Sound corrupted... again

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MorganG
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:03 am

Sound corrupted... again

Post by MorganG »

I just completed recording a 70 minute lesson for my students.

When I hit "play" I get a loud metallic sound.

The waveform looks normal, but the playback is anything but normal.

I've already saved it, but last time I experienced this, the saved file was corrupted.

Note that when I was recording, I saw the recording/sound bars move up and down in time with my voice just as they should have. I am certain that the source of this noise is NOT my microphone.

Question 1: How can I save my recording?

Question 2: How can I ever trust Amadeus Pro again, after the 2nd time this has happened?

MorganG
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:03 am

Post by MorganG »

The waveform on my screen looks normal, as in the image.

However, if I play it, it's just metallic buzzing.

If I copy a segment and paste it to another window, the "normal" appearance goes away, it becomes mostly a flatline with buzzing.

I'm afraid to close this window, as the last time this happened and I did that, any semblance of a normal recording were lost.


Image

Unfo
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 12:19 pm

Post by Unfo »

Also with my iMAC there is the same problem.
Moreover when i play from the window the velocity is one half

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Martin Hairer
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Sound corrupted... again

Post by Martin Hairer »

If I remember correctly, the reason why this happened to you last time was that the drive containing the temporary files got unmounted during the session. I suggested to make sure that Amadeus uses the internal drive for its temporary files so that this would not happen again.

Are you sure that this wasn't caused in the same way again? This is the only scenario I can imagine where something like that would happen. Regards,

Martin

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Martin Hairer
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Sound corrupted... again

Post by Martin Hairer »

Moreover when i play from the window the velocity is one half
The playback speed can be adjusted in the "Playback controller" window. If it still plays back at half speed, then the sample rate of the file is wrong. Regards,

Martin

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HairerSoft
http://www.hairersoft.com/

MorganG
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:03 am

Re: Sound corrupted... again

Post by MorganG »

Yes... I saw your suggestion again last night after this file was lost. And I agree that is the cause. I have a backup raid volume that is my "largest" volume, with a drive that's going bad. I think it went offline while I was recording, and now I can't get it back online... so the recording was lost... again.

I can see why this default behavior of "choosing the largest volume" might have made sense back in the old days of small disks, but it makes no sense to me in the current environment. I have now lost two files because of it, and in my anger at that, almost ended up posting some quite negative reviews of Amadeus (fortunately, a cool head prevailed in the end).

There are no other programs I work with that arbitrarily use external drives (such as backup drives) to store mission critical files. For example, take Final Cut Pro X - while it is possible to set the cache to a different drive, by default it is on the same drive as the Library. This is normal and expected behavior for every program that I've worked with.

While you pointed out to me that there was a setting for this, it was well after the first file-corrupting incident occurred, and it seemed like a rare, one-time thing, and so I hadn't changed the setting. If it had been clear to me that Amadeus was by default storing temp files on my backup drive, I would have turned that off immediately.

Since this is the default behavior, I'm sure that you have many users whose temp recordings are going to random "large" drives on their system without their knowledge. Fortunately, most drives are pretty reliable these days - but still, even if it weren't for these two file corruption incidents, I don't like the default behavior of my backup drive (with it's slow speed USB 2.0 connection) being used to store files for a sound recording app.

I have now fixed this setting in my copy of the app, and I hope this will never occur again. However, I do strongly urge you to reconsider this default setting of storing files to the largest drive. I think it may produce unexpected behavior and file loss that increases headaches for everyone - you included. (my own headache was re-recording my lesson at 2am... how fun!)

Thanks
Morgan
Martin Hairer wrote:If I remember correctly, the reason why this happened to you last time was that the drive containing the temporary files got unmounted during the session. I suggested to make sure that Amadeus uses the internal drive for its temporary files so that this would not happen again.

Are you sure that this wasn't caused in the same way again? This is the only scenario I can imagine where something like that would happen. Regards,

Martin

--
HairerSoft
http://www.hairersoft.com/

AnnB
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:36 am

Re: Sound corrupted... again

Post by AnnB »

This has just happened to me, too.
I recorded an hour long narration yesterday and began adding markers to it. I was interrupted and closed my laptop with the file still open, but omitted to save it. I did not have any external disks connected, but I was connected to a network NAS drive and I have been saving my files to iCloud in order to open them on a different computer. I'm afraid I am so used to Apple auto-saving my files to iCloud, even when I haven't named them and assigned them to a particular place, that I wasn't aware of the danger of losing my material.

I opened my laptop this morning (still in the same building) to resume working. At first nothing happened when I pressed play and I assumed my laptop was gearing up to play the file, as I had just woken it from sleep. I moved on to another task when the file began playing. I wouldn't call it a metallic sound but it was loud and repetitive and made me jump out of my skin. I returned to the file and found that, although the visual appearance was unchanged, nothing would play - apart from the noise. This was worrying, so I immediately saved my file and shut down Amadeus.

I reopened the file with Adobe Audition, with Apple Quicktime and with a newer version of Amadeus but found the file was empty in each case, apart from the markers I had set up yesterday. Other, previously recorded and saved files were perfectly fine. I guess I have no option other than to re-record the narration - but I would like some advice as to how never to let this happen again!

I have recorded sound files for classes too - and my sympathy goes out to MorganG - what a gut wrenching thing to happen!

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