parecord

The parecord (“Pulse Audio record”) command is a tool that lets you record anything passing through your system's sound system. You can use it to record streaming music, Internet radio interviews, sound effects, and anything else your computer is playing at any given moment. If you can hear it through your computer speakers, you can record it.

As long as you have Pulse Audio installed, you already have the parecord command.

The parecord command counts on you knowing your own computer's audio configuration. This can seem overwhelming if you're not used to how Linux systems categorise audio, and even moreso if you have a computer with a complex audio setup.

The first thing to keep in mind is that there are two basic types of audio happening on your computer: inputs and outputs. In Pulse Audio terminology, these are called sources (inputs) and sinks (outputs). The terms “input” and “output”, of course, are from the point of view of Pulse Audio itself: Pulse Audio can send audio to sinks and receive audio from sources.

Using abcde is as easy as typing in the command:

abcde

As long as your configuration file has been set up, abcde will look at your optical drive for an audio disc to rip, and process the songs. Transcoded files are saved to your current directory.