Recorder

Plugins Plugins - BETA
#1

Hi
Been some while now in the beta section, but never really been announced here. So it’s time to give them a ‘official’ tread were you could show your love, or, report bugs and feature requests. Also to let you all know that they’ve a updated UI now available.
At least so anyone who like to do recordings on a MOD unit should know now were to get those plugs.

28 Likes
Looperlative - recording time
WAV recorder?
Looper memory implementation
#2

Thanks for all the likes. So it seems it may be useful. :metal:
Hence I made some new recorders for you. First one, a quad recorder. It is capable to record a 4 Channel file. Currently, you can’t playback those on the MOD, but that may change after some time. Anyway, you could download them from the MOD and open it with the DAW of your choice. I hope 4 channels been enough to capture your sessions, otherwise, it wont be to hard to make one with … channels. :sunglasses:

And then, on request, I’ve made “mini” versions for all recorders:

Those been meant to catch less of the screen and less of you attention, so you could focus on the Pedals in your board which matters for your sound.

Enjoy your MOD(X/DUO/DWRAF)

28 Likes
#3

I’ve got a suggestion for additional functionality to discuss. Loop recording. Not like “looper”, but more like a car dash camera background cycled recording, where old records are replaced by the new ones.

How it supposed to work:

  • You set a buffer length, couple of minutes for example.
  • Recorder keeps audio stream only for this period, only these last two minutes, audio data goes to first-in, last-out queue. New data displace older data.
  • If you realize that you want ongoing record to be actually saved, you push some button and already recorded buffer gets saved to storage.

What’s the point:

  • Idea is that recording is happening in the background always, without an additional thinking and spending storage for nothing. And should help in cases when you get a “wow, what a pity I had not record it” moment.

For example:

  • Sometimes you just jam happily and not sure if recording your random mess worth it. Suddenly you find that you played something cool, and would like to remember it, but moment is lost, and even if you instantly start recording - you might not even repeat the melody, and idea is lost into a thin air.

  • Sometimes you just play the same thing multiple times and cannot get it right, but want to get more or less good record by brute force and multiple attempts. Reenabling record again and again is frustrating, and recording gigabytes of failures does not feel fun too. With constant background recording you just can make retries until you do it right and save only the good shot, if it fits the buffer size.

  • Enabling record, ( at least if you are not a professional) produces a heavy stage fright sometimes. As for me, when I click “record” I get so distracted by the fact that recording is going on, that my skills degrade miserably. Background recording can just let you forget about the fact that you are being recorded and focus on the playing, instead of fears.

Everything above would work even better if it will start cycled recording automatically, just after loading the pedalboard.

Does it make any sense? Is it technically possible with the amount of RAM available on our devices?

P.S. After a second glance to my post, it feels more like I am suggesting a completely new plugin.

11 Likes
#4

Nice idea!

One thing I noticed in the Beatles documentary was that they had people around running tape recorders and transcribing lyrics so they could easily revisit moments from earlier in the session. When I rehearse with my band I’ve gotten in the habit of starting a recorder on my phone before each song and it has been useful for us to have the recordings to refer back to.

This kind of plugin could easily be forked from the current recorder and developed separately so as to keep the current recorder easily maintainable. Some things I think would work well:

  • Like you suggested, have a mode where it will save to a new file every N seconds. In this mode, there could be an option to remove files older than M minutes or D days so as not to overrun storage.
  • Display a disk use indicator on the plugin to help keep visual track of the system storage space
  • Add an option to set the max disk use for the plugin and allow it to automatically purge the oldest files when the limit is reached.
  • Provide another mode where recording starts automatically whenever the audio signal passes a threshold of N dB and then stops recording when the audio drops below the threshold for X seconds
2 Likes
#5

I was thinking about keeping this cycled buffer in RAM, to evade storage wearing, when actual storage writing happens only on explicit demand. I am not sure what exact kind of storage mod uses and how much beating it can take, but writing files to the internal memory all the way seems like a way to reduce device’s expected live expectancy quite seriously, as it should be some sort of flash memory anyway, that should have a limit on amount of rewrite operations.

If dumping all sounds to storage file by file, then it would be less scary to use an external USB flash storage, they are cheap comparing to 500-1000 dollar mod devices, and if a usb flash will die from the hard work - so let it be so, who cares, I can buy another one in the nearest shop instantly. If my MDX dies - it is currently unreplaceable even without a price tag involved.

P.S. Sounds like another separate feature request - recording to an external USB drive location.

3 Likes
#6

That is already on the roadmap, btw. it was the initial idea. Unfortunately the firmware didn’t support currently auto-mount usb sticks. As soon that is supported, the recorders will switch to record to stick when a stick is mounted. Then I could implement a auto-record feature as well.
I’ve talked already with @jesse and @falkTX about that before I made the recorders available for the MOD.

7 Likes
#7

Since the recorder plugin exists, I’ve never had to get my Zoom r24 out of the box.
Thanks for the mini and 4x recorder versions as well; my laptop has but a small screen.
Never had any issues and my recordings are always in synch.
Most use I get from jamming an idea and sending it to my band mates :smiley:

4 Likes
#8

Hi,

I have some issues with Record-Mono Mini - MOD Devices. I use two of them in one time - I use Control to CV to actvate recording in this same time to make two files with this same lenghts. The problem is that sometimes it records two wav files, sometimes only one. I use it this way to record input and target files for Aida. I am using DuoX.

#9

besides the obvious point that I can’t offer a solution:

Have you tried Brummers recorder plugin with 4 inputs

You said you need files with the same length
Is it to create input and target files for the amp model training?
If so:

  • Why not use the Brummer’s recorder with 4 inputs or the regular recorder, with L and R being separate tracks (to separate them later)
1 Like
#10

Like @LievenDV says, use the stereo or the quad recorder for this. you could split the channels later, for example with SoX (cross platform Swiss Army knife of sound processing).
The issue you describe is, the recorder check the recording folder for a free, non exist filename to store the recorded data to. If 2 instances do that at the same time (from different threads) they receive the same name, hence, they write to the same file. If they do it from the same thread, it would work.
mmm, I could rework that part to ensure that they use the same thread for that, that would resolve the issue.

2 Likes
#11

If I would use stereo version of mini recorder - I wil get two tracks from left and right channel or a sum? I am looking for an easy to use solution, so after recording I can get two same tracks, one with input, second run through tonex.

#12

Stereo means 2 channels interleaved, not a sum. To get 2 mono files out of it you could use (nearly) any Audio editor or DAW at hand, or as command-line tool SoX.

1 Like
#13

Is there any way I could make it using only DuoX or Dwarf? I do not use any daw and has spent somtehind like 3 h yesterday to record and train one sound (with no luck), I need a simple solution.

#14

Not with the current recorder. But, I guess it wont be to hard to modify the AIDA-X trainer to accept as well a stereo files instead 2 mono ones. The channel split could be easily done during file read. There needs to be only a convention about which channel is the input and which is the target then.
Other than that, for example Audacity is free as well for all platforms and could do that split as well for you.

1 Like
#15

Is the situation this same if I would use two different types of recorder - mini mono plus the bigger mono brother?

#16

Use the standard recorder
Record 2 files, on in L one in R channel
Download audacity, free and simple sound editor
Open the sound file, recht click on the track and select split into 2 mono tracks or something. Save each track separately.

This is how I use the Dwarf: (it is part of an article I’m writing)

Using your MOD Audio device for re-amping a pre-amp/pedal

I often use my MOD Dwarf as a tool to both play and record files to create the target.wav file.

I let 1 signal go round in an unaltered fashion and the other goes through the device I want to model. The main reason for this is corresponding latency alignment and file size.This means I re-record the original input.wav again, next to the target when I press record.

Both dry and wet files go through the same amount of conversions; first 1 step of digital-to-analog and then 1 step of analog-to-digital. The conversion introduces a bit of latency. This way my input and target will always have the same size and there will be no latency shift on one of both tracks.

The process is simple

  1. I press play on the file player
  2. I check the levels on the little displays of the gain plugins right after input 1 and 2.
  3. I adjust the outgoing level on the device I’m modelling to match the level with the dry signal somewhat, making sure it isn’t clipping and showing somewhat the same behaviour has the input, level wise
  4. I make the recording by stopping the file player, pressing record and starting the audio player again.
  5. Stop recording when the file is done. Don’t worry if the file already started over again, since your recording includes both dry and wet track, you will always have the same file length.

Plugins to use in this process

After you upload the input file to your MOD Device, you can use it in the File Player.

I use one of Brummer’s file recorders to record the target.wav AND an unaltered input.wav. This plugin can be found in the pedal library for you to download via your Mod device’s interface. You can use either the 4-input recorder or the regular stereo recorder and let the dry (original) signal some in on L and the wet (amped) on R and split them later in your DAW. I find Audacity the easiest tool to split a stereo track to two mono tracks afterwards.

The TinyGain plugins are easy to use and feature a little display that helps in roughly matching the levels

5 Likes
#17

In fact I’ve copied your solution from prevoius posts - it works really good. I will try with audacity.

2 Likes
#18

Those recording plugins are gold !!! thank you so much !
Once thing which is great for me is that I can record without any noise that I get on the headphone or the amp… which is really the best for my goals.
I do not mind noise so much when it’s live, but when listening to it afterwards that s a downer.

5 Likes
#19

@leDamien Thanks for feedback. Always good to know that they are useful.

As a side note, the Mini recorders makes it in the mean time into the stable store, unfortunately the original versions with the fancy UI don’t. (That decision wasn’t supported by me, as I prefer the fancy UI for several reasons)
Those are still available over the beta store for those who prefer them.

2 Likes
#20

@brummer , have you or the MOD team thought about implementing this plugin as a tool for the Dwarfs Tool Mode?

I sometimes browse through all kinds of pedalboards with the dwarf not connected to a Computer. Suddenly inspiration strikes and I would like to record something, but the pedalboard does not have the recorder plugin; putting everything aside to start the Computer, connecting to the web UI and adding the plugin would really break the flow.

I think it would be a great addition to have a simple recording tool, independent of the respective pedalboard.

6 Likes