Applescript to automate process of recording Real Player .ram to .mp3 on Mac OS X and putting into iTunes (for Christian Science Bible Lesson podcast)


You may recall that I had shared instructions before about how to record the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson using Real Player, Audio Recorder and Soundflower.

Well, after one more time of forgetting to hit the Audio Recorder Stop button after the Real Player was finished streaming the file, ending up with a 37 minute long recording, comprising approximately 9 minutes of silence at the end, I decided to finally do something about it. This application is the result of that frustration.

This application still requires that you have Soundflower, Real Player and Audio Recorder correctly installed. Click on the link above if you don’t have them yet. Once you’ve installed them, you can download and run the scripts below to automatically record this week’s lesson.

This script automates the previously manual process of:

  1. Change System Preferences > Sound > Input and Output to Soundflower (2ch)
  2. Open Real Player
  3. Open Audio Recorder
  4. Open Bible Lesson URL in Real Player
  5. Click Record button in Audio Recorder
  6. Click Stop button in Audio Recorder after the file finishes (~28:31)
  7. Drag timestamped .mp3 file into iTunes
  8. Quit Real Player
  9. Quit Audio Recorder
  10. Change Sound Preferences back to something that I can actually listen to
  11. Delete original .mp3 file
  12. Get info on file in iTunes
  13. Add Artist, Composer, Title, Album, Genre and Comments
  14. Optionally play in iTunes

This script automates ALL of that. So, without further ado, here it is to download, use and modify if you wish, licensed under Creative Commons. Open Source, free for you to take, modify and use as you like, as long as it is not for commercial uses and you give attribution to me as the original author. Thanks!

Download the script

Click here to download Bible_Lesson_to_MP3_Recorder_Script_1.6.dmg

There are two versions of the script in the .dmg file. The Quiet Version simply has all dialogs turned off. It runs the script without prompting you for any input. It is particularly suited to using with a cron script (example: open Bible_Lesson_to_MP3_Recorder_Script_1.6_quiet.app). The other one has fancy dialog scripts to walk you through the process, also have bonus voice promts. Weeeeee!

The final results of both versions are the same: A 28:50 long mp3 recording sitting in your iTunes, waiting to be listned to and added to your iPod the next time you sync.

Thanks to all the Applescripters on the net who helped me figure things out, particularly how to talk to Real Player using the window 0 identifier.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

AppleScript source code:

Click here to view HTML color coded Applescript

Feel free to add any suggestions or comments below.


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