Have audio record in .mp3 instead of .webm?

Basement
1

I just discovered the audio recorder function, and was trying to play something back, but it seems that in the webm file you can’t scroll through.

I converted it to an mp3 with VLC and it was automatically listed in Obsidian, and then I can use the search bar to scroll through.

Is there a way to automatically have it record the audio in mp3?

Thanks!

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This is why I think webm is the chosen format for audio recordings:

Obsidian is an Electron based app. Electron app bundles a complete web browser: Chromium.

Browsers support mp3 and mp4 media format for playback only.

MediaRecorder API available in browsers doesn’t work with neither of them. Instead, it allows audio/webm and video/webm for audio and video recording.

1 Like
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Ok, I think I understand that. But the webm file doesn’t let me scroll through it, so I’d have to listen to the whole thing, before getting to the part I want.

Is there a way to handle this?

4

Are you unable to scroll/scrobble through the audio file in Obsidian, or outside of it on your device?

On Mac I’m able to scroll through the audio file, I would imagine that applies to all devices but maybe that’s not the case.

You can always ‘download’ the audio file and listen to it in an external audio player to be able to have more control over it :slight_smile:

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Both actually. I’m on Linux (Mint 20.2) and I just tried it in VLC again and I can’t scrobble (is that what it’s called?) there either. It plays it fine, I’m just stuck listening to it through completely, though so far I’d thought that VLC was the Swiss army-knife for all things media.

Am I doing it wrong?

6

I can confirm that, on my Windows 10 PC:

  • within Obsidian, I can scrub through the recorded audio file.
  • the default Windows 10 audio app will play the file but does not allow me to scrub it
  • however, if I open the file in mpv, I can scrub through the file

tldr; on Windows 10 the embedded .webm files in Obsidian are scrubbable; outside of Obsidian the functionality depends on the media player.

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I can confirm the behavior the original poster described, on WIndows 10, where scrolling or seeking really is not functional. I can’t seek (or scroll) within Obsidian, until I allow the whole recording to play. Before playing through the whole recording one time, I can try to move the position of the playing (seek) but it won’t work, and the first time playing just continues. After the whole recording has played through once, then I can seek as I would hope. BUT then if I close and open Obsidian, the state of the recording has refreshed so that I can’t seek any more until playing the file through again once from beginning to end. So essentially the seeking is not functional. Outside Obsidian, for me it’s even worse: if I open a webm file recorded by Obsidian in VLC player, I can’t seek at all even after the file has played through from beginning to end.

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