Bad experiece for first time use

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jhon
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:19 am

Bad experiece for first time use

Post by jhon »

Hi,

Sombody suggested to use goldwave for continous sound recording. I installed it. very sorry to say i lost 2 hours important meetings as i am thinking that the conversation was recorded. Now its playing the wav as blank sound. Let me explain the entire problem.

1) Installed goldwave
2) for Testing purpost, my microphone connected to jack on my computer
3) i opened a new file in goldwave specifying length of 5 min
4) opened one mp3.file played it in windows media player and song is played in computer head phone.
5) i kept my microphone very near one side head phone
6) pressed record in control window.
7) the sound has been recorded
8) Lenghth i have specified is 2 min and rate is 11500 around
9) saved my file. one window came for processing.
10) played my newly created file..good i got recorded song with some background noice.

Up to this point, ok. I though that it is working fine.

I initated meeting in my office with Voice ip phone with handsfree option.
i have placed the microphone near to the speaker of the phone
specified the transfer rate as 11000 and length as 2 hours and i did not use any preset
when conversation started. pressed record button. i thought recording was going on well. after conversation i saved the file. played it.
That's it great shock for me......its simply blank for one hour.

i dont know why...

first time it recorded the song
but next time it failed to record voice in telephone

very depressed.. and i was happy i can hear back the meeting conversation but i lost..

what could be the reason.

Thanks
Prasanth
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Post by DougDbug »

Sorry you had a bad experience.

It's hard to tell what went wrong. Did you see any activity on the recording level "meters" (in the control window)?

There's nothing "wrong" with GoldWave. It's a very stable & reliable program. (I've been a GoldWave user for about 10 years!) However, when using a computer & software, there are always lots of configuration options that can mess thing up. In fact I've never used GoldWave to record anything "live". I'm usually working on an existing digital file, or I'm making a copy of an analog recording... I can start over it I've got something wrong.

A regular-old cassette recorder might be a better option for recording meetings & telephone conversations. :wink:
TinPanFan
Posts: 49
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:48 am
Location: Texas

Post by TinPanFan »

I agree with everything Doug said about Goldwave. The problem is usually in the setup. To carry what he said a little further, your setup sounds very simple and easy to test.

Your microphone is near the speaker, and during the phone call you hear the other party clearly? If that is true then all you have to is to set up your GW recording window, press CTRL-RECORD and speak into the microphone. You either see your voice being recorded or not. As Doug says, watch the dynamic recording meter bars. No movement means no recording.

Good Luck
holtram
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:29 pm

Bad experiece for first time use

Post by holtram »

I too am a huge Goldwave fan. It has many many options and generally that is a positive thing but for new users it can sometimes cause problems.

Just in looking at your test steps, one thing comes to mind that you might want to check. Look at your Options -> Control Properties -> Volume settings. The reason your .mp3 file would record but your microphone would not might be that you were recording "what you hear" or "stereo mix" instead of your microphone. At any rate, that could mean that your first recording was not really from your microphone but rather directly from your sound card.

If you want to give Goldwave another shot for live recording (and I really hope you will, in my experience you won't be disappointed), be sure the "mic volume" (v 5.14) setting is the checked recording source and adjust the volume and give your microphone another try. Be sure to record sound from a source other that your computer though to be sure you are actually recording through the microphone.

Hope this helps!
jhon
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:19 am

Re: Bad experiece for first time use

Post by jhon »

Hi,

This is jhon again. mic volume is set to 100 still, It cannot record the voice. One thing found on test is. when i am playing any song mp3 in computer through headphone and i keep the mic near the headphone..the waves that shows in wave goes upto -0 db to 0.8 level like that.
but when i place the mic near to phone conversation, while recording the wave bars moving between 0 and 0.1 not more that. I dont the reason.
i think the "sound" not enough to record.

any suggestions
thanks
jhon
holtram
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:29 pm

Bad experiece for first time use

Post by holtram »

Hi jhon,

You may be right, just not enough sound coming from the phone to record, it isn't a very loud signal. Does it work to record your voice just talking into the microphone? If so then you likely do have all the settings correct.

Just a couple other things I want to be sure of (sorry I don't mean to sound stupid, but I've often tripped on very simple things). You say you have the mic volume set to 100 in Goldwave, but do you also have the checkbox next to the mic volume line checked as selected? If that is not the checked box, you won't get any sound from that source. (Also, be sure your mic is plugged into the microphone input on your sound card and not line-in, I've done that one before).

OK, assuming that's all correct, if you haven't done it check your Windows sound settings for your microphone. (Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Volume Tab then the Advanced button under Device Volume. Check the Microphone settings (if you don't see a column for Microphone, click Options -> Properties and be sure Microphone is a selected box, or click Options -> Advanced Controls).

If you see the microphone column, be sure that Mute is not checked and try volume levels there.

Sorry if you've already tried all this but you never know. Again, if you can record yourself talking then you're likely right and you're just not getting enough sound from your phone.

Good luck and maybe some of the more experienced audiophiles out there might have some other suggestions beyond these... maybe more sensitive microphones?
donrandall
Posts: 550
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2004 11:06 pm
Location: Denver, Colorado

Post by donrandall »

I believe Radio Shack sells something that will help to record from the telephone. If there is no Radio Shack nearby, I would think you may be able to look for something like that on the Radio Shack website and order online.
piano nick
Posts: 423
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:33 pm

Post by piano nick »

Anything recorded from a phone is not going to sound as good as recording a person's voice directly.

Telephone quality isn't terribly high.
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