Total Recorder FAQ

If you encounter a problem that is not listed in either the Total Recorder Help (Troubleshooting section) or in this FAQ, contact Technical Support at support@highcriteria.com.

Please provide the following information:

Whether you are a registered user or you are evaluating the program.
The program version and edition you are using.
The Version of Windows that you are using.
A detailed description of the problem.
If the problem relates to recording, specify what kind of audio you are trying to record: sound from a microphone, a tape recorder, sound reproduced by a player (identify name and version of this player), Internet transmission (specify the URL), or similar.
Any other details you feel are relevant.

If the problem appears through an error message displayed in Total Recorder or its install program:

Press the "Debug info>>" button in the message box.
Press the Copy button in the message box. Debug information will be copied to the Clipboard. The size of this information will not exceed 20 kilobytes.
Insert the information from the Clipboard into your letter to the Technical Support Team (press Ctrl-V).

Note: If the message is not produced by Total Recorder then provide us with the exact text and the name of the program that issued the message.

Due to lack of information, our support staff will ignore e-mails if they contain single line entries like those below:

"Problems obtaining a registration key."
"Total Recorder does not work."
"Total Recorder does not record."
"How do I use Total Recorder?"

Please note that although our support staff may provide some hints on how to use the software in an efficient way, they will not provide any step-by-step instructions for common tasks. Please refer to the online help for this type of information.

Registration

What is the difference between a registered version and an unregistered version of Total Recorder?

The only difference is that, with an unregistered version, Total Recorder will insert an audible noise about every 60 seconds throughout the recording. An unregistered version allows you to test all of the features before you purchase. If you purchase a registration (license), the program will no longer insert the audible noise throughout the recording.

Is my registration good for all future versions of Total Recorder?

Yes, your registration is good for all future versions of the same Edition. All Versions prior to V3.3 (when different editions were introduced) are considered the Standard Edition.

Occasionally, the format of the registration key changes with a major release of Total Recorder. In such cases, all registered users are entitled to a free updated registration key for the same edition.

Registration keys were last changed in the following versions of Total Recorder:

Standard Edition - version 5.0
Professional Edition - version 4.0
Developer Edition - version 4.1

How long does it take to get a registration key?

If you register by credit card, it takes only minutes. Your registration code is automatically emailed to you as soon as your credit card has been verified.

If you or your ISP is using E-mail filtering software we cannot guarantee that our E-mail will not be considered spam. To alleviate this problem you can (temporary) add websale@highcriteria.com to your trusted list of addresses. It is also a good idea to check the folder where the junk mail is collected if you have not received your key within 15 minutes of your purchase.

My credit card transaction was approved but I didn't get a receipt and/or a registration key. What should I do?

This is likely caused by a typing error in your E-mail address, or possibly due to some technical problems with network communications. E-mail support@highcriteria.com and we will resend the missing information to you. Make sure that your E-mail address is not blocked and can accept E-mail from us.

If you or your ISP is using E-mail filtering software we cannot guarantee that our E-mail will not be considered spam. To alleviate this problem you can (temporary) add websale@highcriteria.com to your trusted list of addresses. It is also a good idea to check the folder where the junk mail is collected if you have not gotten your key within 15 minutes of your purchase.

I am trying to register but receive a message that the transaction is �Voided�. What does this mean?

It means the postal address you provided is different from that of your credit card billing address. Please correct the address and try again. If in doubt, look at your credit card statement for verification. If there is still a problem, use the alternative credit card link.

My credit card is valid and has sufficient credit but your Website keeps declining it. What can I do?

The best way to resolve this is to call your bank. They have records of all your transactions and may be able to quickly determine the reason for failure. You can also try the alternative credit card link.

Please note that Internet Secure allows only two purchases with any specific credit card during a given 24 hour period. Please purchase a bundle or use a separate credit card, if you want to make more than two purchases.

Installation

I have a previous version of Total Recorder installed. Should I uninstall it first before installing a new version?

No. A newer version will automatically remove an older version, install itself, and then ask you to reboot your computer so that a driver in memory can be changed.

However, when you install a new version of Total Recorder over some of the very old versions, it will be unregistered. You must enter your new registration key to register your new version. See the question above Is my registration good for all future versions of Total Recorder?

You can also install one edition of the program over another edition of the same, or older, version. It this case, Total Recorder will also be unregistered.

When I try to run the install.exe program, I get a message "... is not a valid win32 application" or "WinZip self-extractor header corrupt". What can I do?

The most likely cause of this error is that the download was not complete even though your web browser thinks it did complete. Downloading again may not help because the incomplete file is in the browser's cache. You should first clear the cache and then download again. Alternatively, you can download a regular zip file instead of the self-extracting executable. If clearing the cache and re-downloading does not resolve this problem then it is likely caused by a virus on your computer.

My hard disk crashed and I lost everything including Total Recorder. How can I restore it?

You can always download the latest evaluation version from our web site. We recommend you write down your registration key and keep it in a safe place. If you have lost your key, use http://hcserv1.highcriteria.com/scripts/getkey/getkey.asp to obtain a registration key. This form can be used only if your E-mail address that we have in our database is still valid. If this is not the case, E-mail support@highcriteria.com and provide your registration name, the old address and the new address, and we will update our records.

I downloaded the zip install file for Total Recorder. I unzipped it and tried to run Setup.exe but received an "Invalid distribution" message. Why?

Setup.exe assumes that all the files are in your current working directory. When you run the self-extracting file (i.e. tr50se.exe, or similar, depending on the version and edition),it takes care of this for you. If you manually unzip the archive you must take care of this yourself. It is not enough to only extract Setup.exe.

The latest versions of Total Recorder have the option of installing without the driver. When should it be used and what are the consequences?

Installation without the driver disables Software recording mode. Generally, Software recording mode is used to record streaming audio. Installation without the driver still allows recording from the Sound Board (mic, line-in, etc). With some sound cards any sound can be recorded in Sound Board mode.

This options was primarily intended for the business customers who use Total Recorder for clearly defined special tasks (e.g. microphone or line-in analog recording) and do not need the driver. It can also be used as the last resort troubleshooting option with some compatibility problems (however we have seen just a handful of such cases).

We do not recommend using this option unless you clearly understand its limitations and are sure that you will use Total Recorder only to record in Sound Board mode which does not require the driver, or you are advised by our support staff to use it.

Total Recorder Driver

Why does Total Recorder need a driver?

If a sound player itself does not provide recording capabilities, the only way of capturing digital sound is through a sound driver.

How can I temporarily disable the Total Recorder driver?

Take the following steps:

From the "Control Panel", select "Multimedia" ("Sounds and Multimedia" on Windows Me/2000, "Sounds and Audio Devices" on Windows XP).
Or, from the main Total Recorder window, select "Options" - "System settings".
Select the "Audio" tab.
Change your default device for playback and recording from Total Recorder driver to your original sound board driver.

Can I have the Total Recorder driver active only when I need it?

Yes. Use "Options" - "Settings", "System" tab, and set "Preferred audio devices when Total Recorder isn't active" as "Audio playback and recording devices selected above". This causes the Total Recorder driver to be active only when Total Recorder is active. However, in this mode you must always start Total Recorder before your playback program when recording from "Software".

Recording

Is there any recording time limit in the registered version of Total Recorder?

No, there is no limit. However the wave format has an internal limit of 4GB. If your recording is larger than that, break it into smaller pieces using Markers and "Save selection as". Many programs, such as players, editors, and encoders, have problems working with wave files larger than 2GB. If you are not sure if your programs can correctly handle large files, make all pieces smaller than 2GB.

What is the difference between the recording source settings "Software" and "Sound Board"?

Recording (digital) sound from "Software" and (analog) sound from "Sound Board" are two very different things.

When the recording source is "Software", the path of the sound is:

When the recording source is "Sound Board", the path of the sound (using CD as an example) is:

Recording in "Software Accelerated Recording" mode is similar to recording from "Software" (see the figure above). The difference is that sound does not go to the Sound Board Driver and the Sound Board.

Sometimes you can have fully digital recording even in Sound Board mode. An example would be if both the CD drive and the sound board have digital connectors and are connected with a digital audio cable.

CD and DVD are digital media. Is it possible to record CD/DVD audio in Software mode?

Yes, it is possible with the appropriate player. For example, Windows Media Player uses digital audio extraction to play CDs and the sound can be recorded in Software mode.

Why would I need to capture digital sound? Can't I record any sound from my computer simply by connecting the output line of the sound board to the input line of the same, or of a different, sound board?

Yes, you can. However, digital recording is usually (but not always) better quality because it avoids the conversion from digital to analog to digital, performed by sound boards. The real quality of both digital and analog recordings may vary significantly depending on such factors as CPU power, the sound board, the playback program, and many others.

When and how should I use "on the fly" conversion?

"On the fly" conversion involves the immediate conversion of audio stream format when recording in Software mode. To turn "on the fly" conversion on/off: click the "Recording source and parameters" button and check or uncheck the Convert using "Recording parameters" specified below checkbox.

Any digital sound has a set of sound parameters. No conversion can increase the actual sound quality. If a player reproduces "8000 Hz 8 bit mono" sound, and you convert it to "44100 Hz 16 bit stereo", it will not sound any better than "8000 Hz 8 bit mono". In fact, it may even sound worse than the original.

If you want to record in a specific sound format, use "on the fly" conversion and explicitly indicate the desired format. For example, if you want to put your recording onto an audio CD, then CD-burning programs usually require "CD quality" (PCM 44100 Hz 16 bit stereo).

If you wish to create a file with an acceptable sound quality but minimize its size, you can try to record without conversion, and then save the recording using different target formats. After listening to the recorded file, you can determine the desired sound format. Record from the same source and convert it to the determined sound format. It is not feasible to increase the sample frequency or to make a stereo recording out of a mono recording. Also, it is not recommended you change the sample frequency. If you need to use a lower sample frequency to create a smaller file, we recommend reducing the frequency by 2 or 4 times. This will minimize the loss of quality.

Example. A file was created from recording without format conversion and its format is "PCM 24000 Hz 16 bit mono". The recommended "Save As..." formats for this file and optimal recording formats for similar files are:

PCM 24000 Hz 16 bit mono (save format unchanged, no loss of quality)
MP3 32 kBit/s 24000 Hz mono
MP3 24 kBit/s 24000 Hz mono

It is not recommended you use the following formats:

PCM 44000 Hz 16 bit stereo (CD quality) - frequency increase, mono to stereo
MP3 128 kBit/s 44100 Hz stereo - frequency increase, mono to stereo
MP3 32 kBit/s 22050 Hz mono - frequency changing

One very important case where you should not use "on the fly" mp3 conversion is when burning CDs. Some software (e.g. Music Match) lets you burn CDs directly from mp3 files. However, it is not feasible to convert from another format to mp3 and then put it to CD because you can lose quality. Instead, you should convert it to PCM 44100 Hz 16 bit stereo.

When I try to put a wave file that I recorded to an audio CD, my CD burning software displays an error message. Why?

Usually, you need to use CD quality wav files (i.e. PCM 44.1KHz 16bit Stereo).

To record in this format, in Recording source and parameters, select PCM and CD quality. If in software mode, you must also check Convert using "Recording parameters" specified below.

To convert an existing file: open it in Total Recorder and use Save As. Then use Change and select PCM and CD quality.

When I try to record streaming audio, my recording can be heard from only the right speaker even though the original sound is stereo. Why?

This is the expected behaviour if you have checked both of the check boxes: "Record also input streams" and "Put each speaker in a separate channel" (formerly "Make Stereo"). In this case, each speaker voice (when recording Internet telephony) will go to a separate channel. When recording anything other than Internet telephony, and both boxes are checked, it will lead to this situation.

Both of these boxes should not be checked unless you plan to record Internet telephony.

All of the controls in the Recording source and parameters dialog have suddenly become disabled. How can I re-enable them?

This is normal while in pre-recording mode. You need to go back to normal mode to be able to change the parameters.

When I try to record from RealPlayer or WinAmp I get the following error message: "This waveform-audio format is unsupported by your audio driver". Why?

You should set your recording source to "Software" instead of "Sound board".

When I try to record from line-in, I can hear the sound but the Total Recorder bytes counter and the current position remain the same. What's wrong?

When recording from line-in, the sound doesn't go through the Total Recorder driver. Consequently, you cannot record from line-in when your source is set to "Software". Change your recording source to "Sound board."

Can I record midi files as wave files with Total Recorder?

Yes, in most cases you can. However, different systems may require different recording source settings.

There are several ways of playing midi files. Most sound cards are capable of midi synthesis through special on-board hardware. Some midi players are capable of software midi synthesis (e.g. RealPlayer with the Crescendo plug-in). There are also some special drivers (e.g. Yamaha SXG) that provide software midi synthesis.

If you use hardware midi synthesis, your card will usually have a line from which you can record. The name is usually MIDI, or Synth, or something similar. The recording source in Total Recorder should be set to Sound Board and the MIDI line should be selected. If you use software midi synthesis, the recording source in Total Recorder should be set to Software. In most systems it is possible to record midi both ways.

When I record from "Software" my recording starts when sound begins. However, when I record from "Sound board", Total Recorder starts recording as soon as I push the "Record" button even if no actual sound is present. Why?

This is normal. When you record analog sound from "Sound board" there is no easy way to distinguish between silence and actual sound. There is always some background noise that produces sound with a non-zero amplitude.

I would like to put my recording to a Website so that my friends can listen to it. Is it sufficient to put a link to the wave file? Will it play when somebody clicks on it? Will it stream?

If you put only a link to the wave file, it will play but not stream. This means there will be a long delay between the time you click on it and the time when the sound starts. To make your sound file stream, you must convert it to a streaming format. The two most popular streaming formats are Real Audio and Windows Media Audio. To encode as Real Audio, download Real Producer from http://www.real.com/. To encode as Windows Media Audio, download Windows Media Encoder from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia. To play encoded files you simply need the appropriate player (i.e. Real Player or Windows Media Player, respectively).

The first 64 seconds of my recording is fine then the sound becomes garbled. Why?

This is a common problem when an altered demo version of Total Recorder is used instead of a registered version. This problem does not occur with a registered version.

What is the little drop-down list in between the right and left arrow buttons?

Between the " " and " " buttons is a list from which you can select the step these buttons use for positioning your recording. The step is specified in units of time, ranging from 1/10 of a second (0.1s) to 15 minutes (15m). This is not the limit of the recording size as there is no limit in the registered version.

My computer suddenly shut down (locked up, re-started) while I was recording with Total Recorder. How can I restore the recorded audio from Total Recorder temporary files?

Go to Options => Settings => Open / Save. Now look in the folder assigned for temporary files. If the temporary files in this folder have .wav or .mp3 extensions it usually means that they are proper audio files.

If the temporary file has ".tmp" extension, it means that you cannot securely extract all recorded audio information from it. This happens because during recording process some information is stored in this file and some information in the PC's RAM.

However it is usually possible to recover most of your data which is stored in this .tmp file in PCM format. This file doesn't have a proper header so you can use our free application TRTmpRecovery (~65 Kb) to add a header. This program allows you to playback any file as a PCM file at different parameter settings (sample rate, 8/16 bit, mono/stereo), select the most appropriate parameters (if the file actually contains audio data) and add a proper header to this file. Once a header is added, this temporary file becomes a valid .wav file.

Total Recorder Professional Edition

There are different split conditions. How do I decide which one to use?

First you should decide whether you care about natural content boundaries. For example, if you are recording a 1-hour morning news program to listen to later in your car, it is a good idea to split it into smaller pieces (e.g. 5 minutes each). However, you probably don't care about the boundaries. If you were recording a concert, you would probably want to split the recording based on song boundaries and avoid splitting songs in the middle.

In the first case, you can choose a split condition of either "every xxx minutes of recording" or "every xxx megabytes of recording". These two methods are similar and you can use either one.

In the second case, you should choose a split condition of "for each software sound stream", "when clip info in external player is changed", or "if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds".

The option "for each software sound stream" is more precise, and it is more reliable, but it can only be used when all of the following conditions are met:

you are recording in Software mode
you are recording a playlist or the broadcast consists of multiple streams
your player does not play multiple streams as one

Where possible, you should always use "for each software sound stream" instead of either"when clip info in external player is changed" or "if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds".

You can use "when clip info in external player is changed" only if Total Recorder can extract clip info from your player (i.e. player appears in " Check state of these external players" list).

Using "if sound level does not exceed xxx % in yyy seconds" is required when you have pauses longer than 1 second. Some broadcasts do not have such pauses and cannot be split using this method. Also, a pause in the middle of a song can sometimes trigger a false split. Because such pauses are usually at the beginning of a song, you can sometimes prevent false triggering by setting "Do not create files shorter than xxx seconds".

Can I break a concert recording into segments, each of which is approximately 20 minutes long, but still preserve the song boundaries?

Yes, you can. Set "Do not create files shorter than 1140 seconds" (1140 = 19 * 60).

I'd like to record multiple songs from different sites in an unattended manner. Since I don't know how long each song is, it is not appropriate to use the scheduler.

This task does not require that you use the scheduler. Create a playlist of all the songs you want to record, and use Split conditions to separate them.

I use split mode and try to set the condition "when clip info in external player is changed" and/or "use clip info from external player..." but it is not working. Why?

Check if your player is included in the "Check state of these external players:" drop-down list of the "Split recording condition" dialog. If your player is not listed, Total Recorder does not support the extraction of clip info from it. Either Total Recorder cannot extract such information from this player, or this player is not ranked among the most popular and therefore we haven't included support for it in Total Recorder.

Total Recorder can only retrieve clip information from a player if this information is displayed in the window title of the player (not just in the player's window). The only exception is Windows Media Player, which is included with Windows, and is present on almost all computers. We have developed a special approach for this program.

For users of Total Recorder, prior to V5.0 and wanting to extract clip information from the following players:

RealPlayer 10
MUSICMATCH Jukebox 9
XM Radio XM/PCR (by a courtesy of our users)

you need to download the file Players.txt from http://www.highcriteria.com/download/Players.txt and use it to replace the file Players.txt in the folder where Total Recorder is installed on your computer. Then re-start Total Recorder.

The following is a list of known players for which the extracting of clip info through Total Recorder is not supported:

Rhapsody
iTunes

If your player displays clip information in the title of its window, but it is not included in the list of supported players, please forward this information to support@highcriteria.com. Specify the exact name and version of this player, and also the URL from which it can be downloaded (if appropriate).

Alternatively, you can independently enable Total Recorder to extract clip info from your player. For this, you need to download our free application TRExtPlrWizard (~350Kb).

This program allows you to visually edit a Total Recorder template file for analysis of the player's window titles. It captures titles from the player's window so you only need to indicate which fragments are permanent and which contain actual clip information (title, artist and so on).

Total Recorder and Other Programs

Total Recorder and Direct Sound

When Total Recorder driver is set as Preferred Device, Direct Sound switches to software emulation mode. In most cases, this does not matter. However, you may need to change some settings for other programs.

If one of your programs starts behaving oddly, for example, it hangs or produces garbled sound, the most likely cause is that it is set up for Direct Sound. Many modern programs can be set up to either use Direct Sound or not. You should try to find the required settings by reading the program's help. Some questions below explain how to deal with specific programs.

If you cannot turn Direct Sound off and the previous recommendations do not help, you should either temporarily disable the Total Recorder driver or make it preferred only when Total Recorder is active. See the Total Recorder Driver section of this FAQ for more information.

Total Recorder and games

Some users have reported incompatibilities between Total Recorder driver and some high-end games that rely heavily on Direct Sound. See: If it is not possible to turn off DirectSound.

QuickTime and iTunes

QuickTime defaults to using Direct Sound if your sound driver supports it. This leads to sound distortion during both recording and playback. To correct this problem:

For QuickTime V.4 and V.5

Go to "Control Panel" - "QuickTime"
In the dropdown list, select "Wave Out: Windows Prefered Device"

For QuickTime V.6 and iTunes

Go to "Control Panel" - "QuickTime"
or run QuickTime and select menu "Edit" - "Preferences" - "QuickTime Preferences"
In the QuickTime Settings dialog, choose "Sound Out" from the list at the top
From the next list, "Choose a device for playback", choose "Wave Out: Windows Preferred Device".

For QuickTime V.7 and iTunes V.6

Go to "Control Panel" - "QuickTime"
or run QuickTime and select menu "Edit" - "Preferences" - "QuickTime Preferences"
On the "Audio" tab, check the "Safe mode (waveOut only)" box.

Close the program used (QuickTime or iTunes) and run it again.

Note, some versions of QuickTime contain an error that prevents this setting from affecting QuickTime, so the above procedure may only resolve the problem in iTunes. If turning on the "Safe mode (waveOut only)" and re-starting of QuickTime do not eliminate the problem, then please see if it is not possible to turn off DirectSound.

WinAmp

In most cases, WinAmp works fine with Total Recorder. The only potential incompatibility is in using Direct Sound. To make WinAmp work with Total Recorder you should do the following:

Start WinAmp.
Open the WinAmp menu and select "Options" - "Preferences" (or press Ctrl-P).
Select "Plug-ins" - "Output".
If DirectSound output is selected, change it to waveOut output.

This should permanently resolve the problem.

RealPlayer 10

Total Recorder is not able to record from RealPlayer 10 in accelerated mode if RealPlayer 10 is configured to use Direct Sound. To turn off this option in RealPlayer 10 you should do the following:

Open menu Tools - Preferences, Hardware, click "Settings" below "Sound Card Compatibility", check "Disable Direct Sound".

Windows Media Player

Most versions of Windows Media Player cannot turn off DirectSound usage. If you experience problems with Windows Media Player's sound quality after installing Total Recorder, see: If it is not possible to turn off DirectSound.

Windows ME Hibernate

The power management support of Windows ME (and 98 SE) is not compatible with any VxD audio driver. This is a limitation documented by Microsoft.

Turtle Beach Voyetra Santa Cruz

This sound card has had many problems with Total Recorder (and other software). However, it looks as if the latest driver, either from the manufacturer or from Dell (if you have a Dell computer with the OEM version), fixes all of the problems.

Creative SB Audigy

There are some problems not with the card itself but with some of the bundled software. These problems are not specifically related to Total Recorder; they appear when there is a second sound device (e.g. a second sound board). To get around these problems, you can either use another player, or disable the Total Recorder driver and use Total Recorder in Sound Board mode only.

It looks like the latest releases of this software fixes all of these problems.

Skype

Beginning with Version 5.2 of Total Recorder, all issues regarding the recording of Skype sessions have been resolved, provided that the user has Version 1.1.0.79 or later of the Skype software. Previous versions of Total Recorder presented several issues when recording Skype sessions. Users of older versions of Total Recorder should upgrade to V5.2 and upgrade their Skype software, if they want to record Skype sessions.