austreu Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 I'm trying to record spoken word from a CD on my mac - can't use Net Md - with a patch cord.The MZ-S1 records fine using this method - but because there are frequent pauses in the spoken material exceeding 2 seconds, tracks max out at 254 after about 30 minutes of recording.I can't find anything in the manual that allows me to disable auto track marking. Does anyone have a simple workaround for this problem?Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 (edited) Eww... There's no way that I know of to disable the auto track-marking. Just about every available model that I know of will automatically place a track mark (when recording via line/optical in) if the level is low enough for 2 or 3 seconds...Aside from adding some background music to the spoken word , the only workaround that I could possibly think of would be either using sonicstage on a PC if you have one, or even using Virtual PC on the Mac if you have it. I'm not sure of the reliability of SonicStage on Virtual PC when transferring music to the recorder, but I know it most likely will not be as good as with an actual PC running SonicStage...Hopefully someone else may have some ideas for you, that's really a bummer... Edited February 6, 2006 by raintheory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 Don't mac's have optical out? You could use that instead. If the mac sends the track info over optical (I am not sure on this) the track marks would coincide with the tracks on the CD. Even if it does not send the track mark info I think it will record it as one big track. At least that's what happens on my PC via the optical out on my Extigy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 That optical idea might work... Although I know I have tried recording via optical and had the same thing happen in the past.Definitely worth trying though! Good call! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 The other option if that does not work would be to record from a CD player with optical output. You will definitly get the correct track marks if you do it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Cat Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 adding some background music to the spoken word Or if you don't want music try mixing in some lesser noticeable sound like 19kHz sine wave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Someone brought this up in another thread. You could turn automatic track marking off and put it to a preconfigured time like 5 minutes instead. This will at least reduce the amount of track marks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austreu Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Someone brought this up in another thread. You could turn automatic track marking off and put it to a preconfigured time like 5 minutes instead. This will at least reduce the amount of track marks.Yeah.......tried that. On my MZ-S1 I just get the auto track marks, plus the programmed marks.I'm off today in search of an optical cable. Correct me, anyone, if I'm wrong, but I think I need a cable with Toslink one end for my Mac G5, and mini-optical on the other. My manual identifies this cable as 'POC-15AB' - is this a proprietary Sony cable?Thanks to everyone for their input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Yeah.......tried that. On my MZ-S1 I just get the auto track marks, plus the programmed marks.I'm off today in search of an optical cable. Correct me, anyone, if I'm wrong, but I think I need a cable with Toslink one end for my Mac G5, and mini-optical on the other. My manual identifies this cable as 'POC-15AB' - is this a proprietary Sony cable?Thanks to everyone for their input.You should be able to find a TOSLINK cable with a miniplug (or adapter) on one end, no problem. Not proprietary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 You could turn automatic track marking off and put it to a preconfigured time like 5 minutes instead. This will at least reduce the amount of track marks.Unfortunately, that's a myth. At one point I thought it worked as it does with Mic-In, but further testing showed it doesn't. There seems to be no way around the auto track marking in Line-in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Unfortunately, that's a myth. At one point I thought it worked as it does with Mic-In, but further testing showed it doesn't. There seems to be no way around the auto track marking in Line-in.Really? I never tried recording that way since I did not have a need. That stinks. The best way to deal with it on a non USB capable unit IMO is to record optical from a CD player. There is no futzing around that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 I'm trying to record spoken word from a CD on my mac - can't use Net Md - with a patch cord.The MZ-S1 records fine using this method - but because there are frequent pauses in the spoken material exceeding 2 seconds, tracks max out at 254 after about 30 minutes of recording.I can't find anything in the manual that allows me to disable auto track marking. Does anyone have a simple workaround for this problem?Simple workaround [though not altogether pretty]:Plug the line-out of the 'puter into the MIC in of the MD.Turn the volume control on the 'puter down until levels read OK on the MD.Record as you wish without any auto-t.marking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austreu Posted February 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 Simple workaround [though not altogether pretty]:Plug the line-out of the 'puter into the MIC in of the MD.Turn the volume control on the 'puter down until levels read OK on the MD.Record as you wish without any auto-t.marking.Follow-up. For the MZ-S1 at least, recording with an optical cable from my Mac G5 overrides that auto track mark feature (after 2 seconds of silence). The recording mimics the tracks on the source CD. For what it's worth, although I was able to get 'Simple Burner' to launch in Virtual PC on my mac, and although I have the correct driver for the MZ-S1, the MD was only occasionally recognized, and when I tried to initiate a recording, the Simple Burner program would always crash.Thanks for all the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfflamingo Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 Hi...If I hear you right, you wish to eliminate auto-track creation with your transfering of spoken word CDs, and wouldn't mind having one unbroken track or maybe multiple tracks, but with markers, let's say, every five minutes.I know you're working on a Mac platform, but I routinely remove silent gaps that are too long in podcasts I create with my PC platform using the Total Recorder software [PC only]. You can select any removal length perimeter and still wind up with only one file, not one that gets broken up into different files or tracks every time a pause is shortened. The process is automated and you can shorten the gaps either while recording live or post-process the gap shortening. I cut pauses down to 1.5 seconds, and the flow of speech after editing never sounds strange or artificial.Go here at the Total Recorder site and look at page 109 of the PDF manual for the product:http://www.totalrecorder.com/download/TotalRecorder.pdfI am personally not aware of any software for the Mac that can do the same thing. I wish there was such software available.Hope this helps, maybe you have access to a PC to use just for this purpose, at least in creating a file you may be able to then work with on your Mac.- pfflamingo - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 Follow-up. For the MZ-S1 at least, recording with an optical cable from my Mac G5 overrides that auto track mark feature (after 2 seconds of silence). The recording mimics the tracks on the source CD. For what it's worth, although I was able to get 'Simple Burner' to launch in Virtual PC on my mac, and although I have the correct driver for the MZ-S1, the MD was only occasionally recognized, and when I tried to initiate a recording, the Simple Burner program would always crash.Thanks for all the suggestions.Glad to hear the optical cable did the trick! Probably one of the easiest suggestions, and bound to give one of the best results quality-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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