[Lebodde]

Does anyone know of any software that can be programmed to start recording at a certain time and stop at another time? Just like a VCR but for audio on the Mac? (This is to record a radio from the analog input)

I would think that an Applescript compliant recorder should be able to do that, right? Ideally it would record in mp3 format. Macamp looked cool but it cannot be programmed.

Is there a better forum for this type of question?

Thanks for any info

[marusin]

I believe that either Coaster or SoundJam would be able to possibly do this sort of thing (depending if you want to record as an AIFF or Mp3)... They both support Scripting and you would have to write your own (or scour the internet).. I've thought about tackling this before but have never gotten around to doing it...

Sorry I can't really help but I would suggest looking into either of these applications..

-Mike

[Lebodde]

Thank you Marusin.

I went to the Coaster web site and in the list of features they state:

- Rudimentary AppleScript support (incl. a "Timer Recording" sample AppleScript)

This could be exactly what I'm looking for, except for the mp3 record part (Coaster says it only records aiff uncompressed). Does anyone have experience with Coaster 1.1.3? Is this a pretty good software?

Thanks a lot

[marusin]

I personally love Coaster for recording AIFF files.. Being from Chicago, we have a great radio station called WXRT that broadcasts a lot of concerts without commercial interuptions, etc. I plug my stereo into my line-in on my Mac and use Coaster to record one big (and I stress big!) AIFF file.. From there, I cut it up and then burn it onto CD.. Coaster is freeware and for recording AIFFs. I can't find a better/easier product to use (especially for the price!)..

If you want to record as an MP3, SoundJam will record a line-in audio stream as an MP3.. Like I said, I know that you can play with scripting in SoundJam and could figure out a way to start a recording at a specific time.. (I just haven't done it!)..

Good Luck!
-Mike

[mitchell_pgh]

Perhaps you could use applescript to record via Coster the broadcast. Then have another script that checks a folder for a new file every hour or so. Once it's located, have it convert the AIFF into a MP3.

[Lebodde]

I tried Coaster 1.1.3 last night. I just downloaded it, double clicked on the "Timed recording" applescript, set time in and time out and it recorded perfectly the first time around! I had not even opened the main application yet!

This is a really impressive feat for any application and even more so for a freeware!

Based on my (admittedly very limited) test, it looks like the AIFF file is approximately 10MB per minute with the default settings (44K, 16bit, stereo). This should make a one hour radio program recording about 600MB. Does this seem about right? (It must be right since a CD-R accepts about 600MB and contains about an hour of music...)

Thanks very much.

[Chuck_star]

Your right on Lebodde.

[neutrino23]

Coaster is perfect for this application. I've used it for months and it has been very reliable.

I wrote slightly different scripts to do the timing.
One script called START simply tells Coaster to start recording.
A second script called STOP tells Coaster to stop recording and to save the recorded data with a specific name then quit.
I then use iDo script scheduler (free from Apple, AppleScript page, OS installer CD) to launch these scripts at the required times. This way the scripts are not running during the hours of waiting to launch the program. Also, since I run this on a Powerbook I put it to sleep but have it scheduled to automatically wake up for the recording then go back to sleep after the recording is done.

I hope Coaster will be carbonized for OS X.

I emailed the author about this a few months ago but at the time he was skeptical that he would take up that challenge.

Usually I edit the resulting AIFF file with Quicktime Player before converting to MP3 with iTunes. On a Pismo this conversion goes about 4x. Note that iTunes seems to require free disk space about the same size as the source file. For example, if I record for an hour this results in a 600MB file. To make an MP3 requires at least 600MB of free disk space.

[Lebodde]

Neutrino,

Thanks for this excellent information. I did notice that the Coaster Timer script basically locks the machine until it has executed which is a bit of a pain. Would you mind sharing your scripts by any chance?

I also dusted my old copy of SoundJamPlus and noticed they have an "Alarm Clock" feature. While it is primarily setup to simply start playing at a certain time, I noticed that you can have it launch any Applescript instead. I would imagine it would be fairly simple to write a little "start recording" script that can be launched by that alarm clock. Anyone tried this? The advantage is that SoundJam records directly in mp3.

Is there a SoundJam discussion board tha might address this, btw?

Thank you

[ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: Lebodde ]

[emdash]

I haven't tried it (yet) -- but Audiocorder appears to do timer-based recording.

[neutrino23]

Originally posted by Lebodde:
<STRONG>Neutrino,

Thanks for this excellent information. I did notice that the Coaster Timer script basically locks the machine until it has executed which is a bit of a pain. Would you mind sharing your scripts by any chance?

I also dusted my old copy of SoundJamPlus and noticed they have an "Alarm Clock" feature. While it is primarily setup to simply start playing at a certain time, I noticed that you can have it launch any Applescript instead. I would imagine it would be fairly simple to write a little "start recording" script that can be launched by that alarm clock. Anyone tried this? The advantage is that SoundJam records directly in mp3.

Is there a SoundJam discussion board tha might address this, btw?

Thank you

[ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: Lebodde ]</STRONG>

[Edited to insert the correct scripts]:

Start Recording

Tell Application "Coaster"
start recording
end tell


Stop Recording

Tell Application "Coaster"
stop recording
save recording as "(insert file name here)"
Quit
end tell


Then with the free version of iDo Script Scheduler I set this to fire at the appropriate times. In Coaster I set the default folder and the creator code (option towards the bottom of the coaster screen) to make the stored file a QuickTime file. Double clicking it opens it in QT. From there I trim off the unwanted parts, save it then convert to MP3 with iTunes.

BTW, I just heard that iTunes 2 is now scriptable so that the second script could, if desired, convert the result to MP3 then erase the AIFF file.

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: neutrino23 ]

UPDATE.

After many months of using Coaster with the built-in Timer Recording (which works OK but is not very elegant because it "locks" the computer until recording is finished), I started to have problems with it after I (finally) installed OS X on this computer. Too numerous to elaborate.

So I went back on the search trail and I just started using AudioCorder. What a cool little app! It certainly does not have all the features that Coaster has but it has two very big advantages for my particular application: 1) It has a fully functional OS X version and 2) It incorporates a much easier "Timed Recording" function. I have to say that, so far, I am very pleased with this new find and for VCR-like audio recording under OS X it does the job best.

Thanks all for your help.