What's the easiest way to capture audio that is being played over the PC's speakers?

[jpboard2@xxxxxxxxx (James Board)]

> try to record from the monitor device of the output
> 
> pactl list | grep monitor
> shows which monitor devices are available, e.g.
> ??? Monitor Source:
> alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
> 
> then record for the monitor using
> parec -d alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
> --file-format=wav > rec.wav

Thanks for you help.  I was actually able to get it working with something like
    avconv -i alsa -f pulse out.wav
This was probably one of the first things I tried, but it didn't work 
at first since I had my sound turned low on the PC.  Anyway, Thank you
and I will try your example later.