USB Mics

[Kerry F]

Can anyone that's using any type of USB mic tell me if they've ever had a problem with the mic stopping recording?  And you already have the power setting changed on your USB ports to stay on all the time.

Thanks.

[Janet]

The only time that's ever happened is when I accidently stop the recording when playing back audio during a job.  Were you playing back audio or did it just randomly stop?

[Kerry F]

No, Stenograph told me today there have been issues with the USB mics stopping recording sometimes so I was wondering............

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I've never had a problem.  I use Eclipse, though.

[Denise Christian]

Hi, Kerry.  Did you get any answers?  My first Martel USB mike lasted 4 years, no problems, then died.  Second one would cut out intermittently after six months.  Tried everything including settings, new laptop and another new mike (bye-bye, paycheck) and the newest mike, barely a month old, is still cutting out.  I had read on CSRNation that some reporters thought the Martel mikes were of lower quality now.  Any update?  Thanks!  Denise

[Alice Soon]

I know in some cases if the usb mic is plugged into the usb3 port will cause intermittent recording and noise.

[Kerry F]

Denise,

I thought my first Martel mics were better than my current one, yes.

Still looking for an adequate replacement.  That one Kelli talked about she got on Amazon for about $80 looks promising.  USB mics I've gotten from Sound Professionals are okay, but I haven't tried their $300 one.

I will say that I don't care for Martel's customer service policies.  They are not very responsive or responsible, I don't feel.

How much do we need to spend???

[Lisa Migliore Black]

It likely has to do with your USB settings.  If they are set to time out after a period of time, that will stop the recording.  If this happened on an all-day job, that's likely the culprit.  Even after fiddling with the settings with support, however, I still experienced a problem.  The easy solution that worked for me is to simply unplug the USB microphone at lunch or another break and reinsert it in another USB port.

[Janiece Young]

Hi, Cathy,

I use the Martel hi-gain mic.  It plugs into my mic jack and not the USB port.

You ask about audio backup.  I do not have a writer that records audio.  I do make an audio backup in case of a hard drive failure.  I am using the Marantz PMD 630 digital recorder to make the audio backup.  It makes an excellent audio backup.  Also this digital recorder has timestamps so you can attach it to a file that has no audio.  I have never tried to do that.

The Marantz digital recorder is very expensive.

[Warren Jones]

My software failed to save the entire afternoon session of an all-day video last week.  I got the videographer to email me an .mp3 backup of the audio from his equipment and I substituted the .mp3 file into my text file and it meshed perfectly and was the best audio ever, since all the speakers in the depo were mic'd.  Quite often videographers here in LA will offer their .mp3 audio files of the proceedings and they'll just plug their flash drive of the audio file into my computer and create an .mp3 folder on my desktop which I can choose to substitute for my own software's .wav file that my writer/software created.  Just another angle as a solution to your lost audio file, Cathy, and if you can track down the videographer, he could send an .mp3 backup file to you through Send This File or Whale or those kinds of large-file-send services.  Hope that was helpful.

[Warren Jones]

Chris, I have been a Cheetah customer since 1990 and am on their SmarCAT software.  In the style sheet for each text file, the software gives the user the option to switch out different format audio files.  The mp3 is of course nice and crisp from the videographer.  However, for every break that's taken in the proceedings, the audio gets off-track with the text and adjustments to the minutes/seconds settings have to be made in the style sheet, which can slow the editing timing down with the "experimenting" of settings adjustments, but eventually it'll track-up once again.  Unlike the .wav file, the .wav file tracks perfectly and records only when the writer is actuated.  It'll record during recesses, too, but it doesn't screw up the audio/text match-up, unlike the .mp3 file.  So it's not a perfect world, but the .mp3 is nice & crisp but does have some settings adjustments to be made if there are recesses.  Your noting you break up the all-day files into a.m./p.m. is a good one, as my scenario for my all-dayer last week was my software captured the a.m. audio at noon break when I saved it then, but for the afternoon, in the same file, my computer went into limbo trying to save the p.m. also and ultimately I lost the p.m. audio.  Vidographer to the rescue!  His .mp3 file saved the day!  You might make a backup copy of a video job that's completed and sent out, obtain an .mp3 file from a videographer for that job for an experiment, and if your software allows a swap-out, see if you could swap out to the mp3 and play with it.  Recesses are the only scoundrel in utilizing this file, since the minutes/seconds need to be manually adjusted to account for the time lapse of the recess.  Hope that all makes sense, as I know everyone's software has different logic, setups, perks, bells and whistles.  Some software might not allow this kind of swapout. 

[Denise Christian]

Wow, there's some great information in these replies.  You guys are awesome.  I think what Kerry and I are experiencing is our USB mics record about 99.9 percent of the time.  Out of nowhere, half a dozen words will drop, it will record fine for a couple hours, and half a dozen words will drop again.  And, of course, aren't those always the half a dozen words out of the whole day you really wanted to double-check?  And I am having the same issue continue after purchasing another new Martel USB mic and a new laptop thinking one of those might be the problem.  Help us.  :) 

[Patricia Harris Vernon]

There is another section that may be timing out your USB ports besides the tweaking you can do in Device Manager for those ports.

In Control Panel, click on Power Options (Win7 and 8).  Click on your current active Power Plan by clicking Change Plan Settings.  In the next menu/window, click on Change Advanced Power Settings.  Scroll down until you see USB Settings.  Click on the + sign to the left to expand it.  Then again hit the + sign to expand USB selective suspend settings.  If it's Enabled on both of these choices (plugged in and battery), Click on the blue highlighted Enabled word, Click on the down arrow key that then shows up, choose Disable...then back out using OK or Apply button or both. 

Seems there is not only the Windows disabling of the USB port via power saver, but also some proprietary software for the Manufacturer that can shut it down, too.

Be sure to Save your new Power Plan at the last/original window to apply it for the future...otherwise, you will need to do this each time.