This write-up derives from a past suggestion by frankz in the "Wishlist" forum, a recent illustration of the flexibility of MB's External Tools feature by redwing, and various discussions in the Foobar2000 forums on use of its Run Services plugin with Streamripper. This method does NOT require the creation of a proxy/relay stream.
1. First, download and install Streamripper 1.64.6 (
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/). Be sure to include the "console" option in the install. Check
here for additional install techniques if desired.
2. In MusicBee, go to Preferences/Tools, and you'll see the external applications box for invoking external applications from the "Send To" context menu.
3. Enter a tool name in the name box, like "Streamripper"; now browse to the application path for streamripper.exe on your computer
(note: you want to point to "streamripper.exe", NOT the GUI version "wstreamripper.exe").
4. In the "parameters" box, enter the following string:
"<URL>" -z -t -u FreeAmp/2.x -d C:\Streams
Change the path C:\Streams to wherever you want to save the streams.
If your path includes space names, be sure to enclose the entire path, including the drive letter, in quotes, like: "C:\Music Streams\Saved Files" Then, save your entry.
Now, when a radio stream is playing, you can right-click the station's entry in either "Playing Tracks" or "Now Playing", choose "Send To" and select the name for Streamripper you created. A command window will open and display Streamripper acquiring the stream, and a kB size progression as the size of the saved file increases. Be sure you keep the command window open (or minimized) as long as you want to rip the stream. Exiting the command window will exit Streamripper and stop capturing the stream at the same time.
The Streamripper "readme.txt" will give you a full breakdown of available command option switches you can use (much more complete than those found on the console tutorial at the Sourceforge site). The ones I used above will give you named individual tracks within a station sub-directory.
This works with MP3, OGG, and AAC/AAC+ streams.