of fare.
  4. In the carte du jour bar at the tiptop of the Audacity window, click Edit, then Preferences.
  5. In the Preferences window, in the Devices section, locate the Recording section.
  6. In the Device drop-downwards listing, select the Stereo Mix selection. If Stereo Mix is non bachelor, it is likely disabled. To enable it:
  1. Open the Command Console on your computer and click Hardware and sound, and then the Sound icon in the Control Panel window.
  2. In the Sound window, click the Recording tab, correct-click in a blank space in that tab, and select Show Disabled Devices from the drop-downward menu.
  3. The Stereo Mix device should now exist visible. Right-click that device and select Enable.

Annotation

If the Stereo Mix option is even so not available, it is likely because your computer has an integrated sound carte du jour. Stereo Mix is not available with many integrated audio cards and you cannot download streaming audio from a YouTube video. We recommended trying the online service or YouTube-dl solution instead.

  1. Click OK to save the audio settings change.
  2. If Audacity was open when you enabled Stereo Mix, close and re-open the program. Stereo Mix should now exist available in the Recording Device list.

Tip

You tin select the settings in steps iv and five in the main Brazenness programme window besides. In that location are 4 drop-downwards lists located higher up the middle of the program window. The 2nd driblet-downwardly listing from the left is for the Recording Device (adjacent to microphone icon). Select Stereo Mix in this drop-down list.

Audacity Recording Device setting

  1. While still in Preferences, select ii (Stereo) in the Channels drop-down listing to enable stereo sound.
  2. Click OK when you are satisfied with your settings.
  3. Access the YouTube video you want to record. Unless yous have a fast connection, we suggest getting the video fully loaded (allow information technology to complete the buffering process) before recording.
  4. Once your video is loaded on the YouTube website, click the record push (red circle) in Audacity, and so switch back to the YouTube video and click play. As the video is playing, you'll see action in the audio wave department in Brazenness. When done recording, click the finish button (black square to the left of the record button) in Audacity.

Tip

Doing it this way causes a section at the outset of the sound file to exist blank. To remove this section of blank audio, highlight it by clicking and dragging your mouse, and then press the delete primal on the keyboard. Yous tin can besides enable the Sound-based Recording option in Audacity to eliminate the bare department of sound.

  1. When you take completed your recording, click File, select Export, then select Export equally MP3. Brand sure MP3 Files in selected in the Relieve as type drop-down list. Cull a location to save the MP3 file, enter a file name, and click Save.

Note

For older versions of Audacity, y'all may need to install LAME MP3 file support to save the recorded audio equally an MP3 file. Run across the section beneath for boosted information.

Getting MP3 support for Brazenness

  1. To save the file in MP3 format, yous need to get LAME for Brazenness from the LAME download site. LAME is available for both the Windows and macOS.
  2. Once downloaded, install LAME on the calculator.
  3. When y'all have completed your recording, click File and choose Export. Select MP3 Files in the Save as type drop-down list. Enter a File name and click Save.
  4. Subsequently selecting the MP3 Files type, you may be prompted for the location of the LAME file. Point to the lame_enc.dll file, located at C:\Program Files\Lame for Brazenness if you used the default install location. If you extracted from a compressed file, it's in the extracted folder.

Download audio with YouTube-dl

Youtube-dl and FFmpeg commands

If you use the Windows command line, you can download the audio component of a YouTube video with YouTube-dl, a free, open-source program that downloads streaming sound and video.

For example, you lot can download the audio in m4a format with the command:

youtube-dl -f 140            url

Where url is a web address in the course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID .

Convert to mp3 with FFmpeg

To catechumen the m4a file to an mp3 file, y'all can use the open-source plan FFmpeg. For example, this command:

ffmpeg -i "Input file.m4a" "Output file.mp3"

Would convert the file named Input file.m4a to a new mp3 file called Output file.mp3. In the control in a higher place, the file names are enclosed in double-quotes because they contain spaces.

Running these commands looks similar to the following flick. In this screenshot, nosotros utilise the dir command to verify the mp3 file was created.

YouTube-dl and ffmpeg

For more information, come across Downloading audio with YouTube-dl.