The level bar never moves. What is wrong?

The browser is listening to a different microphone than you expect, usually a headset or a virtual device. Change the default input in the operating system's sound settings, or in the browser's site permissions, and start again.

How long can a voice recording be?

Up to an hour, kept in memory as it goes. Speech is small, about half a megabyte a minute, so a long take is no trouble.

Voice Recorder

Record from your microphone, listen back, and save or send the take to the audio editor. Nothing leaves your device.

Ready

0:00

Press Start recording

The browser asks for the microphone once. Speak, pause if you need to, and stop when you are done.

About this tool

Records from your microphone and gives you the take to listen to, save, or cut in the Audio Editor, all in the browser. Press Start, allow the microphone the first time, speak, and press Stop. A level bar shows the sound is arriving, echo cancellation and noise suppression are on for speech and can be turned off for music, and the file is written on your device rather than sent anywhere.

How to use it

1Press Start recording and allow the microphone when the browser asks.
2Watch the level bar move as you speak. Pause and resume as needed.
3Press Stop, listen back, then download the file or send it to the Audio Converter for an MP3 or WAV, or to the Audio Editor to trim and fade it.

Good to know

The format is the browser's

Chrome, Edge and Firefox record Opus, in a WebM or Ogg file; Safari records AAC in an M4A. Every one of them plays here and converts in the Audio Converter, which is where an MP3 comes from. The file is read into memory by your own browser and processed there, so it is never uploaded and never reaches a server.

Speech or music

Echo cancellation and noise suppression are the browser's own processing and make a voice cleaner on a laptop microphone. They also flatten music, so switch both off to record an instrument, and use an external microphone if you have one.