Audio recording software

rbhtxk · #1 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 02:45 PM

I am looking for common off the shelf software that will enable me to record audio (with time/date stamp) to the hard drive of my desktop computer 24/7. I actually need to record up to four audio sources continuously/simultaneously. I haven't done much parameter checing yet, but I would assume that I would need four soundcards for the inputs. Any ideas? Thanks...

ka3jjz · #2 (**permalink**) 02-16-2008, 05:27 PM

Check out this link from our wiki section - just click on the blue text and away you go...

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index...tware_and_Tips

You didn't mention what source is being recorded, but if it's a bank of scanners, as you can see there are several apps that can do the job. There are also stand alone recording apps listed as well; I would also guess that you would need 4 soundcards; however, I wonder if with the right software, you could record 2 different streams - 1 left, the other right - to a single soundcard? I think some of the Signal Intelligence apps can do that, but to be honest, I'm not sure of that.

73s Mike

Dewey · #3 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 01:12 PM

I'm a faithful user of RecAll Pro (www.sagebrush.com). I picked it over the other apps because of the small footprint of its audio files. I use the GSM compression on mono, and get 2.8 meg for every 30 minutes. It is VOX and does the time-date stamping, and also allows you to insert annotations into the audio segments. I have also used the stereo to record primary and alternate channels at the same time. Works like a charm, and still gives me 3.9 meg per 30 minutes of audio in stereo mode.

Dewey

rbhtxk · #4 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 05:35 PM

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the help. I definitely have more insight now.

UPMan · #5 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 05:40 PM

Dewey: If you can still edit your post, the link has an extra ")" in it that causes it to not work.

How well does RecAll's VOX work? I've found with some other software that the beginning of all transmissions get "clipped" out, making their use really unsuitable for most of the things I've needed to do. I end up post-processing long recordings to remove the dead spots.

Dewey · #6 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UPMan

Dewey: If you can still edit your post, the link has an extra ")" in it that causes it to not work.

How well does RecAll's VOX work? I've found with some other software that the beginning of all transmissions get "clipped" out, making their use really unsuitable for most of the things I've needed to do. I end up post-processing long recordings to remove the dead spots.

Thanks Paul, I took care of the misplaced ). I'm sure that you're already aware that your mileage may vary, but I've never had any significant problems with RecAll, or RecAll Pro. I've never had a clipping problem at the beginning, and the dead space at the end is actually user programmable in the later versions. The VOX sensitivity is also programmable which I have been able to use to my benefit when running it with the P-96. On the P-96, when it goes into battery save mode, I've seen the sampling "pops" in the recorder's VOX. I overcome this by increasing the scanner's volume, and setting the VOX to around 7 since the battery saver's sampling circuit does not increase with the volume. I had mentioned "significant" problems because I did have a problem with one version that would lose track of the time/date stamping if the audio files were set to go over 3 meg, but the author took care of that in a later release.

Finally, while it's beyond my comprehension since I'm not a programmer, I do know that it can be set up to receive automated text for the annotations, like text labels. There was a program out there called Radio Manager by Ben Salidino that worked with the older Unidens, to include the 250 generation. You could use Radio Manager to feed the text labels to RecAll/RecAll Pro which resulted in nicely compacted audio that was time/date and text label tagged.

Dewey

Skud · #7 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewey

I'm a faithful user of RecAll Pro (www.sagebrush.com). I picked it over the other apps because of the small footprint of its audio files. I use the GSM compression on mono, and get 2.8 meg for every 30 minutes. It is VOX and does the time-date stamping, and also allows you to insert annotations into the audio segments. I have also used the stereo to record primary and alternate channels at the same time. Works like a charm, and still gives me 3.9 meg per 30 minutes of audio in stereo mode.

Dewey

will it start a new file after so much time automatically?
some programs like IDTrackerII for the uniden models can start a new file so they don't get very large which is nice but will not work with all scanners.

Dewey · #8 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skud

will it start a new file after so much time automatically?
some programs like IDTrackerII for the uniden models can start a new file so they don't get very large which is nice but will not work with all scanners.

Yes... in the automated options, you tell it how large you want the audio files to be in time or megs. The next option has four choices; "No action", "Stop", "Loop" (first in, first out), and "New file".

Dewey