Cursor gets stuck at the end of a previously recorded track

[Emerogork]

I have a special set up. I use Task Scheduler to start and stop recordings to record special clips from National Public Radio. These activate four times every week day. This part works fine.

The problems occurs when the fifth recording starts and is intended to run for a few hours. It seems that when the record time gets to a previously recorded track, the screen stops sweeping to the left yet the recording continues for the designated time. The VU meters continue showing the amplitude. When I stop the recording, I can see all that was recorded. Everything is good except that the screen had stopped and I cannot see the wave form of the audio being recorded. The problem is consistent. I use the same start and stop batch files for all events.

In the long run,this is not catastrophic, rather it is an annoyance and now a curio.

Thoughts?

[steve]

It seems that when the record time gets to a previously recorded track, the screen stops sweeping to the left yet the recording continues for the designated time.

There has been some discussion about whether this is a bug or a feature. Officially it is (mostly) a feature.

What is happening is that when there is selected audio, "Playback" stops at the end of the selection. When you are recording Audacity may also be "playing". If Audacity is playing while recording and there is an audio selection, then playback will stop at the end of the selection, so the cursor will stop at the end of the selection, so although Audacity is still "recording", no more actually gets recorded,

There are two ways to work around this problem:
1) Ensure that Audacity is not playing while recording.
2) Ensure that there is no selected audio when the recording starts.

To do option (1), set "Transport menu > Overdub" to OFF (not selected).
To do option (2), rewind to the start (Skip to Start) before beginning the recording so that there is no audio selection.

[Emerogork]

I use hard stops and stops relative to the system clock and never use a pause. No other audio is playing and the audio is being recorded even though the cursor has stopped. I have since added a reset to assure that it brings the cursor to the beginning of the track and a command that mutes all tracks before the recording starts again. The problem has not changed with the addition of these last two options. I have been trying to figure this our for quite some time.

Additional note, It stops at the earliest previously programmed stop. For example, if I have 5:02, 5:12, and 5:06 times for programmed stops, the visual cursor always stalls at the earliest one in this case the 5:02 length. By the fact that the 5:06, and 5:12 are recorded correctly, it verifies that the audio has continued to record after the cursor stalls and the programmed stop is working.

I would consider that there could be some setting that has been changed to cause this but I cannot fathom an intelligible reason to do this.

[steve]

Try running each command manually. What happens?

[Emerogork]

Good idea. I will get back to this when I have more time.
Probably later this evening.
Thanks

[Emerogork]

Ok, I have not had much time to diagnose the problem but here is an interesting observation.
Picture multiple takes all being triggered automatically by the task scheduler and batch files.

The problem at hand is that the flow-to-the-left motion of the track being recorded stops. The track continues to be recorded and I cannot see what has been recorded until I stop the recording. ATC, it is not really a major problem I would not be able to do anything until I stop the recording anyway.

However, here is an observation: The stop is always linked to the length of the first track recorded. The cursor stops at the end of that track and the visual flow of the track to the left stops at that point.

I figure that it might be easier to see the problem if I can see what is causing it and someone might be able me how to do this intentionally without the Task Scheduler.