Bacon Recorder - simple audio recorder

Audio editors, music players, video players, burning software, etc.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

Bacon Recorder - simple audio recorder

#1 Post by don570 »

Bacon Recorder - simple audio recorder
Feb 18 2012 Italian and Portuguese translations added
to Spanish French Russian German translations


See more instructions and pics on page 4 of this thread
Help me translate into various languages
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=72855

version 2.5 supports recording to /mnt/home/ and
recording to the same partition as your pupsave file is stored.
It also uses a new folder selector.



Edit: Several recording events are possible simultaneously.
The user simply sets the Start time (don't forget length of recording)
and clicks the set button for the different times you want
the recording to proceed. --->
Hidden from the user the arecord application is launched each time
that the set button is clicked. Clicking on 'Stop' kills the arecord app.
It is possible to 'Quit' baconrecorder and the recording events will
still proceed.


It records in background. This has advantages in
a low powered computer. It takes about 10% of CPU
in my P4 computer recording a MP3 file.
(Nearly zero if its a WAVE file.)

This is much less than mhwaveedit.
I find that it is stabler than mhwaveedit.

New feature- a log button to 'see' a recording while
it is being made. There is a log entry when the
recording is started and then when it is finished.
A great way of checking to see if recording has begun.

New feature-Name of file that you record is in the
language you use i.e. a Russian name if you're
using Russian. Note that you may have to delete
the hidden configuration folder in /root
to start this feature!!

Click on animated GIF to see the sound input levels.
If you see sound levels like 50 to 60 then the sound volume
is full.

A stop button to stop the scheduled recording from starting to
record or if it is already recording it will stop the recording safely.

Once you have set the desired recording then you
can click 'Quit' if you wish. This is desirable for a low
powered computer since scripts consume power
when they use a GUI.


Bacon Recorder should work in all versions of puppy linux.

See picture in next post to get a better idea.



Once it is set and in the background ( in a loop
which uses little processing power) you can kill it
by clicking Stop button ( or in the terminal
type 'killall arecord' )

An innovative feature is keeping a log of recordings.
.... also does a check to see if your desired
partition is mounted. There are lots of
warning messages to make it nearly impossible
to make a bad recording.

There are two basic methods to delay your recording start,
a countdown timer or a given time to start the recording.

Three types of recordings are possible, Wave, MP3 stereo and
MP3 mono.
If anyone needs OGG then contact me.
The MP3 Stereo is very high quality q=3

MP3 mono is very low quality but it's intended for speech.
About 7mb to record one hour of speech


___________________________________________________________________
Details of my work:
I corrected a couple of bugs. ---> Combobox needed hard spaces
between words like 'MP3 Stereo' to work correctly!!

Quality of mono was too low on some versions of Puppy so I
improved it ---> lame -b 16

French translation thanks to esmourguit

Innovative new method of checking to see if partition is mounted.
This is done at the launch of app.

If you forget to enter a length for a recording, you get a warning
and the application restarts automatically.
There is now a Quit button to stop a countdown or a recording
that is in progress. It's safe to use and the Log will
be updated to show what has happened. I find the Log
feature very useful and innovative.

Be careful that you have enough disk space and use
Retrovol, the Audio mixer, to set the correct
sound input source.

Note that pull-down menu sets the length (or duration)
of the recording but you can change this value
by filling in a different value ---> for instance instead
of 60 minutes , fill in 70 minutes if you wish.
______________
Attachments
baconrecorder-3.1.pet
Old version for gtkdialog .72
(29.89 KiB) Downloaded 852 times
baconrecorder-4.9a.pet
application to record
(24.12 KiB) Downloaded 2930 times
Last edited by don570 on Wed 16 Aug 2017, 22:20, edited 65 times in total.

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

picture of app

#2 Post by don570 »

Here's version 2.9 July 2012

Image
Last edited by don570 on Mon 30 Jul 2012, 21:13, edited 1 time in total.

nooby
Posts: 10369
Joined: Sun 29 Jun 2008, 19:05
Location: SwedenEurope

#3 Post by nooby »

Hope it is okay to ask some noob questions like

I tested with two different FET mikes and when I recorded with Mono mpr the result was very noisy. Maybe they are too cheap quality. Speed Link SL-8707 and a Head set Media Tech MT 363 or is it the mono mp3 itself that has a low signal noise difference. Everything drowns in the noise.

I had the Mic booster on max maybe that made it noisy? But when setting the boost to lowest that only did shift the output level and not the noise noticeably My computer maybe has a poor microphone amp.
But I failed to make a decent recording. Next night I will try with the other two settings or recording format them giving a higher quality.

What levels on Mic and mic booster on recording do you use for recording normal talk some two feet away? 50 CentiMeters?

Hope my questions are not too Off Topic.
I love that you have made Egg and even more
this one being easier to set up and working on more platforms.

I will test it during my sleep now to see if it catches my breathing or sleep apnea when I stop breathing and how often that happens.

10 hours is how many minutes? 600? :)
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

microphone

#4 Post by don570 »

There are two types of microphones, high impedance
and low impedance. If you don't match the impedance
the sound won't be loud enough and noise will drown out the talk.

That could be your problem because I improved the recording
quality of the mono so that it quite useable now.

I don't use mono recording with the mic input, instead I
like to record news and talk radio. So MP3 mono is
perfect for that . One hour takes up about 7 MB of hard
disk space.

Why not make a Swedish translation for me.
Just look in /usr/local/baconrecorder/local for the English,
then translate.

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

Bacon Recorder new verson 1.4

#5 Post by don570 »

New version of Bacon Recorder 1.4 improves the log feature.
It enters it's first message when the recording
begins, so the user can check it now to see if the recording has begun.

So the log will enter two lines when the recording begins
and two lines more when the recording ends.

__________________________________________________

nooby
Posts: 10369
Joined: Sun 29 Jun 2008, 19:05
Location: SwedenEurope

#6 Post by nooby »

Thanks Don!

1. You wrote in earlier post
Once it is set and in the background ( in a loop
which uses little processing power) you can kill it
with pprocess if you wish


Yes but that is a way to stop recordings that is nonintuitive. I failed to remember it. I even failed to remember I could look here or write that down on a paper. I recorded some 6 recordings and none of the times I remembered how to shut it down. Sure it is my own fault but intuition tells me there should be a stop button that keeps what one have recorded already even of one shut it down prematurely and does that really happen if one kill it with Pprocess?

Would be most handy to have a gentle stop button on the GUI that allowed it to keep the recording but end it at will.

2. *** Is there a simple way to make an Icon to have on the Desktop for to start it ?


3. Would it be difficult to include a feature that had a gate function?
It started to record at the time one had set it to but if the sound input was below a trigger level then it waited for the input level to get strong enough and then recorded while the sound lasted and a few seconds below the level of choice and it told time and then waited for next sound and recorded that one and so on.

4. You ask
Why not make a Swedish translation for me.
Just look in /usr/local/baconrecorder/local for the English,
then translate.
My native language are Swedish so your expectations are right on
but I am extremely bad at finding swedish words for such tech things.

I never talk about them in Swedish so I have no practice knowing what word to use. Being as lonely as I am I have had none to talk with about these things for some 25 years so fail to know what words Swedes would use for it.

I am different in that way.


5. Re the low or high impedance? FET Mic usally are rather high. 2.7K or 3.0 K something. I guess I have to go to Acer forum and ask them about the sound card spec of the computer I have.

It did exactly what I wanted. Recorded for the time I wanted and when I wanted it to but the signal noise was so bad that it was not usable other than if one had the FET mic some inch from mouth. Even my snoring got drowned in noise. But hopefully that was my fault buying a too insensitive equipment? I have to test with other "recorders" to get something to compare with. And on my other computers. But their Fans are too noisy so sleep will not be good.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

User avatar
vovchik
Posts: 1507
Joined: Tue 24 Oct 2006, 00:02
Location: Ukraine

Bacon recorder

#7 Post by vovchik »

Dear Don,

Thanks. Very nice. Could you please post the source? I want to have a look and also want to recompile for old Puppies, e.g. 3.01, which Dingo and I still use for various purposes, as do quite a few other people :). As for killing, I would send it to the tray and have a kill button in a right-click menu. I can implement that if you want.

With kind regards,
vovchik

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

#8 Post by don570 »

To vovchik

There isn't a 'source' . It's a simple script.
There's a loop of 15 sec . After 15 sec a check is made of two
intergers that I have previously created from dates, (current and
future). It's an incredibly simple way of doing
a timer. That way it works in all Puppies.

My previous effort 'Egg Recorder' used date -u and some
Puppies gave strange output to that command.

As far new features , the feature I want most
is a visual indication of sound volume. This would take a
talented C programmer to put in. Maybe you could do
that , I don't have any training in programming so it's
out of my league.

Another feature could be killing the process before the
actual recording has begun. By knowing the process ID number
this would easy to do. Why don't you do that and send the
code to me to post?

As far as killing the recording while the recording is underway,
I just type 'killall arecord' and that works perfectly.
Do you know any better way? Should I
make it a button in the window???

I am trying to keep the interface as simple
as possible so I don't know if a tray button makes sense
but if you want to try it be my guest.

My new log button feature should give the user some reassurance
that a recording is underway.

___________________________________________________

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

Bacon Recorder new version 1.5

#9 Post by don570 »

new version 1.5 has a log button .

Two lines are written in the log when the recording actually begins.
Therefore click on log button and see if the recording has
begun. This avoids the awkwardness having to use a text editor.

Three more lines are added to log when the recording finishes.

___________________________________________________

nooby
Posts: 10369
Joined: Sun 29 Jun 2008, 19:05
Location: SwedenEurope

#10 Post by nooby »

Thanks,

I need to understand these things better.
The MP3 Stereo is very high quality q=3 , ( lame -V 3 )
change this to a higher number such as q=5 if you need a
smaller file size.

MP3 mono is very low quality but it's intended for speech.
About 7mb to record one hour of speech
Change to ---> lame -b 32
if you need higher quality speech
...

Quality of mono was too low on some versions of Puppy so I
improved it ---> lame -b 16
does it say that -b 32 is better than -b 16
Where can I read about such values and how does that relate to the q3 to q5

You say that q3 is related to lame -V 3
How is -V 3 related to -b 32

You say Change the value . Where does one do that? Some config file?
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

#11 Post by don570 »

To Nooby Here's a good page to help you change the settings
if you are adventurous.

http://linux.die.net/man/1/lame

The file you change is /usr/local/baconrecorder/baconrecorder

I use lame four times in the program (2 for stereo and 2 for mono)
so you should change the two for mono. The stereo is high quality so
there is no need to change it.

_______________________________________

You can experiment on sound quality beginning
by typing this line in the terminal

arecord -f CD | lame -b 16 -m m - /root/output.mp3

Edit- Put in a duration, say 10 seconds

arecord -f CD -d 10 | lame -b 16 -m m - /root/output.mp3
_________________________________________
Last edited by don570 on Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:45, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

new version 1.6 bacon recorder

#12 Post by don570 »

new version 1.6 has a 'Stop' button .

A Stop button has been added to stop a scheduled
recording from taking place. Or if the
recording is already underway it will stop that.

nooby
Posts: 10369
Joined: Sun 29 Jun 2008, 19:05
Location: SwedenEurope

#13 Post by nooby »

Thanks!
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

version 1.7

#14 Post by don570 »

version 1.7 has only one small change for the localization

The French localization is now finished.
I would like people to submit other languages and
I will organize the localization.

The work is simple if you want to help me.
Go to the folder /usr/local/baconreconder/locals

You will see the file en_US:english
Just translate the English file. Buttons should have short
phrases in your mother tongue. Send the text file to me
and I will do the conversion and post it.

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

#15 Post by don570 »

new version 1.8

-I changed a couple of locals and added the German
translation. I will work on the Spanish translation now.

- I put in --center option to keep the windows centered

I put this version in the French version of Fluppy(27)
____________________________________________________

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

new version 2.0

#16 Post by don570 »

new version 2.0 of Bacon Recorder

-new Play button to hear the previous recording.
It can even play the current recording but delayed
(because it reads the file on the hard disk)
I recommend that you install DeaDbeef or slimp
as your player for maximum speed of launch

-new Volume Meter -crude but effective
It uses 'arecord' in the terminal


-new translations in French German and Spanish

-Thanks to translators
wuwei
GustavoYz
esmourguit

I have also placed this application inside Right-click -4.9.5.pet

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... a754111f51

______________________________

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

new version 2.1 Bacon Recorder

#17 Post by don570 »

I corrected a small error in the English localization


The 'FULL' version is experimental for now. It keeps the window open while recording. I need a few more days to test it, but I'm posting it
for anybody else to test.

___________________________________________

telltom
Posts: 97
Joined: Sun 23 May 2010, 19:56

#18 Post by telltom »

hi folks,
is there any way to shorten record time to less than 1 minute? thanks

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

version 2.2 baconrecorder

#19 Post by don570 »

telltom wrote:is there any way to shorten record time to less than 1 minute
Nope. The method use --> converting date and time into an interger
is too crude. I use it to record radio shows.

__________________________________________________________

New version 2.2 has an animated meter ( under 2kb) to
help people to remember to set the sound volume.

Full version now gives a message every time a button is clicked
which will help usabilty.

Also more warnings about hard disks not mounted for the
recording ... just in case... :)

____________________________________________________

User avatar
don570
Posts: 5528
Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

new version 2.2.1 bacon recorder

#20 Post by don570 »

new version 2.2.1

-small bug in localization fixed

-Play button now has default audio player
associated with it if it can't find Deadbeef player or slimp
This works well with Lucid Puppy!!


________________________________________-

Post Reply