<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="guide"
id="recording">
<info>
<link type="guide" xref="streams#actions"/>
<link type="guide" xref="configuration#recording"/>
<link type="guide" xref="index#functions"/>
<desc>Save radio songs as MP3 files via streamripper.</desc>
</info>
<title>Recording</title>
<p>Most stations that stream MP3 or OGG music can be recorded. This is
accomplished through the command-line tool <app>streamripper</app>. If you
select a station and press <gui style="button"><key>●</key> record</gui>, a console
window should appear, where streamripper shows its progress.</p>
<p>You can <link xref="configuration">configure the recording tool</link>
according to audio types again. Usually you want to use the <link
xref="config_apps#placeholders"><cmd>%srv</cmd> placeholder</link>.</p>
<section>
<title>Streamripper</title>
<p>There's already a default entry for recording radio stations:</p>
<table shade="rows" rules="rows cols">
<thead> <tr><td><p>Format</p></td> <td><p>Application</p></td></tr> </thead>
<tr><td><p><var>audio/*</var></p></td> <td><p><cmd>xterm -e streamripper %srv</cmd></p></td></tr>
</table>
<p>Streamripper has a few more options of its own:</p>
<steps>
<item><p>To define an exact download directory:</p>
<list> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "streamripper -d ~/Music/ %srv"</cmd></p></item> </list>
</item>
<item><p>Use a specific filename pattern:</p>
<list> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "streamripper --xs2 -D '%S-%A-%T-%a.mp3' %srv"</cmd></p></item> </list>
</item>
<item><p>Just record a continuous stream, for 1 hour, without splitting individual songs from a radio station:</p>
<list> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "streamripper -A -s 3600 -d ~/Music/ %srv"</cmd></p></item> </list>
</item>
<item><p>Pretend to be an audio player (in case recording is blocked):</p>
<list> <item><p><cmd>streamripper -u 'WinampMPEG/5.0' %srv</cmd></p></item> </list>
</item>
</steps>
<p>Whenever you leave out the <cmd>xterm</cmd> prefix, it runs silently in the background.
Common xterm alternatives are <cmd>x-terminal-emulator</cmd>, or <cmd>rxvt</cmd>,
<cmd>gnome-terminal</cmd>, and <cmd>xfce4-terminal</cmd> etc.</p>
<p>See the streamripper(1) man page or its
<link href="http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/faq.php">FAQ</link> for more tips.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>fIcy/fPls</title>
<p>As alternative to streamripper, check out <link href="http://freshcode.club/projects/ficy">fIcy/fPls</link>
for recording ICEcast/SHOUTcast streaming servers.</p>
<p>It can be configured just as easily with:</p>
<steps> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "fPls %pls"</cmd></p></item> </steps>
</section>
<section>
<title>st2_record_helper</title>
<p><link href="https://github.com/axelhahn/st2_record_helper">record_helper.sh</link>
is a bash script that corrects more lookup and HTTP errors (mainly shoutcast
sneak redirects), and provides more useful error messages than streamripper alone.</p>
<p>Place it in the PATH to employ as drop-in wrapper:</p>
<steps> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "record_helper.sh %srv"</cmd></p></item> </steps>
</section>
<section>
<title>Graphical stream recording tools</title>
<p>You can also try a streamripper GUI or graphical
reimplementation:</p>
<list>
<item><p><link href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/stripper/">StreamRipStar</link> (Java), works best per drag and drop; set the DND format to PLS or M3U however.</p></item>
<item><p><link href="http://launchpad.net/streamtastic">Streamtastic</link> (Java), only imports a text entry per drag and drop.</p></item>
<item><p><link href="http://kstreamripper.sourceforge.net/">KStreamRipper</link>, though no current version in distros.</p></item>
<item><p>VLC has built-in recording capabilities.</p></item>
</list>
<p>Which all simplify defining a custom download directory, or how radio
streams are split (between advertisement breaks), and the naming scheme
for resulting *.mp3 filenames of course.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Youtube-DL</title>
<p>The recording settings already have a specific entry for "video/youtube" URLs.</p>
<p>To configure a custom download directory, use:</p>
<steps> <item><p><cmd>xterm -e "cd /media/music ; youtube-dl %srv"</cmd></p></item> </steps>
<p>The <cmd>cd</cmd> trick also works with streamripper, or other tools.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Wget for MOD files</title>
<p>To download audio files from The MOD Archive directly, you can also
define a custom handler.</p>
<steps>
<item><p>Scroll/click on the ⎘ empty row in the recording application list.</p></item>
<item><p>There create a new recording MIME type:</p>
<list> <item><p><var>audio/mod+zip</var></p></item> </list>
</item>
<item><p>Specifiy a command like:</p>
<list>
<item><p><cmd>xterm -e wget %srv</cmd></p></item>
<item><p><cmd>cd ~/Desktop ; wget %srv</cmd></p></item>
<item><p><cmd>curl %srv</cmd></p></item>
</list>
</item>
</steps>
<p>
All MOD file formats (IT, XM, S3M, etc.) are mapped to this generic type specifier.
</p>
</section>
</page>