Quick Audio Recorder

Quick Audio Recorder is a minimalist, yet powerful tool for Windows to quickly record audio from your microphone, system audio (loopback), or both simultaneously.
It sits quietly in your system tray and is always ready with a single click or global hotkey.

Contributing

If you've forked this and built something useful on top, PRs are very welcome. Same goes for bug reports, open an issue, even if it's just "doesn't work on my machine, here's what I tried."

A few things I'd find handy but haven't gotten around to: Linux/macOS support, more export formats, a proper config file instead of the current settings dialog. But honestly, anything you think makes the tool better is fair game. Keep it small and focused so it's easy to review.

Before opening a larger PR, please check CONTRIBUTING.md for what's in scope and what to include.

Features

My favourite use case 💖

Quickly recording audio and pasting it anywhere, e.g. into Anki cards.
(Files can be set to auto-delete, so nothing stays on disk, the clip just lands in your clipboard.)

Anki-Showcase.mp4

Settings Showcase

• Capture Tracks: Build your own track list — add as many tracks as you like, each configured independently as a kind:
  • 🎤 Input Device: Record a microphone (or any input device).
  • 🖥️ Output (System Audio): Record what you hear from a chosen speaker/loopback device.
  • 🎯 Application: Isolate and record audio only from a selected application (e.g., Discord or Firefox) without capturing background system noises, powered by WASAPI Process Loopback.
• Simultaneous Capture (mic + system/app): There is no separate "Both" mode to pick. Microphone and system/app audio are recorded together simply by adding an Input Device track and an Output (System Audio) or Application track to the list. Every track in the list is captured at the same time.
• Output Modes:
  • 🎚️ Mixed (one file): Combine all tracks into a single file (default).
  • 🗂️ Separate files: Save each track to its own file, named from the track kind or application, e.g. Recording_..._input / Recording_..._output (or the app name), for editing them independently.
• Post-Processing:
  • Auto-Normalize: Lifts the main voice/body of each source before mixing and limits sharp peaks so brief spikes do not bury the recording.
  • Clipboard Integration: Automatically copies the file (or file path) to your clipboard.
  • Clean Workflow: Option to move the file to a temp folder and copy it, keeping your desktop clean.
• Control:
  • Global Hotkeys: Start/Stop recording from anywhere (e.g., Ctrl+Alt+R).
  • Tray Icon: Left-click to toggle recording immediately.
  • Visual Feedback: Tray icon changes color when recording.

Installation

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download QuickAudioRecorder.exe.
3. Run it! (No installation required).

Usage

1. The Settings window opens immediately upon launch.
2. Add one or more Capture Tracks (Input Device, Output (System Audio), or Application).
3. Choose your Output Folder, Format, Sample Rate, and Output mode (Mixed or Separate files).
4. Set your Hotkeys and Tray Icon Behavior (optional).
5. Close the settings window to minimize to the tray.
6. Left-click the tray icon or use your configured hotkey to start recording. Click again to stop.

Development

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• Install dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Core libraries include soundcard, soundfile, proctap (for WASAPI loopback isolation), psutil, and PyQt6.

Testing

This project follows Test-Driven Development (TDD) for core audio logic. To run the test suite:

pytest tests/

Build from Source

To create the standalone executable:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --noconsole --onefile --name QuickAudioRecorder main.py