Xcorder with Audacity

[wv_mountaineer]

I am using Xcorder to record the local Fire Dispatch so I can then use Audacity to decode the tone-out frequencies. The problem I am having is within Xcorder, I think. After opening the .wav file made with Xcorder into Audacity the tone-outs are very clear and pretty simple to decode. However the audio is real choppy and very hard to make out let alone understand and follow. I cannot understand what company is being called out and can't even catch a good address for the call. I believe that this problem happens during the recording process. Does anyone have any ideas why? I have played around within the Audacity settings and effects and tried messing with the speed and pitch of the audio but it has not really seem to have helped at all.

I just downloaded Scanner Recorder v1.9 and recorded some audio of the local Police and opened it up in Audacity and I can hear every word being said plain as day. This is great and I will continue to use it however it doesn't make a new file every hour on the hour like Xcorder. Not that this is really necessary but it is a really nice feature along with a few others.

There has to be someone out there that has used this program way more than myself that may know of a simple little fix within the settings or effects to make my Xcorder audio understandable, right? Hope I have given enough info for a general understanding of my problem.

 

[W2PMX]

It's got to be something you're doing, or something in your setup. I just installed Xcorder on this computer and recorded a few minutes of fire activity, then listened to the recorded .wav file in Audacity with no problem. Are you recording at too high a level? Do you have the squelch control (the slider on the left) in Xcorder set too high? (I find that all the way down is about best for a scanner that doesn't have any noise coming out of it when there's no signal.)

 

[wv_mountaineer]

Okay, I did have the Recording slider on the left set at 11. I don't know why that was but it was.I just checked the recording level for the microphone since that is what I have my 396xt running into and it is set at a level of 20. Within the Xcorder program if I try and click on the icon for recording or playback settings I get nothing. It is just a click and no type of other window opens.
Could you tell me what you have your record settings in Xcorder set to? I just doubled clicked under the TIME of day and was able to restore the default to PCM 8000khz. 8 Bit, mono. How this got changed to sometime else is.... well I don't know! Must have been me being me!!!
Also any clue why I can't get the icons or the text for Recording or Playback setting to open up another window? Do ya think maybe I should just delete the program and reinstall it?

 

[W2PMX]

Also any clue why I can't get the icons or the text for Recording or Playback setting to open up another window?

From my testing, it works in Windows XP, but not in Windows 7. (Different cpl file? I don't know.) In fact, on my Windows 7 computer, Xcorder doesn't work at all. It runs, but doesn't see any audio, even though Audacity sees the audio. So if you're running 7, that could be the problem.

I guess someone will have to find the author. (Or the source for the program, so it can be fixed.)

 

[aaknitt]

For what it's worth, Audacity will do sound-activated recording (VOX).

Go to the "Transport" menu. There you can enable sound-activated recording and set the activation level. You can also enable "software playthrough" which lets you listen as it records.

Andy

 

[wv_mountaineer]

The program is working just fine with sound-activated recording. I will have to get on my windows machine and find the "Transport" menu and see if I can get it to do what I want. However some of the options in the program don't seems to open for me or drop down. I have deleted the files and reinstalled the program several times but nothing has changed. At this time I can't remember which ones didn't open up correctly. I never even tried to use or even look for "software play through". That is a great option that I am going to be looking into.