The SoundRecorder in MC9.1.243 doesn't seem to work very well. Since I have finally gotten around to archive recording my favorite LP's in APE format, I thought I would try MC9.1's SoundRecorder function.
First, the recorder doesn't seem to want to hold the setting "Encoding for = Sound Recorder". It always goes back to "CD Ripping".
Next, for "Recording Source" it refuses to find audio on my Audigy2 Line1 Input even though all my other applications that do the same thing (i.e., Audiograbber 1.82, Nero 6) have no trouble with Line1 Input for audio. MC insists that it only hears audio when set to "CD Audio" which makes no sense, since I am recording my LPs through a receiver's tape monitor out jack which connect to the Audigy's Line1 in jack. [According to MC9's HELP file info "CD Audio" is only for recording analog audio from a CD drive connected to the analog input of a sound card. I am not aware of any current CD drive that would be connected in this manner, since virtually all current CDroms transmit audio digitally. The old fashion analog audio cable was once used to connect older CDroms to an audio card's analog input, is no longer used.]
To further irritate me, when I press "Start" it takes about 30-45 seconds, and a nudge, before the program seems to wake up and go into "listening for audio" mode.
The final annoyance, lies in the "Pause" button. After entering all my artist, album, and track info for sides 1/2 of the LP, hitting start and waiting (with source = CD Audio - which works, but must be wrong) I can eventually start recording side 1 of an LP.
I manually split the tracks since auto splitting never works well on soundtrack LPs. When I finish recording the last track on side 1, I hit "Pause", so that I can flip the LP to side 2 and record the balance of the tracks in the track list. Once the LP is on side 2, I click on "Start". Start the record player, and Nothing happens in the SoundRecorder.
Since there is no "Help" file to explain the way MC9 would like you to do this, I assume my way makes sense. You obviously have to "Pause" (or possibly "Stop") the SoundRecorder while you flip the LP over to prepare to record side 2. Since there is no "STOP" button to click, I click "Pause". The problem is hitting "Pause" again to start, doesn't work; and hitting "Start" doesn't "start" recording at the next sequential track in the track list either.
So side 2 of the LP starts playing, but MC9 isn't recording. By the time I get the thing working, the track sequence is all messed up.
My work around is to re-enter the track info for side 2 of the LP fresh and start from the beginning. Instead of, lets say, 10 sequential tracks (1-5 for side 1 and 6-10 for side 2) I have 1-5 for side 1, and 1-5 for side 2. I edit all the side 2 tracks manually to make them sequential with side 1. This takes far too much time.
While recording an LP should be fairly intuitive, its the buggy nature of the recorder and lack of proper documentation that screws up the works, in my opinion.
So after this long winded explanation, can someone explain to me whether you can easily record an LP with MC9.1.xxx or not. If you can, then how is it done. I'm not novice at this stuff, so this is rather annoying, and I would prefer not to use Audiograbber (which works well) because I have to manually re-enter artist, album, genre and image info for each LP I import to MC9.1. It seems all the tag info from Audiograbber doesn't transfer to MC9.1. I think it's because I use AG to generate the WAV files and Monkey Audio 3.97 to convert the waves to APE before importing to MC9.
ADDENDUM 9/3/03 - After further experimentation with SoundRecorder, I recommend that J River consider modifying SoundRecorder as follows (after it fixes the long delay bug and source input bug mentioned above):
Because recording LPs usually involves recording 2 sides of a disc, SoundRecorder should: (a) have input for a tracklist which allows the user to distinguish between side 1 tracks and side 2 tracks; (2) the program should then use this info to automatically split and pause at the last track of side 1 (when "Pause" is pressed) so that the LP can be flipped to side 2, at which point pressing "Resume Record" (or Start) will continue with the side 2 track list which should begin at the next sequential number after the last track on side 1.
As it stands now, it seems the user must quickly press "Split Track" and then "Pause" at the end of the last track on side 1, so that the record can be flipped and the track sequence remain in correct order. This should NOT require two button presses; only one.
Thanks for any help.
Media Center Registered 9.1.243 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 3067 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 660 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.57 (1008) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.57 (1008)
Ripping / Drive H: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive I: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive J: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: C:\WINDOWS\Media\ripping-complete.wav
Burning / Drive H: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Drive J: PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM Addr: 0:1:0 Speed:52 MaxSpeed:52 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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Topic: Why doesn't the SoundRecorder work in MC9.1? (Read 1593 times)