Sound card dac users, need a tester!

[james]

The 6th track seems to be just another copy of Y.

I bet there would be a way to identify and smooth all those whacky X points.

I don't think the LP pop and click filter in Audacity would be an exact match but it might help.

I am able to import the whole thing into LB as a frame set.

So it could be saved as ILDA.

James.

[telmnstr]

Okay what I will do:

I will hook up an oscope so I can center the X and Y channels. I was using a projector for proof but I Think I need to use an oscope instead. The IE unit has a X and Y position pot as well as size pots so I should be able to adjust it for maximum signal using the test pattern at the beginning of each tape.

I was also thinking that that particular decoder has noise. I got a stack of them in addition to the ones I bought from SELEM, I will switch to using the one from SELEM since I know that should be good.

The X noise could also be a result of looping through the projector.

I'll give it another shot tonight. I'll also hit the button on the adat to mute channel 6.

I'm not sure what is up with the browser issues, it's a >1GB file via https, I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I'll check to see if Apache logs have any feedback.

I should be able to get to it tonight and get a 2nd version posted.

Was there issues opening the file? It was saved as an AIFF from the SGI utility then I converted it with FFMpeg to WAV.

[james]

There is something weird about the wave header.

If I try to stat your wave in LaserBoy it can't read it.

But Audacity can, so it must be some legal variation that LB can't read.

All I had to do was open it in Audacity and export it again as 8 channel wave and LB reads it just fine.

It is nice to be able to play the wave on the computer screen. You are not risking your scanners in any way.

You could also open the whole thing into LaserBoy as a frame set and do the X and Y size adjustment to the whole thing visually and save it again as a wave.

However, if you do save it as a wave from LB you will lose the stereo audio tracks.

But you can use LB to split the 8 channel wave to get your stereo tracks alone. Then you can use LB to splice the stereo back into channels 7 & 8 with the other 6 tracks of laser control signals.

You could also do the splitting and splicing in Audacity.

James.

[telmnstr]

Okay, posted 3 more shows, one is actually two files as it's two scan heads :-/

Please test and advise.

Also made something of a text file with info and license to go with them.

High five James for the awesome utility, I'll get around to trying it with the adat dumps eventually! Right now spending the spare time
dumping content.

The tapes seem to degrade after one pass, so I'm capturing them on a 2nd deck (and that's working well.)
I will eventually convert the video part to DV files as well that can be played back into the decoder.

[james]

Let me know if you need some guidance in using LaserBoy. It's not the most intuitive thing.

Also let me know if you think of any new features you'd like to see. I might be able to get that into the code.

I'm still thinking about a way to identify points that are way out of the norm and smoothing them out to fit the neighboring points.

James.

[dchammonds]

There is something weird about the wave header.

If I try to stat your wave in LaserBoy it can't read it.


James.

It looks like a problem with the reported format code in the wave header, but I was able to view and hear the files in my LWave app. Thanks for sharing!!!

Dean

[telmnstr]

A friend pointed out last night that I probably should just post 8 channel FLAC files, but not worried about bandwidth.

The 8 channel WAVs are coming off of FFMPEG on Linux. I wonder if there is a bug in it. I can't imagine there are too many people using 8 channel audio modes, but you never know.

More on the way in the future. I just brought home a 2nd Beta VCR a friend let me borrow to see if it can play the tapes any better. I think it's life has been a bit more rough than the one I'm using, and it's the exact same model (random chance.) I think they might be the highest end Beta VCRs Sony ever made (SONY GCS-50) (BetaMax, not BetaCam.)

[Bradfo69]

I've had soundcard DAC issues for the past few days and finally solved it with James help so I'll finally get to check these out. Might not be until we get to Utila this weekend but then buffo, Hank, platinum, neutrino and Dan can all chime in as well.

[james]

You're lucky to have any Beta tape machine that still works!

Even new old stock still in the box is often not functional because the rubber belts and idler wheel dry out and fall apart.

I have one of those Sony PCM 501 ES units that converts stereo audio into digital and a bunch of old Beta tapes of mix downs from my CD I made from 1984 to 1990. I can't play them.

James.

[mixedgas]

That BETA in the IE package was a medical grade VCR. Perhaps just clean the heads?
I never had time to clean the heads when it lived here.

Steve