Timer

[rev0xa7]

How does one invoke the TIMER to STOP recording after xx hours? As a safety measure so Audacity does not record endlessly until harddrive is full and recorded session becomes jeopardised. Note, recording process has been manually initiated, NOT automatically by use of TIMER.

[Gale Andrews]

How does one invoke the TIMER to STOP recording after xx hours? As a safety measure so Audacity does not record endlessly until harddrive is full and recorded session becomes jeopardised. Note, recording process has been manually initiated, NOT automatically by use of TIMER.

Press the Stop button, as you started the recording manually. Or free up disk space in the target directory so it has enough space to record until you can return to the computer to press Stop.

Or see if you can schedule a script to quit Audacity and respond to the save changes dialogue. See: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=294009
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?s ... 0700163714

for Scheduled Tasks on Mac.

If you can only set a task to force quit, then as long as you have NOT turned on Audio Cache in Directories Preferences and you ARE using 1.3.13, you can restart Audacity when you come back and say "yes" when Audacity offers to recover the recording. Note: we are NOT guaranteeing you recording will be recovered, but in the vast majority of cases it will be.


Gale

[rev0xa7]

"Press the Stop button, as you started the recording manually. Or free up disk space . . . "

Truly bizarre reply. If I was not elsewhere or asleep (at 2am) of course I would press the STOP button!! 8^)
Parsing thru this it would appear that:

There is currently NO 'Timer Function' available in Audacity that can 'press the STOP button' automatically after xx hours.

I had done a search on TIMER and came up with mention of this as a function of Audacity, but WRT initiating the recording process only.
Moreover it was not clear if this was an actual Audacity function or an OS function, such as MacOSX's iCal utility.

In any event it would appear that developing a STOP function after xx hours, to cease a manually initiated recording session would
be a much simpler task than developing a *complete* TIMER function. Do tell us that this has at least been considered as something
new for Audacity. Also could this be better performed by iCal? Or would 'pulling the plug' on the entire system by using a mechanical
timer be preferable. Like just letting the tape run out on an old reel-to-reel. Since we also lack any <CAD> function from Apple, Inc.

[Gale Andrews]

"Press the Stop button, as you started the recording manually. Or free up disk space . . . "

Truly bizarre reply. If I was not elsewhere or asleep (at 2am) of course I would press the STOP button!!

We have no idea what you are trying to do unless you explain it. If you are away from the computer on which you started the manual recording, you have the additional problem of finding a way to control it remotely before you can do anything. Some people who write here just panic, so it is good to state the obvious.

There is currently NO 'Timer Function' available in Audacity that can 'press the STOP button' automatically after xx hours.

There is if you use Timer Record to start the recording in the first place.

In any event it would appear that developing a STOP function after xx hours, to cease a manually initiated recording session would be a much simpler task than developing a *complete* TIMER function. Do tell us that this has at least been considered as something new for Audacity.

It has most definitely not been considered. If you can explain what the point of it is (apart from providing a safety net for a user who has made a mistake) then we could add your vote for it.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

Also are you using Audacity 1.2 or 1.3? You posted this identical message to the 1.2 Forum, which message I had not seen before but which I have now deleted. In case you are actually using 1.2, you need to upgrade to 1.3 to use Timer Record.



Gale

[kozikowski]

I've had this problem. I need to start a recording manually and then go out to the Tesco for a liter of milk. The Tesco is 35 miles away and I need to recording to stop automatically at 1430 hrs.

What happens when you start a recording manually and there is an auto recording scheduled to start while the manual recording is working? That would be one way out. The start event is redundant and the stop event happens normally.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Just a quick question, what happens if you need an auto recording to stop prematurely? I do that twice a week using a separate recording program. Does Audacity trash the recording?

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

I've had this problem. I need to start a recording manually and then go out to the Tesco for a liter of milk. The Tesco is 35 miles away and I need to recording to stop automatically at 1430 hrs.

Then it's user error. Why did you not start the recording with the Timer? How are you going to control the computer while you are at the Tesco checkout? If you are already back home, why not use the Stop button?

What happens when you start a recording manually and there is an auto recording scheduled to start while the manual recording is working? That would be one way out. The start event is redundant and the stop event happens normally.

How do you set that up? Audacity is locked while a manual recording is in progress or a timed recording is in progress or waiting to start. Are you saying you can access the menus on Mac to start a timed recording while a manual recording is in progress? If so that's a bug.

what happens if you need an auto recording to stop prematurely? I do that twice a week using a separate recording program. Does Audacity trash the recording?

Press Space to cancel the timer which is waiting to start the recording, or to stop the timed recording. If you stop the recording, what you recorded before you stopped is on the screen.

If you cancel the recording, it's removed from the screen but you can get it back at Edit > Redo Record.



Gale

[waxcylinder]

I've had this problem. I need to start a recording manually and then go out to the Tesco for a liter of milk. The Tesco is 35 miles away and I need to recording to stop automatically at 1430 hrs.

Then it's user error. Why did you not start the recording with the Timer? How are you going to control the computer while you are at the Tesco checkout? If you are already back home, why not use the Stop button?

No, no, no - the real problem with Timer Recording is that you lose all access to the controls particularly the levels, but also zoom level and resizing of tracks. IIRC there is a FR to leave these controls accessible to the user who is deploying Timere Recording - but until that happens (if ever) what Koz is describing here is definitely not user error.

WC

[Gale Andrews]

I've had this problem. I need to start a recording manually and then go out to the Tesco for a liter of milk. The Tesco is 35 miles away and I need to recording to stop automatically at 1430 hrs.

Then it's user error. Why did you not start the recording with the Timer? How are you going to control the computer while you are at the Tesco checkout? If you are already back home, why not use the Stop button?

No, no, no - the real problem with Timer Recording is that you lose all access to the controls particularly the levels, but also zoom level and resizing of tracks. IIRC there is a FR to leave these controls accessible to the user who is deploying Timere Recording - but until that happens (if ever) what Koz is describing here is definitely not user error.

It is user error IMHO. Koz started a recording *manually* (not with the Timer) that he knew finished at 14:30 then decided to go out. So the recording will carry on past 14:30 if he is at Tesco at that time unless he can VPN into the computer to control it, or unless he set some scheduled task or script to quit Audacity at 14:30 before he left. The same situation with the original poster. Possibly you are asking for better command-line access to control Audacity remotely, if this is a feature request at all.

I agree it would be more optimal if you could adjust controls relevant to the recording once Timer Record had started but you can Stop or Cancel it using the buttons in the dialogue.

If I'm still missing the point (of the original question as posted or Koz's question) then please explain. Are you (Peter) asking for a way to adjust the Timer Record stop time once you have started it? And Koz is asking for access to the menus having started a manual recording so he can start a new Timed Recording? The latter certainly won't happen until Audacity is threadsafe - we've gone out of our way recently to stop people "doing things" while playing/recording/exporting. Even when it is safe to access Timer Record during recording I think that idea would need a lot of thinking about - I bet as things are now it would stop and restart the recording. And I would still say it's user error in the first place...



Gale