Good program used to record sound?
 

I need a good program that can record sound in high quality and save it in multiple formats. I used to have Cool Edit Pro, but would prefer to have something smaller that uses less resources. I'm not looking for an insane amount of features. Just your basic features. Recording and maybe editing clips.

In this case, Audacity is your friend :)

I've hardly used it much, but for the 3 minutes I've spent playing with it, it worked exactly how I wanted it to.

I downloaded it, but I tried to save the recording in mp3 format and it says I need lame mp3 encoder. Too much work for me, I hate installing extra stuff.

Is there anyway to save it without that? If not is there a program that can just save the recording in mp3 format?

Getting lame is as easy as going to (free codecs.com), unzipping it, and probably telling Audacity where it is (in the settings). LAME is the best MP3 encoder, and it is free, but it is not legal to put LAME in with a program. So you have to download it seperately. Do it. It's worth it.

Cool Edit 2000 is by FAR the best straight waveform editor ever released. Ever. Audacity is a piece of crap in comparison. And you can save into the mp3 format. It's very, light, opens in a second (literally) and hardly takes up any memory at all.

I use it for all of my professional work. The program isn't updated anymore since Adobe bought out Syntrillium, but it should be easy enough to find. If not, just contact me.