Timer Record

Peter 29Apr12 ToDo-2 ready for review, proof reading and merciless editing.

Timer record operates in a manner similar to setting your PVR/VCR to make a recording in the future; you are able to set start and end times and dates or you can set the start time and the duration of the planned recording.

Accessed by: Transport > Timer Record...

Peter 28Apr12 ToDo-2 While this is already a W7 image the following two need replacing XP to W7. While this is being done it would be better to replace all three images with a workflow through a single Timer Record event.

Before you start

Before you start a Timer Record session it is very important that you make all necessary settingsin Audacity as while a Timer Record session is in progress, including in the period while Audacity is waiting to start the recording, the Audacity controls and menus will be inoperable until the recording finishes, or is Stopped/Cancelled.

In particular you need to pay close attention to setting the input signal level as Audacity's sliders cannot be used during a Timer Record session (you may though have a hardware gain control on your input device which would allow you to adjust the signal level during a Timer record session).

Initiating a Timer Record session

Transport > Timer Record... brings up the Timer Record setup dialog for scheduling when a recording ends and optionally, when it begins. Pressing "OK" starts the process of recording, or waiting for the recording to start.

"Start Date and Time" shows the current live time on opening the dialog, meaning that the recording you schedule will start immediately unless you change this control. You can set the end of the scheduled recording either by specifying this at "End Date and Time", or by choosing the length of the recording at "Duration". The digits in the time spinboxes are interlinked, so that typing on a digit or incrementing it forwards or backwards with keyboard up arrow or down arrow updates the preceding digits. The time controls themselves are also interlinked, so that "Start Date and Time" updates the "End Date and Time", and changing the "End Date and Time" modifies the "Duration" (and vice-versa).

• If you need to change a date forwards, incrementing either hour digit in the time spinboxes with keyboard up arrow will always increment the date automatically.
• If you want to start an immediate recording, changing only the Duration is often the simplest method because this changes the End Date if necessary as well as the End Time.

There is no default "Duration". When you open Timer Record next time, Audacity remembers the duration that was used for the previous scheduled recording.

It isn't currently possible to undertake any other activities in Audacity while recordings are running or waiting to start. To work in other computer programs while Timer Record is running, use the Task Switcher utility on your system, usually ALT + TAB.

Waiting for Start dialog

If you had set the recording's Start Date and Time in advance of the current time, pressing OK in the setup dialog will cause the Waiting for Start dialog to appear:

Peter 28Apr12 ToDo-2 This is an XP image it needs replacing with a W7 image.

This shows the elapsed time since you initiated the timed recording and the remaining time until it starts to record. If you want to abort this recording before it starts, press the Cancel button.

Timer Record Progress dialog

When the recording starts, the Timer Record Progress dialog appears:

Peter 28Apr12 ToDo-2 This is an XP image it needs replacing with a W7 image.

• Bill 28May12: And hopefully not scaled - this one looks bad.
  • Peter 29May12: The problem is that the Progress dialog is a very wide box, un-necessarily wide IMO - but I'll try it un-scaled.

While the recording is in progress you can stop the recording at any time by pressing the Stop button. This stops the recording, leaving the recorded track in place, just like pressing the Stop button in Transport Toolbar when manually starting a recording.

You can also abort the recording entirely by pressing the Cancel button. This both stops the recording and removes the audio that had been recorded in that Timer Record session. Clicking the window Close button or the ESC key on the keyboard also stops and removes the recording.

If you press the Cancel button by mistake so removing the recorded track, choose Edit > Redo Record to restore the recording before taking any other actions such as restarting the recording. Otherwise, the recording will be lost.