Pulse

Overview ​

Enable pulse input device with -f pulse. Check available audio devices with:

pactl list short sources

Or use default for probably your mic.

After recording with -f pulse, PTS may become out-of-sync. When re-encoding, use this option (generate timestamps by counting sample):

ffmpeg bad-pts.m4a -af 'asetpts=N/SR/TB' good-pts.mp4

Record from speakers ​

Your speakers is probably stereo, so use -ac 2.

ffmpeg -f pulse -i alsa_output.pci-0000_2f_00.4.analog-stereo.monitor -ac 2 output.w64

Record from virtual device ​

You may create a virtual device to be able to select the applications (with pavucontrol) you want to record the audio. Check Pipewire or Pulseaudio notes for the steps.

Choose a source put its name as the -i parameter:

ffmpeg -f pulse -i recording.monitor -ac 2 output.w64

Record microphone ​

Most microphones are mono, so you should use -ac 1 to avoid issues (like hearing only on the left side when playing the audio).

ffmpeg -f pulse -i alsa_input.pci-0000_2f_00.4.analog-stereo -ac 1 output.w64

Raw recording ​

To record raw (see more in the audio/raw notes):

ffmpeg -f pulse -i recording.monitor -ac 2 -f s16le -acodec pcm_s16le audio.raw