Too many temps files and time limit?

[Phil24]

Hi,
I'm new to audacity and I have a few questions : My goal is to do a long recording, about 8 to 10 hours. I have selected what I think is pretty high quality setting (stereo 2 channel, 96000hz, 32-bit float, both high quality interpolation, both wave smoothing, 256 FFT, Max frequency HZ 20000 and -36 dB) I have estimated the place needed to about 35-40 gig and place the temp folder in a big enough hard disk. I try it and got some problems. Audacity was still recording at the end but when I pressed on stop, I wasn't able to play what I've just recorder, like if they was nothing have been recorded. Take a look on the temp folder, about 17 gig of temp files, 16433 files of 1037ko. Here my questions :

1. Is there a limit of time audacity is able to record?

2. Is there a limit of space temps file is allowed to take?

3. Is it possible to create much larger temp files ? 150 000ko istead of 1037ko for exemple

4. Is it possible to program audacity to stop recording after some time? Stop after 2 hours for exemple

Thank you

[JeffB]

I've had that problem and found that I could overcome it by saving it to a file before starting the project.

I think that allows the program to save the files periodically so the temp files don't become so humongous that they'll lock it up.

I don't see how to do that in the 1.3 Beta version, but it's workd for me on the 1.2 stable version.

BTW, there is also a recovery tool for Audacity temp files that may be able to reconstruct some or all of those temp files.

[kozikowski]

<<<BTW, there is also a recovery tool for Audacity temp files>>>

No there isn't. Not unless you can specifically point to it and tell us you have personally gotten it to work. None of this, "my cousin knows somebody" business.

If Audacity thinks it has crashed before properly closing its task, it will try to recover the lost files on the next launch. If that doesn't work, you're dead. Nobody has ever proven to me that there any other options--and even that tool rarely works.

Back to the original question, you may very well be running into the old 2G and 4G Windows file limits. Windows itself programs its way around it, but it's still there and it will bite older programs.

It doesn't affect the other two platforms.

Koz

[JeffB]

<<<BTW, there is also a recovery tool for Audacity temp files>>>

No there isn't. Not unless you can specifically point to it and tell us you have personally gotten it to work. None of this, "my cousin knows somebody" business.

If Audacity thinks it has crashed before properly closing its task, it will try to recover the lost files on the next launch. If that doesn't work, you're dead. Nobody has ever proven to me that there any other options--and even that tool rarely works. ...

Koz

It may not be perfect, but there is a utility written for that purpose. Here is a link to the instructions:

http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... shRecovery

[Phil24]

Don't think so, I am running on NTFS file system, 4gb file limit is cause by Fat32 file system. Anyway that was a huge amount of small file of 1037ko, totalizing 17go. I will try the JeffB tips! Audacity is a great utility, but I think that a kind of task manager would be very useful! If somoene else have other idea of what can have happened, your welcome

[kozikowski]

<<<Is it possible to program audacity to stop recording after some time? >>>

Stable Audacity has no timers. That's one of the feature requests.


<<<Don't think so, I am running on NTFS file system, 4gb file limit is cause by Fat32 file system.>>>

Perfectly correct, however, what happens if you run an older program under NTFS?

<<<there is a utility written for that purpose. >>>

First I've seen this, and I'm betting I'm in good company. I see by the notes that the programmers ran into this problem and scattered in their tools to recover. That and...

<<<"Note: This can be very difficult for long recordings." >>>

So for the posters who killed two and three hour long recordings, there are still effectively no tools.

Everybody thinks you just need to collect all the temp files and stitch them together. You do know that at least the first two files, and possibly more, are graphics and have nothing to do with the audio? That's one of the gotchas that make this process so darn much fun.

Oh, and don't pick up the last file. That's the damaged one....

Koz

[alatham]

Koz,

This is certainly not the first I've seen the Crash Recovery program. I've sent many people to that link. And I've heard back from several people here that it works just fine, though not with all projects. It tends to work well with projects that only have a small number of tracks, and aren't too long. It can't hurt to try it.

Phil,

I wish I could tell you what the problem was for sure, but I can't. I can tell you that it's not your NTFS file structure. Audacity doesn't write files any bigger than a meg or two, unless it's exporting. But you're not having a problem with an exported file, your project is not being stored right.

I wonder if you have a program scheduled to run at odd hours that is hijacking your hard drive while Audacity is using it. Remember that Audacity needs constant access to your hard drive while it's recording (and playing). If you have a virus checker or something else set to run at say 3am or so, it's going to cause problems if Audacity is trying to record something at that point.

1 + 2) As far as I know, there are no practical limits to how long a project can be, or how many temp files it needs (if there are they're much longer than anyone could conceivably use up).

3) I know of no way to increase the size of the temp files.

4) If you use Audacity 1.3.3, there is a Timed Recorder function that lets you set dates, times, and total recording length for unattended recording. Just make sure the input settings are correct before you leave it alone. Also, make sure there are no scheduled programs (virus checkers, etc) that will interrupt it.