Record audio from web page and upload to server

Question

From a web page, I'm looking to record audio from the user's microphone and then upload the file to a server to be stored as an MP3. My solution is built using .NET.

Most similar apps that I've seen use Flash on the client and presumably Flash Media Server on the server. We don't have the kind of budget for FMS. I'm looking for a free/open source solution.

I've also looked a bit at Silverlight 4 since it supports recording WAV audio but I'm not clear on how to tackle the uploading and encoding to MP3 bit.

Ultimately, I need to record audio from the microphone and then be able to store the file on the server as an MP3 file. Free (or at least cheap) is required.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use the free Red5 server instead of Flash Media Server - here is a tutorial how to record audio and video with it: http://mariofalomir.com/blog/?p=101

Answer 2

I was considering using Silverlight as well but for me the problem was I didn't want to require that the user have whatever version of .Net installed. So I chose ListenUp from Javasonics.com -- and instead am having to rely on a functional Java available to the user's browser, and also am relying on the user to Accept running the applet, when prompted with a popup. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Anyways, as far as encoding on the server side I rolled my own python CGI script that converts (in my case, Speex to WAV (using speexdec), and then WAV to MP3 (using lame) and WAV to OGG (using oggenc). After the fact, I saw http://encoding.com, which has a pay-as-you-go / pre-pay account option.