Any Auto-Save Functionality during freeze?

[Mariapendo]

Hey folks

I was recording a chapter of an audiobook today. Hit record as usual and after about 35 mins of straight recording, I hit stop and went to File > Save in the menu and the program froze.

Could not do anything within the program. The cursor turned into a + and would not activate any commands or menu.

Ultimately had to force quit and when I restarted the program, nothing opened from the previous recording so it was gone.

Is there any auto-save functionality? Is there a different way to start a recording to have it save as you go?

I’ve had the program freeze before - it happens every 6 months or so - but this was the first time I lost that much audio so I figured it was time to ask.

Thanks!

[markw]

I feel your pain!
The only form of Auto-Save I know of is the ‘Save while recording’ option in the ‘Record To New Document…’ window.
I always have this selected (paranoia) but so far I’ve never needed to rely on it!
So…, out of curiosity I’ve just tried Force Quitting AP while it was recording with that option selected.
Mixed results…
Temporary files are generated and one is offered the chance to import them as ‘Raw Data’ when next launching AP, however after importing them AP shows no recorded sound. Note, these files aren't empty of data, they are quite sizeable.
Which all seems a bit odd as AP created these files!
Maybe Martin can clarify this and shed some light on things, but proper Auto-Save feels tantalising close!

[Martin Hairer]

Hi, when you enable "Save while recording" you're asked for a file format (native format is default but AIFF, CAF or WAV all work fine), a filename and a location. This is where you'll find the saved file if you force-quit Amadeus during a recording (or it crashes / freezes).

The temporary files that Amadeus allows you to recover are created in any case, but they may come with bits and pieces of sound data out of sequence and spread over several files. If you import these, you should always use a header size of 0, a sample format of "float - Intel" (also on Apple Silicon, they represent floats in the same way as Intel processors), and whatever sample rate / number of channels you selected for your recording.

[markw]

Thank’s for the reply Martin , but I’m still not getting any usable sound so far with my crude "Force Quit" experiment above.
AP is writing the file to my location of choice while recording, i.e. Desktop in this case in it's native format, and it’s data size v length looks correct but when opening it in AP it looks for all the world empty, displaying no sound wave and doesn’t play.
As for the Temp files there are always 2 generated;
Temp_Amad_000001.amadeustemp and Temp_Amad_000002.amadeustemp.
000001 is always the same size as the interrupted recorded file and 000002 is always showing 0 bytes.
When importing these as Raw Data I’m given no import options/steps as you seem to describe in your last post?
I fear I may still need some clarification of your clarification! Sorry!

But I would like to add here that in all the years I have been using AP it’s never let me down while recording, but it would be comforting to know how to get the AutoSaved file to work should the need ever arrive.

[markw]

Had some time today to test reopening Auto-Saved files some more in different non compressed lossless (I think?) file formats when using the Auto-Save function in AP and using Force Quit to simulate a crash.
I’m using the current version of Amadeus Pro, v2.8.13, on a Macbook Pro running macOS 10.15.7.

Amadeus Pro Native Format:
Auto-Saved file automatically reopens on relaunching AP but displays no sound wave and dose not play.
File size though would suggest that it should contain valid data?
One warning message generated when file opens:
Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.

AIFF:
Auto-Saved file failed to automatically reopen after relaunching AP after Force Quit.
File shows extension; .aif not .aiff?
Two warning Messages displayed;
1: An error occurred while reading the file. This does not appear to be a valid AIFF/AIFC file.
2: Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.
Auto-Saved file can not be opened manually, again generating the first warning message.

CAF:
Auto-Saved file failed to automatically reopen after relaunching AP after Force Quit.
Two warning messages;
1: An error occurred while reading the file. QuickTime cannot open this file. Either it contains no audio track, or it is in a format that QuickTime cannot read, or the file is broken.
2: Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.

WAV, Uncompressed 16bit:
Auto-Saved file automatically reopens on relaunching AP after Force Quit and plays.
One warning message:
1: Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.

FLAC, 0 Compression 16bit (but is it lossless? See conclusions):
Auto-Saved file automatically reopens on relaunching AP after Force Quit and plays.
One warning message:
1: Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.

MPEG-4 Apple Lossless:
Auto-Saved file failed to automatically reopen after relaunching AP after Force Quit.
Two warning messages;
1: An error occurred while reading the file. QuickTime cannot open this file. Either it contains no audio track, or it is in a format that QuickTime cannot read, or the file is broken.
2: Crash recovery
One or several temporary files were recovered and placed into your trash. You may be able to recover some of their content with the 'Import Raw Data' function.

Conclusions:
As noted in my previous post, AP failing with it’s own file format still surprises me!
Using WAV or FLAC as the recording formats would seem the safest bet at the moment, if using the Auto-Save function in AP is something you feel you may need.
I terminated all the test recordings at 1min and interestingly the WAV file came in at 11.6 MB and the FLAC file was only 5.5 MB? Make of that what you will…

[Martin Hairer]

Hi, thanks for the study! The fact that FLAC ends up about half the size of the corresponding WAVE (or AIFF or CAF) file is expected (type "FLAC compression ratio" into Google for example). The "crash recovery" message is also expected.

I am surprised by the fact that the AIFF file and the file in Amadeus's native format both ended up being corrupt, I'll try to get to the bottom of this.

[markw]

Thanks Martin for looking into this Hope you can find and fix what is causing the Amadeus and AIFF formats to fail.

[Martin Hairer]

Hi, could you please give the version at http://www.hairersoft.com/Downloads/AmadeusPro.zip a try? I believe that it should fix this.

[markw]

Just seen your reply Martin and thanks for getting a potential fix out so quick
But its mixed results I’m afraid...
The native .amad format now works!
But trying .aif still fails and throws up the warning: An error occurred while reading the file. This does not appear to be a valid AIFF/AIFC file.

It’s late here now but will try some other formats Friday to see which else work.

[markw]

So just to confirm my resaults from the version you provided in your link;
AP’s native .amad format now works in addition to the WAVE and FLAC formats in my first tests.
Otherwise I still get the same fails testing the other Lossless formats as I had before