Audacity is a free and multi-track audio recorder which can help you record computer audio with high sound quality. This free audio recorder allows you to capture any audio on your computer and then save it in AC3, M4A/M4R (AAC), WMA or other formats based on your need. It also carries some basic editing functions like Cut, Copy, Splice and Mix Sounds Together. This part will show you how to record computer audio with Audacity in Windows 10.

Step 1. Download Audacity for Windows. First, you need to go to Audacity official site (https://www.audacityteam.org/) to free download Audacity for Windows on your computer. After downloading, you can follow the on-screen instructions to install and run this free audio recorder.

Step 2. Make sure Windows can recognize microphone. Before recording computer audio, you need to check the playback device and ensure Windows can recognize the microphone. Right-click on the sound or volume icon on the bottom-right corner. Then choose your microphone under audio input devices. During this step, you can also adjust audio input properties to improve the sound quality.

Step 3. Set Audacity to recognize microphone. Then you need to make sure Audacity is set up to recognize your computer microphone. Click the “Edit” option on the menu bar and then choose “Preferences”.

Click on “Devices” from the left menu and then choose “Windows WASAPI” from the drop-down menu. Here you can choose the default device that has been enabled in your sound device settings. For capturing computer audio, you need to ensure the default playback device “Speakers” or “Headphones” is selected, and leave the channel set for 2 Channels. Click “OK” to confirm the operation.

Step 4. Record computer audio. After all these settings, you can start to record computer audio with Audacity. This is a concise toolbar designed in this free audio recorder to give you full control of the audio recording. You can click the “Record” button to start recording computer audio in Audacity. When the audio recording is over, you can click “Stop” button.

Step 5. Preview and save captured audio. Audacity is equipped with many editing features. So after the audio recording, you can edit the captured audio file. If you want to add some sound effects to the recorded audio, you can use the “Effect” feature and then apply the specific effect to it.

When you are satisfied with the audio, you can save it on your computer. Click the “File” option on the menu bar and then choose the “Save Project As” from the drop-down list.

Here you can also click “Export” and then select your preferred output audio format like MP3, WAV, or OGG.

Audacity is an all-featured audio recording tool which can help you capture live audio through a microphone or mixer. It highly supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. What’s more, it offers many editing features and effects to better edit the captured audio and export it in popular audio format. But you have to admit that, Audacity is a little bit difficult for new users to record computer audio.

More reading: https://www.vidmore.com/record-audio/audacity-record-computer-audio/#part2