Ran out of card space when mastering

Jimi Hendrix · October 17, 2008, 09:48:49 AM

Hi everyone, great forum

I recently recorded a band practice (2.5 hrs long), and when i was mastering to convert it to an mp3, my memory card ran out of space. the file that was (656MB), is now (991MB) and i cannot convert it to mp3. i dont even know why it is so much larger.

PLZ help because i really want to convert this recording to mp3.

Thanks in advance

holdempok · October 17, 2008, 11:52:53 AM

what size is the card? should be no problem with a 1 GB. If the songs are stll saved try the 1 gb or 2 gb card.

Jimi Hendrix · October 17, 2008, 12:02:36 PM

Quote from: holdempok on October 17, 2008, 11:52:53 AMwhat size is the card? should be no problem with a 1 GB. If the songs are stll saved try the 1 gb or 2 gb card.

the card is 1 GB, i didnt know i could use 2gb. even so, why did the size increase so much after i attemted to master it? the current size of the recording is 991MB which is up from 656MB when i started.

now i cannot master the recording because i get a card full error in the middle of mastering.

i really just want to get this recording to MP3 format. is there a program i can use?

Please help me

Thanks in advance

holdempok · October 17, 2008, 12:16:16 PM

im definatly not a techy. its possible there actually may be something wrong with the hard drive. can you play back the whole rehersal. 2.5 hrs of recording I think should be more then 991 MB r u sure?

holdempok · October 17, 2008, 12:25:22 PM

991 mb = 1014784kb

1 mb = 1024 kb

I think your file is too big. I would look for a 2gb card. or foward ?? to admin if no ther help cames from here.

SteveG · October 17, 2008, 12:41:58 PM

The MBR will only use 1G of a 2G card.

You could always just copy the whole thing to your hard disc, either with a card reader or with the WAV converter, link here....

http://microrecorders.org/downloads.html

No idea why the file got that much bigger, 64 Guitars will probably be able to help you there tho.

Jimi Hendrix · October 17, 2008, 01:09:22 PM

i am sure the practice was 2.5 hrs, because i listened to it during the mastering, the card didnt reach its full limit until the recorder was in the process of exporting to mp3 @ 128k.

i will try to export to wav file.

also, i dont know the inner workings of how the recorder masters, but it seems like there should be some specification of how much space is required to master a song. for example, a 600 MB track needs, say 500 MB of master buffer, or you cannot master it.

Thanks to everyone that has tried to help, i will try to export to wav now.

Jimi Hendrix · October 17, 2008, 02:05:49 PM

i have now exported the file to wav. thanks steveG.

can someone explain to me: why are there 3 .wav files all 784MB, with the same recording on them. i only recorded one track.

i am a little confused about this.

thanks in advance.

64Guitars · October 17, 2008, 02:09:50 PM

Quote from: Jimi Hendrix on October 17, 2008, 09:48:49 AMI recently recorded a band practice (2.5 hrs long), and when i was mastering to convert it to an mp3, my memory card ran out of space. the file that was (656MB), is now (991MB) and i cannot convert it to mp3. i dont even know why it is so much larger.

The mastering process on the Micro BR first bounces the mix of your four tracks (plus the rhythm and input) to a pair of v-tracks which you specify, while applying the selected mastering effects. These destination v-tracks are stored on the memory card so, obviously, you need enough available space on the card to store them or the bounce will fail. Then (optionally) it exports the two tracks to an MP3 or WAV file which it stores in the \MP3 folder. So, you need available space on the memory card to store the MP3/WAV file too. The reason your song grew from 656MB to 991MB is that it completed the bounce but didn't have enough card space left to complete the export. So it now contains two additional v-tracks it didn't have before you started the mastering operation (the two destination tracks from the bounce). You could delete those two v-tracks and try again, but the same thing will happen -- it will complete the bounce but not have enough space left to complete the MP3 (or WAV) export.

The best way to avoid "Card Full!" errors when mastering or exporting tracks is to export with the BR Wave Converter instead. It stores the exported tracks on your computer rather than on the BR's memory card, so it doesn't matter if there's any free space on the memory card. It saves the files as WAV/AIFF files. So, if you want to create an MP3 file, you'll have to convert the WAV/AIFF file to MP3 format using a suitable program such as Audacity or Switch.

Assuming that the bounce went okay and those two destination v-tracks are complete, you don't need to repeat the mastering process. Instead, just export those two v-tracks to your computer as WAV files using the BR Wave Converter, then convert the WAV files to MP3 format. On the other hand, if the destination v-tracks from the bounce are incomplete or you don't like the sound of them, delete them and repeat the mastering process. But, this time, when it asks if you want to export to MP3/WAV, answer No. Then use the BR Wave Converter to export the two v-tracks to a stereo WAV/AIFF file and convert it to MP3 with Audacity, Switch, etc.