I was doing some recording in HearThis today, and noticed a few glitches.
Periodically, it seems to introduce silent spots while recording. Also, when I recorded a long line in parts, though in the part window it showed both parts as recorded, and actually played both parts, when I went back to the regular block, the recording was truncated.
Has anyone else noticed this issue, or is it only happening for me?
Thinking the issue might be with my mic, I tried recording a longer segment of audio in Audacity, but that was crystal clear, with no artifacts.
I also tried recording in audacity while I was recording a two segment block in Hear this, and \ HearThis had audio glitches, and truncated audio, but the Audacity recording in the background was perfect.
Thanks
Bruce
I did a bit more investigation into this issue, and here is what I have found.
I found that the glitch only occurs when splitting a recording into multiple blocks.
I found that it only occurs with my USB headset mic, which is a Jabra UC Voice 550 Mono.
So far, it only occurs on my laptop, which is a Dell Latitude E6330.
It occurs with 2 different Jabra headset mics. (same model)
When the problem occurs, I can hear a sound almost like a clicking noise in the earpiece, and that only occurs when splitting a long segment.
Audacity recording in the background records clear audio, without any glitches.
The one time I recorded on the laptop with no artifacts in the audio in multiple blocks, I was also hooked up to a TV via HDMI, so I tried to duplicate the setup I had been using, but it still had the sound glitches.
Thinking it was an issue with HearThis 2.0, I uninstalled 2.0, and installed 1.4.21, but I had the same issues.
Included in this issue, I also noticed the following. When I record a block in 2 segments, often when I click the play button for 1+2, it will truncate the audio. I will then listen to both parts individually, and it will have all the audio, but with glitches.
I did a further test using the Laptop built in mic. First I left the USB headset plugged in, and changed the default recording device. Though it recorded using the built in mic, it still had audio glitches. Then I disconnected the USB mic, and it recorded properly.
Not sure what if any of this will be helpful for troubleshooting, but I have tried to include as much information as I can.
Thanks
Bruce
This is a bit of a wild guess, but it may be that HearThis is expecting stereo input, and since your headset is mono, it is causing glitches. Not sure why it would continue to happen when you change to use the built-in recording device, but maybe just having the driver loaded could cause this. It wouldn’t surprise me too much if Audacity had the smarts to be able to detect the recording device and switch its expectations about the incoming signal. Again, I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think we’d actually recommend a mono mic for audio Scripture recording. Also, I suspect that the code that puts together the pieces together when you’ve recorded a long segment as two separate clips is probably also thinking its working with stereo input, so it’s quite possible that it could be accentuating the glitches. I’ll make sure that the other HearThis devs (who may be more familiar with this part of the program) see this as well.
Thanks for writing back.
I’m afraid I don’t follow the reason for recording stereo audio, if we are just recording voice. Also, if HearThis is expecting stereo audio input, why would it save the files as mono? (I don’t do much with audio, I just would expect that if stereo audio input is recommended, that the resulting file would also be saved as stereo)
What I don’t understand is why the recording is handled fine in the regular interface, and just has trouble when recording segments.
I also noticed another glitch today, when trying to use the keyboard shortcuts. When tapping the “p” key to open up the dialogue for recording in segments, it opened up the window, but didn’t switch the focus. So, pressing the space bar records in the main window, instead of the segment window. Even clicking in the window to try to give it focus doesn’t work. So, if I use the keyboard shortcut to open the segment recording, then I have to use the mouse to press the record button in the window. However, if I use the mouse to click the segment button, then I am able to use the keyboard shortcuts for recording in that window. (This is only in 2.0)
I kind of doubt the issues are related, but since both things involve the same window, …
Thanks
Bruce
Okay, it was just a guess. I didn’t know that the output was mono. At least some laptops do have stereo mics, so even if HearThis ends up throwing away half of the input, I suppose it could still possibly be a factor. I was looking on-line to see if I could find any place where we make specific recommendations about equipment, but all I could find was something pretty vague. (Sorry, HearThis hasn’t been my front-burner project for a while.)
I agree that the focus problem isn’t likely to have anything to do with the problem. However, it is possible that the problem could be caused by HearThis having two separate windows listening simultaneously. I didn’t work on the split segment recording feature, so I’m not at all familiar with that code. But just knowing that both windows are “live” gives me reason to suspect that the problem could be related to that. Maybe the guy who did that part of the program will have a better idea.
So I haven’t been much help, but let me at least say a huge thank-you for your good feedback and detailed reporting and troubleshooting work. I’m sure that will be helpful in tracking down what’s going on.
Thanks for all your work on the project, it is great for recording. I hope my feedback is able to improve the product.
Incidentally, I tried with another Dell laptop, an E6430 with Windows 10, and it had the same issues as the Dell E6330. However on a Dell T3500 desktop, it doesn’t seem to have any issues at all, other than the window focus issue. For whatever that info is worth.
Thanks
Bruce
I do recall a different issue with Dell laptops, where the sound was garbled. In that case, the cure was to turn off some kind of audio enhancement setting in the Control Panel:Sound:Recording area. You might look to see if that makes a difference.
I implemented the split recording function, but I’m not aware of any reason why it should give poorer results than regular recording.
Tom’s theory that both windows are responding to the keyboard is interesting. Do you get the same problem if you operate HearThis entirely using the mouse?
Are you able to try with any other external microphone?
Here’s one other experiment you could try, if you have the patience. While doing a split recording, record the two parts. Then, before you click “Use these recordings”, open a Windows Explorer and type %temp% in the top bar. This will take you to a folder full of all sorts of mysterious files. Sort it by date modified, and the two most recent files should be the two parts of the recording. See whether the separate parts have the problem, or whether it is a result of the process that combines them, and let us know.
I tried turning off audio enhancements, but only found that on the output side, nothing for recording.
I found the files, and made a copy of them, as well as how they were combined, as well as a recording without using the combining feature. It comes to a little under 2 megabytes, if it would be helpful to see what I am getting.
It does seem to be an issue with it not liking the mic, but I am unsure as to why it would work fine on another computer, but not on Dell computers.
Let me know how best to send audio files, I can provide a dropbox link if that would be the easiest.
Thanks
Bruce
A drop-box link would be fine. Unfortunately, it’s not too surprising that the problem would be related to a specific combination of hardware and drivers. One thing I’ve learned in my experience with audio software is that the difference between success and failure can often involve some pretty subtle differences.
Ok, here is a link to the files.
Thanks
For what it’s worth, here are instructions for alleviating garbled recording audio problem, which is not really implicated for you but someone might find this thread and make use of it: Microphone / Voice sounds low and distorted after upgrading to Windows 10.
This topic seems to be related: Problem recording long lines in parts
Can’t be sure how many distinct issues are involved, but I’m putting think link in here so users can cross check and see if there’s anything potentially useful in the other topic.
Using 2.0.135 I was just able to reproduce the problem of HearThis truncating the combined audio (recorded using a USB headset), so that only the first recording was included. I will investigate…
If you were able to reproduce the problem, do you need me to send audio, or do you have the info needed? Thanks
I have a fix (waiting for review) for the problem where clip #2 is not being included. . If your problem is only that, I do not need a sample recording. If you are still experiencing problems in the individual clips (the end is truncated or bits missing from the middle), then please send me a sample.