Hey all,
This isn’t actually music production related, but this did seem like a good place to pose my question:  So, early this morning I heard a disembodied voice in my house and I wanted to try audio recording in my house overnight to see if it happens again (and if it’s actually real)—I know there are free downloads online to be able to record thru the computer mic but I want to use something good and trusted.  Does anyone have any suggestions for freely downloadable software that I could use with my Dell laptop mic??

Thanks in advance!

edit:  something that would show when sounds were detected would be ideal, like those soundwave graph thingies, so I wouldn’t have to listen to a whole night’s recording of zilch

Audacity is free.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

You then, once you have installed fix the settings for recording and playback etc

dimutech - 19 December 2012 02:11 PM

Audacity is free.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

You then, once you have installed fix the settings for recording and playback etc

Oh awesome, this is going to be perfect, thanks so much!!!  Hope you’ve had a good holiday, happy 2013 :D

I just have to make another reply, in case this free product interests anyone else—Audacity is GREAT!!  It did exactly what I wanted:  I left my computer on overnight, recording the sound in my house thru my laptop mic (you can even set it to activate only when noise reaches a certain decibel level), and in the morning I was able to see the whole night’s recording as a sound-wave-type graph which enabled me to zoom in on portions that showed activity and listen to them.  Lots of other bells and whistles that I’m sure would be useful for recording artists, too.  Great software to have!!!  Thanks again, dimutech

So glad it was useful. I learnt of this software from Computer Music magazine. Best wishes for 2013. Hope you record some cool sounds.