Q: Are there going to be any more modifications or enhancements to Scanner Recorder?
A: Yes there will be a future for Scanner Recorder enhancements if donations keep coming in. But it's not likely that any more development will be done to the freeware version. There is a Pro version of Scanner Recorder currently in development thanks to those who showed their interest by donating and all who donate are entitled to a license for the pro version....but it's not available yet and I can't blame people for wanting to wait and see what happens first before donating their money. But those who have donated so far have helped me pay for an upgrade to this hosting account. I needed an upgrade because I've been running out of bandwidth. 2GB / month is not enough any more. The upgrade (to 4GB) will happen in the next few days (as of 6/26/05). I just put the order in today for the increased bandwidth....thanks to your generous donations. It's very much appreciated!!
Q: The only button that is not grayed out is the OPEN button. How do record if the RECORD button is grayed out?
A: Press the OPEN button, select a file to record the audio into, choose a compression method PCM means NO COMPRESSION. All others make compression happen. After selecting the output file and the compression method, the RECORD button will now allow you to press it. The Pro version of Scanner Recorder will eliminate this messy step forever. This is a top priority for the future Pro version, no more file naming by the user.
Q: What is the slider on the front panel?
A: This is for adjusting the squelch (or audio threshold). If you do not set this control properly, the audio might not be recorded or the audio could be recorded with no breaks in the silent parts.
Q: Is there a way to adjust the pause time after the squelch opens?
A: Yes. See the options menu for the settings.
Q: How do I specify that I want to record using the line input instead of the mic input?
A: Since the recorder records from the Microsoft Sound Mapper virtual device, all inputs are available to the recorder as long as Microsoft's sound mapper is aware of the sound card.
Q: Can I record to .MP3 files?
A: No. Even though the compressors show MP3 in the list, you still are going to record to a wav files. It's possible there are .WAV to .MP3 converters available as shareware or freeware.
Q: How do I use the OFF, CAL and LOCK buttons?
A: These buttons control the DC offset correction system.
OFF - Do not use DC offset correction.
CAL - Continuous calibration mode. This mode adjusts the DC offset correction based on a running average of the incoming audio data.
LOCK - Maintain DC correction but do not take new DC measurements.
The recommended procedure for using this calibration system is:
- Start recording audio. It's not necessary to keep the recording.
- While recording is in progress, set the DC Offset switches to CAL and wait a few moments (like 10 seconds) to allow the average to stabilize. (Note: the numeric display for each audio channel should approach zero or close to zero. For best results, the incoming audio signal should be quiet.)
- Press LOCK after you have made a sufficient DC measurement and leave the recorder locked in order to keep the correction in effect. It might be necessary to re-calibrate the offset correction on occasion if the analog portion of your sound card drifts or if you change inputs or use a different external device connected to the PC's sound card inputs. Changing the recording format can also change the DC offset. The calibration value that is in effect stays in effect even after closing and starting Scanrec at a later time. The calibration data is saved in the Scanrec.INI file.
Q: Why can't I use a higher MP3 bit rate?
A: The limit in compressor data rate is due to the codec that is installed in your system. The recorder can only use the compressor formats that the installed codecs provide.
Q: I cannot get any sound to record even though I connected my radio to the line-in port on the sound card.
A: This is not a bug in the recorder but, most likely, a setting that needs adjusting. Make sure you have checked the RECORD volumes for your sound card. If you simply double-click the speaker in the lower right corner of your desktop and set the line-in all the way up and unclick the MUTE checkbox, this is not going to solve the problem. You need to check the RECORD volumes which are somewhere else. To access the RECORD volumes perform the following steps: 1. Double-click the speaker icon to open the playback volumes. 2. Select the OPTIONS|PROPERTIES|RECORDING menu item. This will open the recording volumes. 3. Set the line-in fader all the way up and make sure the checkbox below the line-in fader is CHECKED. If after all this you still cannot get sound to record, please DO NOT EMAIL ME. I don't know what to do if you can't get the audio to record. There's little hope that I'll be able to solve it for you. The recorder works on my machines and it works for most the people that download it. If you are having trouble like this, I suspect that the problem is something else that I have little control over, nor do I have any suggestions other than what's in this FAQ.
Q: When I try to open the .WAV file, I see a message that looks like "A suitable driver is not available to provide valid format selections.".
A: This is not a bug in the recorder. This is a Windows configuration problem. It's likely that my recorder was the first recorder you've tried to use that has compression capability so the problem never appeared before that. People who have reported this have been able to solve it by taking the following actions: 1. Open Control Panel. 2. Select MULTIMEDIA. 3. Select the DEVICES tab. Look in the AUDIO COMPRESSION CODECS by clicking the + sign. Select one of the entries in this list by double clicking on it. Change the priority setting to something different. (Choose any number and see what happens). Close the MULTIMEDIA settings and close the control panel. Now go try the recorder again and see if this fixed the problem. If the problem is gone, you can go back and locate the entry you changed and change the priority setting back to what it was before and the recorder should still work. The assumption behind this procedure is that the Windows registry had something configured wrong for the audio codecs. This can cause the MSACM32.DLL driver file to fail to initialize correctly so that it doesn't know about the existance of the installed codecs. If you still can't get around this problem you have a couple more options: 1. Reinstall the windows multimedia sound programs by loading your windows 95 CD rom and going into setup to remove then re-add the multimedia programs. 2. Or if all else fails, SCANREC has a setting in the OPTIONS menu to turn off compression. This will ultimately remove the problem but the audio .WAV file will not be compressed. If this FAQ does not help you get around this problem then there's nothing more that I can think of to try. Sorry, I don't have all the answers. Since my PC works it's difficult to try to anticipate why it wouldn't work on a different system.