M e s s e r
|
M e s s e r
| |
|
|
|
![[top]](point.gif) | |
 |
Wecome to Messer - Memo Session Sound Recorder - application for scheduled sound recording on PC.
Last update: 10.10.2000 |
| about messer | |
Another "sound-recorder"? What do I need it for? Well, I don't know :-) The fact is - I needed it and couldn't find anywhere, so decided to write it myself.
There's lots of sound recorders and editors with plenty of filters for sound processing, mixing abilities of an almost professional studio. But none[*] of them can be told: "I got to go to work, but leaving my radio turned on and connected to your soundcard. Please, be so kind and record the audition at eleven for me. Then turn the PC off - it's no use to waste energy...". A stupid VCR can do that, so it should be easy for computer :-)
So I wrote program that CAN do such job for me. Messer runs under Windows and can store data in PCM format (*.wav) sampled from soundcard input. It can automatically stop and start recording at choosen moment, optionally do simple processing on just recorded file (normalizing, mp3 compression or any job that can be done by some external application), then wait for another scheduled "recording session" and finally shut down the computer.
In addition if you'd like to record long piece of music (eg. long radio audition, as I usually do) and don't have enough disk space to hold such a huge wave file, Messer can do on-the-fly MP3 encoding for you!
Messer was written in C++ using Borland C++ Builder's VCL library and some free Delphi components (found thanks to the Delphi Super Page) including great RXLibrary. Instalation program was made using Inno Setup. Thanks to authors for great tools they made.
If you use Messer, let me know what you think about it - any comments and suggestions are welcome - Dariusz Sieradzki <[email protected]>
[*] Ok, since version 1.60 AudioGrabber can do such thing with his "line-in sampling" tool, but 1) it is not free, 2) when i wrote first version of Messer the line-in sampling option haven't been avialable yet.
| what's new | |
If you'd like to receive informations about Messer updates, please enter your email below.
Note: your email won't be used in any other way, nor given to others. You'll receive only news about Messer.v 0.98 (October 2000) :
- bug fixed: on screens with font resolution different than default 96 dpi Messer's main window is not cropped anymore
- bug fixed: after changing drive in disk info and closing it, free storage indicator on main window's status bar was reverting back to default C: drive instead of keep watching user set drive. This wasn't my intention and is now corrected.
- bug fixed: Windows older than Windows 95 OSR2 were complaining about missing function in KERNEL32.DLL (GetDiskFreeSpaceExA) and failing to run Messer. V 0.98 detects OS version and uses this function only if it is avialable. Note: pre-OSR2 users cannot correctly display capacity of disks larger than 2 GB, but at least now they can run Messer ;-)
- configuration box now expands to full height of Messer window which makes it easier to use, I hope...
- user can choose wether sessions should be saved in registry or in messer.ini file
- Messer's window can be enlarged - try small "dot" on lower right side, or Alt+E (for all those who can't read those small letters - sometimes I can't read them myself ;-)). Warning: because of roundoff-errors components of messer window can be a bit misplaced and misshaped after repeated shrinking/enlarging.
- user can specify output directory for dropped files processed with built in encoders
- sound level meter rewritten from scratch (old one was a real mess...)
- Messer again has a simple volume control built in
- "faster" built-in mp3 encoding (Messer was wasting lots of time on displaying operation progress - shame....)
- bug fixed (default sample size wasn't correctly restored at startup, but always set to 16 bit)
- new tool: "Advanced stop" (under Recording Monitor->Options menu), allowing (even for already started manual recording) to stop manual session after specified time or when silence is detected. Also allows to automatically split recording to multiple files, basing on silence detection.
v 0.97 (August 2000) :
- support for recording with two more sample rates: 48000 Hz ("natural" sample rate for popular SBLive family soundcards) and 32000 Hz
- all available samplerates can be compressed using Lame_Enc.dll
- all available samplerates but the lowest (22050 Hz) can be compressed using BladeEnc.dll
- some sample rate - bit rate combinations don't work with Lame_Enc.dll (although are supposed to do so, like 22050Hz with 320kBit/s) - Messer's code is now fixed not to hang in such cases. But I'm sure LameEnc team will fix that soon :-)
- DiskInfo tool totally redesigned (there's too many variants to display them all in one list...)
- DiskInfo tool bug fixed - free/total space larger than about 2GB were truncated to maximal integer value. Now disk space has 64 bits representation so it should be enough for a long time...
- decided to remove internal mixer support (it wasn't very useful, and caused some errors while level-meter was running)
- Gradient-filled peak level meters (slowly turns red at about -4 : -2 dB); gradient can be turned off (see level-meters context menu)
- Messer can start minimized in systray
- most of frequently refreshing labels are non-flickering now
- bug fixed: when updating session with mp3 destination, compression properties were reset to default instead of keeping previously set
- interface and internal improvements as usual :-)
v 0.96 (June/July 2000) :
v 0.95 (June 2000) :
- serious bug fixed: sometimes messages just after stopping the recording were not processed properly causing next session not to start if sessions was planned immediately one after another. The same thing was a reason for level monitor not "waking up" after stopping the recording - all those are fixed now.
- bug removed: sometimes registry wasn't updated after session deletion
- from now on every version uses its own registry key, allowing to run any other version without configuration conflicts
- popup menu allowing to change level meter range
- popup menu allowing to easily jump from one option to another in configuration
- little changes in interface (status bar added, more funcionality in shaded state)
v 0.94 (May 2000):
- full LameEnc options support (including VBR encoding) (memset(&beConfig,0,sizeof(BE_CONFIG)) before setting parameters seems to fix the problem :-))
- sound level meter working more "smoothly"
- fixed bug in on-the-fly mp3 compression using BladeEnc
- total time estimation added to progress popup
- id3 tag added for built in mp3 compression
- external files dropped from explorer on Messer's window can be processed using supported mp3 compression libraries, or by any other "post-command" style command
- tiny interface fixes/improovements as usual
v 0.93 (April/May 2000): first version available on-line.
- support for Lame_Enc.dll mp3 compression (limited for now, because of some software problems)
- on-the-fly mp3 compression, allowing user to store recorded sound directly into mp3 file (without any temporary wav files)
- CPU load meter (allows to watch cpu usage while recording, useful especially during cpu-consuming on-the-fly mp3 encoding.
- switching Messer from normal to high priority when recording
- nasty bug in scheduler fixed (were causing some memory faults which may cause running session never stop)
- other tiny changes/improovements
| what's planned | |
- support for MPEG2 compression possibilities of LameEnc and BladeEnc
- support for GoGo mp3 encoder
- support for Monkey's Audio looseless audio compressor
- support for FAAC (MPEG4) encoder (as soon as authors release dll library and frontend)
- support for ACM Windows system codecs (e.g. wma format)
- tool for automatical adjusting recording level
- disk space detection allowing safely stop recording before HDD is filled, leaving specified amount of free space
- "pre-recording" command, allowing to run specified program before scheduled recording begins (e.g. run RealPlayer, or radio card software...)
- new scheduler allowing more advanced planning (everyday sessions, sessions on specified day of week etc.)
- allowing to pause recording on silence detection, then restart on nonsilent signal.
- "just in time recording" tool, allowing to "remember" sound that has happened a few minutes ago, so when you hear you've just missed beggining of long awaited song, you can still press "record" and have ALL the song recorded!
- improve built in mixer
| download | |
Messer is a freeware. You can download and use it without any fee (but see licence for further details).
To install: download, unzip and run: messer-v098-setup.exe (564 kB)
Note: For built in mp3 support and on-the-fly mp3 encoding you'll need to download bladeenc.dll and/or lame_enc.dll (recommended!) libraries, and put them into windows/system directory (or into directory in which messer.exe is installed):
- bladeenc.dll can be found at http://bladeenc.mp3.no/.
(or try compiled dll from this page [v. 0.91, 112 kB])- lame_enc.dll can be found at http://lame.sourceforge.net/ (source), http://rarewares.org/mp3-lame-libraries.php (binaries).
Previous versions of Messer are also avialable:
(but remember, older the version - more bugs/less features it has. See what's new section for details)
- 0.93: messer-v093-setup.exe (758 kB)
- 0.94: messer-v094-setup.exe (659 kB)
- 0.95: messer-v095-setup.zip (648 kB)
- 0.96: messer-v096-setup.zip (648 kB)
- 0.97: messer-v097-setup.zip (566 kB)
Other useful applications (that can be used as post-command):
- LameEnc and BladeEnc are also nice and free standalone command-line mp3 compressors.
- Monkey's Audio - fastest and most efficient looseless wav compression tool I've ever tried. It is free, distributed with played and WinAmp input plugin.
| usage | |
Sorry, no help file is avialable yet. A draft of Messer's usage is included in readme.txt file (which is in fact installed along with Messer)
| licence | |