Last Recorder

Audio recording is one of the basic activities that can be performed, and enhanced by a computer. This can be done both with a connected microphone, or via specific drivers for speaker sound. What’s more, you can even record online radio stations, and proof are applications like Last Recorder.

Above everything, portability comes as a major increase in practicality, meaning you don’t have to go through a setup process to make it work. Another consequence is that it doesn’t bind itself to any system registries, thus not affecting the functionality of the target PC.

The visual design leaves a bit more to be desired, with rough panels, and robust buttons. On the other hand, this simplicity makes it easy to understand, even by inexperienced individuals. Among other requirements, a mandatory one are your Last.fm account credentials, since it’s the source of the whole operation. All settings can be saved so you don’t have to edit them for each session.

A drop-down menu lets you select the location to save the new recording, which only comes under the form of an MP3 file. Apart from destination, you also get to specify the file name, but there’s a catch, because you can filter for automatic naming according to file specific tags like artist, my radio, loved tracks, and such.

Putting the recording in motion is done at the press of a button, and so is saving, with the application automatically generating an MP3 file when the recording session is stopped. Additional options include stripping whitespaces from the file name, skip existing tracks, or format the font in order to be compatible with Windows default characters.

Bottom line is that TV and radio have both evolved through the PC. You can’t always be there for the show, considering the abundance of tasks and little time to finish them. This makes even simple applications like Last Recorder practical, letting you listen to headlines of interest whenever time is on your side.