Audio Recorder and Distrobox on Linux
Written on Mar 7, 2026
Unless you're a true audiophile, you can be satisfied by music even when it isn't broadcast or streamed at a high bit rate. You probably still listen to music on a radio, which is often broadcast as low as 128 kbps. When you record, you get to choose the quality.
The Audio Recorder application can record music from multiple sources and in multiple formats, both lossy and lossless. Originally created for Ubuntu, it can also be found on Arch Linux-based distributions in the Arch User Repository (AUR).
Although it can't be found in any Ubuntu-based repositories, the ".deb" file itself can be obtained from a personal package archive (PPA) here: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/audio-recorder/+build/28417977/+files/audio-recorder_3.3.4~ubuntu2404.1_amd64.deb
Although it isn't supposed to support any Ubuntu-based distribution newer than Ubuntu 24.04, I successfully installed in on Kubuntu 25.10. It will probably install on the next version of Linux Mint as well. If it won't, the AUR can be used with Distrobox, which I'll explain shortly.
Audio Recorder Settings
I like to record from Spotify. When I've built up a long playlist, I'll upgrade to premium for a month. That's more than long enough to record a playlist. Before I begin recording, I make sure I've already downloaded the music at 320 kbps. The recordings can "stutter" if I record them without downloading them first.
Although lossless streaming is offered in some places, 320 kbps is offered everywhere to premium subscribers. I prefer 320 kbps for recording anyway. Lossless recordings take up a lot more space.
I have to launch Spotify before launching Audio Recorder or it won't be available as a "Source" on the front screen. Once I select the format as "MP3 Lossy 44KHz", I click on the box for "Additional Settings" and then the "Recording commands" tab. I replace the command displayed with:
audio/x-raw,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lamemp3enc name=enc target=bitrate cbr=true bitrate=320
Audio Recorder starts when the first item on the playlist begins playing, and it automatically advances to the next item on the playlist until the playlist is finished. After it finishes recording, I have to look up the information for each song. It's usually easy to find that information on Wikipedia, otherwise I have to Google it, and that takes longer.
I have more than 2800 music files created this way, which adds up to nearly eight days of continuous playback.
Install Distrobox
If the ".deb" file won't work, Audio Recorder can be obtained from an Arch container using Distrobox. The repository version is usually outdated, so it can also be installed from a PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michel-slm/distrobox sudo apt update sudo apt install distrobox
Once installed, follow the steps below in the terminal. There are GUI apps to do this, but this isn't complicated enough for me to bother.
Create an Arch Container and Use It
distrobox create --name Arch --image docker.io/library/archlinux:latest distrobox enter Arch
At this point, you are in the Arch container.
Install Yay on Arch
Yay is the interface to the AUR. As far as I know, it's the only place to get Audio Recorder outside of Ubuntu-based distributions. Install Yay:
git clone https:/aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git cd yay-bin sudo pacman -S base-devel makepkg -si
Install Audio Recorder
yay -S audio-recorder
Export Audio Recorder to the Host
distrobox-export --app audio-recorder
When finished, the application shows up in the appropriate category in the menu, with "(on Arch)" tacked onto the end of the title.
At this point, you can enter "logout" or "exit" to exit the container.
Uninstall the Container
If Audio Recorder is no longer needed:
distrobox stop Arch distrobox rm Arch
If Distrobox is no longer needed:
sudo apt purge --autoremove distrobox
I've only used Distrobox once, and only to see if I could make this work. I don't know if I'll ever need to do it again.