student.exe | Thomas' Work Space

No usable dual track audio from Sanako Study 1200 version 7 when saving as MP3?

2014/04/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

We have not been using the dual track recording capabilities of the Sanako much here yet, or have relied on the diachronic separation of channels that the Sanako voice-insert mode provides. Now, however, we want to apply the Sanako to consecutive interpreting in our MA program where there is more of a need for the reviewing student/grading teacher to switch between source and target language on the recorded dual-track audio.
As far as I remember, dual track recording, one of the core features of the digital audio lab, used to work out of the box in Sanako (up to version 5 on XP?), but to my surprise, no more when I saved a student exercise, the left and right channel were identical (and the source and interpreter voices very hard to separate, the entire interpretation impossible to follow).
1. I had noticed before that with version 7 (at least, we skipped 6) all recording was dual channel, but simply duplicated the left and right audio channel (isn’t this a waste of bandwidth and storage resources?).
I tested our 7.1 installation (on Windows 7 64-bit), by changing the advanced collection settings, for an interpreting audio file, clapping from the teacher station:
First I changed the tracks to be saved:
Test1: .This mixes student and program down onto each channel:
Test 2: , Program track only, as expected (no clapping)
Test 3: Student track, as expected (only clapping – pretty much)
Workaround: After trying whether I can save manually from the student station, it occurred to me to change the file format also
1. WMA:
  1. dual track
    1. works with “Save AS” from the student.exe (where the mp# options is conspicuously absent, or am I missing something):
    2. won’t work with “collect” from the tutor.exe: both tracks (saving both is – fortunately – only an option for “save as“ WMA from the student exe. You can also save only the student track as WMA) get mixed down to one (and the student is far too soft) , as you can witness here:
  2. WMA is a technically nice, efficient (small file size) and widely supported format, but does require an add-on installation on the MacOS X, not to mention mobile devices.
  3. WMA on Windows plays in Windows Media Player, but from version 12, Windows Media Player has no easy way to adjust the balance anymore, you have to dig relatively deeply into the OS (mmsys.cpl) itself.
2. MFF:
  1. dual track works ~~also~~ (saving single track is actually not an option in this format)both using
    1. the student recorder “Save as” (which can also mix both tracks, see above)
    2. “collect” from the tutor.exe: you can fade in the left and right channel with the balance tool that you find in the student recorder to the left of the timeline.
  2. Unfortunately,
    1. MFF is a proprietary format, which only the Sanako recorder can play. This may be a nice way to get more adoption of the free Sanako student recorder which is great for language learning. However, I had not originally planned on forcing my users to use it who are most comfortable with mp3.
3. In addition, I now have a the problem with how to switch the Sanako default collection to MFF for interpreting teachers without confusing regular users.

Categories: audience-is-vendors, Interpreting, service-is-applying-learning-tools, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: audio, dual-track, sanako-study-1200, student.exe, tutor.exe

You need to click the Sanako Student Recorder Playlist and Homework tab to refresh changes

2014/04/02 plagwitz Leave a comment

The Playlist does not sync automatically:

The playlist syncs (reflects what is actually there) when you click “Playlist”:

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Glitches&Errors Tags: FAQs, pla, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

The Sanako student recorder play list always shows hidden files…

2014/04/02 plagwitz Leave a comment

… not honoring the folder options in windows Explorer. Those and to manage (delete to remove from list) hidden files in the playlist window, you have to disable the hide in windows Explorer first.

Before unhiding os files:

After unhiding:

Categories: digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Glitches&Errors Tags: playlist, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

How to use the Sanako dual-track audio recorder

2014/04/01 plagwitz Leave a comment

The Sanako Student Recorder (available for free here) allows you to listen on the source track while speaking/recording on the student track. Useful e.g. for interpreter practicing shadowing or simultaneous interpretation. It is as simple as pressing the red record and green play button:

After recording and reviewing, click file/save, and choose your output format.

Categories: e-languages, Interpreting Tags: FAQs, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

How to manage balance on stereo audio using Audacity, Sanako student recorder, or any audio player on Windows

2014/03/31 plagwitz Leave a comment

For language lab use, stereo is more important than usual, since the channels may carry source versus translation/interpretation, L1 versus L2, teacher versus student, model versus imitation and so forth.
You can choose which channel to listen to by adjusting the balance for stereo playback.
In the Sanako Student recorder (free for all), click here:
In Audacity, click here::
From any other player on Windows, hold Win-key and press R, type mmsys.cpl, on tab playback, double click the speaker you are outputting to, and on tab levels, change “Balance”:

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab Tags: 7, audacity, audio, balance, grading, sanako-study-1200, stereo, student.exe, windows

Experiencing frequent crashes of Sanako student light recorder

2014/02/03 plagwitz Leave a comment

The new weekly headset check by LRC assistants brought to light that the Sanako student recorder (updated to 7.1, but I did not observe this during a very brief test at start of term):
Students provide us with large sets of photos like this:
Need to investigate:
1. what is the detail ?
2. only on startup? what happens when the sanako is closed and restarted?
3. collect the sanako log files before the (frozen) computer gets restarted