Incomplete Recordings - SOLVED

[kevtardis]

My old EEEPC, running WinXP, died (with about 9 albums worth of newly digitized [but not yet cleaned up] music files on it), so I installed VinylStudio (same version 11.07) onto a newer laptop running Windows 7. Same backend equipment (NAD PP-3, Linn LP12) as before. Using all default settings on the 'Record' screen. Only the laptop and OS has changed.

Initially I had some problems with starting a recording (when I put the needle down, I would get a msgbox saying that the needle was already), but tweaking the 'needle down' settings seems to have fixed that.

I've tried to record side A of the first album in the queue about 5 times. Each time, after 1-3 minutes, I get a message box saying that the recording has been paused because the end of the album side has been reached. The album side is a good 15-20 minutes long. I tweaked the needle up settings (as nothing else seemed very germane); while this may have done something, I'm still a long way from being able to record the entire side.

I then unchecked the 'Record all sides as one file' and tried again. After 1-3 minutes, I get a message box saying that the recording is complete.

This was never a problem when I was running VinylStudio on my old laptop.

I didn't see where anyone else has been having problems with this. Would welcome any thoughts on how to successfully record a full album side again. Thanks.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Sounds like you need to increase the 'Needle up timeout' setting.  Is the recording stopping in quiet sections of music or between tracks?

[kevtardis]

The last several times its not even getting to the end of the track, although it is a quiet acoustic album. I've had the 'needle up' setting at 60, and its still happening.

I also tried using a different USB input. No change.

Should it work ok if I disable the 'wait for needle down' box?

[kevtardis]

To answer my own question - yes. If you uncheck the 'wait for needle down' box, I can click 'Record' and the entire side will be recorded.

I can work with this. It is puzzling, however, as to why the 'needle down' functionality would work so differently from Windows laptop to Windows laptop...

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

It might be connected to the recording level - Microsoft made a change in Windows 7 which can affect this.

Try clicking the 'Set Digital Gain to 1' button in VinylStudio's Check Level dialog.  This makes Windows 7 behave as XP does.

Also, if you do give up on 'Wait for needle down', VinylStudio has a 'Truncate Recording at Cursor' feature in the Cleanup Audio window.  This works best when you record the album as two separate sides.

[kevtardis]

Thanks Paul - will check into the digital gain setting.

Turns out that the previous owner of the laptop (my wife) must not have used the audio functionality very much, or else really goofed it up. After a lot of fooling around with Windows' input and output audio device settings, everything is working right. Recording levels are much improved, and I can now use the 'needle down' functionality again, with the default settings restored. It records until the end of the album again.

FYI, a lot of the help I needed to get the settings right came from the VinylStudio software itself.

kevtardis