How to capture SBD recordings at shows?

[LiveHD]

I went to a show recently, and I approached the sound guy and asked him if I provided a USB stick, if he'd be able to give me a copy of the SBD recording?  He agreed.  At the end of the night, I drove home feeling all excited, but was met with disappointment when I plugged in the USB stick and saw a corrupted wav file with 0 kb.  I'm not sure if I just got unlucky, or if this is not the proper way to capture a SBD recording?

[Melanie]

I prefer an XLR out of board, then I can listen to it in real time and make sure I've got a usable recording going on. Bob

[goodcooker]

I went to a show recently, and I approached the sound guy and asked him if I provided a USB stick, if he'd be able to give me a copy of the SBD recording?  He agreed.  At the end of the night, I drove home feeling all excited, but was met with disappointment when I plugged in the USB stick and saw a corrupted wav file with 0 kb.  I'm not sure if I just got unlucky, or if this is not the proper way to capture a SBD recording?

There's a lot to unpack about why this happened -

What make and model of soundboard was it?

Was it a stereo mix file? independent track files?

Was the USB drive formatted correctly?

Did the drive run out of space while writing? A 16 gig would only make it a half hour if it was writing 32 wav files at 24/48

Did the file get properly closed before removing the USB drive?

All may not be lost - several file recovery programs can work and it may be as simple as writing a new header to the wav.

I don't do the USB stick sbd patch - partly because more than half the time I've asked it's already in use and I usually want to mix a sbd feed with mics and the clocks are off so I just patch audio out of the board into my recorder.

[LiveHD]

I went to a show recently, and I approached the sound guy and asked him if I provided a USB stick, if he'd be able to give me a copy of the SBD recording?  He agreed.  At the end of the night, I drove home feeling all excited, but was met with disappointment when I plugged in the USB stick and saw a corrupted wav file with 0 kb.  I'm not sure if I just got unlucky, or if this is not the proper way to capture a SBD recording?

There's a lot to unpack about why this happened -

What make and model of soundboard was it?

Was it a stereo mix file? independent track files?

Was the USB drive formatted correctly?

Did the drive run out of space while writing? A 16 gig would only make it a half hour if it was writing 32 wav files at 24/48

Did the file get properly closed before removing the USB drive?

All may not be lost - several file recovery programs can work and it may be as simple as writing a new header to the wav.

I don't do the USB stick sbd patch - partly because more than half the time I've asked it's already in use and I usually want to mix a sbd feed with mics and the clocks are off so I just patch audio out of the board into my recorder.

I don't have the answer to most of the questions, other than it was a 32 GB stick formatted as NTFS.  When I plug it in, it shows that 2 GB of space have been consumed, but when I look at the actual file, it's 0 kb.  And if I copy and paste it to my main drive, it again copies over at 0 kb, immediately.

[mgtaper]

I had to format my 16GB USB drive to 'FAT32' for a soundboard recording. The board wouldn't recognize the drive formatted as 'NTFS'.

[capnhook]

I had to format my 16GB USB drive to 'FAT32' for a soundboard recording. The board wouldn't recognize the drive formatted as 'NTFS'.

You are correct, sir..

[nulldogmas]

I don't have the answer to most of the questions, other than it was a 32 GB stick formatted as NTFS.  When I plug it in, it shows that 2 GB of space have been consumed, but when I look at the actual file, it's 0 kb.  And if I copy and paste it to my main drive, it again copies over at 0 kb, immediately.

A 0 byte file that consumes 2 GB of space screams corrupted headers to me. What's the program that zaps those, can someone here remind me? Because if so, it may be as simple as the soundperson having pulled the stick before it had time to finish saving, and you might be able to recover what's on it.

[AbbyTaper]

[quote author=goodcooker link=topic=205552.msg2415391#msg2415391 date=1722402174

Did the drive run out of space while writing? A 16 gig would only make it a half hour if it was writing 32 wav files at 24/48

[/quote]

That's not correct.  A 24/48 WAV file uses approximately 1 GB per hour of recording.

[rocksuitcase]

[quote author=goodcooker link=topic=205552.msg2415391#msg2415391 date=1722402174

Did the drive run out of space while writing? A 16 gig would only make it a half hour if it was writing 32 wav files at 24/48

That's not correct.  A 24/48 WAV file uses approximately 1 GB per hour of recording.
[/quote]
reading comprehension: Thirty-two wav files at 24/48 = 32 GB's of storage     goodcooker is thinking 32 channels going into the USB drive ( I think?) 

[morst]

I used to use ZAR recovery software under Windows, but now it's been replaced with a new thing.


I don't pay, I only use the free version and it's able to recover WAV files from X32 boards which have had the drive removed before the access light stops flashing.


https://www.z-a-recovery.com/download.aspx


New one, I can't vouch for specifically, but it's the same author as the ZAR
https://www.klennet.com/klennet-recovery/

[goodcooker]

That's not correct.  A 24/48 WAV file uses approximately 1 GB per hour of recording.

It is correct. 32 wave files at 24/48 would fill up a 16 gig drive in a half hour. 32 hour long files would be 32 gigs.

I said 32 because its the default of many newer soundboards we are seeing if doing multitracks saved to disc.

To stay on topic - a 0 byte header can be fixed in several ways. For me the easiest and cheapest is to simply drag and drop the file into CD Wave Editor. If it sees a corrupt header it will ask you if you want to write a new header and proceed. Click yes and save the file as a new name.

Doesn't work every time but when it does it only takes 60 seconds and works perfect.

[AbbyTaper]

[quote author=goodcooker link=topic=205552.msg2415391#msg2415391 date=1722402174

Did the drive run out of space while writing? A 16 gig would only make it a half hour if it was writing 32 wav files at 24/48

That's not correct.  A 24/48 WAV file uses approximately 1 GB per hour of recording.

reading comprehension: Thirty-two wav files at 24/48 = 32 GB's of storage     goodcooker is thinking 32 channels going into the USB drive ( I think?) 
[/quote]

AHH  I was thinking he meant FAT 32 files.  Anyhow, I doubt you would get 32 channels out.

[rocksuitcase]

That's not correct.  A 24/48 WAV file uses approximately 1 GB per hour of recording.

It is correct. 32 wave files at 24/48 would fill up a 16 gig drive in a half hour. 32 hour long files would be 32 gigs.

I said 32 because its the default of many newer soundboards we are seeing if doing multitracks saved to disc.

To stay on topic - a 0 byte header can be fixed in several ways. For me the easiest and cheapest is to simply drag and drop the file into CD Wave Editor. If it sees a corrupt header it will ask you if you want to write a new header and proceed. Click yes and save the file as a new name.

Doesn't work every time but when it does it only takes 60 seconds and works perfect.

YES, this has worked for me twice.

[LiveHD]

I tried opening it in Adobe Audition and get this error:

"Error: AmioLSF plug-in could not open the file.  Code: 20.  File contains data in an unknown format. If you would like to try using the Dynamic Link Media Server, please go to Preferences > Media & Disk Cache and enable the option "Enable DLMS Format Support" and try to open the file again."

I then tried opening it in CD Wave and get this:
"Cannot open RIFF chunk, file is not a valid WAVE file"

[jefflester]

Try VLC, it's been known to work sometimes.