Is the recording uploaded anywhere?

No. The microphone stream is captured with the browser's own media pipeline, decoded and re-encoded as a WAV entirely on your machine, and the download comes from a local object URL. Nothing is sent to a server at any point, which is why no account or sign in is involved.

Why is the download a WAV rather than an MP3?

Because WAV is lossless and universally editable, which is what a recording you intend to work on should be. The browser captures a compressed form internally because that is what it can write live, but that intermediate is decoded before the file is produced, so what you download has no lossy generation in it.

What happens if I deny microphone access?

The tool reports it plainly, saying that microphone permission was denied and that access needs to be allowed in the browser. The distinction between a denied permission and unavailable hardware is made for you, so the message tells you which problem you actually have.

Can I pause in the middle of a recording?

No. There is only start and stop, so a pause means ending the take and beginning a second file. If you need a continuous file with gaps, the practical approach is to record through the break and remove the quiet section afterwards with the silence tools.

How is this different from the Voice Memo tool?

The capture path is identical; the difference is framing. This one is presented for general voice work such as notes and dictation, while Voice Memo is positioned for quick captures you will not necessarily keep. Either produces the same kind of 16-bit WAV.

Voice Recorder

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Voice Recorder captures whatever your microphone hears and hands it back as a downloadable WAV, with nothing uploaded and no software to install. It is the general purpose voice tool: notes, dictation, ideas, a spoken draft.

What is Voice Recorder?

Press start, grant microphone access when the browser asks, and a timer begins counting as a pulsing indicator marks the live take. Press stop when you are done and the panel builds the file, shows a player and offers a download.

The interface and what happens behind it:

A single start control that reads Start recording before the take and Stop recording while it runs.
A live elapsed timer shown as REC with minutes and seconds, refreshed ten times a second.
A preview player and a download button once the take has been processed.
A label stating the capture's duration, whether it is mono or stereo, its sample rate and that it was converted to 16-bit WAV.
A filename built from the word voice-recording plus the date and time of capture, so takes do not overwrite one another.

Capture uses the browser's own media pipeline. The microphone stream is handed to a media recorder, which writes a compressed container rather than raw samples, and on stop that container is decoded back to sample data and re-encoded as 16-bit WAV. That round trip is deliberate: the compressed form is what the browser can produce live, and the WAV is what an editor or an upload expects. The result is a plain uncompressed file at whatever sample rate the microphone delivered, with no processing applied on the way through. Permissions are handled with plain language: a denied microphone request is reported as such rather than as a silent failure, and a take that comes back empty says so instead of producing a zero length file.

What the tool does not do:

It applies no processing: no noise reduction, no level control and no equalisation, so the room and the microphone are what you hear.
It cannot record for longer than the browser tab stays open and awake, and backgrounding the tab may interrupt a long take.
There is no pause and resume, only start and stop, so a break means a second file.
It cannot record system or tab audio, which needs one of the capture tools beside it.
Levels are not metered while recording, so a take can come back too quiet or too hot with no warning.
The output is one file per take, with no naming scheme beyond the timestamp.

Use it for spoken material that you intend to keep or edit, and check the preview before discarding a take. Because nothing is processed, a recording made this way responds well to the cleanup tools afterwards, and the flat, unprocessed character is exactly what post production wants. The download is a plain WAV at the microphone's own sample rate, with no compression step of its own, which is why a take made this way survives repeated editing without accumulating artefacts and why the file is larger than a compressed alternative would be. If you need a specific input rather than the system default, the microphone recorder is the variant that lets you choose one.

How to use Voice Recorder

Press Start recording and allow microphone access when the browser prompts you.
Watch the elapsed timer while the take runs, since there is no level meter to check.
Press Stop recording when you are finished; the file is decoded and encoded in the browser.
Listen to the preview and use the download button to save the WAV, whose name includes the capture time.

When to use Voice Recorder vs related tools

Voice Recorder is the general purpose spoken capture tool, so it suits anything from a draft narration to a dictated note. Voice Memo is the same capture pointed at quick notes, and Microphone Recorder adds a device picker when the system default is not the input you want. When the take needs cleaning afterwards, Noise Reducer is the natural next step, and Podcast Recorder is the version built for a session with chapters.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.