streamWriter is a free application for windows that plays and records music broadcasted by internet radio stations. The internet radio stations listed in streamWriter may stream songs you know, definitely songs you don’t know, or interesting re-mixes of your favorites. The internet radio stations are free in the sense that FM/AM is free.
Note some radio stations may contain commercials, or be in other languages than your own.
streamWriter features
- Record as many streams as you want at the same time (MP3/AAC)
- Automatically record a wishlist's song when it's playing on a stream
- Player for streams and recorded files
- Track splitting with silence detection
- Function for manual cutting of saved titles
- Tracks are named by a given pattern
- Short songs (ads) can be skipped
- Writing of tags to recorded files
- Script-based postprocessing
- Applying of effects to recorded songs (SoX)
- Integration of different audio encoders
- Scheduled recordings
- Stream browser
- Multilingual
- Can be installed or used in portable mode
- ...and much more!
streamWriter Website Help Donate
This post will cover the installation, recommended settings, and general usage of streamWriter.
Installation
1) Downloading and installing the executable or portable version
Run streamWriter
You will be greeted with some info and a settings wizard.
You can change all settings later.
2) About, License, Thank you dialog
It’s unusual but kinda nice that you see the about dialog first.
Click Close
3) Choose your language
Click Next
4) Save settings location
Choose either option.
The second option to Save data to application path is recommended to make the app portable.
Click Next
5) Choose to search for updates
Leave enabled is fine.
You will have to download and install new versions, which is safer than auto upgrades.
Click Next
6) Select recording folder
Choose the folder (directory) where you want streamed recordings to be saved.
The default under Music is fine.
Click Next
7) Some miscellaneous settings
The defaults are fine.
Click Finish
8) Introduction
Some nice info, but you will probably forget all the words,
so continue on for more screenshots and info
Click Close
9) You now see the full app
Choose a radio stream
1) Filter your desired music by
- Genre - Categorizes the type of music i.e. Country, Rock, etc.
So some trial and error will be required to find what you like.
- Kbps - Determines the quality of the songs being streamed. The higher the better quality, and bigger file size. Note, some music players may not play mp3s with high Kbps (also known as Bitrate).
Choose >= 192 should be a good mix of quality, size, and compatibility
- Type - The file format of the radio stream.
Choose MP3 for greater compatibility.
2) Choose a radio stream
Double click on a radio stream, listed on the bottom right side.
The radio stream will start.
By default, you will not hear anything as the radio stream will only record.
3) Listen to the radio stream
Click the Play button to listen while recording.
Recommended Settings
1) Go to settings...
Click File -> Settings..
2) General Settings
Enable
- Remember streams that were recording on exit
- Remember stream that was playing on exit
So when you restart the app, it continues playing the same radio stream.
3) Recordings
Enable
- Only save whole songs
- Remove saved titles from wishlist (you can add songs to wishlists, ignore lists)
- Overwrite existing file if newer file is larger
- Discard new file if existing one is larger
The last two options should increase the odds of recording a better quality song
4) Filenames
You can change the location where songs are recorded too ie saved too
For greater organization, change the Patterns for filenames of recorded tracks to include the artist as a folder
- Original:
- %streamname%\%artist% - %title%
- Recommend folders by artist:
- %streamname%\%artist%\%artist% - %title%
The defaults on Filenames Advanced and Cut songs are fine.
Note some radio streams do have commercials, of course.
The defaults on Filenames Advanced and Cut songs seem to be ok, but you can always try changing them if needed.
5) Addons
Click and download the addons for
- Support encoding of MP3 using LAME (an encoder)
- Support reading/writing of tags using AudioGenie (a tag writer)
Writing tags to your MP3s allows audio players to display more information about the song, such as Artist, Title, Album, if known.
6) Postprocessing
Post processing is what happens to the song recording after being saved to a file.
- Select MP3 as the format to convert recorded files to,
Which ensures you are only dealing with MP3s, for greater compatibility with audio players.
- Enabled Write tags to recorded songs.
Writing tags to your MP3s allows audio players to display more information about the song, such as Artist, Title, Album, if known.
Note that these settings will only apply to new radio streams. So you will want to remove any of your current radio streams and re-add them. Or choose and set the same settings by right clicking on the radio stream and selecting Settings..
The defaults on the rest of the Settings: Bandwidth, Community, Hotkeys, Advanced, and General are fine.
Manage radio stream
1) While a radio stream is in the play list, and selected, you can use the toolbar button, or right click and apply some options.
If there is a song currently playing which you really do not like,
- Choose Add title to global ignorelist and you will not hear it again.
Each stream can have it’s own recording settings, under Settings..
2) Saved songs
Provides a basic music player.
You may find the music player foobar or the video/audio player videolan useful, but the default windows player is fine too.
3) Title search
Searching for a know title can help you find a radio stream you may like.
You can also right click and add the title or artist to your wish list.
4) Play or Record or Both or Neither
