[Solved!] Can I Record YouTube with Audacity? How to Do It?

Q: I've been using Audacity for a while. Now all I wish to do is record the sound (music) from YouTube videos. I've read several articles on how to do it in the Audacity but still ended up with much confusion. Can you provide a step-by-step instruction?

A: Audacity does have the ability to record YouTube streaming audio, but due to different audio hosts and recording/playback devices, many people often get confused in the operation and make a mess. If you are also tired of this, just follow the detailed and illustrated steps below to record YouTube with Audacity.

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Step 1. Make Sure You Upgrade the Audio Card Driver to the Latest Version. Click the Windows button in the lower-left corner, search for Device Manager and open it.

Double-Click on Sound, video and game controllers, right-click on Realtek High Definition Audio, then select Update Driver Software.

Step 2. Enable Stereo Mix in Recording Devices. Many people don't see this option. This is because Windows often opens the microphone inputs by default and hides the Stereo Mix, which can be enabled by the following steps.

1) Right-click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner, select Open Sound Settings (For Windows 7, select Recording devices directly), click on the Sound Control Panel on the right, and click on the Recording tab.

2) Right-click in the blank space and check Show Disabled Devices. Stereo Mix will appear.

3) Right-click on Stereo Mix, select Enable, and finally, disable other options.

After the above preparations are completed, proceed to the following tutorial.

Since the latest version of Audacity v2.3.2 includes the LAME MP3 encoder and if you want to convert YouTube to MP3, you’d better upgrade Audacity to the latest version. You can download the latest version form the official website: https://www.audacityteam.org/

Now let us take a look at the detailed steps for Audacity record from YouTube.

Step 1. Run Audacity and click on the menu bar Transport > Transport Options to remove all checkmarks.

Step 2. In the Audio Host section, select Windows WASAPI; in the Recording Devices section, select Stereo Mix (Realtek High Definition Audio); in the Recording Channels section, select Stereo.

Step 3. Visit YouTube, find the video you want to record and start playing.

Step 4. Return to Audacity, click the red record button, and click the Stop button to finish recording. Then proceed to further editing according to your needs.

Learn More: Stereo to Mono | Normalize Audio | Audio Fade Out

Step 5. When you're done, click on File > Export in the top left corner to export the recorded MP3 audio file.

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