ripping streaming audio

brianfisher · Nov 26, 2008

I spotted a utility a while back that will record any audio that's currently streaming through my Mac - but I can't remember what it is. Anybody know?

lifeafter2am · Nov 26, 2008

For internet radio I use XStreamRipper, but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

louishen · Nov 26, 2008

You may mean audio hijack

Rogue Amoeba | Move From Audio Hijack

Mitcherooney · Nov 26, 2008

Another possibility - Wiretap Pro

Cheers M

walkerj · Nov 26, 2008

Audio Hijack and Wiretap are both excellent tools to record streams because the results are great, and there is no way for the streaming source to know that you are recording it. Far as they're concerned, you're just another listener. They like that.

"Stream rippers", on the other hand can be detected by the streaming source with anti-ripping software, and they dislike this much to the point of banning you from listening, much less recording.

I've used Audio Hijack to record literally thousands of songs. Granted it's a lot of work since once you make the recording you have to chop it up, encode it, and tag them but it has worked well for me.

lifeafter2am · Nov 26, 2008

walkerj said:
Audio Hijack and Wiretap are both excellent tools to record streams because the results are great, and there is no way for the streaming source to know that you are recording it. Far as they're concerned, you're just another listener. They like that.

"Stream rippers", on the other hand can be detected by the streaming source with anti-ripping software, and they dislike this much to the point of banning you from listening, much less recording.

I've used Audio Hijack to record literally thousands of songs. Granted it's a lot of work since once you make the recording you have to chop it up, encode it, and tag them but it has worked well for me.

Explain to me how they do this, as the stream ripper just acts like a normal client listening in on the stream. Especially the more advanced ones that allow you to change things such as reported listening agent and such. I have literally been ripping streams for at least the past 5 years, and never once been kicked or banned from an internet radio station. Considering that you are pulling no more bandwidth than any other listener anyway, I can't see why they would care.

I guess it would depend on the station, but I still fail to see how they would know. The end-to-end connection would be no different. The only way they could tell would the the reported listening agent, which as I mentioned could be changed.

Again, just curious where you got this information from.

walkerj · Nov 26, 2008

Well, it's always kind of been a cat and mouse game between the writers of stream ripper software and the people running the streaming radio stations. I haven't done much recording in the most recent past, but back when I was I frequented the forums of the radio station I was recording. In those forums the GM stated as much that he had scripts and other techniques to determine that one was ripping the streams and that you'd be barred from the station if you did that. I don't recall exactly what the mechanism used, but it's definitely something that the stations don't care for, and measures to ban your IP would be taken.

I think one of the primary ways they would tell is if you had multiple connections to their shoutcast server from the same IP which indicated that someone was recording multiple streams. Also there might have been some client ID indicators or some other mechanisms they could use to tell, but perhaps that isn't the case so much anymore.

I never worried about being detected recording since AHP does everything on the client side, and of course as far as they're concerned I am indeed just another listener connected to their stream. Though I did worry a few times about this script I wrote which did an HTTP connection to their main website to grab the artist, title, and album of whatever they were playing and stuck it into a text file so that when I busted out the songs it would be easier to tag them. It connected to their server every 10 seconds on the dot and was always worried that the web admin might go 'hmm, why is this IP connecting and doing a GET every 10 seconds?' especially when I forgot to kill that process and let it run for days but apparently they never caught on to that subtlety.

I know that the main advantage of using an actual stream ripper as opposed to just recording is that the former will bust up the songs into individual mp3 files for you based on detecting silences between songs, but lots of stations crossfade tracks or spoke over the intro/fadeout. I got past that technique by doing my own editing (some songs have ridiculously long fadeouts which I find unnecessary, so I put in my own; sounds real good on shuffle.)

Yeah, lots of work, but it's a labor of love. Especially for my preferred genre of music ('80s UK alternative rock, stuff you can't find anywhere else.)

lifeafter2am · Nov 26, 2008

walkerj said:
Well, it's always kind of been a cat and mouse game between the writers of stream ripper software and the people running the streaming radio stations. I haven't done much recording in the most recent past, but back when I was I frequented the forums of the radio station I was recording. In those forums the GM stated as much that he had scripts and other techniques to determine that one was ripping the streams and that you'd be barred from the station if you did that. I don't recall exactly what the mechanism used, but it's definitely something that the stations don't care for, and measures to ban your IP would be taken.

I think one of the primary ways they would tell is if you had multiple connections to their shoutcast server from the same IP which indicated that someone was recording multiple streams. Also there might have been some client ID indicators or some other mechanisms they could use to tell, but perhaps that isn't the case so much anymore.

I never worried about being detected recording since AHP does everything on the client side, and of course as far as they're concerned I am indeed just another listener connected to their stream. Though I did worry a few times about this script I wrote which did an HTTP connection to their main website to grab the artist, title, and album of whatever they were playing and stuck it into a text file so that when I busted out the songs it would be easier to tag them. It connected to their server every 10 seconds on the dot and was always worried that the web admin might go 'hmm, why is this IP connecting and doing a GET every 10 seconds?' especially when I forgot to kill that process and let it run for days but apparently they never caught on to that subtlety.

I know that the main advantage of using an actual stream ripper as opposed to just recording is that the former will bust up the songs into individual mp3 files for you based on detecting silences between songs, but lots of stations crossfade tracks or spoke over the intro/fadeout. I got past that technique by doing my own editing (some songs have ridiculously long fadeouts which I find unnecessary, so I put in my own; sounds real good on shuffle.)

Yeah, lots of work, but it's a labor of love. Especially for my preferred genre of music ('80s UK alternative rock, stuff you can't find anywhere else.)

Ok yeah, if you have multiple connections open that could flag, I understand that. Most of the stations I listen to only put out a single stream, or I will usually only rip one at a time. I have done what you do with Sirius radio before, but it was way too much of a hassle, especially when streamripper did just fine for me, and the other stations (Lush, Groove Salad, etc.) had a wider range of music anyway.

hughvane · Nov 26, 2008

brianfisher said:
I spotted a utility a while back that will record any audio that's currently streaming through my Mac - but I can't remember what it is. Anybody know?

Could it have been FStream? It's what I use if/when I occasionally want to record streaming radio.