Enumerate Recording Devices in NAudio

Question

How can you get a list of all the recording devices on a computer using NAudio? When you want to record, you have to give it the index of the device you want to use, but there\

Answer 1

For WaveIn, you can use the static WaveIn.GetCapabilities method. This will give you a device name, but with the annoying limitation that it is a maximum of 31 characters. I am still looking for the way to get the full name (see my question here).

int waveInDevices = WaveIn.DeviceCount;
for (int waveInDevice = 0; waveInDevice < waveInDevices; waveInDevice++)
{
    WaveInCapabilities deviceInfo = WaveIn.GetCapabilities(waveInDevice);
    Console.WriteLine("Device {0}: {1}, {2} channels", waveInDevice, deviceInfo.ProductName, deviceInfo.Channels);
}

For WASAPI (Vista and above), you can use the MMDeviceEnumerator:

MMDeviceEnumerator enumerator = new MMDeviceEnumerator();
foreach (MMDevice device in enumerator.EnumerateAudioEndPoints(DataFlow.Capture, DeviceState.All))
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", device.FriendlyName, device.State);
}

I tend to recommend WaveIn, as it is more widely supported, and allows more flexibility over recording sample rates.

Answer 2

To get full device names, i use this...

using NAudio.CoreAudioApi;
using NAudio.Wave;

For getting all recording devices:

//create enumerator
var enumerator = new MMDeviceEnumerator();
//cycle through all audio devices
for (int i = 0; i < WaveIn.DeviceCount; i++)
    Console.WriteLine(enumerator.EnumerateAudioEndPoints(DataFlow.Capture, DeviceState.Active)[i]);
//clean up
enumerator.Dispose();

For getting all capture devices:

//create enumerator
var enumerator = new MMDeviceEnumerator();
//cyckle trough all audio devices
for (int i = 0; i < WaveOut.DeviceCount; i++)
    Console.WriteLine(enumerator.EnumerateAudioEndPoints(DataFlow.Render, DeviceState.Active)[i]);
//clean up
enumerator.Dispose();