Mic recordings will NOT combine

[lamewing]

Okay,

I am recording my Historical Geology class today and set the NH900 to PCM recording with a HiMD disc (blue). I use a simple stereo mic and set the track marks for every 15 mintues. After 1 hour and 10 minutes I have 4 files. I am able to combine tracks 1 and 2, and tracks 3 and 4...into new tracks of 1 and 2. I cannot combine these last two tracks. I get an "cannot combine tracks" error. Has anyone ever seen this before? Thanks.

More bad news. I just tried to upload the recordings through Sonic Stage 3.2 and it makes it to 49% of the first files and BAM, the program crashes. I guess I will have to go with "old skool" line in recordings to my PC. What gives. I gave up on MDLP for this very reason and now I have to do it because Sonic Stage isn't working correctly? "sigh"

Anyone have a clue what is wrong?

Thanks.

Edited October 25, 2005 by lamewing

[greenmachine]

Usually it won't combine different recording modes (pcm, hisp, hilp) and very short tracks (a few seconds). Don't know why yours don't combine though. Combinig might cause problems during upload. If you need to upload these recordings, don't combine beforehand.

[lamewing]

Usually it won't combine different recording modes (pcm, hisp, hilp) and very short tracks (a few seconds). Don't know why yours don't combine though. Combinig might cause problems during upload. If you need to upload these recordings, don't combine beforehand.

Yep, Kinda got that from my expereince. But that really makes no sense in that combining tracks was one of the strengths of the MD format. Now it looks like Sony mucked that up really well.

In the end I just put a line out from the NH900 to my trusty Cowon X5L and am now doing a direct recording to mp3, which I will copy to my PC later (I keep a full set of the lectures on my PC and the DAP). This really makes me rethink the HiMD plan. /cry

I found some info through google searches that says to never combine on the disc and then try to upload. Instead combining is done on SS 3.2

Edited October 26, 2005 by lamewing

[Sunny]

I had the same problem - my unit didn't want to combine tracks, (but they were mostly very short as Greenmachine said.) And I've had subsequent problems uploading the tracks that did combine.

I'd recommend that you stop auto-track marking if you're later going to combine things - that's partly what was messing things up for me. And like you say, don't do any editing on the unit, do it all in SS3.2. Then, I hope your HiMD plan works!

[veezhun]

I think this has got to with the battery.. I get Cannot edit when the battery is low.. try using the ac adapter or a fresh battery

cheers

[zxon]

All this makes sense. I've had that problem too. I was recording my band's last practice and when I got home I was cutting and cropping tracks, strategically placing track marks in places where each song began and removed all the fussy conversation between each one. I got a track that was about three seconds long, tried to remove the track mark and it wouldn't do it. SS3.2 also crashed when I tried to send the track directly after this unmoveable trackmark, freezing as soon as it reaches 50%.

I've also had the "cannot edit when battery low" message before. The battery was showing as 25% full but I knew that the battery was fresh, so I let the MD unit power itself down and then started it up again, and the battery showed as full again and I was able to edit.

Strange huh?

[Archivist]

Yikes! I've had this problem with a PCM recording, too. It was my first live recording with Hi-MD, and I am used to using auto trackmarking with my Sharp DR480 so I applied same to the NH1.

The first few tracks combined, but around track 7 it would no longer combine, in exactly the same way you mentioned. Reading this thread made me try connecting my NH900 to the transformer, but still no dice.

My new plan is to use trackmarking only for recordings that I do not plan to divide, and record all concerts and gigs 'straight'.

Folks, would you rather do your editing (dividing) in the unit, or in Sonicstage? I am thinking that I'd rather use the unit, but if there are more benefits to using Sonicstage I might rethink that position.

[zxon]

Folks, would you rather do your editing (dividing) in the unit, or in Sonicstage?

I didnt know you could enter trackmarks in recordings using sonicstage...

[A440]

I enter track marks on the unit during the recording. Any other editing is after upload. It's the only way to avoid the bugs.

[ynos]

I pressumed all of you guys using SS3.2 because I had a similar problem when I was in SS3.0. Well, the problem of editing the tracks into the unit is not 100% perfect, though I tried combining 80 tracks + cutting and upload to SS3.2 without having problem, however it is advisable to edit in SS (longer process though) if you value your recording. Lower your risk!

[bland10000]

so how do you remove track marks?

[dex Otaku]

A440 and I likely use very similar methods. Here's mine for line-in recordings:

* auto-trackmarking can NOT be disabled, so don't bother trying

* make your recording

* upload it

* export the tracks as WAV

* drop the tracks in sequence into a non-destructive nonlinear editor such as Audacity, Krystal Audio Engine, Audition, or Vegas

* do your editing

* save the file as your edited master and do what you will with it

I basically use HiMD only as my recording medium. I don't edit with it at all, and don't keep the original recordings on the discs as masters. It's my production recorder, all post-production is done on the PC.

Basically: If you want to do editing, use an editor. SS is not an editor. HiMD [like MD and even CD] has limits to the 'resolution' of editing as well, which are different for each bitrate [a single frame contains a different length of audio for each bitrate].

[g8rken]

A440 and I likely use very similar methods. Here's mine for line-in recordings:

* auto-trackmarking can NOT be disabled, so don't bother trying

* make your recording

* upload it

* export the tracks as WAV

* drop the tracks in sequence into a non-destructive nonlinear editor such as Audacity, Krystal Audio Engine, Audition, or Vegas

* do your editing

* save the file as your edited master and do what you will with it

I basically use HiMD only as my recording medium. I don't edit with it at all, and don't keep the original recordings on the discs as masters. It's my production recorder, all post-production is done on the PC.

Basically: If you want to do editing, use an editor. SS is not an editor. HiMD [like MD and even CD] has limits to the 'resolution' of editing as well, which are different for each bitrate [a single frame contains a different length of audio for each bitrate].

do you erase your discs after you upload and everything goes as planned or do you store them? i don't have HiMD yet, but when i do i am figuring i can't have all of my recordings on my computer due to storage. i guess it's storage of MDs or more storage on the computer.

i would hate for a harddrive to crash or be completely wiped out for one reason or another and lose all of my shows i've stealthed. i am semi-spoiled with editing on my sharp and then using my sony stereo component to burn to cd (i bought that awhile ago when i couldn't upload).

perhaps HiMD > SS > WAV > HiMD

any thoughts?

[dex Otaku]

I don't *keep* anything on HiMD. Once it's uploaded and converted to WAV, the original disc is wiped. Part of the reasoning behind this is that for me, $11.99 locally for discs is expensive. Until a week ago, I had only one 1GB disc, the one that came with my NH700 in August of 2004. I have been reusing that one disc for over a year with no problems that weren't either caused by user error or SonicStage, which has improved sufficiently that I haven't had it corrupt a recording in quite some time.

As for storage: DVD-R fills my needs. I have redundant backups of almost everything I've worked on since about 1997 or so, and I refresh them occasionally to make sure the original media is both working still and replaced with newer copies.

Cripes, I even have nearly all of my sent and received email since 1998, active in Thunderbird as we speak.

[sebastianbf]

A440 and I likely use very similar methods. Here's mine for line-in recordings:

* auto-trackmarking can NOT be disabled, so don't bother trying

* make your recording

* upload it

* export the tracks as WAV

* drop the tracks in sequence into a non-destructive nonlinear editor such as Audacity, Krystal Audio Engine, Audition, or Vegas

* do your editing

* save the file as your edited master and do what you will with it

I would like to add something to this instructions. After editing the track in the computer, make sure to save it as a WAV file. If you save it as MP3 you will have gaps in your recording if you plan to combine the tracks later. That's all.