During last 3 months I am using VDO ninja for all my remote interwiev and podcast recordings. here is my article about it from the blind perspective, focused on accessibility and audio.
Have You Ever Wanted to Record an Interview or Podcast Online? You’ve probably faced a few challenges: How to transmit audio in the highest possible quality? How to connect in a way that doesn’t burden your guest with installing software? And how to record everything, ideally into separate tracks?
The solution to these problems is offered by the open-source tool VDO Ninja.
What Is VDO Ninja
It’s an open-source web application that uses WebRTC technology. It allows you to create a P2P connection between participants in an audio or video call and gives you control over various transmission parameters. You can decide whether the room will include video, what and when will be recorded, and much more.
In terms of accessibility, the interface is fairly easy to get used to — and all parameters can be adjusted directly in the URL address when joining. All you need is a web browser, either on a computer or smartphone.
Getting Started
The basic principle is similar to using MS Teams, Google Meet, and similar services. All participants join the same room via a link. However, VDO Ninja distinguishes between two main types of participants: Guests and the Director. While the guest has limited control, the director can, for example, change the guest’s input audio device (the change still must be confirmed by the guest).
A Few Words About Browsers
VDO Ninja works in most browsers, but I’ve found Google Chrome to be the most reliable. Firefox, for some reason, doesn’t display all available audio devices, and when recording multiple tracks, it refuses to download several files simultaneously.
Let’s Record a Podcast
Let’s imagine we’re going to record our podcast, for example, Blindrevue. We can connect using a link like this:
Looking at the URL more closely, we can see that it contains some useful instructions:
director – Defines that we are the director of the room, giving us more control. The value after the equals sign is the room name.
novideo – Prevents video from being transmitted from participants. This parameter is optional but useful when recording podcasts to save bandwidth.
proaudio – Disables effects like noise reduction, echo cancellation, automatic gain control, compression, etc., and enables stereo transmission. Be aware that with this setting, you should use headphones, as echo cancellation is disabled, and otherwise, participants will hear themselves.
label=Ondro – Automatically assigns me the nickname “Ondro.”
autostart – Starts streaming immediately after joining, skipping the initial setup dialog.
videomute – Automatically disables the webcam.
showdirector – Displays our own input control panel (useful if we want to record ourselves).
autorecord – Automatically starts recording for each participant as they join.
sm=0 – Ensures that we automatically hear every new participant without manually unmuting them.
beep – Plays a sound and sends system notification when new participants join (requires notification permissions).
We replaced director with room. The value must remain the same, otherwise the guest will end up in a different room.
We left label empty — this makes VDO Ninja ask the guest for a nickname upon joining. Alternatively, you can send personalized links, e.g., label=Peter or label=Marek.
The webcam parameter tells VDO Ninja to immediately stream audio from the guest’s microphone; otherwise, they’d need to click “Start streaming” or “Share screen.”
How to Join
Simply open the link in a browser. In our case, the director automatically streams audio to everyone else. Participants also join by opening their link in a browser. If a nickname was predefined, they’ll only be asked for permission to access their microphone and camera. Otherwise, they’ll also be prompted to enter their name.
Usually, the browser will display a permission warning. Press F6 to focus on it, then Tab through available options and allow access.
Controls
The page contains several useful buttons:
Text chat – Toggles the text chat panel, also allows sending files.
Mute speaker output – Mutes local playback (others can still hear you).
Mute microphone – Mutes your mic.
Mute camera – Turns off your camera (enabled by default in our example).
Share screen / Share website – Allows screen or site sharing.
View and change the guest’s input device — if you change it, a Request button appears, prompting the guest to confirm the change.
Change the output device, useful for switching between speaker and earpiece on mobile devices.
Recording
Our URL parameters define automatic recording for all participants. Recordings are saved in your Downloads folder, and progress can be checked with Ctrl+J.
Each participant’s recording is a separate file. For editing, import them into separate tracks in your DAW and synchronize them manually. VDO Ninja doesn’t support single-track recording, but you can use Reaper or APP2Clap with a virtual audio device.
To simplify synchronization:
Join as director, but remove autorecord.
Wait for everyone to join and check audio.
When ready, press Alt+D to edit the address bar.
Add &autorecord, reload the page, and confirm rejoining.
Recording now starts simultaneously for everyone.
Verify this in your downloads.
Manual Recording
To start recording manually:
Open Room settings menu.
Go to the Room settings heading.
Click Local record – start all.
Check PCM recording (saves WAV uncompressed).
Check Audio only (records sound without video).
Click Start recording.
Important Recording Notes
Always verify that all guest streams are recording.
To end recordings safely, click Hangup for each guest or let them leave.
You can also toggle recording for each guest under More options → Record.
Files are saved as WEBM containers. If your editor doesn’t support it, you can convert them using the official converter.
Reaper can open WEBM files but may have editing issues — I prefer importing the OPUS audio file instead.
Recommended Reading
In this article, I’ve covered only a few features and URL parameters. For more details, check the VDO Ninja Documentation.
Announcing AudioCapture. A win32 application to capture audio from a process and save it to an audio file. Full disclosure: This was written with Claude Code. Why? Because I'm not an experienced c++ programmer, however I saw an idea for an app and no one else was going to write it, so I did it myself this way. The full code is available, so if you wish to contribute, feel free. Download: github.com/masonasons/AudioCap… Code: github.com/masonasons/AudioCap…
Audio Capture 1.2: Add checkboxes to audio process list for easy simultaneous audio capture. Show window titles in the process list for processes that have windows. Add a checkbox for filtering by processes that are actually producing audio. Update readme. github.com/masonasons/AudioCap…
AudioCapture 1.3: Include microphone audio, capture multiple processes to the same file, route audio from applications to a different audio device, more. github.com/masonasons/AudioCap…
Out of curiosity, is this the Microsoft sample or something you whipped up yourself? My use case is REAPER personally, so this is purely just curiosity. @jaybird110127
@jcsteh @jaybird110127 it was something Claude code, with a fuck lot of prompting and the microsoft sample and literally 4 hours of debugging, whipped up.
@jcsteh @jaybird110127 so, odds are, something in there is an absolute nightmare. I don't know c++ on that level, but I saw an idea for a cool app that I personally would use, so it happened.
ahaha weird. On 19045 ("Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6396)") - I get it to open the window, but when I hit "start capture" it says briefly "unsupported Windows version" then bails out. I see it's less ideal though so clearly MS improved Windows even in this regard compared to the last win10. Hmm.
Paperback is now over 250 KB (a quarter of a megabyte) of C++ code. And they wonder why I have weekly visits with a highly trained psychologist. Its all C++'s fault, totally not my anxiety or anything.
@ragb I have considered this, yeah, and its a very very long-term goal of Paperback. Then, I can also make a little Rust CLI with clap that'll let me do basically paperback's export option from my Linux terminal.
LB: SaaS is real! it means it's run at a large enough scale that someone who gives remotely a shit carries a pager and fixes it and remotely maintains it
we live in a society, the problem is abusive tech companies running non commodity services with no data portability or real regulations in general. the solution is not computer prepperism (self hosting)! we live in a society.
hyperindividualism temptations come from society not working properly
What if we made our software reliable enough that nobody had to carry a pager and fix it? Then everyone could run their own instance. Mobile phones are already doing pretty well in that regard.
“When the darkness fell on blue In the year of twenty-two The chanting started to ring true The call went out to me and you Join Mastodon Join Mastodon
How could they have ever known Their words were forming sacred tones The ancient forces in the stone The summoning of flesh and bone John Mastodon John Mastodon
John Mastodon, they love their mum They have alt-text written on The tattoo on their arm Of a hairy pachyderm John Mastodon John Mastodon
Join Mastodon x8
The chants grew loud as we watched on The coming of the chosen one They emerged triumphant from The ancient portal of Gargron John Mastodon John Mastodon
Linking people across the earth They lead them to the Fediverse Their admin army show their worth Shouting loudly in their mirth Join Mastodon Join Mastodon
John Mastodon, they’re the one Who takes the corporate socials on They give their code to everyone For every platform you might run John Mastodon Join Mastodon
Join Mastodon x8
Sweating blood and guts and tears And fighting bots and billionaires An artist and engineer With indie songs in his ears John Mastodon John Mastodon
Ditch the birds and book of faces Leave behind the corporations. Tooting old computer cases Open source on all our bases Join Mastodon Join Mastodon
John Mastodon knows all the tricks Of every distro of Linux They stay engaged in politics They fought an army of Fediverse chicks John Mastodon John Mastodon”
lolol I just disabled an extension in my browser which apparently caused a bunch of youtube vids in open tabs to play all at once. I was amid a crowd of many voices telling me of many things, at which point a quick "taskkill /f /im msedge.exe" deathstarred the crowd out of existence. A disturbance in the Force, indeed :P
Hahaha! Be glad it's not your constant companion. There's no way to kill my own head. :D I sometimes wish though. Like, how could you interrupt my thought functions with another? Nope, nope nope. LOL. I sometimes look for sounds and some sites do that, play sounds over each other and all you can do is close the tab and say screw it, before you get a sensory overload or something.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out Like and subscribe and don't forget to ring the bell for notifications.
@jcsteh @KaraLG84 I hate having to even think it, let alone say it. For most of my stuff I don't, but it helps the creator, so you hurt them, particularly smaller ones by not doing so.
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 It's one of those weird ones where I know most people will like/subscribe if I don't say it, but then, it's become such a staple that I do wonder how much it's hurting creators that don't give out the reminder. To what degree you want people who need to be told to subscribe to you in order for them to actually do it is another matter but particularly for small creators I don't think beggers get to be choosers that much :) See also, why are subscribing and pressing the notification bell two different actions anyway :P
@jcsteh @KaraLG84 Subscribing is just personalised notifications, probably videos that youtube thinks the algorithm will like above all others. Tapping 'Options' then 'All' is the bell, and that gives you all notifications from a particular creator.
@jcsteh @KaraLG84 The other thing pressing 'Like' does is fine-tune your video choices youtube will feed you so you hurt both yourself and creator by not using it, unless you're happy with AI slop and not much else, as your next recommendation. I said weeks ago on here that my algorithm on youtube is so extremely finely dialed in, that 95% of the next videos that come up are things I would choose to watch. That is because I press Like on so, so many videos. It genuinely does matter.
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 I am a terrible liker, I will admit. Subscribing, sure, and I will come back to creators I like which also seems to feature in recommendations, but I am the first to admit I tend to forget liking is a thing :)
@jcsteh @KaraLG84 You're not the only one. I can see it from my views. Can have 500 views, but only 50 likes, if even that sometimes, then people wonder why their recommendation feed is utter garbage. That's honestly the reason why. You have to make it good for yourself, it won't do it automatically.
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 I think that is the insidious thing though ... it kinda does for some people. Like, sure, my feed has a bunch of garbage in it, but it also generally has things I like without me needing to scroll too much and I think a lot of people just consider that the standard way of things. Basically, it's not as good as it could be, but it's good enough. And if it's good enough, no need to change anything is there? I forget, is there a hotkey to like videos? On SPotify I've grown fast friend with shift+alt+b :)
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 Meanwhile I just use foo_youtube over here, which can't even like and most of the time isn't signed in unless age restricted, and don't even touch the recommendations feed. But I'm the odd one out. I subscribe to a few channels but primarily just have some playlists I periodically look at with channels in them to view.
@x0 @jcsteh @KaraLG84 Fair enough, though I sincerely think you're missing out on potentially great stuff that you'd never go out of your way to look for, as a result, but each to their own and all that.
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 Well as you said earlier the web interface is terrible, especially when shorts get involved, and I simply don't use my phone. Or have premium.
@jcsteh @KaraLG84 Good ratio here for example. My NI video which is now out of date called 'What to install first' has 58K views, 607 likes. My 'how to format your drive as APFS' has 44K views but 638 likes. A slightly higher like-to-watch ratio, so that tells me that I must have gotten something correct with that. It isn't just inane bullshit, you see? Knowing that, it can help me to decide that hey, this kind of tutorial thing was worth it, should do more. If it had that many views and only say 15 likes, I'd be more concerned.
@FreakyFwoof @jcsteh @KaraLG84 Those tutorials, that are actually well recorded and produced definitely do fill a niche I think, I far prefer a youtube video over a random MP3 in someone's dropbox where the speaker is only in the left track for the entire time, the filename is clearly the Audio Hijack Pro default filename for a source and the music is 5 times louder than the speaker :)
NAS, which is short for Network Attached Storage, is pronounced by many as "Nazz". If you're taking that approach, though, wouldn't it be more correct to pronounce it like "Nuss?" The first A sound in attached isn't the short A, and storage doesn't start with a Z.
I was recently looking at Framework for a new x86 laptop, as I believed the company to be reasonably aligned with my values (e.g. pro-repair, pro-FOSS, pro-humanity). But others have warned me that they are now supporting Hyprland, Omarchy, etc. They support these projects led by people who hold alt-right views, in the name of building a “big tent” coalition.
The problem, however, is that building a “big tent” coalition, by design, requires some form of value alignment.
We support open source software (and hardware), and partner with developers and maintainers across the ecosystem. We deliberately create a big tent, because we want open source software to win.
Just enjoying the present quiet moment on this #SilentSunday nothing much in the plans, just quiet reflections and time with those who matter, and those who need an ear to listen.
Assuming you have a microwave oven, does it have a digital display and buttons, or a number of dials only? Just got a new microwave, with dials as I hate the digital beeps, and a friend was surprised that it had dials and not a screen. Over here I think mine is quite normal and common and it's the type I always get! The "microwave is done" sound also comes from a physical bell, which is nice.
As a blind person, I find that most household appliances fall on a bimodal distribution when it comes to accessibility. You have the cheap stuff with dials and buttons which is perfectly accessible, you have the super expensive stuff with apps and smart speaker integrations (though EU law certainly doesn't do us any good here). THe middle, with touch screens and no internet connectivity, is the most challenging of them all.
@miki Oh yeah, that makes sense. I prefer the tactile and simple mechanical things in everything but my phone and computer, and even then I prefer a clacky mechanical keyboard and physical mouse versus touch screen. Even my sewing machine is as old as I am, with nothing but dials!
I figure the speech controlled ones are super nice when they work flawlessly, and exceptionally a hassle to troubleshoot when they don't.
There are some weird restrictions about that in EU law. I don't understand which devices this applies to specifically, but there's some restrictions on being able to remotely start devices which contain a heating element. Many devices that have an app only let you use it to adjust settings, but the start button has to be pushed on the (inaccessible) screen. Some gadgets don't have this restrictions, so I don't really know when it applies and when it doesn't.
He cometido el error de calcular cuánto llevo gastado en alquiler en mi vida
Sensitive content
y, si he echado bien las cuentas y me he acordado de todo, van 54.000 euros, sin contar suministros ni comunidad ni mudanzas ni fianzas, solo solo la parte de tener un techo
(In March, the New York Times reported that “one of the biggest corporate donors to the #populist #ReformUK party has sold almost $2million worth of transmitters, cockpit equipment, antennas and other sensitive technology to a major supplier of #Moscow’s #blacklisted state weapons agency”.)
I am collecting texts and resources on the "Haitian Revolution" for my Human Rights class and I thought I'd share a few things with you. First of all, this Graphic Novel (online), which helps you understand what happened: "The Slave Revolution That Gave Birth to Haiti" thenib.com/haitian-revolution/
And this short article which also gives an overview - both written by historian Laurent Dubois, who is an expert on the field: aeon.co/essays/why-haiti-shoul…
One of the curl test servers (for SOCKS) had a help text output listing around ten command line options. One of the options it listed was never implemented and thus didn't work. The AI found out and reported.
(See how I cleverly did not mention AI in the title!) You know we have seen more than our fair share of slop reports sent to the curl project so it seems only fair that I also write something about the state of AI when we get to enjoy some positive a…
very nice post, what an adventure! I liked the note on ethics, it is a troubling problem indeed, and complex. Btw, I don't think I could manage receiving 200 bug reports in a week 😂
@pablo_martan Yes, he discussed slob, but in all the cases it was purely machine fabricated and not checked by a human expert. And I think that's what it is all about. If there's a human in the loop, it can be a handy tool. On a side note, the European AI Act also requires humans in the loop for the final check. And back in the days when there were large hopes for decision support systems, people also said they don't work without the humans in the loop. @bagder
@devSJR @pablo_martan I think even more importantly, this new kind of analyzer/AI tools are written for this purpose. This is not Joe Random asking chatgpt questions.
I've been thinking about your post a lot, especially after seeing such tools at my $dayjob. I'm biased due to their ethical impact, but even without it I consider them, on average, harmful. I write code, I make sure it works for my usage, I write tests, I do linters and static analysis, I do a peer review to share the knowledge and get external inputs. And then this thing, supposedly state of the art, goes over my code, mansplains it to me and finds either a false-positive (I wonder who removed false-positives from the lists you've got?), or a nit ("don't forget to add an extra check here!", "The comment is stale!"), or a misguided optimisation possibly introducing new bugs. I spend lots of time thinking over those useless blanket reports that ultimately don't matter because I have empirical evidence that my code works for my use case.
I have seen so called AI tooling generating "helpful reports", but they cannot replace decent tooling and tests. And yet some people replace their LSPs with LLMs :/
@nina_kali_nina all analyzer tools, including compilers, give a certain amount of false positives. I don't think we should expect AI tools to be any different. As long as frequency is manageable and there are decent ways to inhibit them.
The AI tools I've mentioned recently don't seem to have much more false positives than the state of the art static code analyzers we use also do.
I use Ultrasonic which streams from the with the "Music" app on my Nextcloud server. The Nextcloud music app supports both Subsonic and Ampache protocols.
None. I don't use any streaming junk. My music is on vinyls, 8-tracks, tapes, bands, CDs and similar things instead of being online. Yes, it may be old-fashioned and at times less practical, but my music played that way has something that the online "high-quality-umpa-umpa" lacks: soul.
Asking in English in hope that it'll reach more people! I'm french, windows user and unfortunately not playing locally. Do you know of some software a deafie could use to game with her pals? One that could transcript what people say in their mics? Not necessarily free, I'm willing to pay for something that works well.
Asking for a me.
Please, boost so a girl can play with her friends 🥰
The word 'Vrede' jumped out at me from this 'Peace' installation. 'Vrede' is Danish for anger, fury, wrath. I wondered if it was an artistic provocation. But it seemed too confined to chance, that someone who happens to understand Danish happens to see this German artwork. So I looked it up and learned that 'vrede' is Dutch for 'peace'.
Vrede. Peace in Dutch. Wrath in Danish. I wonder if there's a word for words like these, that mean the opposite in different languages.
Krásné dobré ráno mastodonní bando! 🙋♀️🐈🐶 Zítra to bude rok, co odešel taťka. Mamka na dnešek naplánovala výlet na Portáš v Javorníku. Každoročně tam spolu jezdívali na borůvkové knedlíky. Pojede nás hodně. Jedna ze sester bere i tchána s tchýní. Docela nevím, co mám čekat. Prochajdu s Baldínem musím odložit. Vyrážíme ráno, protože sraz je u mamky. No, myslete na mě. Vy si užijte krásnou neděli plnou pohody, dobrot a nicnedělání! 😊 #dobre_rano #dobréRáno
I remember coming home from school and telling my mom Columbus "discovered" America. She told me it was a load of crap, and set me straight. Mom was a hippie who challenged the status quo. At the time, it embarrassed me, I'd get frustrated and just wanted her to be like the other parents. I realized later how lucky I was, and do the same with my daughter. #indigenous #fuckcolumbus #indigenouspeoplesday
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Add a checkbox for filtering by processes that are actually producing audio.
Update readme. github.com/masonasons/AudioCap…
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