network drives...

[David Rose]

I started testing Audacity a few weeks ago starting with V1.2. It is being used for recording sessions up to 4 hours through a microphone. All we require is reasonable speaking voice recording on one track. A few pops and cracks are OK. I have a peer to peer Windows XP Pro network. The processors are 3.4GHz and each has 4 Gig of memory. The recording drive is on a remote computer. This is impractical to change, and the machine which is "taking in" the recording has too small a drive. So far, with one exception, there has been no "apparent" trouble. So how critical is the instruction to use the parent machine's drive for the temp files?

The single error that has occured twice in about 25 sessions, is a blue Windows window that says that "Windows shut down whatever I was doing", my paraphrase. This also occured when recording directly to the drive on the recording machine. I cannot yet find the reason for this.

Upgrade to V1.3 is in the works.

Thanks,

David

[whomper]

how important to you is being sure you have the 4 hour session recorded?

it *might* work "good enough" *sometimes* to use NAS or flash or ....
but the slower the disk repsonse the bigger the risk

some folks have problems just cause the HD is not defragged
and the delays in disk access cause unacceptable recordings

but if you are happy go for it
doubt the BSOD had anything to do with that approach

[steve]

Audacity requires fast, continuous access to the had drive during record and playback.
It is possible to record onto a network drive but it is not recommended because any interruption to the writing/reading of data between Audacity and the drive will cause data loss.

It is being used for recording sessions up to 4 hours through a microphone.

If this is to be a regular task it may be worth considering buying a voice recorder of some sort.

The current Audacity version is 1.3.12
You can download it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

[David Rose]

Recording is fairly new to me. What do you mean by "buying a voice recorder"? This is a regular event. We do it twice a week. So if there is hardware/software that we should invest in, that is a possibility.

Thanks!

Audacity requires fast, continuous access to the had drive during record and playback.
It is possible to record onto a network drive but it is not recommended because any interruption to the writing/reading of data between Audacity and the drive will cause data loss.

It is being used for recording sessions up to 4 hours through a microphone.

If this is to be a regular task it may be worth considering buying a voice recorder of some sort.

The current Audacity version is 1.3.12
You can download it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

[David Rose]

Whomper, I do keep the drive degragged. This is almost all this drive is used for. It is a terrabyte hard drive installed in another 'puter on the net. It is also pretty fast.

And I agree that the Windows message has little to do with the drive or the network. It just shuts down the project in progress. It isn't really a BSOD. It is a window that pops up telling me that the program has been shut down. It doesn't seem to effect running other programs at that time. But is causing my thin hair to be reduced.

Other than that, the recording is fine.

Thank you!

David

how important to you is being sure you have the 4 hour session recorded?

it *might* work "good enough" *sometimes* to use NAS or flash or ....
but the slower the disk repsonse the bigger the risk

some folks have problems just cause the HD is not defragged
and the delays in disk access cause unacceptable recordings

but if you are happy go for it
doubt the BSOD had anything to do with that approach

[steve]

What do you mean by "buying a voice recorder"? This is a regular event. We do it twice a week. So if there is hardware/software that we should invest in, that is a possibility.

I use a Zoom H2 portable recorder.
With a 2 GB memory card it will record about 3 hours of stereo CD quality audio. Recording as "64 kbps MP3" the sound quality is reduced to a level similar to AM radio, and the total recording time increases to over 48 hours. I'm not sure what the longest continuous (recording to a single file) recording time is, but I've had no problems recording up to 2 hours continuously. I usually record (music rehearsals and such like) at 320 kbps MP3 which allows about 12 hours total recording time at (very) near CD quality.

Once you have set up the various options (the user manual gives pretty good step-by-step instructions), the Zoom H2 is also very easy to use - Press the red record button to view the recording level (setting the Mic Gain switch to High, Medium or Low is usually close enough for a good recording), then press the red recording button again to start recording. Finally, press the red recording button to end the recording (it really could not be more simple).

Transferring files to a computer for editing / burning to CD, simply connect the H2 to the computer with the supplied USB cable and select "Storage". The H2 then appears on the computer as a removable drive (like a memory stick) and files can be copied over the computer in the usual way. Alternatively, if your computer has a card reader, you can just take the memory card out of the Zoom H2 and read it directly with the card reader.

There are many other devices such as "voice recorders" that may also be suitable. I mention the Zoom H2 because I have one and find it to be very good and easy to use. The only real down-side of the H2 is that it feels rather flimsy (plastic case), though I have a friend that has dropped his H2 a couple of times and it has survived (but I would definitely recommend NOT dropping it )

[kozikowski]

If you use a network drive for editing and production, you are not editing with an unconditionally stable system. You are "getting away with it."

Everybody's had a run-in with IP, as in "Voice Over IP," (VOIP, Skype, etc.). IP is only half of the fun with networking. It's full name is TCP/IP and it's the TCP part that kills you. Transmission Control Protocol is the one that deals with rainy-night, fiery, multi-car pileups on the network.

When two packets smash into each other on the network, they're instructed to go back and start over -- at different times. That makes them late, and that's bad enough, but if they hit something else enough times, they're instructed to die. Dead. Networks are designed to gracefully not deliver your work -- ever.

My favorite visual is someone downloading {word rejected} on your network. That's the end of your voice capture to a network drive, I don't care how defragmented the drive is.

Koz

[David Rose]

Stevethefiddle, that sounds interesting. We may look at that in the near future.

Koz, I guess we've really been blessed. I've run our point of sale over our network for about 16 years without a "known" packet smash... that effected things visible. Of course, that is not nearly as continuous as this multi-hour voice recording. But when this is going on, nothing else (that we KNOW of) is in use. I don't know that a hacker could not get through the firewall, but that has not yet happened unless we were online with the internet.

Our network is basically three machines, all in the use of two sets of hands at once, and not even that during the voice recording. So it is not like a lot of other activity is happening. And though I've got about 16 years of experience, I know that I know just enough to know how little I know. If you know what I mean. So I appreciate any and all suggestions!

David

[kozikowski]

<<<I've run our point of sale over our network for about 16 years without a "known" packet smash.>>>

Oh, you've had packet collisions. All of the network cards and equipment in the system are doing ID management while you're working. TCP is very efficient at packet manipulation. It's only when the delays get outside of the window of acceptance that Audacity gets concerned. It sees it as the drive going missing.

Audacity is a good coal mine canary. You want to see how efficient your computer or system is? Try to do real time production. Unlike recalculating a spreadsheet or doing a Photoshop Gaussian Blur, voice capture doesn't wait. The next musical note is right there, right now, and if the computer isn't ready for it, that's the end of the show.

Koz

[David Rose]

Thanks Koz! I like the "coal mine canary" statement. Sounds like I need another drive, if I continue with the current plan. Maybe I should look at Stevethefiddle's voice recorder idea.

David