How to Record Audio Online and Save It as WAV

To record audio online, open the Voice Recorder, choose your microphone, press Record and allow the mic when the browser asks. Talk, press Stop, and your take appears in the list below. Play it back, rename it, trim the silence off the ends if you like, and download it as WAV (full quality) or as the smaller WebM or M4A file your browser makes.

Everything runs in the browser. The audio never leaves your device, there's no account, and you can do as many takes as you want.

Picking the right microphone

The mic list fills in after you allow the microphone once. Browsers hide device names until then, which is why the first time you only see "Default microphone". Some quick rules:

• Headset or USB mic beats the laptop mic. It's closer to your mouth, so your voice is louder than the room.
• Bluetooth earbuds are a compromise. When the mic is in use, many switch to a low-quality "call" mode. Fine for a voice note, not great for a podcast.
• Phone: the bottom mic is near your mouth when you hold the phone normally, so don't cover it with your hand.

The three clean-up switches

The recorder has three switches that your browser applies while recording:

Noise suppression reduces steady background noise like fans and traffic. Great for speech. It can also eat quiet consonants and music, so turn it off for instruments or singing.

Echo cancellation removes sound coming out of your own speakers. It matters on calls; for a solo recording with headphones, it makes no difference.

Auto volume (automatic gain control) raises quiet parts and lowers loud ones. It keeps a voice note even, but it pumps music and makes room noise rise between sentences. For anything you'll edit later, turn it off and just speak at a steady distance.

Takes, pausing and trimming

Pause keeps the same take going, which is useful when you lose your place or someone walks in. Stop finishes the take and starts a fresh slot for the next one. Takes stack up in the list (newest first), each with its own player, name field and download buttons.

To cut the dead air at the start and the click of the mouse at the end, open Trim under a take. Drag Start and End (they're keyboard-friendly too: arrow keys move 0.1 s), and press Play trimmed part to check it. The trim applies to the WAV download.

WAV or WebM/M4A: which file to download

	WAV	WebM / M4A
Quality	Uncompressed, exact	Compressed, still clear for voice
Size	About 6 MB per minute	About 1 MB per minute
Opens in	Every audio app and editor	Browsers, phones, most players
Trimmed?	Yes	No, it's the full take

Use WAV if you'll edit the recording, send it to someone who works with audio, or turn it into text with Transcribe Audio. Use the compressed file when you just need to send a quick message. Chrome and Firefox make WebM files; Safari on Mac and iPhone makes M4A.

Tips for a cleaner voice recording

1. Distance: about a hand's width from the mic. Closer gets boomy, further picks up the room.
2. Room: soft things soak up echo. Recording in a wardrobe full of clothes sounds silly but works brilliantly.
3. Level: watch the waveform. It should move clearly when you talk without hitting the top all the time.
4. Test first: record five seconds, play them back with headphones, then do the real take.
5. Keep it: takes only live in the open tab. Download the ones you want before you close it.

What to do with your recording next

A voice recording often turns into something else. Make it a video by recording your screen at the same time with the Screen Recorder, get a written version with Transcribe Audio, or turn a written script into a voice-over with Text to Speech if you'd rather not record yourself at all.