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How do I record FM radio on my RCA Lyra player?

I've been playing with my RCA Lyra RD-2312A Mp3 player and it's pretty good, but I'm intrigued by one thing: it apparently can record FM broadcasts right off the air? Cool. How do I do that, and, when I have a recording, how can I get that off the Lyra and onto my computer?


Dave's Answer:

The RCA Lyra is a pretty slick little device in all its many guises (check out their latest audio players to see what I mean) but I have to say that my experience with the FM receiver in my own RD2312A Lyra has been less than stellar. Even with the strongest signals in my area, reception is very random and susceptible to even the slightest change in body position.

Anyway, even with mediocre FM reception I can show you how to record on your Lyra and hopefully your results will be better than my own.

Your first step is to Go to Radio at the top level menu:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

Now you are looking at the FM tuner and hopefully listening to your favorite radio station:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

To record what you're hearing, click on the REC button on the device:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

Now you're recording what you're hearing:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

When you're finished with whatever you're recording, press "stop" on the controls and it'll be done.

Want to listen to it again? Navigate to the other top level menu (yes, I also find the menu system on the Lyra completely Byzantine!) and you'll see Radio Recs:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

Pick the one you'd like to hear from the list:

RCA Lyra recording FM radio

And that's all there is to it.

Copying radio recordings to your computer

Finally, you need to hook your Lyra up to your computer, either a Mac or PC will work. On my Mac, here's what I see when the device is connected via USB:

RCA Lyra -- FM Recording Capability -- Mounted on Mac OS X

Open up the folder labeled FM and you'll see your radio recording or recordings. I see this:

RCA Lyra -- FM Recordings -- Mounted on Mac OS X

My recording FM001.MP3 is forty seconds of recording, as Mac OS X so helpfully shows me, and the file size is 642KB. Wanna listen? Just click this:

Listen to 40 seconds of jazz FM from my RCA Lyra RD2312A

As you can see, the reception isn't too good, but hopefully this will at least show you exactly how you can record and work with your own FM recordings from the radio.

Good luck and let us know how it all works out for you!


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Categorized: iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help   (Article 6813, Written by )
Tagged: fm recorder, mp3 player, rca lyra, rca lyra rd2312
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