.wav and .aiff files are a wonderful thing, when they work. Most of the time they do. But if your computer or recording program crashes before you stop recording it can be a real pain to recover them, but it can be done.

Here's the scenario:

I was recording the podcast, and while protools was recording, it crashed.

First off, I had to grab the files out of the session name/Audio Files/ folder, and stash them away elsewhere on the hard drive to prevent protools from overwriting them when I started recording again.

Next, I got a program called AIFF From PCM Point is, a WAV ir AIFF file is simply PCM audio encoding with a bit of meta data in either end. Without the metadata, Quicktime, Audacity, Protools, and any other app i tried refused to open the file.

AIFF from PCM has one major flaw, If the file in question is not perfectly divisible by (Bytes Per sample * tracks) in my case 3, (24-bit mono files...) If refuses to operate on the file in question. Having encountered this situation, and bailing myself out with a demo version of Sony's Sound Forge, I knew I would have to throw out the first bit of the file to get the rest of the data to line up. Incedentally, I also had to remove one bit from the end to get the file to convert, (YMMV, depending on app, and record settings.)

So in comes 0xED, a tool you can get free from Apple.
With 0xED I was able to delete the first and last bytes from my damaged audio files, convert them to AIFF, and bring them back into Protools.

If you have a little time and inclination you can do this yourself without having to buy or pirate any software.

Well, you've probably noticed that I didn't post a podcast last week. I just needed a week off. I've also been creating Enhanced AAC copies of old shows.

If you don't want to recieve the AAC versions, you can subscribe to The Podcasts category

If you also want to get my text only posts you will need to subscribe seperately to The general category

FWIW, Podcast 55 is already edited. It will be posted by Wednesday, 'cause I still need to bounce it, encode it, add ID3, Proof, write shownotes, and upload it.

Hey everyone!

Contrary to what I said in the Blog post for Show 48, Show 48.5 will be coming out in one week.

Jason and I were the only ones in town so we prepared a promo, and decided to release the all Mays' beats podcast next Friday rather than recording podcast 49 today.

If you want to send us any well wishes for podcast #50 send them to me via Gmail

If you want to hear our promo, it's here

Well, for some strange reason, feedburner refused to pick up on the fact that I had posted podcast 44.

I changed the source url to http://podcast.highpotencymusic.com/rss and apparently that caused all 44 episodes to show up as new in iTunes.

I would recommend, at this point that you re-subscribe to http://podcast.highpotencymusic.com/rss in order to insure that there are no disruptions in the delivery of our podcasts to you in the future.

Well, I've gone and done it. I've created a Frappr Map

If you feel so inclined, please place a pin (and a picture as well, if you wish,) on the map. HPM Podcast Listener Map Thanks, and I'll catch you later.

Also, FWIW, Jason said he would record a podcasr in my absence on Dec. 9th. I haven't heard back from him, but as soon as I do I will post it to the feed.

Recording VoIP for a podcast

Now I'll be the first to admit, I'm pretty anal about the audio quality of my podcast. Given that fact, and the Protools Digi001 interface I use in my podcasting rig, I decided to see if I could record a skype conversation that I would truly be able to tweak later.

The Basement Setup

Parts List

• 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 running Windows XP Pro
• One Power Mac Dual G5, (Dual Chip, not dual core, FWIW)
• One Digi001 Interface, (PCI card, Breakout box and connecting cable)
• One 6 foot Toslink optical cable
• One eighth inch stereo mini phono plug to Stereo (Dual RCA connectors)
• two adapters, RCA female/quarter inch phono male
• One XLR Microphone cable
• One Sure SM57 Dynamic microphone
• One pair of comfortable earmuff-style headphones

Please note that all cabling and adapters is specific to my rig and it's capabilities. check your available connections before you buy anything.

The Steps

1. Set up the Protools session on the PC, with two mono tracks. Set track 1 to input from Analog 1, and Track 2 to input from optical Input. (1 or 2, Left or right doesn't really matter) There's a bit more setting up of the session in there, that has been left out because it is protools/Digi001 specific. Track 1 is Myself, Track 2 will be the remote guest
2. Run the optical cable from the digital output on the Mac to the Input on the PC.
3. Connect microphone
4. Connect Main out from PC to Line in on Mac
5. Mute channel 2. (otherwise you will cause your remote guest to hear an echo that will prove very distracting.)
6. Arm both tracks for recording.
7. Verify settings on the Mac: In System Preferences/Sound set input source to "Audio Line-in" and output to "Optical digital-out port"
8. connect your headphones to the headphone port on the front of the Mac.
9. Begin Recording, and place your Skype call.

Now the advantage here is that, Both I and the caller are being recorded on separate tracks, allowing for greater ease in editing, and the tracks are already synchronized to each other which also saves time over a double-ender arrangement, where each participant records their end of the conversation on their local machine. Additionally, because the output from the Mac is digital, there is no generation loss in signal quality, and if the remote caller's input over-modulates, I can see right away because the "Clip" light in Protools goes off.

As I further refine this setup I will make further posts to my blog here.