Recording And Saving Audio File In Windows 10 Application

<ComboBox x:Name="AudioFormat" Width="250" Height="46" Margin="245,213,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding}" PlaceholderText="Select Audio Format" SelectionChanged="AudioFormat_SelectionChanged" />    
<ComboBox x:Name="AudioQuality" Width="250" Height="50" Margin="245,301,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" ItemsSource="{Binding}" PlaceholderText="Select Audio Quality" SelectionChanged="AudioQuality_SelectionChanged" />    
<AppBarButton x:Name="Record" Margin="620,342,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="Record_click" Icon="Accept" Label="Record" />    
<AppBarButton x:Name="Stop" Margin="772,342,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="Stop_Click" Icon="Accept" Label="Stop" />    
<AppBarButton x:Name="Save" Margin="936,342,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Click="Save_click" Icon="Accept" Label="save" />    
<TextBlock x:Name="Duration" Width="354" Height="98" Margin="671,219,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Text="{Binding}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />    

using System.Threading.Tasks;    
using Windows.Media.Capture;    
using Windows.Media.MediaProperties;    
using Windows.Storage;    
using Windows.Storage.Pickers;    
using Windows.Storage.Streams;    
using Windows.UI.Popups; 

public enum AudioEncodingFormat {    
    Mp3,    
    M4a,    
    Wav,    
    Wma    
}; 

public static class AudioEncodingFormatExtensions {    
    public static string ToFileExtension(this AudioEncodingFormat encodingFormat) {    
        switch (encodingFormat) {    
            case AudioEncodingFormat.Mp3:    
                return ".mp3";    
            case AudioEncodingFormat.Mp4:    
                return ".mp4";    
            case AudioEncodingFormat.Avi:    
                return ".avi";    
            case AudioEncodingFormat.Wma:    
                return ".wma";    
            default:    
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("encodingFormat"); // to show that no format is being selected.      
        }    
    }    
}

private MediaCapture CaptureMedia; // To record the audio in this object    
private IRandomAccessStream AudioStream; // To save audio in this stream so that it can be saved at a particular location    
private FileSavePicker FileSave; // To open the file save picker option    
private DispatcherTimer DishTImer; // For timer and using it    
private TimeSpan SpanTime; // To count the time for which the timer is working    
private AudioEncodingFormat selectedFormat; // Enum type to check for the format    
private AudioEncodingQuality SelectedQuality; // Declaring a pre defined enum to go for quality of audio being caputed.   

protected async override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e) {    
    await InitMediaCapture();    
    LoadAudioEncodings();    
    LoadAudioQualities();    
    InitTimer(); // Initializing the timer      
    
}

// Method for Initializing components for recording and saving audio.      
private async Task InitMediaCapture() {    
    CaptureMedia = new MediaCapture();    
    var captureSettings = new MediaCaptureInitializationSettings();    
    captureSettings.StreamingCaptureMode = StreamingCaptureMode.Audio;    
    await CaptureMedia.InitializeAsync(captureSettings);    
    CaptureMedia.Failed += CaptureMedia_Failed;    
    CaptureMedia.RecordLimitationExceeded += CaptureMedia_RecordLimitationExceeded;    
}    
    
// Method for loading the Audio Encodings to the combo box we initialized for audio encodings in Xaml file      
    
private void LoadAudioEncodings() {    
    var audioEncodingFormats = Enum.GetValues(typeof(AudioEncodingFormat)).Cast < AudioEncodingFormat > ();    
    AudioFormat.ItemsSource = audioEncodingFormats;    
    AudioFormat.SelectedItem = AudioEncodingFormat.Mp3; // Defining a by default selection in case nothing is selected      
}    
    
// Method for loading the Audio Quality to the Combobox we initialized for audio quality in Xaml file      
    
private void LoadAudioQualities() {    
    var audioQualities = Enum.GetValues(typeof(AudioEncodingQuality)).Cast < AudioEncodingQuality > ();    
    AudioQuality.ItemsSource = audioQualities;    
    AudioQuality.SelectedItem = AudioEncodingQuality.Auto; // Defining a by-default selection in case nothing is selected      
}

Now, we will be adding the code to initialize the timer and associate it with an event that will be called for the timer ticking/counting. Here's the code:

private void InitTimer() {    
    DishTImer = new DispatcherTimer();    
    DishTImer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 100);    
    DishTImer.Tick += DishTImer_Tick; // Adding the event to the DishTImer object while it hits tick event      
}    
    
// Event for counting the ticks or time      
    
private void DishTImer_Tick(object sender, object e) {    
    SpanTimeSpanTime = SpanTime.Add(DishTImer.Interval);    
    Duration.DataContext = SpanTime;    
}

If the audio getting recorded exceeds the limit of the audio capture, we should be able to handle such situations. For handling such a situation, we had added a declaration to call an event when the media capture limit is exceeded. The code for that event is as in the following code snippet:

private async void CaptureMedia_RecordLimitationExceeded(MediaCapture sender) {    
    await Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, async() => {    
        await sender.StopRecordAsync();    
        var warningMessage = new MessageDialog("The media recording has been stopper as you have exceeded the maximum length", "Recording Stopped");    
        await warningMessage.ShowAsync();    
    
    });    
}

Now, we will add code for Media capture fail event which will be called when there is any failure during the capturing of audio. Here's the code:

private async void CaptureMedia_Failed(MediaCapture sender, MediaCaptureFailedEventArgs errorEventArgs) {    
    await Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, async() => {    
        var warningMessage = new MessageDialog("The media recording Failed " + errorEventArgs.Message, "Capture Failed");    
        await warningMessage.ShowAsync();    
    });    
}

As of now, we have defined all the functionalities which will be working in the back end to capture the media. Now, we will add the code to the button which on clicking will call these events and starts capturing the audio. The code for audio recording button click event is:

private async void Record_click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {    
    MediaEncodingProfile encodingProfile = null;    
    switch (selectedFormat) {    
        case AudioEncodingFormat.Mp3:    
            encodingProfile = MediaEncodingProfile.CreateMp3(SelectedQuality);    
            break;    
        case AudioEncodingFormat.Mp4:    
            encodingProfile = MediaEncodingProfile.CreateMp3(SelectedQuality);    
            break;    
        case AudioEncodingFormat.Wma:    
            encodingProfile = MediaEncodingProfile.CreateWav(SelectedQuality);    
            break;    
        case AudioEncodingFormat.Avi:    
            encodingProfile = MediaEncodingProfile.CreateMp3(SelectedQuality);    
            break;    
        default:    
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();    
    
    }    
    
    AudioStream = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream();    
    await CaptureMedia.StartRecordToStreamAsync(encodingProfile, AudioStream);    
    DishTImer.Start();    
    
} 

After we have added the functionality for the record click event, now, we will be adding functionality for Stop button click event along with the functionality for Save button which will open a Save File Dialog box to save the file at a particular location in the system (here the default is set to the ). Here's the code:

private async void Stop_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {    
    await CaptureMedia.StopRecordAsync();    
    DishTImer.Stop();    
}    
    
private async void Save_click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {    
    var mediaFile = await FileSave.PickSaveFileAsync();    
    if (mediaFile != null) {    
        using(var dataReader = new DataReader(AudioStream.GetInputStreamAt(0))) {    
            await dataReader.LoadAsync((uint) AudioStream.Size);    
            byte[] buffer = new byte[(int) AudioStream.Size];    
            dataReader.ReadBytes(buffer);    
            await FileIO.WriteBytesAsync(mediaFile, buffer);    
        }    
    }    
}

We have added the combo boxes for selecting which format we will be using and which quality the audio will be saved into. Now, here is the code for the selected item method for those combo boxes:

private void AudioQuality_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e) {    
    SelectedQuality = (AudioEncodingQuality) AudioQuality.SelectedItem;    
}    
    
private void AudioFormat_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e) {    
    selectedFormat = (AudioEncodingFormat) AudioFormat.SelectedItem;    
    InitFileSavePicker();    
}

Here, in the above code, we have called a method InitFileSavePicker() that is used to initialize the variables for file save dialog box and it's options. The code for this method is as in the following screenshot:

private void InitFileSavePicker() {    
    FileSave = new FileSavePicker();    
    FileSave.FileTypeChoices.Add("Encoding", new List < string > () {    
        selectedFormat.ToFileExtension()    
    });    
    FileSave.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.MusicLibrary;    
    
}

Now, we are done with coding our simple Audio Recorder Application.

Run the application and enjoy it!

Summary

In this article, we learned about Recording And Saving Audio File In Windows 10 Application.