How to record internal system audio?

[Ichneumon]

So, I have a computer and I want to record some things that come out of the speaker. How do I do this? The computer runs Windows Vista and I don't have a microphone (although I could get one, if I needed too, but it seems pointless, as I only want to record what the computer is already playing).

Can anyone help?

[Quincunx]

FRAPS does it whether you want it to or not :smallyuk: but that's a video capture program and a resource hog. Point is, you certainly don't need a microphone.

[Ichneumon]

Never mind, I found a way to do it, (on my mac).

[Mauve Shirt]

Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) works, if you go into preferences and set it to record stereo mix.
Glad you solved the problem though.

[factotum]

You can generally record *any* sound played from a PC--you just have to specify which recording source to use in your sound properties. That used to be quite easy on XP (you'd just open the volume control, select Recording, and then check whichever sound you wanted the recording device to hear--by default that was the microphone, but you could set it to anything else if you wanted), but I'm not sure how that works in Vista.