Topic: Tascam HD P2 Marker Question

[dallman]

This has possibly been addressed, but I cannot find information anywhere. It would be a huge help to me if I can be enlightened. I probably can read the manual, but the answers here are usually much more informative.

When I first got my HD P2 nearly 2 years ago, I went through the menus and set everything the way I liked it. Then I left it alone, forgot about it, and usually the only menu item I deal with is reformating my CF card, usually right before a show starts to clean off the previous show.

I record in 24 bit, and when I go to R8 Brain to dither down to 16 bit, it will not allow it because of the marker information which apparently is being automatically applied during my recordings. I do not recall ever setting any marker information, but perhaps there is a default. Anyway, what I need to do to get around this problem is to always open the file in Soundforge or Audacity or any such program and do a "save as". In Soundforge it asks me if I want to remove the markers (which is how I know that is my issue) In Audacity, it just does it (removes the markers) without asking or giving me any message.

Once this is done, I can then dither from 24 to 16 bit with no problem. With an old computer like mine, the extra steps add, 10 or 15 minutes to the process. I just got back from 10klf and had 15 shows to do this to.

The obvious question: Does anyone know the path in the menus I can take to ensure my recordings are marker free? I'd appreciate the heads up on how, so I do not have to relearn all the menu stuff I did way back when. Thanks!

[Ozpeter]

You could see whether CueListTool (freeware) will delete the markers (there's a menu option for that, and no save is required).  But presence of markers shouldn't have any effect on dither!  Weird.

[JasonSobel]

it's not that there are markers recorded on the files, it's that all WAV files recorded on the HD-P2 have non-standard file headers.  r8brain doesn't like non-standard headers, so it chokes (I believe the reason for the non-standard headers is because the HD-P2 closes, saves, and re-opens the files every 2 seconds (or something like that), so in case there is an unexpected power outage or the battery dies, no audio is lost). 

when you open the files and re-save them in another program, it re-writes the files with a standard header, and then r8brain works just fine.

another option is this program:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,72936.0/all.html
however, there is a caveat with that.
the program discussed in the above thread will just re-write the header to a standard header.  and it works very well and is very quick to use.  However, the extra "junk" that was in the wav header isn't erased, but rather, with the new header, it assumes that the extra junk that was in the header is PCM data.  So whenever I use the program, it creates a "click" right at the beginning of the file.  it's only one or two samples long, so its never an issue to just snip the very beginning off later on down the line.  But, I would NOT recommend using this program on the second or third file after an autosplit.  because that click would get inserted and the files would no longer be seamless.

hopefully this helps out a bit.

[dallman]

it's not that there are markers recorded on the files, it's that all WAV files recorded on the HD-P2 have non-standard file headers.  r8brain doesn't like non-standard headers, so it chokes (I believe the reason for the non-standard headers is because the HD-P2 closes, saves, and re-opens the files every 2 seconds (or something like that), so in case there is an unexpected power outage or the battery dies, no audio is lost). 

when you open the files and re-save them in another program, it re-writes the files with a standard header, and then r8brain works just fine.

another option is this program:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,72936.0/all.html
however, there is a caveat with that.
the program discussed in the above thread will just re-write the header to a standard header.  and it works very well and is very quick to use.  However, the extra "junk" that was in the wav header isn't erased, but rather, with the new header, it assumes that the extra junk that was in the header is PCM data.  So whenever I use the program, it creates a "click" right at the beginning of the file.  it's only one or two samples long, so its never an issue to just snip the very beginning off later on down the line.  But, I would NOT recommend using this program on the second or third file after an autosplit.  because that click would get inserted and the files would no longer be seamless.

hopefully this helps out a bit.

Thanks Jason!
+T
This gives me the clarity as to what is actually going on. It looks like I have been doing the right thing too, and now I know what the reason is. Hopefully this will help any others recording in 24 bit.