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Resolved Question

is there any software for simply recording FM stations?

by Sep 16, 2014 12:34PM PDT

My radioSHARK no longer works with Mavericks on my iMac, is no longer supported, and there seems to be no help. Are there any replacement free or inexpensive alternates for recording FM programs? There are loads of free things for recording Netcasters, but I want FM.

Discussion is locked

sunier2 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
18 Posts
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Best Answer

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Support? Nah.
by Forum moderator Sep 18, 2014 5:00AM PDT

I take it you tried version 2.0.2 anyway?
Bob

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radioSHARK for recording FM
by sunier2 Sep 18, 2014 8:00AM PDT

V. 2.0.2 is what I've had for some time but it does't work properly anymore since I installed Mavericks. The same with Apple Mail. The latter may work better when I install Yosemite but doubt if radioSHARK will be any better. Amazing there's nothing available!

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And then we go rogue.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 19, 2014 8:12AM PDT

Install Virtual Box, any of the smaller Linux there and http://www.productivity.org/projects/shark/ along with well, you get the idea. I've used that solution to get a few more years out of gear that was left behind.
Bob

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re: radioSHARK for recording FM
by Edouard Boily Jan 1, 2015 4:40AM PST
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Recording FM on a Mac
by sunier2 Sep 20, 2014 4:48AM PDT

I thought I might try a reinstallation of radioSHARK 2.0.2 but all I could find online at Griffen was 2.0.1 and when I tried to open it my iMac said: "Cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer." In spite of having had radioSHARK installed and used for many years!

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(NT) I had to google around to find 2.0.2
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 22, 2014 12:40AM PDT
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Answer
Sony Walkman
by Sep 16, 2014 12:37PM PDT

that might have been before your time though.

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software for recording FM
by sunier2 Sep 17, 2014 4:33AM PDT

What a rude, dumb remark! Before 1936?? It just happens there are now THOUSANDS of FM stations - what the hell is wrong with wanting to record some of them instead of streaming absurdly compressed netcasters?

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This any good?
by Dafydd Sep 17, 2014 4:49AM PDT
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ROFL @ James
by itsdigger Sep 17, 2014 4:35AM PDT
Devil

Digger
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earlier time
by James Denison Sep 17, 2014 11:03AM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman#Cassette-based

The metal-cased blue-and-silver Walkman TPS-L2, the world's first low-cost portable stereo, went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979. In June 1980, it was introduced in the U.S.[10] Also launched in the UK in 1980, it came with stereo playback and two mini headphone jacks, permitting two people to listen at the same time (though it came with only one pair of MDR-3L2 headphones). Where the Pressman had the recording button, the TPS-L2 had a "hotline" button which activated a small built-in microphone, partially overriding the sound from the cassette, and allowing one user to talk to the other over the music. Originally marketed as the "Soundabout" in the U.S., the "Stowaway" in the U.K., and the "Freestyle" in Sweden, Sony soon had the new name "Walkman" embossed into the metal tape cover of the device.

I wish I'd have kept that, but I do have a different make now that still works, I hope, not checked it in years. Tune to a station, hit the record.
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I hear ya
by itsdigger Sep 17, 2014 11:24AM PDT

I just got a chuckle as I realized the response I was going to offer was a reel to reel tape recorder and an FM stereo receiver .... I would have been trounced Shocked

Digger

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yep, and tape is...
by James Denison Sep 18, 2014 12:07AM PDT

....analog, which isn't "compressed". We went "modern" some years ago (decade or more?) we upgraded to a turntable that also had a cassette player in it too. Sort of an "all in one". I believe this is the exact one, but my oldest daughter took off with it, so can't go look to see for sure. It was a present to her anyway when a teen so she could listen to our old LP's. We still have those at home.

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software for recording FM stations on computer
by sunier2 Sep 18, 2014 4:52AM PDT

You're complete wrong. ALL radio stations are compressed, not just the digital ones! Otherwise they would exceed their bandwidth and cause all sorts of trouble. ALL pop recordings are compressed - some terribly so. We live in an absurdly compressed audio world. Except for lossless hi-res audio files that truly are that. In fact some computer speakers now have automatic loudness controls which can't be turned off - which is also a form of compression.

I guess nobody offers a simple software or hardware to record simple FM programs on a schedule when you are not in the office. I have several different ways of doing that with my home audio system and FM tuner - I want something for my iMac. It's absurd that there's nothing!

if you bought a turntable with a cassette player in it it has to be crap. So are the USB turntables for digitizing LPs.

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Was the link I offered no good?
by Dafydd Sep 18, 2014 4:58AM PDT

Dafydd.

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FM
by James Denison Sep 19, 2014 1:26AM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting


Modulation

Frequency modulation is a form of modulation which conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency (contrast this with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant). In analog applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. This form of modulation is commonly used in the FM broadcast band.

The proprietary iBiquity system, branded as "HD Radio", currently is authorized for "hybrid" mode operation, wherein both the conventional analog FM carrier and digital sideband subcarriers are transmitted. Eventually, presuming widespread deployment of HD Radio receivers, the analog services could theoretically be discontinued and the FM band become all digital.

Clandestine use of FM transmitters

FM transmitters have been used to construct miniature wireless microphones for espionage and surveillance purposes (covert listening devices or so-called "bugs"); the advantage to using the FM broadcast band for such operations is that the receiving equipment would not be considered particularly suspect. Common practice is to tune the bug's transmitter off the ends of the broadcast band, into what in the United States would be TV channel 6 (<87.9 MHz) or aviation navigation frequencies (>107.9 MHz); most FM radios with analog tuners have sufficient overcoverage to pick up these slightly-beyond-outermost frequencies, although many digitally tuned radios do not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_transmission

Analog (or analogue) transmission is a transmission method of conveying voice, data, image, signal or video information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that of a variable. It could be the transfer of an analog source signal, using an analog modulation method such as frequency modulation (FM) or amplitude modulation (AM), or no modulation at all.

Some textbooks also consider passband data transmission using a digital modulation methods such as ASK, PSK and QAM, i.e. a sinewave modulated by a digital bit-stream, as analog transmission and as an analog signal.

There are two basic kinds of analog transmission, both based on how they modulate data to combine an input signal with a carrier signal. Usually, this carrier signal is a specific frequency, and data is transmitted through its variations. The two techniques are amplitude modulation (AM), which varies the amplitude of the carrier signal, and frequency modulation (FM), which modulates the frequency of the carrier.[1]

yes, one day you will be completely right, but not quite yet. Wink

As for turntable with an analog vinly LP input to a cassette recorder, the recorder receives the same signal that is sent to speakers, but as a "line in" and the recording to tape is truly analog.
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Recording FM on a Mac
by sunier2 Sep 19, 2014 7:44AM PDT

Nice information on FM broadcasting, but what you're missing is the huge amount of dynamic compression which all pop recordings now have. THAT's the compression I'm talking about. Makes no difference whether it's analog or digital.

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Even when it all was analog
by James Denison Sep 19, 2014 12:23PM PDT

Most of the music even on vinyl and tapes was after it had been electronically manipulated (bass, treble, echo, etc) before the masters were pressed to be used for LP's.

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