Question

How could you extract Track Marks from the Sony PCM-M10 recorder?

Asked by: sffc

We recently purchased a Sony PCM-M10 audio recorder for our organization.  The device gives you the option to make "Track Marks" in WAV files.  These markers can be used to jump to specific places in an audio recording and can also be used to split up the recording into individual segments.  However, we cannot seem to find the place that the recorder saves the locations of the track marks in the sequence.  Our ultimate goal is to publish daily audio recordings with a "skip" option to jump to the next marker, but currently this is not possible using a single file if we can't extract the data of Sony's Track Marks.  Does anyone know of a way to extract the Track Marks using a computer (preferably Unix-based)?

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Asked On
2009-10-27 at 22:35:23ID24849808
Tags

audio

,

track mark

,

sony

Topics

Miscellaneous Hardware

,

Audio Editing

,

General Multi-Media Software

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-11-02 at 16:08:37ID: 25725091

These are called cue points or something like that if I recall and were used on cassettes and video
Don't believe you can extract them outside od the Sony the audio tracks don't actually have them imbedded but rather the Sony PCM-M10 audio recorder is programmed internally to act on them according to the time stamp counters?
You may have to create them however I have no experience with Unix based languages or VB
 Handling cue points for audio files in ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/cue_points_audio_03.html
There are tools for editing audio tracks and add in chapters for cue points
Like  
Goldwave"Drag-and-drop cue points, with auto-cue and file splitting features.
http://www.goldwave.com/features.php
mp3 splitter and joiner has cue support
http://www.ezsoftmagic.com/mp3splitter_joiner.htm
Audacity does not have the actual cue point plugin but you could achieve it manually with labels
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Splitting_recordings_into_separate_tracks
Merete

 

by: sffcPosted on 2009-11-03 at 18:50:42ID: 25735989

Thanks for your comment!  I decided to use the "divide at track marks" feature on the Sony PCM-M10, which divides the audio into a bunch of little tracks; I wanted to avoid this step since it means more to manage come publishing time, but it was the only way I could figure out to get the objective accomplished.

As for the cue points, are you saying that you think Sony records the markers in this format?  When I was trying to find out there they are stored, I deleted the main system file that seemed like it may have kept track of that type of thing, but when I re-loaded the media in the recorder, it still remembered where the marks were, which told me that it must keep them somehow within the wav files themselves.

And by "unix-based," I just meant an application that ran on a system like Mac OS X or Ubuntu rather than Windows.

Thanks again for your response!  Do you have any further thoughts?

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-11-03 at 19:44:57ID: 25736216

I would make a calculated guess  that's the only way if you want to extract the wav outside of the Sony PCM-M10 and keep the track markers- gaps, then use one of other audio editors to join them back with the new cue points,
It would depend on what you publish to and the media player you end up using.
Most Track markers are on CD like Quck Books.
Something to consider what will read the track markers?
For Mac windows
Soundforge
http://www.awdsf.com/courseware/sound/sound1_soundforge.htm
Audacity runs in Ubuntu
Avidemux
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
Cakewalk woks on Mac and OS X
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/pyro/Tips/SeamlessCD.aspx
http://www.cakewalk.com/
Cool Edit 96
http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/cool_edit_96.shtml
Hope it asists you
Merete

 

by: sffcPosted on 2009-11-06 at 20:11:05ID: 25764954

Hmm, I could do that (merge the tracks back together again).  I've been playing around with a Flash-based player I wrote, and I'm trying to make it work smoothly with multiple tracks, but that might be an option since Flash can load XMLs etc.

Thanks for your help!

 

by: sffcPosted on 2009-11-06 at 20:16:30ID: 31646808

My question was answered, but I mostly ended up overcoming the obstacle using my own method.

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-11-06 at 21:07:22ID: 25765074

your a clever one making your own flashplayer, glad I could assist you !!!
flash is not in my forte`   :)

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